by Fariduddin Attar done into English by Abdal Hakim Murad The crown of all the kings is he, with joyful heart declare! The lord of all the Prophets he, his acts beyond compare! How would he be the Leader of the Poor, if the slightest of desires had stained his heart? Poor he remained, because that man’s a Boor, whose wedding gifts his bride from him do part. Because he had nothing, he sat on the sand; Because he was…
The following was a piece I wrote to commemorate the death of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Memories of Qawwali – A Tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan August 16th 2007 marked the 10th death anniversary of one of the masters of the qawwali genre of Muslim devotional music. Putting aside all the fiqhi (jurisprudential) discussions about music and the permissibility or otherwise of it (although one finds that Imam al-Ghazali and Shaykh Abdal Ghani al-Nablusi make an exception for…
Imam Zaid Shakir answers the questions of a “Salafi” brother who was hounding him recently to “qualify his position”. The questions are: Q: What do you say about Ibn Taymiyya? Q: What does Tariqa mean? Q: What is your position of the Hadith of the Seventy-three sects? Q: What do you say about the Ash?aris? Imam Zaid writes: “Recently, while attending a gathering of Muslims that was otherwise characterized by brotherly love and goodwill, I was hounded by a ?Salafi?…