Islamic singing group Labbayk stay true to the nasheed genre of performing without music. Heba Saeed reviews their latest album, Oh My Lord.

Labbayk, Arabic for 'here I am', is the beautiful name adopted for one of the world's few music-free nasheed groups. But there is many a good thing to praise in the beautiful company of Labbayk, apart from their name.

In the literary world of books on Islam, the average reader will fall short after the idiot's guide to Islam, or a more comprehensive and heavy-weight theological book, now used as a table support. We previously shared I Speak For Myself, American Muslims' reply to questions stemming from Islamophobic media reports, and ecological welfare inspired Dawud Wharnsby's A Picnic of Poems for children.

Another inspirational book from Kube Publishing is geared toward younger audiences: Muslims In The Modern World, by British author Suma Din.

Muslims In The Modern World, A Series
Muslims In The Modern world is a unique biographical series covering the lives and works of iconic figures from today's educational and humanitarian fields.

The first part of the series features Islam's own father-figure Dr Hany El Banna. Founder of the respected charity Islamic Relief Worldwide, and a loved activist, Dr Hany was recently found in Mogadishu, Somalia, where he sang rain prayers and entertained the orphans of famine struck Africa.

Suma Din's book is thoroughly researched and captures the humanness of Dr Hany. Her book takes readers on a chronological journey from the doctor's early days as a traveller and later presidency of Islamic Relief.

"Dr Hany El Banna, the founder of Islamic Relief Worldwide, is a tireless humanitarian activist working for the world’s poorest people. Follow his footsteps as he moves to the UK as a young doctor, only to become the president of a global humanitarian relief organisation.


From underground tunnels in war-torn Bosnia to the cyclone ravished villages of Bangladesh, find out what drove Dr El Banna to people in need. The story of his efforts to establish Islamic Relief around the world is at once a warm, inspiring and occasionally eccentric tale of humanity."
- Kube Publishing blog

Captivating and short, the series will brings together the lives and personalities of a range of influential and fascinating Muslim figures. They are filled with rare images, illustrated maps and personal anecdotes giving readers a unique viewpoint into their lives.

Do Muslim Books Have A Place In Education?
The series aims to especially inspire young readers outside of the Muslim faith and introduce them to a set of under-the-radar people from the modern world. I dare use the 'celebrity' status since renowned Muslim figures are respected and praised, not idolised, but this is a collection of books you cannot do without.

British educational institutions have delved into the Muslim cultural sphere more so over the past decade, one instance being the world class 1001 Muslim Inventions exhibition and book which was was funded for schools throughout the country.

Future names for the Muslim book series include,

• Dr Hayat Sindi, the Muslim female scientist awarded this year as one of National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers and visiting scholar at Harvard; and
• Malcolm X, the legendary human rights activist and Muslim convert from the USA.

Responses from the educational sector and mainstream Islamic courses confirm the need for more positive role models in schools, like Canadian children's book Khadijah Goes To School. This series addresses Muslim heritage and educates a wide age group with a sophisticated structure.

As another valuable resource for citizenship, history, humanities and religious education, Suma Din encourages British teachers to use Muslims In The Modern World for discussions on war, poverty, charity, marriage and struggle within the context of the exceptional Dr Hany.

"Pupils will find it inspirational, surprising and readable", says Suma Din's official site. Many other chapters of the book also have a link to the educational curriculum, covering topics as high as GCSE level, for students aged 16+.

One secondary school teacher from Buckhinghamshire said Muslims In The Modern World "is a positive and modern example of Islamic faith in action and as such fills a much felt void."

What Your Bookshelf Is Missing
Each biography is equipped with first-person quotes and anecdotes, exclusive full colour photographs of each featured figure. Taking on encyclopedic layouts, the books are separated with a time-line, glossary and bulleted lists, succinctly explaining Muslim practices and highlighting notable places in history. This will make a wonderful gift for Eid and ideal donation to your local school.

Part one and the books to follow, looks at the early life of the iconic faces, their family and upbringing, analysing the factors that led them to be leaders in their field. Faith plays an integral part for both the author and the figures she interviews in her books, part of the reason why Muslims In The Modern World is being pushed for academic involvement.

We like the book. A lot. We think you will too.

Order {Muslims In The Modern World} from Kube Publishing and from the author's site, {Suma Din}.


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As a humanitarian and trustee at Muslim Youth Helpline, Furqan Naeem recently completed his summer internship with Human Appeal International (HAI). He took the opportunity to travel to Somalia to witness the devastation first-hand and implement some projects to benefit the people of the famine. Furqan shares his personal experiences with us from Somalia.

Inside Mogadishu, Worlds Apart
I returned last week from a humanitarian trip with Human Appeal International to the famine struck area of Mogadishu in Somalia. It was certainly an experience I’ll never forget. I spent a week witnessing things from a different perspective, a week reflecting on how fortunate we are in Britain to have those simple things we take for granted. It was a week of learning to always give more than you receive.

My first impression of Somalia was one of a broken world, one without order where chaos prevails above all other things. I spent the first day in Nairobi before visiting orphanages. I thought I’d use my time in Nairobi to gain an understanding of what life in East Africa was actually like. I hoped this would help me cope with seeing the devastation that I expected Somalia.

Arriving in Mogadishu the next day, I felt like I had entered a different world. It was surreal. The airport looked like a shelter home and the tight security all round made me feel very nervous. Even as we were at the entry office one of the questions on the standard visa form read, “what weapons have you brought with you?” Reading that made me realise that this was not a place not for the faint hearted.

As we headed to our secure residence for the week, I saw that there wasn’t a single built-structure that was not crumbling. I couldn't call any of these buildings 'homes'. It felt like we were in a war-zone and this was before we even went to visit any of the famine victims.

Meeting Refugees And Orphans
The next few days were spent visiting refugee camps and a local hospital so we could identify which areas on the ground aid was still not reaching. I got to see first-hand how the famine had devastated so many families.


As we went visiting from tent to tent with our local team there from Human Appeal International, we were able to communicate with some of the families. Real families, real people who all had a common story.

These families had all walked for weeks to get to the refugee camp in the hope that aid would be there but found nothing more than other desperate people.

I heard how incredibly difficult life could be and was for people. I remember meeting a young mother who gave birth to a boy only three weeks ago but was barely able to look after herself because of her weakness. The young baby was in a critical state. It could easily be the case that these two human beings are no more but this was the case right across refugee camps in Mogadishu, just to give a glimpse of the scale of disaster.

After visiting three refugee camps around Mogadishu and seeing and feeling what it was like for the poor and needy, we had a chance to visit one of the local hospitals to see what sort of assistance doctors were trying to provide.

Unfortunately the scenes were not much different at the hospital. As soon as we arrived we saw a young boy getting treated outside the hospital for lack of clean water as there was insufficient space inside. There were so many victims all in distress with their families but the sad thing was to see so few doctors on hand, all of whom were being stretched to their limits in the first place. Most of the hospital was filled with crying young babies suffering from waterborne diseases, which have little or no cure.

Savings Lives, One At A Time
After identifying the areas where aid was not being reached, I and the team set about initiating food distribution points, mobile medical clinics and water distribution to the camps. This was perhaps the most satisfying part of the trip – to help all those that you saw on the ground by providing them with food packages that would help their families for a month at a time.

But the sad reality was that we were only just scratching the surface. There is a vast amount of people that are suffering and still need help.


I witnessed the bittersweet reactions in the faces of families who were relieved to see help coming in the form of food and water but then realising that this might be the only help they’ll receive in months.

Even with the mobile medical clinic I saw how families valued getting the correct treatment and medicine to help with all the illnesses. They queued for miles just to see a doctor in the hope that they might be cured.

In a country where there is so much despair and misery we managed to visit the University of Mogadishu, which surely is a beacon of hope in times of uncertainty for the Somalian people. There are two opposing regions in Somalia which is the reason why it is in so much ruin. One side is a desert from the recent famine that has affected most of Somalia, but the other side has a total lack of infrastructure and poor leadership from those in control of the country.

These two destructive forced have combined in a devastating way and now a time of misery has fallen upon the people of smiles. But for the country to prosper in years to come and for the people to live a better a life, Somalia has to produce effective citizenry. I believe education is the key in building the country’s next generation of leaders.

The University of Mogadishu has a massive role to play in shaping the country by producing well-grounded students who will go on to help provide that infrastructure, and help build a country where peace can be achieved sooner rather than later.

A Future Of Hope For Somalia
Whilst out on the trip with Human Appeal International I managed to spend some time with renowned Muslim speaker and educator Dr Hany El-Banna, the founder of Islamic Relief. Dr Hany was busy organising a conference, bringing together Muslim charities and local NGOs to help improve the situation in Somalia through his role as chairman of Muslim Charities Forum.

Dr Hany has always been an inspiration to me, so getting the opportunity to work with him was a real honour, not to mention a huge learning curve. Watch Dr Hany's video message from Mogadishu.



The best part was seeing him in his element when he was with the children. When we finished Friday prayers I remember he started to make animal noises to communicate with the children and they all smiled and replied back with the same animal noises.

In a matter of seconds there were hundreds of young children gathering around this great man, Dr Hany El-Banna, as he built that special connection with the forgotten children of Somalia.

Prayers And Rain
All in all, visiting Somalia was truly an experience of a lifetime. Having reflected for a week since I’ve been back, the memories of the faces of desperation I saw still live within me. Much more can be done. It should be done.

One thing I have learnt is to be grateful for what I have in life and to never complain if something doesn’t quite go my way. There are people living in so much more difficulty than me – how do I have a right to complain?

I will never forget the stories; the mother who lost her children walking to the refugee camps, the father who had to sacrifice some of his children in order to provide for the other few.


And there took place a rain prayer where I was blessed to be part of a 10,000 gathering who all prayed for rain. The next morning through God’s mercy, rain descended upon the people of Mogadishu. Alhamdulillah, all praise be to God.

These memories shall stay with me for as long as I shall live and will continue to inspire me for years to come. As I reflect back I still wonder about Somalia's plight and the constant hardship its people experience. I do have hope though. Yes, the task is enormous, yes we still have a lot of work to do here in the UK but I firmly believe that if we all play our part, make enough effort through our donations to Human Appeal International, and with our prayers, then prosperity and peace will eventually come to the people of Somalia. Insha'Allah, God willing.

Do your part, donate to feed a family in Africa for a month. Please.

Read more at the {Human Appeal International blog}

By Furqan Naeem, British Muslim student activist and humanitarian.








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As the latest musical creation by Canadian singer-song writer Dawud Wharnsby is released - A Picnic of Poems: In Allah's Green Garden, MUSLIMNESS Editor Zaufishan Iqbal talks to the talent behind the poetry to find out why we all need a dose of simpler living.

I'm a Muslim environmentalist at heart and absolutely love meeting activists who share that excitement for protecting the planet. Dawud Wharnsby is in our list of heroes for his decades of songs that unite people from all walks of life. This year, Dawud began writing his environment blog "Follow A Poet, Following Goats" from Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he and his young family recycle and eat mangoes. My respect for the artist has just escalated.

As-salam`alaykum Dawud. I'm interested in what lead to the creation of Picnic of Poems? Is it a natural progression from your artistic performance work?

Dawud Wharnsby: Indeed, it was very much a natural progression in my work. As a writer and artist, it has always been my objective to work on projects that feel natural and honest to me. Many artists, particularly recording artists under contract to music companies or financial bakers, must often produce music to meet public or commercial demands. For a man such as myself, that can be very stifling and restrictive to the creative process.

As an independent writer, I am free to use my expression more as a means of personal exploration. My work is a created from and is a path of reflection and assessment, while I am also releasing material I feel is lacking commercially in global music, literary or even education arenas.

I work very much like a potter or painter - just me in my home studio, uninterrupted and without pressure. I read, research, reflect, stew and ponder a long time on things long before the ideas start flowing while I am in my garden or hanging laundry.

A CD accompanies the book of 30 poems

And Picnic Of Poems? What inspired you to take us outside with you and back to our roots?

Dawud Wharnsby:As a father who is passionate about holistic learning and living, I was inspired a few years ago to create a series of poems and songs for children which reflect a very rudimentary approach to learning and the understandings of life and faith.

Edging toward middle age myself, these past few years of my life have been an exciting time of re-evaluating my own purpose, faith and understanding of myself in relation to my creator.



Dawud Wharnsby: As I mentioned in my first Blog post "I will arise and go now": my life's objective has always been to try and live simply, in balance with community and nature. But I got "off track" for a good decade or more - writing songs and inadvertently falling into the unnatural pigeon hole of a "nasheedsinger", singing more about Allah's creation than actually cultivating it and learning from it. 'Out Seeing The Fields' was my way of politely saying "I'm leaving folks... you'll find me under open sky." Now, a Picnic Of Poems is where I am at: on a picnic, rediscovering Allah's creation and my own faith.


Dawud Wharnsby:In many ways, "A Picnic of Poems In Allah's Green Garden" is as much about my own ongoing spiritual journey as it is about the growth and development of my children's religious identities.

The collection, though marketed as a children's book of poem and accompanying CD, still really picks up conceptually on the heels of my last adult focused album "Out Seeing The Fields". The songs on that collection revolved around honesty of self, the quests for a more organic lifestyle and more organic approach to faith. It conjured up images of "leaving to find something better", dealing with discontentment of self, career and dogma. And in fact the last song "Eight Years Old" explores the idea of seeking to regain faith and purpose by tapping into the childhood innocence within us.

"A Picnic of Poems" is the next step for us all - taking our children by the hand and getting out-doors together to experience creation - the ultimate Sign of Allah's existence.

Now that you're living what some might call an enviable greener deen, masha'Allah, how does life in Pakistan compare to Canada?

Dawud Wharnsby:My personal opinion is that, residing in semi-rural Pakistan lends itself to Simple Living far more than residing on my home turf of Canada, simply because Pakistan is so much less industrialized.

The Mennonite communities near my hometown of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, embrace a form of Simple Living. Yet, they will be the first to tell you that the challenges are many when your family and community are surrounded by - or split up by - rapid urban growth and the socially-expected adoption of commercialism to one's life.

In places like North America, while independent farmers and truck drivers struggle to make ends meet, the wealthy elite buy up hobby-farm land, build 100% eco friendly mansions, purchase 100% organic fertilizers (and groceries if their crops fail) and even buy bulk at Costco because they know the excessive packaging can just be tossed in a recycle bin at week's end.

To me, that is not "Simple Living", it is decadence in the highest degree and a mockery of the true philosophical essence of Simple Living, which is more about working towards one's happiness - not just "buying" it ready-made. - Dawud Wharnsby

For me, trying to balance frugality, an ecologically friendly lifestyle and a socially responsible attitude toward my fellow humans who struggle financially is more easily accomplished in an environment where there is far less corporate presence and weaker social pressures to keep up with The Jones'.

Yes, my homeland of Canada, and my grandfather's homeland of Britain, respect cultural and religious diversity, and yes their political systems are delightfully democratic (with greater social concern than other countries boasting "democracy") -

But at the end of the day, the philosophy governing their lifestyle is still rooted in capitalism. And so is the assumption that your security and happiness are determined by the capital you have - either through business profits or paid wages.- Dawud Wharnsby

Mennonites communities back home in Canada opt out of governmental financial aid as well as military service, in an effort to maintain a deeper degree of self-substance. However, the ridged social structure of many Mennonite communities also means that they are "set apart" from others socially in many ways.

In Pakistan, corporate presence (and thus, commercialism) is growing - creating incredible chasms between the minority of wealthy elite and the majority of the country's citizens who live on less than $2.00 US dollars per day. Though the humble majority might dream of more money and a better life, they are far more concerned with "living" than with keeping up to fashion trends.

Dawud sports a kameez for harvesting wheat

From a personal perspective, I am able to live in Pakistan with very low expenses, meaning that more of the income to my international businesses can go to local charitable efforts here. It's a win, win, win scenario.

Life, and the infrastructure where I live in Pakistan, are akin to life in rural America almost 80 years ago. Many common people keep chickens for their eggs, goats or cows for milk, and grow vegetables on whatever small spot of land they may have. Rain harvesting is a common practice and almost everything is recycled or reused - out of necessity and not because it is fashionable, trendy or municipally demanded to do so.

Socks are mended by needle and thread, cobblers still fix shoes with nails using recycled leather parts, plumbers still thread pipes with actual thread, school exercise books are still fashioned from recycled paper and many school children (including my own daughter) still use a slate on their lap to practice penmanship - as was done in the US over 100 years ago.

Life moves more slowly and though modern technology helps with communication (my family and I stay connected to the world by laptop and even local shepherds sit by their flocks and text message friends) generally speaking, people have not become slaves to it.


Dawud Wharnsby:During the mid to late 1990's and into the early 2000's I was greatly inspired to write and record spiritually-centred songs for families, dealing with subject matter that was of direct relevance to English speaking muslims around the world. My work initially dealt with basic dogmatic aspects of faith (such as prayer and tradition) but as my audiences grew both in number and in age, and as my approach to faith continued to grow and mature, I began to write about heavier issues such as religious pluralism, child abuse, depression, hypocrisy and other issues affecting youth in this 21st century.

As the trend of "Islamic Nasheed" became more and more commercial, and as I felt I had less to say to the mosque-going minority of muslims around the world. A Picnic Of Poems ventures into different forms of music expression which are still spiritually rooted, but more socially conscious and lyrically introspective.

So, Canada or Pakistan - which country is it easier to live as an eco-Muslim?

Dawud Wharnsby:I Love Canada with all my heart, and wish deeply that I could secure land there in beautiful Southern Ontario near my parents, have a small farm and live as my own mental and physical stamina would allow. But sadly, land there is just too expensive to buy on cash and the rapid urban growth (leading to constantly changing by-laws surrounding zoning etc) as well as the social pressures of "fitting in" would simply be too much for me to handle.

I'd end up being a hermit, living in a bubble, and as my approach to Simple Living also recognizes the rich importance of community inter-dependency, I'd not be fulfilled either socially or ideologically.

Living among very simple and hard working people here in Pakistan seems to be the best option for my family and I at this stage in our lives - until perhaps, we are able to possibly purchase affordable land out on Canada's East Coast in the future...?

Zaufishan: Insha'Allah! God willing, we'll start a fund!

Your songs and poems have always promoted social equity and independent thinking. What messages should we, the avid social and eco-activists take from Picnic of Poems?

Dawud Wharnsby:As a man who writes primarily to sort out his own feelings, ideas and passions, I cannot claim to be an "educational writer" that I am trying to "teach". Releasing my work to the public is, and has always been, primarily rooted in a simple hope that others who may have asked the same questions about life as I have asked, felt the same joys or gone through the similar degrees of hardships I have gone through, may hear my work and realize that they are not alone.

The underlying message of all my songs - for eco-activits, parents, children, teachers and anyone else who lends an ear, can perhaps be summed up best by the lyrics to one of my new songs from "A Picnic of Poems",

♫ "You and I, wonder at the sky,
Call God a different name.
As we try - learn and long to fly,
You and I are so differently the same
On this earth, we're all of equal worth."

Dawud Wharnsby:I have actually started work on my next adult CD, due out in 2012. It will be called The Simplicitea Recipe. The journey continues.

God willing, you will enjoy "A Picnic of Poems" when it finds its way to you. It really is the most meaningful project I have ever done and I pray that it may have a warm home with many families for many, many years to come.

Your support means a great deal to me and I am very honoured that you are helping get my poems out to the world.

Zaufishan: Shukran, shukria, thank you Dawud for sharing your poems and activism with us. We look forward to your poetry and make dua Allah blesses your work and family.

Images:: © Wharnsby.com

A Picnic of Poems: In Allah's Green Garden is available from Kube Publishing

Read Dawud Wharnsby's eco-poet blog {Follow A Poet, Following Goats} and stay updated on the artist's site {Enter Into Peace}.


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From California on the day of `Eid-ul-fitr, renowned Muslim figure shaykh Hamza Yusuf gave the `Eid sermon (khutba) on Wednesday, 31st August, after completing 30 days of fasting in the Islamic month Ramadan. We have provided a transcript of the speech and encourage all viewers to learn, implement and share the beautiful wisdom of Allah and his Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf begins with a du`a (supplication).

"`Eid mubarak. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, all praise belongs to Allah. Allah in the Qur'an says,

'They ask you, [O Muhammad], about the new moons. Say, "They are measurements of time for the people and for Hajj"...' (Qur'an, 2: 189)

The sighting of the new moon with the human eye has historically been the way of determining the new month, despite the fact they were quite capable of doing calculations for centuries.

We're living in a time where we have incredible technology, to monitor the the galaxy, to monitor planets. At one time we thought there were only five planets. Now we're discovering there could be up to 4 billion planets just in our own galaxy.

Th Prophet, peace be upon him, determined that the 29th day of Ramadan day is where we go out to search for the 30th moon, he called it, "The day of doubt". This is because there's no certainty whether you can sight the moon or not. According to the Naval Observatory website, it says it's not possible to sight a moon with certainty with the naked eye in the first 24 hrs of the new month. This is exactly what the Prophet's calling it. To eliminate it means there's absolutely no doubt and this still is not true. There is an uncertainty.

To those Muslims who hold onto tradition, "Sumu ri ru' ya tihi, fast when you see the moon." Here, "Ru' ya tihi" is a sight, it has to be seen with the eyes. "Wa afturili ri ru' ya tihi", the fuqaha determined that a group should see it, but not everybody has to see it. And Muslims end the month with what is called "jam`uh ghafeer", which is a majority, a large number of people confirming the new moon.

Two days ago we went out but we did not see the moon. There was one report in South America of a moon sighting; I personally did not feel comfortable, and I want to commend the SPIA for taking that same position just because if you hasten an act of worship (`ibadat) before its time, it's unacceptable. But if you delay an `ibadah for gaining certainty, you get a reward. So, by waiting an extra day to have certainty, all you can do is benefit!

Even yesterday when we went out to see the moon, it was a tiny sliver, a new moon. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "The end of time will not come until people who see a first day moon say, 'this is two days old!'"

Having said that, the people who broke their fast yesterday, insha'Allah that's valid because they were following their leadership and those who give fatwah, the accountability is on them - not everyone is responsible. I'm not saying in anyway it was invalid, I'm just saying that I certainly feel more comfortable having completed 30 days. Praise Allah.

Now at the end we learn Ramadan is a madrasah, a school to learn certain behavioral patterns to take for the rest of the year. So let us remind ourselves: The Lord of Ramdan is also the Lord of every month of the year - The Lord of Shawwal and Dhul Hijjah and Dhul Qa`da. Ramadan has ended, our behaviour needs to continue.

In Ramadan, people get closer to Allah because of the nature of Ramadan. They don't backbite (although this is prohibited outside of Ramadan). We're extra vigilant in order to train ourselves.

Imam Ghazali says, if you can control yourself with food and sexuality, then you can control all other things easier. These are two primary drives in the human being. The Eros drive, and the need for satiation, for food.

In learning to discipline the soul, we get closer to Allah. Prophet Muhammad said in a hadith placed in An-Nawawi's collection, which indicates it primacy as one of the central ahadith in Islam:

1) "At-Tahoor, shatrul 'imaan - Purification is half of faith".  (Hadith number 23, on Kalamullah)

An-Nawawi mentions in his commentary that Imam Ghazali said "at-tahoor" here means purification of the heart. Purifiying your heart is half of faith. One half is to enter into faith and the other half is tazkiya. Allah says about the soul, "He has succeeded who purifies it, And he has failed who instills it [with corruption]." - who stunts it. (Qur'an, 91:9-10). Tazkiyah is central to Islamic tradition and Ramadan is the month for tazkiyah, the purification of the heart and disciplining the soul.

Allah says, "O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous." (Qur'an, 2:183)

Ramadan is so that you can learn spiritual discipline, getting closer to God, being more obedient.

Then the Prophet said, saying alhamdulillah will fill the mizaan, the scales, which according to tradition is bigger than heavens and earth. And saying Subhan'Allahi aalhamdulllahi is filling what is between the heavens and earth.

He further said, "was-salatu noorun - prayer, the salah is a light". How is it a light? In a factual (muttawatir) hadith, he said, "Give good tidings to those who go in the darkness (at night prayer, 'isha and fajr) of complete light on the day of Judgement."

On Judgement Day, when you're moving forward there are stages where it becomes completely dark. And those who did not have prayer in this world, they don't have any light to see. So prayer is a light, it will guide you.

"Inna salata tanha anan fa` sha'i wal munkar - Prayer will prevent you from doing foul and disobedient things". It increases your light. The more spiritual light you have, the more you can contribute to the elimination of darkness in the world. Darkness cannot succees because it is not a positive quality, it is a negative quality.

If you enter darkness into a room filled with light, it can't dispel the light. But if you have a room filled with darkness, one bit of light that enters the room will illuminate all the darkeness. Light is positive! And that is what we are accruing with our spiritual practice, LIGHT, in order to dispel the negativities that exist in this world.

THIS Is the role of those who believe in God. Of those who believe there's a Day of Judgement and that you're going to be taken into account.

The Prophet went on to say, "Wa-sadaqah tu burhaan - And charity is a proof."

Charity is a proof of your belief, in how you give to others. Allah says "Inna al-insana khuliqa halu`a - Indeed, mankind was created in a state of anxiety" (Qur'an, 70:19). We come into the world screaming, in a state of 'hala'. Allah says in the same verse, "When evil touches him, he's impatient," he becomes completely destablised. And "when good touches him, he withholds," he's greedy, he's covetous, he wants to keep it for himself, he doesn't want to share -"Ill'al musalleen - EXCEPT those who pray."

This is a different state of mind, these believers are connected to Allah. They are constant in their prayer, some say it's "sujud al-qalb", the prostration of the heart that is in constant prayer. The heart has a prostration like the head. These are the believers who give in their wealth - for those who ask, those who don't ask and you can still see they have a need.

At the end of Ramadan we pay zakat-ul-fitr. Zakat-ul-fitr is a dedicated "sa'a" from each person, a portion that's given to those who need. It used to be a portion of grain but now, in the Hanafi madhab (school of thought) we pay money and distribute because it faciliates it for places that need it more than we do. We give zakat at the end of Ramadan because we have just spent learning about hunger, that there are many people who are hungry.

It's inexcusalbe that we have famine today! We have a globalised system and the means to take food anywhere on the planet, and yet we have people starving in East Afrca. Completely unacceptable. And then we have people vomiting from over-eating. You can go to the store and see rows and rows of dyspeptic medicines for indigestion, for people who eat too much, who don't need that food. Really, it's a billion dollar industry in the United States, from people over-eating. We have become an obese society. People taking more calories than they need.

`Umar radhi Allah `anhu (may Allah be pleased with him) once saw a large bellied man making tawaf (circumambulation of Kabah) and put his stick next to his stomach and said, "this would be better on someone else who needed it." Right?!

One of the Muritanian poets said, "I'm amazed at a religion that calls for the fraternity of mankind, and yet we see some dying from hunger and some from over-eating, from satiety." He's amazed at this, asking well, how can a religion who takes care of the needy allow this?

The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said, "Nobody is a believer who goes to bed full and his neighbour is hungry". It negates your faith! And now in a globalised society, your neighbour can be a thousand miles away. Because we know about all the people now, before they had exuses of distance, today we know!

Brothers and sisters, this religion calls us to reflect on death. The Prophet peace be upon him meditated on death, not in a morbid way, but to teach us the fragility of life. We're moving through life, and we'll be confronted with a momentous ovent.

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said to hold onto the rope of Allah, this Book. Everything you need is in the Qur'an as explained by Prophet Muhammad.

In conclusion, the central theme of the book of Allah is to believe in Allah and live righteously. What does this mean? When the Prophet, peace be upon him, was asked by a man for advice, he "Qul aman tu billah thum-mustaqim - say, I believe in Allah and then BE upright." And what is uprightness? All of the Qur'anic ethics can be summarised in one verse where Allah calls for us to come! Elevate yourself. When you ask someone "ta aala" it means to stand, to get up. Elevate yourselves!

And I will tell you what God says you should and should not do in the Qur'an, chapter 17, verses 22-35:

• Don't associate partners with God
• Show goodness to parents - filial piety. We're living in a time where parents are denegraded but you need to show filial piety.
• Don't kill your children - no abortions or a fear of poverty. Allah says He will provide for you and for them! So the usool (above the head) and the fur'ooa` (below), the roots and the branches, are like the parents and the children.

Each one of us is a trunk and these are the roots to our trunk; our roots are our parents and our branches are our children. You need the whole tree to be holistic. You have to have a healthy whole tree, if you cut off the roots, you kill the trunk, and if you cut off the branches, there's no fruit. This is the tree of life. And this is why we're here - because of our parents, and this is why we continue - through our children. This tree of life needs to be nurtured and that is what Allah is calling us to do, to nurture this tree.

• Don't go near fornication, do not go to theft and these other forbidden (haram) things that cause destruction to your societies. These are diseases of the heart, and diseases of society.
• Do not kill any soul that Allah has sanctified - Muslim, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, it doesn't matter, it is a sanctifed soul. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, stood up for the funeral of a Jew, it's recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, and it was at a time when there was friction between the Jews and Muslims. The Prophet stood up and the Sahaba said, "this is a Jewish man," and the Prophet said, "wa laysat nafsa? - isn't this a human soul?" He respected the soul, he stood out of respect for that soul going back to its Lord, irrespective of its creed or its colour or cast. It doesn't matter! It's a soul and we cannot judge that soul. Alalh will judge that soul. Don't kill any soul! Allah is telling you to do this in order ot behave rationally, to believe.

We've got madness in our community, just recently an idiot went into a masjid and killed 50 people thinking it was a good idea. We've got madness in these cycles of violence. The only thing tht will break this cycle is intelligent people refusing to be part of this madness and demanding that there will be a different way. Allah says, do not kill a sanctified soul. That is your religion.

• Don't go near the orphans' wealth, don't touch it.
• And be just in your economics. That's the basis of healthy society, is just economics. Look at the economic systems of other countries and look at ours. People were robbed, their houses were robbed. These banks that committed daylight, bank robbery. It used to be where you went in and robbed a bank but now the banks are robbing the people! This is how distorted it's gotten. The banks were bailed out with billions but Mr and Mrs B weren't bailed out, their house was taken. Allah says, don't consume one another's wealth with lies, with vanities. Don't do it. Allah says a balanced economy is for commercial transactions where both sides are pleased with it. Don't kill one another because when you have unjust economies you have wars. These are economic transgressions.

You wanna know about Afghanistan? Look at lithium. The trillion dollars of lithium that's in Afghanistand land - you wanna know why people are in Afghanistan? Because Afghanistan has the most important minerals for high tech industry in the world. This is the world we're living in, a world of greed. A world where politicians feed us lies, telling us it's going to better society. Zbigniew Brzezinski said there is a political awakening, making it very difficult for politiians to do what they used to do. People now see the inequities, the exploitation, they read it in the newspapers. It's not like the old days where they could hide.

Politicians need to step aside to let human beings live with dignity and justice. Really, just let them live. Because it's wrong what they're doing, it's evil. People deserve better than this. Human beings are trying to raise their children without having a fear that secret police will take their children away, or ending up in an orange suit somewhere off Cuba. A place with blindfolds and earphones to block out hearing - sensory deprivation, which a New York Times articles asked "Is torture justified?" What happened?! In my world, I grew up in an America where we had civil society, things like torture weren't even questions to be asked.

We were founded on principles of human dignity. They used to hide these things, like the syphilis studies. Yes - the very Nazis who did things to the Jews, had done on them. People are passing on these forward because some aren't seen as 'human' in South America as they are. Those things are hidden, they are nefarious deeds that were done in the past, in the dark, we can't do anything about that, but when they become OPEN: What responsibility do we have then when? When we can see what's being done in broad daylight?

Shame on us, shame on all of us. What's done in the dark is God's business, but what do we do when it's done in broad daylight (?)

Allah says, "We do not charge any soul except [with that within] its capacity. And when you testify, be just, even if it's against near relative." (Qur'an, 6:152) - Even if it's your community, your own Ummah. It doesn't matter what it is, if it's wrong we condemn that wrong. This is a high religion, a religion of ethics and community.

The Prophet peace be upon him said, a time will come when you will see darkness followed by darkenss. `Ali (ra) asked, what is the way out, and the Prophet replied,"Kitab Allah, book of God". The Qur'an has news of what went before us and what will come after, it is a judge and an arbitrator between you. Whoever leaves the Qur'an, does it out of arrogance, Allah will break his back. And if you seek guidance in other books, you will be lead astray.

The Prophet said to hold onto the strong rope of Allah, His Book. To make dhikr, the remembrance and learning the wisdoms of Allah, and this takes you to a straight path. Tongues will not be confusing if they quote the Qur'an, and he said you will not have diverse opinions if you follow the Qur'an, the ulema will never tire of it, and the pious will never grow bored or weary reciting it.

This is the book of God that even when the jinn heard it they said we've heard a wondrous book that must have a guidance.

If you judge by the Qur'an, you will be just, if you speak by the Qur'an, you will be truthful. If you act according to it, you will gain a reward, and if you call to it, you will be taken to a straight path. The Qur'an is a protection, a safety for whoever follows it."


Eid al-Fitr 2011 sermon delivered by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds in San Jose, California, on August 31, 2011.


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"A world of smoke and mirrors". The music industry is not a clear-cut or a clean career. For Khalil Ismail, an American Muslim rapper from Baltimore, being a Muslim minority in the music industry is even more challenging. Yet his values as a 'God-fearing man' took his musical talents towards a positive impact.

MUSLIMNESS asks Khalil Ismail where the love for rapping began and how it fits with his Muslim faith.

Why did you begin creating music and what are your goals as a musician?
"I started creating music as a hobby when I was 16 or 17 years old. I was heavily influenced by hip hop and therefore that’s what I would play around with. While I listened to it all, the stuff with the worst of lyrics to the more conscience content, I never felt in my head that I needed to make songs that were derogatory and negative. I think that had to do with how I was bought up and the values instilled in me by my parents.

It wasn’t until the last couple of years that I decided to really focus on my music. My goals currently are simply to realize and maximize my God given potential with the understanding that He will put me where I need to be.

I intend to create albums and projects for both the universal audience as well as the nasheed world. My universal album called “hope” is in the works and the nasheed project will be a series called “Soul Submission”. Because I have so much material, I feel this will be a better way to reach the largest amount of people."

What would you say to opponents who feel ‘music’ is not part of a Muslim’s religious beliefs? How do you create an artistic balance?
"I know there is a difference of opinion for Muslims regarding music. If the Islamic scholars differ then we must state that there is a difference and let the people decide for themselves based on the evidences and what they are able to do in terms of their practice. I respect the opinions of all who have taken the time to figure out what they are supposed to be doing religiously so you probably won’t find me arguing with those who are against music.

I personally do not face a contradiction regarding music itself but I am constantly having to check myself to make sure the ego is where its supposed to be and asking myself the question, what is pleasing to my Lord?"


Who are your musical influenes?
"Life inspires my music. I tend to write about things that touch me and break down scenarios that people often find difficult to deal with. I'm influenced by many artists from Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway to Biggie, Pac, and Nas to John Legend, and Anthony Hamiltion. But if there was one artist whom I had to name, it would be Lauryn Hill."

What has the reaction been like from Muslims and other communities? 
"I get love from all walks of life. I've had an atheist email me and say how he enjoyed my music. I've had Christian preachers invite me to speak at their church and play my music there. And of course many Muslims have really given me great support. My hopes for the future are that maybe in some small way I can dispel myths, help knock down barriers, and help build better understanding across cultures."

MUSLIMNESS has featured social messages from Muslim artists Sami Yusuf, and 'Hamdulillah' by The Narcicyst; how are you different or similar to these representations of the Muslim lifestyle?
"I honestly don’t know that my music represents “Muslim lifestyle” except that it adds to the huge melting pot of Muslims in the arts in general. I think the optimized Muslim is one who is versatile and well rounded in many aspects of life. That’s who I try to be."

What top 3 pieces of advice would you give to others who want to get involved in the music industry?
     1) It’s a world of smoke and mirrors. Stay true to yourself and your beliefs
     2) Like anything else you want to do, it takes long hours and hard work to be good.
     3) It is a genre that makes your soul susceptible to self worship so remember your lord often. If you can do that, it can feel very rewarding to impact people’s lives in a positive way.

Shukran, thank you Khalil for sharing your music with us.


Find the latest free "Ramadan" downloads on www.SoulSubmission.com and newest on the official website:


Stay updated on the fan page: http://Facebook.com/khalilmusic, and follow: http://Twitter.com/khalilismail.

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As a celebration to welcoming the Islamic month of Ramadan, @MUSLIMNESS has put together this list of Ramadan 2011 messages from Twitter users across the world.

We're also sharing health and motivational advice through the Twitter hashtag #RamadanTip. Submit your own #RamadanTip tweet, share with your friends and help our faith grow this blessed month insha'Allah, God willing.

A huge greeting of Ramadan Mubarak to the following individuals and organisations:

→ https://twitter.com/#!/AmirKingKhan

I have been asked to offer some comments on gender identity issues which impact Muslims living in post-traditional contexts in the West, and particularly as they affect people who have traded up to the Great Covenant of Islam after an upbringing in Judaism or Christianity. The usual way of doing this is by examining issues in the classical fiqh, and explaining how Islam’s discourse of equality functions globally, not on the micro-level of each fiqh ruling. That method is legitimate enough (although as we shall see the concept of ‘equality’ may raise considerable problems), but in general my experience of Muslim talk on gender is that there is too much apologetic abroad, apologetic, that is, in the sense not only of polemical defence, but also of pleas entered in mitigation. What I want to do today is to bypass this recurrent and often tiresome approach, which reveals so much about the low serotonin levels of its advocates, and suggest how as Western Muslims we can construct a language of gender which offers not a defence or mitigation of current Muslim attitudes and establishments, but a credible strategy for resolving dilemmas which the Western thinkers and commentators around us are now meticulously examining.

Let me begin, then, by trying to capture in a few words the current crisis in Western gender discourse. As good a place as any to do this is Germaine Greer’s book The Whole Woman, released in 1999 to an interesting mix of befuddled anger and encomia from the press.

This is an important book, not least because it casts itself as a dialogue with the author’s earlier, more notorious volume The Female Eunuch, published thirty years previously. Throughout, Greer, who is one of the most conscientious and compassionate of feminist writers, reflects on the ways in which the social and also scientific context of Western gender discourse has shifted over this period. In 1969, liberation seemed imminent, or at least cogently achievable. In 1999, with states and national institutions largely converted to the cause which once seemed so radical, it seems to have receded somewhere over the horizon. Hence Greer’s anger descends upon not one, but two lightning-rods: the old enemy of male gynophobia is still excoriated, but there is also a more diffuse frustration with what Greer now acknowledges is the hard-wiring of the human species itself. Most feminism in the 1960s and 1970s was ‘equality feminism’, committed to the breakdown of gender disparities as social constructs amenable to changes in education and media generalisation; feminism in the 1990s, however, was increasingly a ‘difference feminism’, rooted in the growing conviction that nature is at least as important as nurture in shaping the behavioural traits of men and women. Most politicians, educators and media barons and baronesses are still committed to the old feminist idea; however, as Greer’s book shows, the new feminism is growing and promises to take the world through another social shakedown, whose consequences for Muslim communities will be considerable.

Several factors have been at work in securing this sea-change. Perhaps the most obvious has been the sheer stubbornness of traditional patterns, which most men and women continue to find strangely satisfying. Radical feminist revolution of the old Greer school has not found a demographically significant constituency. Most women have not properly signed up to the sisterhood.

Moreover, the world which has been increasingly shaped by secular egalitarian gender discourse has not proved to be the promised land than the younger Greer had prophesied. As she now writes:

‘When the Female Eunuch was written our daughters were not cutting or starving themselves. On every side speechless women endure endless hardship, grief and pain, in a world system that creates billions of losers for every handful of winners.’ (p.3)

She goes on to suggest that the sexual liberation that accompanied the gender revolution has in most cases harmed women more than men. ‘The sexuality that has been freed’, she writes, ‘is male sexuality.’ Promiscuity harms women more than men: women continue to experience the momentous consequences of pregnancy, while the male body is unaffected. When the USS Acadia returned from the Gulf War, a tenth of her female crewmembers had already been returned to America because of pregnancy aboard what became known as the Love Boat. The number of men returned was zero.

Another consequence of the sexual revolution has been an increase in infidelity, and a consequent rise in divorce and single parenthood. Again, it is women who have shouldered most of the burden. ‘In 1971, one in twelve British families was headed by a single parent, in 1986 one in seven, and by 1992 one in five’ (p.202). Another consequence has been the pain of solitude. ‘By the year 2020 a third of all British households will be occupied by a single individual, and the majority of those individuals will be female’ (p.250). One of the most persistent legends of the sexual revolution, that ‘testing the waters’ before marriage helps to determine compatibility, seems to have been definitively refuted. ‘Some of the briefest marriages are those that follow a long period of cohabitation’ (p.255).

A further area in which women seem to have found themselves degraded rather than liberated by the new cultural climate is that of pornography. This institution, opposed by most feminists as a dehumanisation and objectification of women (Otto Preminger once called Marilyn Monroe a ‘vacuum with nipples’), has not been chastened into decline by the feminist revolution; it has swollen into a thirty billion pound a year industry, populated by armies of faceless Internet whores and robo-bimbos. As Greer remarks, ‘after thirty years of feminism there is vastly more pornography, disseminated more widely than ever before.’ Pornography blends into the fashion industry, which claims to exist for the gratification of women, but is in fact, as she records, largely controlled by men who seek to persuade women to denude or adorn themselves to add to a public spectacle created largely for men. (Many fashion designers, moreover, are homosexual, Versace only the most conspicuous example, and these men create a boylike fashion norm which forces women into patterns of diet and exercise which constitute a new form of oppression.) Cellulite, once admired in the West and in almost all traditional societies, has now become a sin. To be saved, one ‘works out’. Demi Moore pumps iron for four hours a day; but even this ordeal was not enough to save her marriage.

Greer and other feminists identify the fashion industry as a major contributor to the contemporary enslavement of women. Its leading co-conspirator is the pharmaceuticals business, which, as she says, deliberately creates a culture of obsession with physical flaws: the so called Body Dysmorphic Disorder which is currently plumping out the business accounts of doctors, psychiatrists, and, of course, the cosmetic surgeons. As Dolly Parton says, ‘It costs a lot of money to look as cheap as I do.’ The world’s resources are gobbled up to service this artificially-induced obsession with looks, fed by the culture of denudation. And perhaps the most repellent dimension is the new phenomenon of hormone replacement therapy, billed as an anti-aging panacea. The hormone involved, estrogen, is obtained from mares: in America alone 80,000 pregnant female horses are held in battery farms, confined in crates, and tied to hoses to enable their urine to be collected. The foals that are delivered are routinely slaughtered.

The consequences of the new pressures on women are already generally known, although no solutions are seriously proposed. Women, we are told by the old school of feminists, today lead richer lives. However, it is also acknowledged that these lives often seem to be sadder. ‘Since 1955 there has been a five-fold increase in depressive illness in the US. For reasons that are anything but clear women are more likely to suffer than men,’ (p.171) while ‘17 percent of British women will try to kill themselves before their twenty-fifth birthday.’ This wave of sadness that afflicts modern women, which is entirely out of keeping with the expectations of the early feminists, again has brought joy to the pharmaceuticals barons. Prozac is overwhelmingly prescribed to women. (This is the same anti-depressant drug that is routinely given to zoo animals to help them overcome their sense of futility and entrapment.)

Greer concludes her angry book with few notes of hopefulness. The strategies she demanded in the 1960s have been extensively tried and applied; but the results have been ambiguous, and sometimes catastrophic. What is clear is that there has not been a liberation of women, so much as a throwing-off of one pattern of dependence in exchange for another. The husband has become dispensable; the pharmaceutical industry, and the ever-growing army of psychiatrists and counsellors, have taken his place. Happiness seems as remote as ever.

Later in this talk I will attempt an Islamic critique of all this. But before doing so I think it would be useful to take a brief look at the science which is now providing Western social analysts with a context in which to frame an interpretation of what has gone wrong.

The most obvious area in which science has reverberations among feminists is in the differentials of physical strength which divide the sexes. In areas of life demanding physical power and agility, men continue to possess an advantage. Attempts have, of course, been made to overcome this proof of Mother Nature’s sexism through legislation. The most notorious attempt in the United Kingdom was the 1997 Ministry of Defence directive that female recruits would not be subject to the same physical tests as men. This excursion into political correctness foundered when it was discovered that the women being admitted to the army were not strong enough to perform some of the tasks required of them on completion of their training. As a result, the 1998 rules applied what were called ‘gender-free’ selection procedures to ensure that women and men faced identical tasks. The result was a massive rise in female injuries when compared with the men. Medical discharges due to overuse injuries, such as stress fractures, were calculated at 1.5% for male recruits, and at anything between 4.6% and 11.1% for females. Lt Col Ian Gemmell, an army occupational physician who compiled a report on the situation, noted that differences in women’s bone size and muscle mass lead to 33%-39% more stress on the female skeleton when compared to that of the male. The result is that although social changes have eroded the traditional moral reasons for barring women from active combat roles, the medical evidence alone compels the British army to bar women from the infantry and the Royal Armoured Corps.

The army is an unusual case, and the great majority of professions to which women seek access require no great physical ability. But the differences between the sexes are at their most profound where they are least visible. The gender revolutionaries of the 1960s, popularising and also radicalising the earlier, gentler calls for equality led by the likes of Virginia Woolf, were working with a science which was still largely unequipped to assess the subtler aspects of gender difference. Modern techniques of genetic examination, the reconstruction of genome maps, and the larger implications of the DNA discoveries made by Crick and Watson, were unimaginable when Greer first wrote. Since Marx and Weber, and also Freud, it had been assumed that gender roles were principally, perhaps even entirely, the product of social conditioning. Re-engineer that conditioning, it was thought, and in due season fifty percent of those doing all jobs, composing symphonies, and winning Nobel Prizes, would turn out to be women.

In retrospect this seems an odd assurance. The intellectual climate was, after all, thoroughly secular. There was no metaphysical or moral imperative that obliged the Western mind to conclude that the sexes were different only trivially, or, as one trendy bishop put it, simply ‘the same thing but with different fittings’. And yet so overwhelming were the egalitarian assumptions that had shaped Europe and America since at least Thomas Paine and David Hume, that everyone assumed that the sexes must be equal, in the way that the classes must be equal, or the races, or the nations.

One of the first large-scale social experiments based on the new theory of gender equality was the kibbutz scheme in Jewish-settled Palestine. This was founded in 1910 on the assumption, still eccentric in that time, that the emancipation of women can only be achieved when socialised gender roles are eliminated from the earliest stage of childhood.

The kibbutzim were collective farms in which maternal care was entirely eliminated. Instead of living with parents, children lived in special dormitories. To spare women the usual rounds of domestic drudgery, communal laundries and kitchens were provided. Both men and women were hence freed up to choose any activity or work they wished, and it was expected that both would participate equally in positions of power. To ensure the neutral socialisation of children, toys were kept in large baskets, so that boys and girls could choose their own toys, rather than have gender-stereotyped toys and games pressed upon them.

The results, after ninety years of consistent and conscientious social engineering, have been disconcerting. The children, to the anger of their supervisors, unerringly choose gender-specific toys. Three year-old boys pull guns and cars out of the baskets; the girls prefer dolls and tea-sets. Games organised by the children are competitive - among boys - and cooperative – among the girls.

In the kibbutz administration, quotas imposed to enforce female participation in leadership positions are rarely met. Dress codes which attempt to create uniformity are consistently flouted. In Israel today, the kibbutzim harbour sex-distinctions which are famous for being sharper than those observable in Israeli society at large. The experiment has not only failed, it seems to have backfired.

Most scientists and anthropologists who have documented the failure of such projects of social engineering today locate the gravitation of males and females to differing patterns of behaviour in the context of evolutionary biology. Darwinism and neo-Darwinism are of course under attack now, particularly by philosophers and physicists, rather more seriously than at any other time over the past hundred years. And as Shaykh Nuh Keller has shown, a thoroughgoing commitment to the theory of evolution is incompatible with the Qur'anic account of the origins of humanity. We believe in a common ancestry for our kind; the neo-Darwinists insist in multiple and interactive development of hominids from simian ancestors.

This does not mean, however, that all the insights of modern biology are unacceptable. Keller notes that micro-evolution, that is to say, the perpetuation and reinforcement over time of genetically successful strategies for survival, is undeniable, and is affirmed also in the hadith. The breeding of horses, for instance, presupposes principles of natural selection in which human beings can intervene. Heredity is true, as a hadith affirms. Categories such as the ‘Israelites’, or the ahl al-bayt, have real significance.

What do the biologists say? The view is that biological success amounts to one factor alone: the maximal propagation of an organism’s genetic material. A powerful predator which dominates its habitat is, however outwardly imposing, a biological failure if it fails to reproduce itself at least in sufficient numbers to ensure its own perpetuation.

Biologists point out that males and females have different reproductive strategies. The burden of what biologist Robert Trivers calls ‘parental investment’ is massively higher in the case of females than of males. This has nothing to do with social conditioning: it is a genetic and biological given. The human female, for instance, makes a vast investment in a child: beginning with nine months of metabolic commitment, followed by a further period before weaning. The male’s ‘parental investment’ is enormously less.

Trivers shows that ‘the sex providing the greater parental investment will become the limiting resource.’ The sex which contributes less will then necessarily be in a social position involving competition, ‘because they can improve their reproductive success through having numerous partners in a way that members of the other sex cannot.’ Hence, for modern biologists, the genetic and hormonal basis of male competition and aggression. Competition and aggression are traits which may be found in females, but typically to a greatly reduced degree, simply because they are not traits vital to those females’ reproductive success. The aggression which is vital to male biological survival is directed primarily against other males (the vast, physiologically-demanding racks of antlers on stags, for instance); but aggression also serves to make the male more equipped for hunting. Male parental investment is hence physiological only indirectly, insofar as it is directed to providing food or defence for the young.

Biology also helps us understand why the female hormonal pattern, dominated by estrogen and oxytocin, generates strong nurturing instincts which are far less evident in the male androgens and in adrenaline, which is useful for huntsmen and warriors, but of considerably less value in the rearing of children. Simply put, mothers have a far greater investment to lose if they neglect their children. A child that dies, through lack of care resulting from insufficient hormonal guidance, represents a greater potential failure for the mother than for the father. During gestation and lactation, the mother is infertile or nearly so; whereas during the same period the father may become a father again many times over. Hence, again, the genetic programming which generates nurturing and convivial instincts in women far more than it does in men. Men have less of the ‘nurturing’ neurotransmitter oxytocin than do women. Androgens ensure that men choose mates for their youth and their apparent childbearing abilities, estrogens impel women to choose mates who are assertive and powerful, as more likely to provide the food and protection that their offspring will need.

Hence also the prevalence of polygyny in traditional societies, and the extreme rarity of polyandry. To have many wives is a genetically sensible strategy, to have many husbands is not.

The aggressive instincts fostered by the male physiology, flushed even before birth with androgens, served our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago, and a few generations of very different lifestyles have not been sufficient to bring about any substantial alteration to the male hormonal balance. This is why ninety percent of prison inmates are men, in almost every society. Psychologists have shown that around the world, murderers and the murdered are usually young, unmarried men. A further factor is that males are far more attracted to competitive forms of behaviour. As Kingsley Browne notes, ‘While competition significantly increases the motivation of men, it does not do so for women. The more competitive an academic programme is perceived by women, for example, the poorer their performance, while the correlation is reversed for men.’ Studies also show that men are more likely than women to opt for difficult tasks.

The origin of this gender differential is again to be sought in primordial patterns of survival. Aggressive, competitive males became ‘alpha males’, and maximised their chances of reproductive success. (Males have ten-twenty times more testosterone than women; and it produces aggression as well as the sex drive.) Weaker, more co-operative males were pushed to one side, and rarely if ever found a mate. Successful hunting brought status, and status brought greater opportunities for genetic transmission.

Biologists like Camilla Benbow have recently assessed the implications for modern social differentiation of our genetic inheritance. Her study shows that ‘boys are much more likely to choose careers in maths and science even though girls are fully aware of their own abilities in these areas.’ Again, the conclusion is not that women are less intelligent than men - the new biology clearly rules that out - but that they prefer to exercise it in specific fields. At Harvard, for instance, there is a seven to one male preponderance in the science faculties, and a female preponderance, or equivalence, in arts subjects. Subjects like languages and art history are consistently oversubscribed by female students. And while there is no evidence that women are less intelligent than men - and in general they show themselves much more articulate - more than seventy percent of first-class degrees at Oxford are obtained by male students.

A variety of university committees have been set up to investigate this, initially with a view to eliminating it. However the differential is very stubborn. The reason may be partly to do with socialisation, but an awareness is growing that heredity is also a factor that refuses to be ignored. The male endocrine system carries the memory of thousands of years of hunting, an activity which requires a kind of focussed attention on a single quarry to the exclusion of all else, coupled with an adrenaline rush at the finish. Such a metabolism, it is now being argued, is better equipped to cope with university-style examinations (as distinct from secondary-school styles of assessment), than the female metabolism, which has historically flourished, that is, been reproductively successful, in nurturing and co-operative tasks.

The response at universities like Harvard and Oxford has been to question the primacy of the examination system. If the competitiveness and focus of males are unfairly served by examination assessment, then alternative modes of assessment must be sought. And so we see alternative assessment procedures: continual assessment of termwork, and other schemes which enable women to work consultatively on projects and hence develop their full potential. Already the results are encouraging, and it may be that the male bias which seems to be inherent in the examination system will one day be eliminated.

This, however, raises a larger and more troubling question. The new science has established that men and women have comparable intelligence quotients, but that the nature of male and female intelligence, and the context in which it flourishes, can be quite different. Hence Capucine La Motte, another researcher, has documented how from the age of about three most children prefer to play with children of their own gender. They can accomplish their goals in their play activities more reliably in this way. Boy’s games are competitive and often aggressive; girl’s games are collaborative and involve more sophisticated forms of discourse and conceptualisation. Another child psychologist, Janet Lever, notes that 65% of boy’s games are formal games, while only 35% of games played by girls have rules. Boys, it seems, are more ‘rule-oriented’ than girls. (This is why the contemporary Muslim interpretation of Shari`ah in ways which diminish haqiqa is so often accompanied by a diminished respect for women. The sexes are only regarded with equivalent esteem when batin and zahir are spoken of with equal frequency by believers.)

A further aspect of inherited gender difference is presented in the issue of risk-taking. Primordial humanity allocated willingness to take risks differently among the sexes, not for constructed ‘social’ reasons, but for reasons of biological survival. To achieve the power and status requisite for transmitting his genetic material, the male had to take risks. In the historically very few years that have elapsed since such times, this norm does not appear to have changed. Consistently the figures show that risky activities and sports attract more men than women. Gambling, motor racing and bungee-jumping continue to be overwhelmingly male activities. Men are statistically more likely to ignore seat-belt laws. Despite the popular stereotypes of women as dangerous drivers, the great majority of lethal road accidents are the fault of men, because they indulge in hazardous and aggressive styles of driving. More than twice as many boys as girls die through playing dangerous games, and this statistic is remarkably consistent throughout the world.

The precise mechanisms in the brain which generate this behaviour are only now being understood. The mechanisms are called neurotransmitters, hundreds of different varieties of which activate emotions and bodily movements. One of the most important is serotonin, which has as one of its functions the task of informing the body to stop certain activities. When the body is tired, it generates the desire to sleep; when we have eaten enough it tells the body to stop eating; and so on. It does this by linking the limbic system (which is the kingdom of the nafs, and which generates primal impulses to attack, be sad, or make sexual advances), with the frontal cortex at the front of the brain, where our ability to assess and plan our actions is thought to be located. Studies indicate that men typically have lower serotonin levels than women, and conclude that the higher risk-taking behaviour characterising successful Formula One drivers, for instance, is likely to make that choice of career an almost entirely male preserve, whatever the amount of social engineering that feminist societies may attempt.

Universities can reduce gender disparities by adopting alternative modes of assessment, but after graduation, the real world is often less amenable. Risk-taking is a necessary ingredient of success in many, perhaps most, high-flying professions. Psychologist Elizabeth Arch has recently shown that the ‘glass ceiling’ in many professions, which supposedly excludes women from further promotion because of prejudice, may in fact have a biological foundation. Conspicuous success in business, for instance, demands the taking of risks that do not always come instinctively to women. As she says,
‘from an early age, females are more averse to social, as well as physical, risk, and tend to behave in a manner that ensures continued social inclusion;’ 
and this is largely innate, rather than socially constructed.

One expert who has devoted his research to the implications of neurotransmitters for gender behaviour is Marvin Zuckerman. He divides the serotonin-related human quest for sensation into four types. Firstly, there is the quest for adventure and the love of danger, which is associated with the typically low serotonin levels of the male. Secondly, the quest for experiences, whether these be musical, aesthetic or religious. Zuckerman detected no significant difference between male and female enthusiasm for this quest. Thirdly, disinhibition. The neurotransmitters of the typical male allow the comparatively swift loss of moral control over the sex drive, when compared with women. Fourthly, boredom. The male brain is more susceptible to boredom when carrying out routine and repetitive tasks.

What are the religious implications of this? There are feminists who point to these factors as evidence for the categoric moral inferiority of men. Islamically, however, they can all be understood, and addressed, in ways that again demonstrate the conformability of the fitra, as understood by Islam as a quasi-metaphysical quality, with the purely physical processes and geography of the human brain. The first of Zuckerman’s distinctions is not necessarily to the discredit of men. Courage is, after all, a Prophetic virtue; and without emotional surges the Muslim would make a poor horseman, or warrior, or risk-taking builder of an Istanbul mosque. Secondly, with regard to the category to which the lubb, the inner core of humanity, most fully relates, it is clear that scientific evidence exists for the spiritual ‘equal opportunities’ of the sexes. The Qur’an locates the source of religious faith in the lubb’s ability to experience the divine origin of God’s signs in nature. Men and women are clearly equally good at this. Likewise, faith-sustaining aesthetic achievements such as music, literature, crafts, and architecture, are likely to be no less effective for women than for men. The Qur’an itself is perceived as beautiful and true by both sexes without distinction. It is on this level, then, (and only here) that we can meaningfully speak of the equality of the sexes.

The third of Zuckerman’s categories appears to place men at a disadvantage; but in reality this applies only to the secular. In the believer, the virtue described in the Qur’an as taqwa, which is produced from the faith generated in the second category, overcomes this shortfall. The spiritual technologies of Islam allow a compensation for the serotonin lack and a proper disciplining of the darker passions which dwell in the limbic system.

The actualised Shari`ah is, in a sense, the victory of the frontal cortex, and allows the male to retrieve the balance which is already implicit in the female metabolism. No doubt this is why ‘women are deficient in intellect and religion’. It is not that the Creator has given them innate disadvantages in the quest for understanding and salvation, but rather that He requires men to make more effort to reach their degree of fitra.

The fourth (the quest for novelty, and the dislike of repetitive tasks) privileges women over men in the duties of the home. Insofar as modern office jobs are repetitive and tedious, women are clearly also gifted with more stamina in the workplace as well. Whether the biologists can demonstrate that men should, or are likely to, occupy fifty percent of jobs requiring attention to repetitive tasks, seems unlikely.

A further explanation of the ‘glass ceiling’ phenomenon may be located in the primordial female tendency to nurture. Consistently through the pre-modern world, women were primarily involved in care for the young, the sick, and the elderly. As the feminist writer Carol Gilligan observes, ‘women not only define themselves in a context of human relationship but also judge themselves in terms of their ability to care.’ Girls are ‘more person-oriented’, while boys tend to be more ‘object-oriented.’

Historical biology, and anthropology, can help us to understand why these key behavioural differences should exist. How they exist is also now discernable, thanks to the molecular biologists and the endocrinologists. The male and female foetuses begin life in the womb almost identical. The key difference is the XY chromosome couple which signify the male, where the female has an XX pair. The function of the Y chromosome is to trigger the release of androgens which approximately two months into pregnancy initiate the development of the male gonads. (Hence the view of many biologists that the female is in fact the basic human shape, and the male a divergence from it – the opposite of the Aristotelian view.)

These androgens, however, do more than shape the reproductive organs of the unborn child. Between the sixteenth and the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, they also trigger fundamental divergences in the male and female brains. At this point, congenital deficiencies can produce not only forms of hermaphroditism of the kind recognised by classical fiqh, but can also affect the behaviour of the subsequent person. A well-studied example is the problem known as CAH: ‘congenital adrenal hyperplasia’. This results from an abnormal secretion of androgens in an XX foetus, that is, a child that is genetically female. The child suffering from this condition, which in its classical form may affect one in every 20,000 births, is typically born with both male and female reproductive organs; and the male ones are routinely removed by surgery. Although the females appear normal and are fertile they display very distinct behavioural patterns, because of being bathed in male hormones while still unborn. The numerous papers published on this phenomenon conclude that the CAH females may be characterised as ‘tomboys’. They are more aggressive, they like games with rules, and they are ready to take more risks than girls who have been born without this defect.

Mirroring the CAH girls are the boys who suffer from the genetic abnormality of an additional X hormone. These XXY boys are superficially normal males, but their behaviour is typically feminine, lacking competitive and risk-taking impulses, and showing a preference for play with girls in cooperative and non-aggressive games.

CAH and XXY studies are increasingly cited as evidence of the immense influence which hormones exert on gender behaviour. Further proof is now emerging from studies on women who were given hormones to overcome difficulties during pregnancy, an increasingly common practice and one which is thought to be responsible for producing an increasing number of children whose behavioural traits do not tally with their bodily gender features. Female criminals, for instance, frequently suffer from abnormally high testosterone levels, and these are often the consequence of earlier medical interventions.

I want now to move on, and deal with some of the consequences of these discoveries for our understanding, as Muslims, of the society to which we aspire, and whose guidelines are set out in revelation. Clearly, older feminist polemic against Islam on the grounds of its ‘essentialism’, its belief in the inborn nature of male and female traits, will no longer hold water. In the Muslim world itself, the new science, and the new feminism, are not yet known, and secularists, from the Turkish government to Taslima Nasreen in Bangladesh, continue to insist that gender differences, and inequalities in the workplace, can be wished away through social engineering and the inculcation of new attitudes. This was the mentality invoked by the Turkish government in preparing its 2001 gender equality legislation.

Living in the West, and being more in touch with contemporary trends in science and social theory, we can easily see how thin such polemic has become. Intelligent thinkers such as Greer are no longer demanding ‘equality’. It is not that they are demanding inequality or injustice instead: far from it. Instead, they are recognising that our awareness of the categoric difference between the sexes makes the whole concept of ‘equality’ rather too simpleminded. Men and women are neither equal nor unequal. We can no more say that men are better than women than we can say that ‘the rain is better than the earth’. To use the old language of ‘equality’ is in fact to be guilty of what the philosopher Wittgenstein called a ‘category mistake’.

Modern Muslim theologians who have assimilated the new insights insist that the demand for ‘equality’ is less helpful than the demand for opportunity and respect. Here there is clearly a congruence between Islamic discourse and the new difference feminism of Greer, Gilligan and a growing number of others.

It remains for us now briefly to sketch some of the ways in which the Shari‘a and science now vindicate each other. Equality is no more envisaged by nature than it is by the law of God; indeed, the law of God, for us, is commensurate with natural law. Since we reject ideas of the radically fallen nature of our kind, we acknowledge nature, that is the fitra, as inherently good. Christianity, wherever it followed Augustine, believed until the eighteenth century that unbaptised infants, and miscarried foetuses, would be tormented forever in hell since their unregenerate nature, stained by original sin, could only lead to damnation. Jansenists and some evangelicals still hold to this disturbing belief.

Islam is non-sacramental; or rather, we acknowledge that the remembrance of our Lord is the only sacrament necessary. And the natural order, as the Qur'an richly documents, is a world of signs which point to its source, and to ours. Hence the fitra of our kind, discernable we may say through consistent patterns maintained in homo sapiens across the globe and the generations, cannot be displeasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala.

Perhaps one of the most interesting questions which modernity poses to traditional religion has to do with divine providence amid a world which is now unimaginably more ancient than our ancestors suspected. There is no dating by numbers in the Qur'an or the Hadith, but medieval Muslims typically thought that the world was about five thousand years old. Now, whatever view we may take of Darwin, we must accept that our species is tens of thousands of years old. Recognisably human remains have been recovered, and reliably dated by radiocarbon methods, which show the antiquity of humanity - unless we are, by misunderstanding the logic of piety, to deny scientific evidence entirely. In 1997 the world’s oldest cricket bat was dug up in the county of Essex (of course). It is recognisably a bat, designed for some form of game, and is apparently 40,000 years old. Our theological question would therefore be: if Essex Man, in time out of mind, had the self-awareness and the humanity and the sophistication needed to play cricket, surely he was also a creature accountable to his Maker. In other words, the story of salvation is much, much older than we ever suspected. To claim that humanity had to wait for most of its history before learning about its source and destiny requires an intolerable interrogation of the divine justice.

Now, this antiquity of our species fits in with Islamic salvation history very elegantly. The hadith indicates that there have been 124,000 prophets. The Qur’an says, Wa-li-kulli qawmin had - ‘for every nation there has been a guide’. The existence of cricket matches in Chelmsford thirty-eight thousand years before the hijrah is not a problem for us: homo religiosus existed then, just as did homo ludens, and presumably had access to a chapter of revelation which has since disappeared.

For Christianity, of course, the problem is more acute. Medieval theologians struggled with the fact that millions lived before the coming of Christ, and hence died without receiving the sacraments or accepting him as saviour. Complicated theories of post-mortem evangelisation, or of the harrowing of hell, were developed to make this challenge to the divine moral coherence less scandalous. Today, with our awareness of humanity’s antiquity, the theology is harder still: why should a loving God have waited for a million years before sending his Son to redeem humanity?

For us, as I have said, this is a non-problem. For every nation there has been a guide. And, as Surat al-Insan says, ‘Has there ever come upon man a time when he was not something remembered?’ And a necessary concomitant of this acceptance of the dramatic, splendid length of prophetic history, so commensurate with the grandeur of God and the universe, has to be that recurrent and biologically-grounded patterns of human society must be considered as in some sense normal, and hence as divinely sanctioned. Moreover, our conviction, as Muslims, that the human being has been created ‘in the best of forms’, that ‘we have ennobled the children of Adam’, makes any attempt to decry the natural endocrinology of our bodies blasphemous. We are as we have been created, and Allah, blessed is He, is the best of creators.

This is why we say, respectfully ignoring the protests of old-fashioned feminists, that men and women, in a Godfearing society, will tend towards different concerns and spheres of activity. Our aim, after all, is human happiness, not political correctness. Any attempt to impose a crudely egalitarian template on the data of the Qur’an and Sunnah, and of the Seerah, and the recurrent patterns of Islamic social history, will underestimate them drastically. Walaysa al-dhakaru ka’l-untha, says the Qur’an: the male is not like the female. Egalitarianism is reductionism, and diminishes the bivalence of our kind, whose fertility is apparent in many more ways than the merely reproductive.

We insist, therefore, that our revealed law, confirmed so magnificently in its assumptions by the new science, upholds the dignity and the worth of women more reliably than secularity ever can. A materialistic worldview, which measures human worth in terms of earning power and status and access to sexual plenitude, will inexorably glorify the male. For the male, conditioned by the androgens from the time he was almost invisibly small in the womb, is assertive: his metaphors are projection, conquest, single-mindedness. As the facts of science trickle down into popular culture, and as old-style equality feminism breaks down, the male is going to be magnified as never before in history. Materialistic civilisations will, in the longer term, favour and revere male traits. In the shorter term women may appear to be overtaking the men, because of the energy generated by the congratulations of modernity, and because of the reciprocal atrophy of male identity and self-regard. But in the longer term, unless the logic of Adam Smith’s capitalism is mysteriously terminated, the future belongs to the androgen.

As Muslims, we refuse such a favouritism. Inevitably, given the nature of the fitra, there must be aspects of shari‘a which favour the male in functional, material terms. Ours is a religion of absolute justice. But because we reject any identification of human worth with conspicuous functionality, or power, or status, or consumption, we are able to insist on the worth of women in a way that is not possible outside a religious context. For we have not been created for the idols worshipped in the pages of GQ or Loaded Magazine. The biological advantages of the male, which, unless one day a massive reconstructive surgery and hormonal reprogramming is carried out on every one of us, do not for us denote superiority, as they must for the secular mind when it follows its own arguments through.

The key to understanding this is supplied by our rich theology of the Ninety-nine Names of Allah. And these reveal what the biologists describe as gender dimorphism. That is to say, just as procreation bears fruit through the shaping received from androgens and estrogens, so too creation itself is bathed in androgens and estrogens. The entire cosmos is gendered; in fact, it comes into being, and attains the complexity of manifestation after the experience of undifferentiated unity, through the interaction of the divine Names, where the supreme and governing category is the polarity of Jalal and Jamal. I have attempted some further reflections on this principle of a hormonally-coded cosmos in another place.

The gender issue ramifies massively into every other area of religion, and far more could be written. What I have tried to do in this essay is show that an opposition to the Shari‘a is an opposition to science, inasmuch as science is currently affirming an innate distinction between the sexes, a distinction that Allah ta‘ala clearly calls us to celebrate rather than to suppress. The social architecture of Islam is very different to that of the modern secular West: that should be a source of pride to us. We are permitted to speculate, however, that the disastrous social problems now overcoming the West, and westernising classes elsewhere, will combine with the new science to provide a revised definition of gender and social roles which will, in the longer term, convince our critics of the superior wisdom and compassion of the Prophetic social model.

wa-akhiru da‘wana ani’l-hamdu li’Llahi rabbi’l-alamin

Image: flickr

Boys will be Boys | Gender identity issues | Masud.co.uk
© Abdal-Hakim Murad

Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad is a British Muslim researcher, writer, columnist and teacher. Shaykh Murad's articles and 'Contentions' can be found on {www.masud.co.uk}. Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad is Dean of Cambridge Muslim College, {www.cambridgemuslimcollege.org}.