Allah praise is due to Allah, we praise Him and seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
We take refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves and from the evil consequence of our evil actions.
Whomsoever Allah guides none can misguide and whomsoever Allah leaves to go astray none can guide.
I testify and bear witness that Allah alone is worthy of worship and that Muhammad is His final messenger.
From that follows that I affirm my belief in and my desire to adhere to God’s perfect guidance in every part of my life. I will have failed in some regards and succeeded in others. We are only human, and prone to make mistakes. I seek forgiveness from Allah for my mistakes and I also humbly ask anyone from any nation, religion, culture or orientation that if I have been unfair, or unjust to them in any way to forgive me.
I do not wish to have anyone hold something against me on the day of judgment! What I can say in my defence is that I strive to sincerely wish good for every human being, and in fact every creature. My belief and own personal limited experience is that the best condition for any person or any nation to be in is in the state of willing servitude and submission to Allah, the One true God.
(Credit: Víctor Nuño)
I hope that whatever I have said or done is in general out of my genuine desire to convince others to accept that path in their lives. There is not a shred of doubt that I have fallen short in being able to articulate and explain the generality and specifics of what that guidance is and means.
I have been Muslim now coming onto three decades and throughout that time my understanding and appreciation of this way of life has grown and changed considerably as has my approach and attitudes to others. I do not think that it is fair or reasonable to judge others by things that they have said and done many years ago whilst it is clear their attitudes have changed. There are beliefs that I have held that I have realised were completely either wrong, or sometimes misplaced. My opinions about many matters have changed with both knowledge, insight and experience.
I find it ironic that on one hand some accuse me of selling out, compromising whilst others at the same time accuse me of the very things those people are denouncing me for leaving!
Rather than attempt to provide an exhaustive response to every accusation I would simply like to affirm my commitment to certain matters which should be sufficient with anyone who is fair and just.
- To seek the pleasure of Allah alone and single Him out in worship.
- To seek to follow His guidance as He intended.
- To adhere to the advice of those who are best equipped to understand that in the most complete manner, who are the ulema (scholars).
- I have chosen to be a resident of the United Kingdom and a citizen of the aforesaid land and as such recognise that I am bound to respect and adhere to the laws of that land wether I agree with them or not.
- If I disagree with laws of the land there is process to change them. I understand that I have the freedom in this land to believe what I want, and to persuade others to that belief.
- I consider it part of being a good Muslim to be a good citizen.
- I believe that part of being a good citizen is to work for good of this nation.
- Conscientiously objecting to certain actions carried out by the people or government of this nation does not contradict being a good citizen, rather it affirms it.
- My being British and my feeling of loyalty to this country do not contradict my being a Muslim or vice versa.
- I consider it a clear and unambiguous matter that the religion of Islam prohibits sex between men and doing so is disobedience to God. Despite this I do not and have not ever encouraged anyone to physically attack homosexuals or commit acts of violence against them outside the realm of the law.
- I have condemned on many occasions and continue to condemn domestic violence. Accusations that I promote or approve of it are complete slander.
- I do not promote slavery except the servitude of humanity to God alone. I am happy and willing to work towards the elimination of slavery and consider this to be one of the excellent achievements of Western civilization, even if it has manifested itself in different forms in the modern world
- Anti-semitism is despicable and I condemn it and always have done. Such behaviour is not part of Islam. That does not preclude criticism of the errors in religion, or the actions of the nation state of Israel.
- My attitude to all peoples whether Jew, Christian, Hindu or other is that we should strive to live together in this country with mutual understanding and compassion and work together for the betterment of humanity. None of that precludes discussing, debating and articulating our differences where they exist, but we should strive for honesty and accuracy when doing that.
May God guide us all closer to the truth. Ameen