Da'wah Thoughts

This graph is from the Department of Statistics report on religion in Singapore.



Note that the "no religion" category of Chinese - 18.6% of 80% is still approx 15% of the total SG population - more than the entire population of Muslims or Christians.

Maybe da'wah in SG has been distracted into a Christian-targeted approach. This is probably because we are influenced by the experience of Muslim missionaries in the West, who live in a Christian or post-Christian setting. The reality is that there is a large number of people who are religiously not committed, and it is only logical that we should work harder to reach out to them, instead of aiming at people who already have a religious position.

Islam 2010

Ive been thinking a lot about using the new media for dakwah, and realised that there is much that we can do to create a presence in the new media world and promote islam.

lets start with my youtube channel. youtube is watched by everybody. we need to be in it, and in it in a BIG way.

i have already started creating my ppt presentations for the channel. that will provide a start point. then we need other stuff, home made reality stuff.

there are hundreds of personal videos of people interviewing themselves about their conversions to islam. but none from sg. we need to do this. all that is needed is a laptop with a camera, and willing participants. i aim for 20 to start with.

next we need staged vids of conversion processes. coming to darul arqam, signing up for class, converting, etc.

another thing is using wikis and videojugs. we need to have wikis on conversion, how to pray, fast, etc etc.

in essence, we create a new darul arqam in the virtual world.

the other aspect is to use facebook and twitter. we need a fb page, but its not about events only, like the present fb page people of darul arqam. it has to generate content, twitter-like, on a regular basis to maintain interest. it needs to be aimed at non-muslims, so it wont have doas, etc. just feelgood stuff.

we need to know who we're targeting. young 18 - 30s. english speaking Chinese and Others.

islam has to be hip. how? it has to be different. the different thing attracts the curiosity of the young. element of questioning the status quo. need to up the glamour factor - need pretty faces and nice voices nice clothes. need a cause. young pple are into causes nowadays. the cause is not to be ISLAM per se, or "the truth" etc.by itself. it has to be things like a worldwide brotherhood, courage, change, being strong.

your ideas.

Christians May Legally Use "Allah" in Malaysia

I too am concerned at possible misuse and abuse, which will undoubtedly happen.
However I still believe that this can be turned to Muslim advantage, if Muslims act, instead of react.

A gap in the wall may seem to open one way, but it is up to us to push the other way.

Muslims dont have to believe the Christian line that they need to use Allah for the reasons they give.

The reality is that they are under threat of conversions to Islam, which is much more numerous than vice versa in Msia.

They fear that with a whole new generation of Msian Chrstians raised in Bahasa M, schooled in Bahasa M, speaking in BM, exposed to Malay culture and entertainment, and with the dominant cultural and national discourse being Malay-Muslim, that their religion is under threat of being an alien anachronism, and even more Christians will become Muslims.

Hence the step taken, which I see to be a desparate act of a losing adversary.
Just as Muslims fear their use of "Allah", they also fear that it would weaken their community - imagine what great crisis it would take to force Muslims in a country to start using "Buddha" instead of Allah.

Malaysian Muslims can either fear the tiger, or ride on it.
But they must not be distracted by the politics, which will lead them away from what they should be doing, in order to achieve success. This is exactly the diversion that the Christians expect, in fact, they are the hidden hand behind orchestrating most of the drama that happens.

In every crisis there is opportunity.

We must stop treating the Christian evangelist as the monster under our childhood bed. We are bigger and stronger than him, and here's a secret - he's more scared of us than we are of him.

They are forced to teach their people to believe and love "Allah", so as to keep their minds.
Then we must teach them that "Allah" is One, and He will get their hearts.

May Allah guide us and give us strength and patience to stay united, and to give us wisdom to see things as they truly are.

Islam in the NYPD: VC2

Muslim Women of Hip Hop

Although still a male-dominated realm, women have been an important part of the hip hop world both as artists and consumers. Anaya McMurray, in her journal article Hotep and Hip-Hop: Can Black Muslim Women Be Down with Hip-Hop? explores the relation of Black Muslim women to hip hop music and asks the question, “Can Black Muslim women be a part of hip hop and Islam?”



From Racialicious, 7 May 2008.

Beautiful

Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free,—
Such sweet neglect more taketh me
Than all the adulteries of art:
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.

- Ben Jonson

The Making of a Mumbai Terrorist

Unlike the stereotypical image of a terrorist — illiterate, fanatic and trained in madrasahs, or religious seminaries — the men had relatively high levels of literacy and were more likely to have been educated in government schools than in madrasahs. Religion wasn't necessarily the only reason they turned to jihad. A Pakistani who enrolled in a training camp in Kunar province, Afghanistan, told TIME that he went for "tourism and adventure."

Read the rest ...

Iraq's Unspeakable Crime: Mothers Pimping Daughters

'... a place where nefarious female pimps hold sway, where impoverished mothers sell their teenage daughters into a sex market that believes females who reach the age of 20 are too old to fetch a good price. The youngest victims, some just 11 and 12, are sold for as much as $30,000, others for as little as $2,000. "The buying and selling of girls in Iraq, it's like the trade in cattle," Hinda says. "I've seen mothers haggle with agents over the price of their daughters." '.

Read the rest ....

Challenges of Becoming Muslims - Last Week's Talk at the Muslim Converts' Association

Many years ago when he was 19 years old and in the Army, a Muslim convert sergeant by the name of Fauzi Rodriguez advised Mudpie to make himself useful and volunteer at the Muslim Converts' Association on weekends instead of going out and falling down drunk like most soldier boys. Mudpie was bored, and sauntered down to the then-newly formed Muslim Converts' Association, and helped them to do what he was used to doing - carrying heavy objects and arranging them where needed.
Mudpie was stuck.
He volunteered from then on, and counts some of his best friendships from his association with Darul Arqam (that's the Association's Muslim name).
There was a teacher there who taught what was called a "Beginners' Class on Islam". He was a university graduate from my university, spoke English well, and yet was traditionally trained in Islamic religious studies. He was passionate about bringing the message of Islam to non-Muslims, and also as much, to Muslims who needed a different pitch. Mudpie was his trainee and student, and he was Mudpie's mentor.
Many years later, Ustaz Zulkeflee left Darul Arqam and went over to Pergas. We kept in touch, although less frequently, until Mudpie helped out in the driving-and-carrying duties for a series of talks on Islamic Thought and Civilisation conducted by Pergas and ISTAC. This was Mudpie's introduction to Pergas, which inducted him into another, different world.
Ustaz Zulkeflee later fell ill with a stroke, and could not talk or move.
So it was with much happiness that Mudpie discovered Ustaz Zul was back, and giving a talk last Friday. Although the thrust and content was not a surprise to him, Mudpie was happy just to go and see the man who had, at a critical juncture of Mudpie's life, helped him take the other, less trodden, path.
May God bless Ustaz Zul and give him health and strength always.

Here is the presentation from his talk, with his kind permission.

Challenges of Being Muslim

View more presentations from Mudpie.

Pasts and Futures

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. (Oscar Wilde)

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling - in Islam

6046

Respect

from SunniPath Blog -

Habib `Umar b. Hafiz (may Allah preserve him) said,

No one will ever be fit for calling others to Islam except someone who respects those he is calling. Whenever someone displays contempt for anyone, he distances more often than he brings close, repels more often than he attracts, and cuts others off from him more often than he ties them to him.

…

This is why the poet said

من وقر الناس وقروه … و فاز بالعقل و الرئاسة
و مزدريهم لو كان مسكا … لقيل في أصله نجاسة

Whoever respects people will be respected by them, and will win unto intelligence and leadership.

But someone who has contempt for them, were he to be made of musk, he would be told that he was originally filth. [1]

…

This is why we must approach people with love, concern, mercy, and compassion. And that is how the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) came to you: he was all mercy, compassion, humility, and politeness. This is why you will find that most of the early ones to respond to his call were the downtrodden people of Mecca … At the conquest of Mecca, Bilal [3] was the only one who climbed the Ka`ba when the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) told him, “Climb and call the people to prayer.” (Habib `Umar b. Hafiz, Tawjih al-Nabih li Mardati Barih, Kuwait: Dar al-Diya, 2008, p. 167)

[1] Musk comes from the originally filthy secretions of the musk-deer that collect in a sac and solidify.

[2] In other words, at the height of the Prophet’s political supremacy (Allah bless him and give him peace).

[3] A former slave.

What About Now ?

Now the Great Crunch is coming, and we read it in our news everyday , and we're all thinking about what we are going to do to survive it.
Now we save money, spend less, keep our jobs.
Now we pray to God to keep our heads above water to ride out the bad time to come.

So things are gonna get bad NOW? For many people in this world, it wasnt better before. So, what's the difference about NOW?

Just a reminder of the other people in this world who are facing far, far worse trials and tribulations than we possibly can imagine at this moment, and the saints who stand against the tide - the tide of apathy and selfcentredness.