Islam's Green

the first ten days of dhul hijja

For those of us who haven't clicked already, these are very special days.
The Prophet (saws) told us that there is nothing better than the deeds done on these first ten days
"Not even jihad in the path of Allah?" A companion asked.
"Not even jihad in the path of Allah, except a person who leaves with his life and property and returns with neither of them."
So the only thing that can beat the good deeds of these days is dying a shaheed.
Think about it!
So....fast, give charity, pray, seek knowledge, teach, preach, enjoin the right and forbid the wrong, slay your nafs and hawa, keep away from evils, guard your tongue and eyes and ears.
There are some actions that have such a great merit, so how much more must they be increased in these days!
Here is one, subhanallah, that seems so appropriate for these days.
Go to the mosque for fajr and after the prayer sit in your place and say nothing except what is good.
After the sun rises wait until shurook (about 10-15 mins after sun rise) and then pray 2 rakat.
You will get the reward of an accepted hajj, Allah will expiate your sins and you will be like a new born baby.
Certainly Allah is best of those who show mercy!

Politics and Beyond: Chechnya the Coldest War

If you missed my appearance on Islam Channel's "Politics and Beyond: Chechnya the Coldest War" you can catch most of it on YouTube

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-7604756278259271797&q=politkovskaya

Unfortunately the four minute speech I gave at the Global Peace and Unity has been cut from the intro. so if anyone can locate it please let us know!
Don't forget our brothers and sisters in Chechnya. Support the Save Chechnya campaign. Follow the links on the contents panel on the right of the blog.

Free Ali Tamimi

Below is an email send to me appealing for help to obtain the release of Sheikh Ali Tamimi. He is a teacher and upholder of the aqeeda of ahl Sunnah wal Jammah. Importantly, he is also someone who understands the religious sciences and secular knowledge, the deen of Islam and the reality of the life in the West. He is in fact a treasure of this ummah, but a treasure purposely buried by the opposer's of divine guidance.
Sheikh Ali Tamimi is someone I have benefited so much from over the years. My "Reaping the Benefits of Ramadan" lecture is based on an article he wrote.
His case is shocking, and illustrates the malicious and malevolent nature of the current US administration and their hypocritical disregard for the values that they claim to espouse.
Remember him in your duas and support him with that which Allah has entrusted you of wealth especially in that which remains of this blessed month.

Asalaamu alaikum,

 

Here is an update on the situation regarding Shaikh Ali Al Timimi,

please make dua and donate towards this cause.

and please forward this email to others who may also do likewise.

   
Bismillah at the beginning of this email and at its end.

As you know, this last year has been a test for everyone involved in Ali's case.
By the grace of Allah, Ali has been returned to the local Alexandria jail. But
it was not in the manner in which anyone expected. If fact there is a good
chance that his conviction will be overturned. But Ali needs your help.

After Ali's comprehensive loss in court and abandonment by the previous support
committee, a few people offered to help.

Perhaps they decided to help when they heard that Ali was forced to wear the
same prison outfit for 6 months.

Or maybe it was because Ali had to wash that prison jump suit in the toilet. I
do not know how he prayed afterwards. I do not know of a Fiqh chapter on
"praying after you wash your clothes in the toilet". Do you?

Allah did bless him when another prisoner secretly lent Ali a uniform while he
washed his sole outfit in the toilet. Well that only happened after a gang
member with tuberculosis C-- the most virulent strain which currently has no
known cure-- beat Ali.

Perhaps the new group started to help because Ali has been transferred to 5
different prisons in the first 6 months so that his new attorney could not speak
with him.

Then again, it might have been because each prison illegally read Ali's legal
correspondence so that they would know the strategy for the appeal.

We can probably count 100 different reasons why 1 or 2 people are helping now.

But Allah is more merciful than we were to Ali.

Experts in constitutional law and national security have started to come to
Ali's defense. Though Ali's case was confusing to many of us, it was clear to
legal experts: defending Ali is defending free speech... defending Ali means
trying to stop future oppression of Muslims specifically and Americans in
general.

They ask: "How can a man be convicted for life plus 70 years for something he
may or may not have said years before during a 20 minute dinner?"

You know that type of dinner. Many of you had the same type with Ali during the
80's and 90's. When you call a few brothers over and "break bread" together.

We've tried to explain what's happening with Ali's case on a new site. The old
site altimimi.org still works but has been neglected for too long.

The new site is freeAli.org and it's not complete but it should help Ali's
friends come to his defense... to speak up for Dr. Al-Timimi.

So why did I write you this email? We have a strong chance-- and with Allah is
success-- to have a new trial or an outright dismissal.

I mention some of the reasons on the new site: http://freeAli.org.

In brief, we're very close to proving that the government intentionally lied to
the court and jury. And that usually means dismissal-- and with Allah is
success.

So what caused this optimism? We found some old documents from the previous
lawyers and got some new legal power with which Allah blessed Ali.

But the old lawyers won't give these documents to us unless we pay some of Ali's
old bills. And the new lawyer needs to be paid.

We need to raise USD 150 000 (one hundred fifty thousand dollars) by Oct 23
which is at the end of Ramadhan 2006. That's the day that Ali has to prove that
the government spied on him and then hid evidence that shows that Ali was
working with some of the Saudi scholars to avoid a "clash of civilization" and
not the mad-man they described to the jury.

So, I do not know if we will have another chance like this to help Ali. All I
can tell you is that the lawyers have told us:

"Rescue Ali now and you're rescuing yourselves in the future".

So, we have some of the greatest legal minds of our time working for nominal
fees. They're treating Ali as indigent and are aghast that we all have abandoned
him. He was our friend, our teacher, our relative, and our student.

Perhaps we forgot that defending the callers to the Sunnah is like defending the
Sunnah itself.

Allah knows what’s in the hearts but I think that we can all testify before
Allah and mankind that the Prophet's statement refers to Ali. Which statement?
The one that Ali taught us: “Allah mentions and the angels pray for the teacher
who teaches good to the people”.


So Allah has blessed us with an opportunity in these last days of Ramadhan to
rescue Ali today so that we rescue ourselves tomorrow.

Wassalam alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh wa maghfiratuh

The bomb plot you did not hear about!

I don't who who Tim is, but may Allah reward him with goodness. I got this in an email and thought I should share it...

Interestingly enough....while our beloved journalists have been falling over themselves to report
the alleged storm over Jack Straw's comments, they forgot to report the
terrorist plot just uncovered in Burnley, eleven miles down the road from his
constituency in Lancashire.

It was left to the local papers - papers not unlike the one from which Mr
Straw's article was picked up by the National Press - to break the news. This
from that news giant, Pendle Today on Friday:

"Two Pendle men have appeared before Pennine Magistrates accused of having
"a master plan" after what is believed to be a record haul of chemicals used in
making home-made bombs was found in Colne."

I suppose we're all having too much fun now that racism is in fashion once
more. Cor, the 1990s were such a bore with all those silly drives to rid society
of prejudice and discrimination. How foolish we were to rejoice at the release
of Nelson Mandella from prison. Blimey, I do feel stupid now. Indeed, how silly
of me to question John Reid's decision to have an article addressing Muslim
parents published in The Sun, thinking that he had not realised that Muslims
aren't very keen on opening newspapers filled with naked women and racism; I am
so last year.

After all, the views of a politician on what a woman should wear are of
astoundingly greater importance to the nation than the Police discovering "a
record haul of chemicals used in making home-made bombs" in one Lancashire house
and "rocket launchers, chemicals, and a nuclear or biological suit" in another.
I mean, why get your knickers in a twist about a man who stood for election last
May messing about with a few chemicals when we can spend the next week talking
about political correctness gone mad?

And anyway, Superintendent Neil Smith said of the first suspect,"He’s not a
terrorist and it’s not a bomb factory but we are interested in what we have
seized from his house. It will take expert advice to establish exactly what he
has got." (Burnley Citizen, 2 October) Although, the North West Evening Mail
reported four days later:

"A Retired Grange dentist is accused of being part of a bomb plot after a
record number of explosives were seized in a Lancashire town. David Bolais
Jackson, 62, of Trent Road, Nelson, was arrested on Friday in the Lancaster area
after leaving his Grange practice for the last time. Jackson was charged with
being in possession of an explosive substance for an unlawful purpose. However,
it is unclear who or what the intended target might have been. Police found
rocket launchers, chemicals, British National Party literature and a nuclear or
biological suit at his home. The find came shortly after they had recovered 22
chemical components from the house of his alleged accomplice, Robert Cottage, a
former BNP election candidate, who lives in Colne. The haul is thought to be the
largest ever found at a house in this country."

Fear not, we need not enter polemics about disaffected retired English
Dentists. There will be no calls to ban Orthodontist Ghettos. The Community
Cohesion Taskforce need not take a long hard look at the issue; we can happily
feel deterred. Mr Reid need not address Christian children about looking for the
tell-tale signs of extremism in their parents. We may sleep easy, for two men
found in possession of rocket launchers, a nuclear biological suit, extremist
literature, a master plan and the largest haul of bomb-making chemicals ever
found in the country, have not been charged under the Terrorism Act 2000. They
are just two comical Guy Falkes jokers who got involved in a bit of hobby
bomb-making, so no need to throw the full force of the law at them: old law will
do the trick.

The reality is, of course, the Press has just been through a period of
challenging self-reflection and they've realised there is no future in
sensationalism. After the lurid blow-by-blow Press accounts of the High Wycombe
plot, the last thing we need are insensitive headlines on extremists caught in
the midst of preparing terrorist acts - especially as they've only been charged
under the Explosive Substances Act 1883. No, sensationalism has had its day. So
onto the serious stuff: what did Jack Straw really mean?

Sorry, am I being cynical?

Tim

....find the original article here