There’s nothing like a good hadrah to get the breakdance juices flowing, as the young dervish in the video demonstrates. But not for the faint-hearted, the dogmatically challenged, the ideologically inflexible and the puritanically peevish. So be warned, don’t try that move at the East London Mosque with it’s promotion of the “narrow-minded, ahistorical, authoritarian bigotry of Salafi-inspired Islamism”, as Abu Faris says.
The Spittoon wishes our readers a Joyous, Tolerant, Secular and Happy New Year in 2010!
And here to play out 2009 is Sheikh Mehmet Nazim Adil al Qubrusi al Haqqani, leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order of Cyprus and the men from the Naqshbandi tariqa:
Then there’s this old new-school hip hop classic from A Tribe Called Quest which always goes down well at the London Muslim Centre New Year parties, I hear. Well maybe not but, in any case, this one is for you:
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Oh wow, I thought you were kidding when you said Sufi breakdancing! That guy can move!..oh, and great to hear Tribe.
Happy new year, folks.
Top find!
Typically the Munafiq spittoon detritus scurry the net to find all that is antithical to the essence of Islam as delineated by Allah (swt) and His Messenger , continue for your efforts will always be thwarted by those who believe and strive upon the Siratul Mustaqeem.
The sirat al mustaqeem is not the Whitechapel Road. Thinking that is your problem and your failure. Happy New Year!
Yaseen,
Evidently the eminent Shaykh of the first clip would disagree with you. There is an elderly and quite obviously devout Shaykh of a Sufi tariq who finds the antics of his young follower quite within the bounds of Faith and its celebration.
You claim we scurry to find opposition to Allah and the Message of His Devoted. I think you will find that many here (not all, but some) make haste to His Light; and recognise that this Light is inextinguishable – least of all by the approbation of such puritanical, deeply negative and fundamentally anti-Islamic messages as yours. It is the same light as illuminates the message of the Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist and all other faiths. It is the Light which shines a message clear and simple – that our acts in this world are the proof of faith.
You mention the Siratul Mustaqeem:
Perhaps the safest interpretation to give to sirat al mustaqeem, is to understand it through the following verse of surat al fatiha itself, which opposes it to two other paths — but this requires us to define and identify those two other paths first.
In ma’ani ‘l-akhbar, Imam as-Sadiq, explains the verse by saying
“Guide us to adhere to the path that leads to Thy love, and conveys to Thy Garden, (the path that) prevents us from following our desires (lest we be ruined) and from adhering to our opinions (lest we be destroyed).”
imam ;Ali says “The straight path, in this world, is that which stops short of excesses and rises above shortcomings, and remains straight; and, in the next world, it is the path of the believers (leading them) to the Garden. ” and also “Say: Guide us to the path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed favors by strengthening them for Thy religion and Thy obedience – not (of those whom Thou favored) with wealth and health because such things are sometimes given even to the disbeliever or to the sinful. ” (Then he said:) “And those (bestowed with divine favor) are those about whom Allah says: And whoever obeys Allah and the Apostle, these are with those upon whom Allah has bestowed favors from among the prophets and the truthful and the martyrs and the righteous ones, and excellent are these as companion (4:69).
as-Sadiq said: “(The Straight path) is the path to the knowledge of Allah. And there are two paths, one in this world and the other in the next. As for the path in this world, it is the Imam whose obedience is obligatory; whosoever knows him in this world and follows his guidance, he shall proceed on the path which is the bridge over the hell in the next world; and whosoever does not know him in this world, his foot shall slip (over that bridge) in the next world, and he shall fall down into the fire of the hell.” (Ma’ani ‘l-akhbar)
imam as-Sajjad says “There is no curtain between Allah and His proof, nor is there any screen for Allah against His proof. We are the gates of Allah, and we are the straight path, and we are the (treasure) chest of His Knowledge, and we are, the interpreters of His revelation, and we are the pillars of His Oneness, and we are the place of His secret.”
This is a Shi’a interpretation, of course. Doubtless you will reject this. So, where is the straight path, that you so want? There seem to be multiple straight paths.
Apologies, badly edited – from notes of mine… however, I hope the jist comes across.
Hassan
You shoot an arrow, it fires straight. It hits its target.
I fire an arrow, it fires equally straight – yet hits quite another target.
Your point is?
i was once privileged to be introduced to sheikh nazim once at a dhikr i was invited to at the peckham mosque. it was an unforgettable experience…
happy new year chaps – insha’Allah / be’ezrath HaShem by this time next year we should have made further progress in rolling back the tides of ignorance, prejudice and obscurantism.
b’shalom
bananabrain
That should be *Yaseen*, not Hassan. Apologies, ya Hassan.
bananabrain,
Again, you speak the truth.
My favourite Psalm:
Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
2
ג שָׁוְא, יְדַבְּרוּ–אִישׁ אֶת-רֵעֵהוּ: שְׂפַת חֲלָקוֹת–בְּלֵב וָלֵב יְדַבֵּרוּ.
ד יַכְרֵת יְהוָה, כָּל-שִׂפְתֵי חֲלָקוֹת– לָשׁוֹן, מְדַבֶּרֶת גְּדֹלוֹת.
ה אֲשֶׁר אָמְרוּ, לִלְשֹׁנֵנוּ נַגְבִּיר–שְׂפָתֵינוּ אִתָּנוּ: מִי אָדוֹן לָנוּ.
ו מִשֹּׁד עֲנִיִּים, מֵאֶנְקַת אֶבְיוֹנִים:
עַתָּה אָקוּם, יֹאמַר יְהוָה; אָשִׁית בְּיֵשַׁע, יָפִיחַ לוֹ.
ז אִמְרוֹת יְהוָה, אֲמָרוֹת טְהֹרוֹת:
כֶּסֶף צָרוּף, בַּעֲלִיל לָאָרֶץ; מְזֻקָּק, שִׁבְעָתָיִם.
ח אַתָּה-יְהוָה תִּשְׁמְרֵם; תִּצְּרֶנּוּ, מִן-הַדּוֹר זוּ לְעוֹלָם.
ט סָבִיב, רְשָׁעִים יִתְהַלָּכוּן; כְּרֻם זֻלּוּת, לִבְנֵי אָדָם.
Amen, and amen again.
My LORD is He who arises for the poor and the needy.
I ask, in all honesty, our Islamist interlocutors – who is your Lord?
Great videos Faisal!
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
(Just a reminder. Happy “New” Year).
Happy New Year, everyone.