Changing the Tide...

Another brilliant piece of oratory by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, hafizahu Allah.

Click here to watch.

Visual Dhikr...

...is now here.

Need is say more?

Yusuf Islam in Abu Dhabi

Assalamu alaikum,

Pray you're all well.

This may be a lil old, but I've seen it only recently. Tala3a'l-badru with a guitar. Nice!

More interesting is that Shaykh Ramadan Buti and al-Habib Ali stand up for him has he leaves...

Hafizahuma Allahu.

Shaykh Lane and the Magical Dictionary

Salam ppl.

been a while. I'm home now, as many of you know, and as i've settled in, and set up my personal library-ish room away from the internet, i don't think i'll be at all regular in posting stuff here.

That notwithstanding, i've spent the last few days immersing myself in one of the gems of English lexicography--as far as arabists are concerned--and what's more, its available to download for anyone with a fast connection!

Edward Lane's Lexicon, with the Arabic title, madd al-qamus is the ultimate Classical Arabic dictionary in translation, and I recommend anyone who wants to access our rich Arabic literary heritage to download it from this site, in the dictionaries section.

Many people underestimate the importance of pure Classical Arabic. From a Western Muslim perspective, any other form of Arabic is an unfortunate irrelevence that we need to learn a bit of to get by in the Middle East, which is not to disparage the language of the people, but to state that given the brevity of our lives, and the amount one needs to learn in the Islamic sciences, it would be convenient if the MidEast still spoke pure Arabic. And as they do not, many people living in these parts of the world are often not well-equipped when it comes to understanding classical texts, even if they've gone through a traditional madrasa there.

But qaddar Allahu ma qad sha', and looking at the relative change in other languages over the same amount of time, one has to be grateful for a language that has hardly changed over more than a millennium.

Young Muslim Converts...?!

salam,

not sure how to put videos up, but here's a link of one that some of you might have seen already. i was very affected by watching it--all sorts of thoughts, questions, emotions, etc, went through my mind while watching the piece. far too many to write about at the moment, but perhaps later, if Allah wills.

Back in Syria

salam all,

am back in syria for a weekish. as is my custom, there's a strong possibility i'll be forgetting about my blog while i'm here, so you might save time not checking up on me!

jordanian randomosity

salam ppl,

for those interested, i'm in jordan for abt 5 days. Will be back in damascus by 6th june insha Allah.

wassalamu alaikum