Umar and the Bully
By Shabana Mir Winner 1996 Story Writing Competition of
the Islamic Foundation
Pages: 44 ISBN: 0-86037-296-0 Paperback
Ages 7 -14
A moving, colour-illustrated story about a boy who is bullied at school and who
eventually confides in a friend. Through courage and a sense of justice, the
bully is confronted and reported to the teachers. Teaches young children to be
brave but kind, and to trust in Allah and ask Him to protect us from
everything that is harmful.
The Concept
of Bid'a in the Islamic Shari'a
By Nuh Ha Mim Keller
The M.A.T Papers 10 Pages
Beware
of matters newly begun, for every matter newly begun is innovation, every
innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in hell.
There are few topics that generate as much controversy
today in Islam as what is sunna and what is bida or reprehensible
innovation, perhaps because of the times Muslims live in today and the
challenges they face. Without a doubt, one of the greatest events in impact upon
Muslims in the last thousand years is the end of the Islamic caliphate at the
first of this century,
The first point is that scholars say that
the above hadith does not refer to all new things without restriction, but only
to those which nothing in Sacred Law attests to the validity of. The use of the
word every in the hadith does not indicate an absolute
generalization, for there are many examples of similar generalizations in the
Qur'an and sunna that are not applicable without restriction, but rather are
qualified by restrictions found in other primary textual evidence.
The second point is that the sunna and way of
the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) was to accept new acts
initiated in Islam that were of the good and did not conflict with established
principles of Sacred Law, and to reject things that were otherwise.
And our third and last point is that new matters
in Islam may not be rejected merely because they did not exist in the first
century, but must be evaluated and judged according to the comprehensive
methodology of Sacred Law, by virtue of which it is and remains the final and
universal moral code for all peoples until the end of time Taken
from the Book
About the Author:
Nuh Ha Mim Keller, American Muslimtranslator
and specialist in Islamic Law. Born in 1954 in the north-western United States,was educated in philosophy and Arabic at theUniversity of Chicago and UCLA. He entered Islam in 1977 at al-Azhar in
Cairo, and later studied the traditional Islamic Sciences of hadith, Shafi'i and
Hanafi jurisprudence, legalmethodology (usul
al-fiqh), and tenets of faith (`aqidah) in Syria and Jordan, where hehas lived since 1980. His
English translation of `Umdat al-Salik [The Reliance of the Traveller]
is the first Islamic legal work in a European language to receive the
certification of al-Azhar, the Muslim world's oldest institution of higher
learning. He also possesses ijazas or certifiates of authorisation
in Islamic jurisprudence from sheikhs in Syria and Jordan.
