Activism

The Qur’an gives us examples of women who did and did not cooperate with wrongdoers — examples for us, irrespective of gender, on how we can guard our deen for the pleasure of Allah.

To truly address racism, there is a need to reinject an Islamic perspective into our discourse that racism is firstly rooted in worst spiritual disease of the heart.

One cannot deny the move towards rhetoric and practice in the Western Muslim community that is more liberal, reformist, and progressive, but the extreme position some have taken in response to it is not only harmful, ineffective, and unwise, but decidedly un-Islamic.

Our prayers and donations should be done for the pleasure of Allah, seeking nearness to Him. Worldly recognition should never be the primary motive.

Ashura is the date of two important events in Islamic history: the freeing of the Bani Israel from the oppression of the Pharaoh, and the martyrdom of Imam Hussain. Both of these stories give Muslims lessons in how to fight oppression, while simultaneously basing our activism against oppression on an Islamic epistemic.

Muslims are busy working on survival. We are dealing with internal strife, external stress, political and social upheaval and plain old fear. Most of our energy is concentrated in our own communities, our families and – when we have a minute or two – ourselves. We are exhausted. It is hard to even imagine mustering up the energy to do more. But the question still tickles in our heads and hearts: are we delivering on behalf of the Prophetﷺ? Are we carrying the responsibility of the gift of the message of Islam?

In the current socio-political environment, we must consistently measure what our responses should be based upon our spiritual tradition, not what is politically in vogue among politicians, pundits and activists who are not rooted in our spiritual foundations.

The patience to bear difficulty is directly linked to maintaining an optimistic sense of hope for the future. But, what happens in those moments when we feel that hope is gone?

What does it mean to champion women’s rights and identify oneself as a feminist? Though it appears simple and easy to answer, this question is anything but that. This is especially so for a practicing believer.

The love of the Prophet ﷺ and his tradition should be enough for our community to at least break the taboo of interracial marriages among certain pockets of American Muslims.

Unprecedented for the time and place, the Prophet ﷺ dismantled caste systems and divisions of ethnic and class superiority, going beyond simple toleration. He ﷺ brought together communities of every background.

At the level of society overall, Calling-Out has proven extremely valuable, but there is an epiphenomenon of Call-Out Culture which is the problem of accurately verifying what is being called-out. The rigorous verification of claims made or information passed along has always been a hallmark of the Islamic tradition.