Beside the obvious reason, I decided not to venture into rap music because I am simply not a skilled rapper. That’s perhaps why my lyrics were always sarcastic in nature.
I found some old lyrics on my computer and I thought I’d share the least raunchy one because I do think it’s funny if I can say so myself (just imagine that it’s acappella): Read the rest of this post »
ÖREBRO, Sweden — Last week’s mosque assault case has been cleared up after the assailant brought himself forward and confessed to the crime. What initially seemed to have been a hate crime was, it turns out, the result of a misunderstanding.
Last Saturday, a young man of Western African origin was beaten unconscious as he was praying alone in the city mosque at 2 am in the morning. The assailant left the scene without leaving a trace and it seemed as if the case would remain unsolved until he turned himself in last night. The 34 year old perpetrator of the crime, himself a regular mosque attendant, told the police that he entered the mosque that night, not intending to commit a crime but rather because he had forgotten to fold a prayer mat.
“I prayed on a sajjadah [prayer mat] in the mosque earlier that night and remembered much later that I had forgotten to fold it. Shaytan [satan] preys on an un-folded mat and prays on it, excuse the pun. I naturally went back to the mosque so I could fold it even though it was so late at night or, if you will, early in the morning. But let us not split hairs.”
The 34 year old found the mosque empty save the one praying man, a traveller from a nearby city who became the victim.
“I entered the prayer hall and saw a pitch black figure standing on the same sajjadah I had prayed on earlier”, the 34 year old said. “I assumed, like any sensible person would, that this was a jinni [genie] who had taken advantage of my forgetfulness earlier that evening and decided to pray on the un-folded mat. I did what anyone would do, I kicked him in the eye and ran home.”
The victim was found unconcious at the time of the morning prayer a couple of hours later and was rushed to the hospital. It is expected that he will recover completely.
The assailant was unaware of the fact that the man he attacked was not, in fact, a genie, until the following Friday prayer when the true account of the incident was made apparent to him. That is when he decided to turn himself in. Charges will be brought in the near future.
This is not the first time that the mosque of Örebro deals with a case of this type. Last year, three teenagers were reported to the police for vandalism after they had tossed a dozen prayer mats to the seeling, attaching them to the chandeliers. When asked about this, they explained that they had found shayatin [satanic genies] praying on the mats. After their efforts to fold the mats went unsuccesful, due to the shayatin persistently unfolding them back, they were left with no choice but to toss them upwards, as one of the teenagers explained.
The Swedish legislature is working on a new genie sensitive law to be adequately prepared for future cases like these.
It was aired this Ramadan and it’s kind of a fresh format for this type of lecture series. The program is in Arabic, so it’s also an opportunity to practice listening to it as the shaykh doesn’t use advanced language.
Download all of the episodes here
Here’s one of the episodes: Read the rest of this post »
They say – I myself don’t know, this was before my time – that the mosque was originally located in such a place that you had to actually pass through a liquor store to enter it. It relocated to a nearby site, remaining in the northern part of the downtown city centre of Örebro, also the home of oriental restaurants and shops earning it a reputation as an immigrant hangout. There was once allegedly – again, this was before my time – a rivalry between the mosque and one of the oriental shops. It had lost customers to the mosque which for some reason sold some grocery items at the time. The owner, himself a Muslim, conspired a scheme to avoid the competition. The story goes that he strategically planted some rotten chicken pieces in the mosque and it really stank up the place. He called the health inspector who forbade them from selling food – something which they weren’t even allowed to do in the first place. Another story which I never witnessed myself was the infamous one of the fight that erupted one Friday. I’ve been told that it looked cartoonish as the huddle of angry men swayed from one side to the other, hitting the walls. The poor khateeb pleaded with the people to settle down so that the khutbah could start. Some things I did witness myself however, like the bomb drama incident. Read the rest of this post »
Anyone who has some experience with any Muslim community knows that the new or newly practising Muslim goes through an evolutionary process which takes him from being an overzealous lad to a more wise, pragmatic chap. Sometimes – years down the road, after many years of experience and crushed expectations – one ends up a cynical gramps. Read the rest of this post »
There is a hadith (according to ibn Kathir it is actually a statement of Ali ibn Abi Talib and not of the Prophet sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam) which states that the mysteries of the Qur’an will never end and that the scholars will never be satisfied by what they know of it. Now, many of us are familiar with the arguments of the so-called progressive Muslims who call for independent interpretations of the Qur’an, in the name of ijtihad. Basically, they argue that every Muslim should be able to determine the meaning of the Qur’an for him or herself and that we should come up with our own readings of it irrespective of whether or not we posses even the most basic Islamic education. Most Muslims reject this idea because of its obvious flaws. First of all, we recognize that one need be qualified to succesfully undertake any task, not only when it comes to this but in any endevour, and it takes more than just being able to open up a mushaf and knowing how to read to be considered qualified in this case. Secondly, this type of approach to Islam is potientially dangerous. As author Dalia Mogahed pointed out during a discussion with one of the most well-known proponents of this line of reasoning, Irshad Manji, the notion that anyone can become a scholar is what produced al-Qaida. Read the rest of this post »
