The poor, who walk in the cause of Allah, do not beg...
their restraint from begging makes them appear to be
self-sufficent, but Believers can recognize them by their
characteristics.
Abu Huraira, r.a., reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace
and blessings be upon him, said, "The poor person is not the
one who is satisfied with a date or two or a morsel or two,
but rather the poor person is only who abstains from
begging. Recite the verse (2:273) if you wish: They do not
ask people persistently."
Sahih Bukhari 4265
The verse referred to in this Hadith is 2:273, which
reads:
"[Charity is] for the poor who have been restricted for the
cause of Allah, unable to move about in the land. An
ignorant [person] would think them self-sufficient because
of their restraint, but you will know them by their
[characteristic] sign. They do not ask people persistently
[or at all]. And whatever you spend of good - indeed, Allah
is Knowing of it."
Quran 2:273
[With thanks to Sis. Kristi]
Gaza, Here we Come.
On September 22 Nadrat Siddique and several young Jamaat
al-Muslimeen supporters participated ln the Gaza 5K at the
Anacostia River Walk Trail in Washington DC. . There were
about 500 people including scores of Muslim women in head
scarves.
Nadrat came in #8 out of a total of 271 women.
The Gaza 5K is an annual walk/run hosted by UNRWA USA. This
event raises funds for UNRWA emergency assistance in the
Gaza Strip, including the Community Mental Health Programme
(CMHP), which supports thousands of refugee children in Gaza
affected by PTSD and other psychological trauma.
The Gaza Walk gained more intensity because of President
Trump's reported decision to cut off funds to UNRWA. The
first cut is of $65 million and aims at a total cut off of
$200 million.
Thus the most vulnerable segments of the Palestinian
communities will be hit.
Delaware
September 21
At Masjid Ibrahim in Newark. a 6-page Jamaat al-Muslimeen
document was give to 50 Muslims after Juma salat.
Here is an outline of the 6 pages:
Why do the sectarians hate imam Muhammad ibn Abdul
Wahhab. [by Dr. Kaukab Siddique.
Heavy fighting in parts of Syria. [SOHR]
ISIS has rapidly re-emerged in Iraq [The Intercept]
Leader of armed Israeli settlers killed.
African American imam resisting pressure in Ohio
prison
Mass wedding organized by Jamaate Islami [Pakistan.]
September 11
Dhaka Regime suppressed Student protests, refuses to release journalist.
Shahidul Alam, 63, is being investigated under a
controversial section 57 of the Information and
Communication Technology law that carries a maximum prison
sentence of 14 years, sparking criticism from rights
groups.
He was picked up from his home hours after giving an
interview to Al Jazeera, in which he accused the government
of extrajudicial killings and corruption.
Sponsored
He had also posted comments on social media that a student
wing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling party was
trying to attack the protesters.
What began as an outpouring of anger over the failings of an
unregulated transport industry after a speeding bus killed
two students in Dhaka in July escalated into the widest
anti-government protests in the South Asian nation in years,
providing a focus for discontent with what critics see as
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's increasingly authoritarian
rule.
The protests ended on Aug. 6.
Hasina has already faced criticism from international human
rights activists over a drugs crackdown in which police have
shot dead more than 200 people since May.
Hidden Facts about Palestine.
Iran has not fired even one shot against Israel.
"Hizbullah" has not fired one shot against Israel even
during THREE invasions of Gaza by Israel.
Egypt and Jordan have open diplomatic relations with
Israel.
UAE has extensive "business" relations with Israel
Saudi Arabia is going soft on Israel after PA decided that
it would accept a two=nation solution.
The only force actually fighting Israel is the Islamic
State through the Sinai. However Egypt is trying to crush IS
in the Sinai.
Israel has repeatedly bombed IS in Syria. In one Israeli
air strike, the leader of the IS affiliate Jaysh Khalid bin
Waleed was killed.
Russian air strikes have forced IS affiliate Jaysh Khalid
to retreat into the desert north of Suwaida province.
Putin, the best friend of Syrian tyrant Assad is also the
good friend of Netanyahoo.
America which is the best fried of Israel is bombing IS
along the Euphrates in Syria on a daily basis.
USA destroyed the ISIS city of Mosul in Iraq in tandem
with Iran and the Shia regime in Baghdad.
Editorial
Ibn Taymiyyah and Maulana Maudoodi: Victories for Islamic
Thought processes.
by Kaukab Siddique
September 22 is Maulana Maudoodi's anniversary. I am
re-reading his Tafheem ul-Qur'an and as I read again I am
re-discovering his genius and the greatness of his honesty
even in his mistakes. He was constantly moving towards new
horizons, from extreme conservatism towards revolutionary
transformational power. People who think do not remain
stranded in their original knowledge. Islam is a process
towards acceptance by Allah and love of His Prophet,
pbuh.
Maudoodi's origins as a scholar remind me of the wreckage of
the Islamic caliphate with the destruction of Baghdad by the
Mongols. That was like the situation of defeat and
humiliation from which arose Ibn Taymyyah, from whose
scholarly radicalism the Muslim world felt the currents of
hope and wisdom which can be seen in the jihad movements of
modern times.
Both Ibn Taymiyyah and Maudoodi were stuck in the morass of
Sufiistic obscurantism and ponderous commentary writing,
leading nowhere. As Maudoodi pointed out, Islamic scholars
for centuries did not study the Qur'an and authentic hadith
directly but simply wrote commentaries on commentaries.
Islamic writings were often no more than marginal notes on
existing commentaries.
By the time Ibn Taymiyyah became an adult, the Mongols had
become nominal Muslims but they retained many of their
brutal cultural background. Ibn Taymiyya fought them
PHYSICALLY on the battlefield [a distinction which few
scholars have] but also unforgettably in the arena of
Islamic thought and scholarship. He learned the essentials
of Islamic scholasticism and critical narratives from the
leaders of various Schools of Thought. He listened to verbal
presentations of ALL the books of hadith [after having read
them in books]. He even studied the Shia scholars.
Sufis were his inveterate enemies. He was calling the Muslim
masses from the slumber induced by sufi introversion and
de-politicization to social and economic revolution. He
challenged, debated, debunked and demolished the established
Schools of Islamic Thought, particularly Sufism.
Finally Sufis managed to present his re-examination of
religious discourse as violations of Islam. He was
repeatedly imprisoned but always released when he discoursed
at his trial.
Ibn Taymiyyah indicated to the ummah that the relationship
between the Muslim and Allah is the key . Islam is a
straight forward religion and it put an end to superstition
and the need to go through another person to seek change and
forgiveness.
"The intelligent person is the one who continues to perform
righteous actions which will wipe away sins."
Women:
Many of the teachings of Ibn Taymiyyah irritated and
flabbergasted his contemporaries. Men had taken to thinking
that they can take a second wife without the permission of
the first wife. The verse about multiple wives did not go
into the rules for such activity except for the rule of
justice. Ibn Taymiyyah quoted profusely from the Qur'an to
show that any agreement between two persons is .binding.
Hence:
There can be an agreement that the first wife's
permission will be required.
Agreement to give the wife the right to pronounce divorce
[in addition to the right to khula].
Then Ibn Taymiyyah gave a ruling which would have helped the
Muslims of India if he had been alive today: Triple talaq
[divorce] must count as one only
and the whole process of three different times must be
followed.
The Caliph Umar, r.a., had ordained that triple talaq is
valid because talaq was not being taken seriously. The
Muslim ummah made that into ijma
[consensus] of the entire ummah. Ibn Taymiyyah challenged
that assumption and tore it to pieces.
The scholars of various Schools of Thought attacked his
teachings but were no match for his tremendous scholarly
erudition. He defeated them completely and entirely.
By the time Ibn Taymiyyah died, the Muslims led by the
Memelukes [slaves who became rulers] had defeated both the
Mongols and the Crusaders. He was the ideological leader of
the Muslims.
Now we come to Maulana Maudoodi.
India was a swamp of deadening sectarianism and most Muslims
were so impressed by the British masters of India that they
degraded and humiliated themselves.
Maudoodi, not Mohamed Ali Jinnah, was the originator of the
two nation theory, that the believers are a nation separate
from the Hindus in every detail.
He did not oppose Pakistan [as his enemies claim] but he was
concerned that Pakistan must prepare to be an Islamic state.
It would be a hopeless mess if systematic efforts were not
made to develop Islamic values in the roots of Pakistan.
When Pakistan became a reality, the secular elites became
the rulers. They betrayed the messages of Mohamed Ali Jinnah
and quickly abandoned the emphasis of Iqbal that Muhammad,
pbuh, is the leader of the Muslims through his living
teachings.
The British gave not only a "moth eaten" Pakistan to the
Muslims and a separated Kashmir but also left behind an
entrenched Qadiani "Ahmeddi" movement which was eating away
at the foundations of Islam.
Maudoodi challenged the fitna of Qadianiat and had to face
the iron fist of the secularist regime. As the people rose
up against Qadianiat, Maudoodi was held responsible for
inciting them. He was arrested and SENTENCED TO DEATH. He
was told to beg for mercy. He rejected the slightest thought
of doing so and prepared himself to go to the gallows. By a
quirk of internal politics of the regime, the government
fell and he was released.
With a peaceful but disciplined organization, Jamaate
Islami, with him, he developed the Islamic awareness of the
Pakistani people. One great result of this small but
influential movement was that Islam as the bedrock of
Pakistan was instituted as essential to the Constitution of
Pakistan. There cannot be a Pakistan without Islam.
Maudoodi faced one of the toughest military dictators of
Pakistan, Field Marshall Ayyub khan. Maulana sahib and the
entire Central Committee of Jamaate Islami was imprisoned.
However when India attacked Pakistan, the regime begged
Maudoodi to speak to the people on National Radio hookup. In
a powerful message, he told Pakistanis that by defending
Pakistan, they were defending Islam.
The oppression of Jamaate Islami by the government continued
year after year wuth complete censorship of his teachings in
the national media.
At one point assassins were sent to shoot him down in the
middle of a national level meeting of Jamaate Islami. The
gunmen shot at him, missed but killed one person. The
volunteers of Jamaate Islami rushed to protect him,
shouting: Please sit down. His answer is famous:
"IF I SIT DOWN, WHO WILL REMAIN STANDING."
Some of the greatest books of Maulana Maudoodi:
Tafheem ul-Qur'an [commentary on the Qur'an in 6
volumes.]
Tafheemat
Rasail o Masail
Tarjumanul Qu'ran [magazine]
Sunnat ki Aini haisiat.
Jihad fi sabil Allah.
Towards Understanding Islam [which has a global audience
in 10 languages].
I consider Khilafat o Mulukiat [Caliphate and Kingship] his
greatest book. It is a devastating critique of kingship. Try
to imagine how he was constantly growing in knowledge and
wisdom. He wrote against me because I had condemned JI's
links with Saudi Arabia and then he published this outright
attack on kingship. If he were alive today, he would have
been arrested permanently owing to that book.
Many of his views on women were archaic but there too he was
changing like all great people do. Can you believe that he
encouraged a Jewish woman to embrace Islam and move to
Pakistan and marry one of his stalwarts. She not only moved
to Pakistan but published book after book full of blistering
attacks on the entire western civilization. When I met her,
she was in deep purdah but still writing. and writing.
Among the scholars who have served him well is Maulana Abdul
Wakeel Alavi who has extracted, organized and arranged the
numerous writings of Maudoodi on hadith in seven hard cover
volumes.
Its important to remember that there was a time when hard
core Communists were getting ready to take over the younger
generation of Pakistan. Maulana Maudoodi hit back hard
against them. By the time he finished with them, they were
history.
Maulana Maudoodi tried to save East Pakistan too but corrupt
Pakistani generals did so much damage that East Pakistan
could not be saved. Even then Jamaate Islami fought for East
Pakistan to the bitter end. The army betrayed them. The
Hasina regime, India's puppet in Dhaka, sent the scholars of
Jamaate Islami one by one to the gallows. Never did they
flinch. Never did they betray Pakistan and Islam.
Maulana sahib must be smiling at them with the angels.
Seldom have unarmed, peaceful, scholarly men gone so calmly
to meet their Creator.
Hasbun Allah wa nimal wakeel.
PAKISTAN
JI leader Addresses large gathering in
Rawalpindi.
All the Messengers of Allah must be
Protected by Enacting International Law.
by Qaiser Sharif
LAHORE, Sep. 23; Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Senator
Sirajul Haq, has underscored the need for framing
international law to safeguard the sanctity of the prophets
of Allah and the finality of the Prophet Muhammad to promote
peace and avoid war.
Addressing the JI Ijtema at Rawalpindi, he urged Pakistan,
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran to jointly make a move in this
regard before the United Nations and said that other Muslim
countries should also be contacted in this respect.
Sirajul Haq said that the world peace was possible only if
the human beings lived in an atmosphere of love tolerance
and mutual respect. He said that for around 1.75 billion
Muslims in the world, love of the last Prophet Muhammad was
their greatest asset. However, he said, that extremists in
Europe and the west were frequently causing mental agony to
the Muslims by blaspheming the Holy Prophet. He that Holland
had temporarily postponed the contest of blasphemous
caricatures due to protest by the Muslim world protest and
had not cancelled the mischievous programme.
He said that the entire humanity would have to unite to
permanently stop such sacrilege and to suggest exemplary
punishment for those indulging in this evil.
Sirjaul Haq said that the JI was holding jurist conference
in Islamabad on September 27 to discuss the issue . He said
that eminent lawyers, retired judges and social society
people would attend the moot.
He said that safeguarding the sanctity of the Holy Prophet
and the belief in Khatme Nubuwwat was the constitutional
responsibility of the government and it must adopt suitable
steps to discharge this duty.
JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch, JI Punjab chief Mian
Maqsood Ahmed, Azhar Iqbal Hasan and Dr Tariq Saleem, were
also present on the occasion.
War News
Iran
Tragedy in Ahvaz but why the aurprise?
September 22. Four gunmen attacked an
Iranian military parade in Ahvaz, the oil producing
hub of Iran, The targets were Iran's elite revolutionary
guards
but civilians watching the parade also got hit.
The final toll was 29 killed 60 wounded plus the 4
gunmen.
Iran began by accusing ISIS [takfiris as Iran calls them]
but then accused just about everyone from the UAE to
Israel/USA.
Iran somehow forgot that it destroyed the ISIS city of Mosul
with the support of USA and eastern Aleppo in tandem with
Russia.
Iran has done so much to kill Islamic fighters and their
families that this murderous retaliation should have come as
no surprise.
Syria
Stalemate as Battles Rage with ISIS
Horrendous Atrocities by Assad regime being uncovered.
The Story of Large Russian plane.
September 15 to 23. On the southern shores of the Euphrates
river, USA has been bombing ISIS and SDF has been trying to
advance with no success at all. Casualties are increasing
every day owing to counteraction by Islamic State fighters.
USA is steadily building small bases and small air strips in
adjoining areas.
Also, September 15 to 23, Shia brigades from Lebanon known
as Hizbullah have been trying to advance in the desert south
of Damascus adjoining Suwaida province. it was a Failure for
Hizbulllah owing to stiff resistance by Islamic State
fighters.
In Idlib province, Islamic factions have two attitudes
towards the Russia-Turkey demilitarization agreement.
Surprisingly al-Nusra [now known as Tahrir al-Sham] and the
National Front agree with the Russia-Turkey plan in the hope
that it will avert an assault by the Assad regime.
On the opposite side Hissar al-Sham and Ansar al-Sham
consider it a plot to disarm the mujahideen groups and
accept Russian hegemony.
Also assassiations are going on in various parts of Idlib in
which al-Nusra is killing IS supporters who had come to seek
refuge in Idlib. They are seen as sleeper cells of IS. Some
murders are probably being committed by Assad's gangsters
who then spread the rumor that it was done by IS.
Syrian Observatory [SOHR} is slowly but surely documenting
the deaths of 60,000 and more people in Assad's torture
cells. Its a slow proces to identify and name everyone. It
has only reached 15857 men, 64 womenn and 125 children
killed by Assad's Shias under torture.
SOHR is now appealing for the release of Dr. al-Khayyir, a
peaceful opponent of Assad who has been in prison for 6
years.
On September 18 the Damascus regime mistakenly shot down a
large Russian plane, an IL 20 with 15 Russian surveillance
troops in it all of whom were killed. Russia first blamed
Israel but then took it back and shook hands with Netanyahoo
to say sorry.
Quite amusing for the Syrian people that a Russian plane was
shot down by Russian missiles given to Russia's ally, the
Assad regime.
Iraq
Baghdad Death toll Rising.
Iraqi news is reporting a series of clashes with Islamic
State fighters
but does not give regime losses.
A Saudi paper published from UK is reporting that IS leader
Abu Bakr Baghdadi has left Iraq and gone to Afghanistan.
Again there are no details.
According to Iraq News, daily pin prick attacks by IS on
Baghdad
have totalled 77 killed and twice as many injured in one
month.
News Within the U.S.
America is Among the Countries Infected by Israeli Spyware.
America 'One Of 45 Countries' Infected By Uber-Powerful
Israeli Smartphone Spyware
Thomas Brewster
Cybersecurity
I cover crime, privacy and security in digital and physical
forms.
iPhone malware from an Israeli government contractor is
spreading across the globe, researchers warn.
Some of the world's most sophisticated Android and iPhone
spyware has been found floating around America for the first
time. It's one of as many as 45 countries in which NSO Group
malware was uncovered. And together they may represent
breaches of American and other nations' computer crime laws
against cross-border hacking, not to mention a severe
concern for citizens' privacy, according to the researchers
who uncovered the professional spy software.
The malware of concern, dubbed Pegasus, is the creation of
NSO Group, an Israeli company valued at close to $1 billion.
It can hide on Apple or Google devices, spying via the
camera, listening in on conversations through the
microphone, stealing documents and siphoning off
once-private messages, amongst other surreptitious
activities.
NSO has always protested that its tools are designed to be
used to track the most heinous criminals, from terrorists to
drug cartels. But the company has been caught up in spying
scandals in Mexico and the United Arab Emirates. In both
cases, civil rights organizations were up in arms that the
iPhone malware had targeted activists, journalists and
lawyers, among others who appeared entirely innocent of any
crimes. Just last month, Forbes reported that an Amnesty
researcher focusing on issues in the UAE had been targeted
by NSO spyware. And most recently, leaked emails included in
lawsuits in Israel and Cyprus against NSO Group appeared to
show the company had hacked the phone of a journalist
working at an Arab newspaper.
Now it seems infections of NSO's Pegasus tool have
metastasized across more nations than previously believed.
In a report released Tuesday, researchers from Citizen Lab,
based out of the University of Toronto, claimed Pegasus had
spread its wings in as many as 45 countries. Previously,
Citizen Lab told Forbes it had evidence of as many as 174
individual infections across Android and iOS phones.
Bill Marczak, one of the Citizen Lab researchers behind
today's report, said it was "very concerning" to see Pegasus
infections across as many as 45 countries. He said six of
those nations were "known spyware abusers," including
Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Mexico.
Another two on the list, Togo and Uzbekistan, may not have
been caught targeting innocents with malware before but had
"dubious human rights records," Marczak added.
"It indicates the market for these tools remains largely
unregulated. And as long as that is the case, repressive
regimes will use them to covertly surveil and invisibly
sabotage people holding governments to account."
NSO Group, for its part, said its products weren't designed
to work in the U.S. and claimed there were inaccuracies in
the Citizen Lab report.
Hunting a Pegasus
Citizen Lab was able to track down Pegasus infections by
creating "fingerprints." They are formed of unique
signifiers of the spy software. For instance, a form of
encryption could be unique to the malware, or Web servers
associated with its snooping. Citizen Lab is keeping those
fingerprints secret for now but found they could then be
detected by scanning the internet.
In total, the researchers discovered 36 "distinct operators"
of the NSO tool, many of whom are likely customers. Ten
appeared to have infected systems across multiple countries,
including the U.K. and America, which may be a breach of
U.S. law.
As per the Citizen Lab report, handed to Forbes ahead of
publication: "The scope of this activity suggests that
government-exclusive spyware is widely used to conduct
activities that may be illegal in the countries where the
targets are located.
"For example, we have identified several possible Pegasus
customers not linked to the United States, but with
infections in U.S. IP space. While some of these infections
may reflect usage of out-of-country VPN or satellite
internet service by targets, it is possible that several
countries may be actively violating United States law by
penetrating devices located within the U.S.."
VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, typically take internet
traffic through different servers across various
geographies. It's possible NSO or its customers have used
VPN servers in America, rather than infecting
cellphones.
The company has repeatedly tried to break the American
market. It once set up a company called Westbridge
Technologies to sell into the U.S. that was acquired by an
American private equity firm, Francisco Partners, in 2014.
But there's been no clear evidence so far that it managed to
find clients within the States.
Marczak said there were suspected infections from three
separate operators of the Pegasus malware. Two were
interested in matters related to the Middle East, the other
on Mexico.
"It's hard to unequivocally rule out factors like VPNs or
satellite connections," Marczak told Forbes. "That said, the
ISPs where we found the suspected infections were Cox,
Comcast and Time Warner. My mental model of these companies
is that they provide cable services and not necessarily VPN
or satellite teleports."
Another five operators were found focusing on European
countries, including Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and
Switzerland.
NSO response
NSO Group said it worked in full compliance with all
countries' applicable laws, including export control
regulations.
"Our products have saved the lives of thousands of people,
prevented suicide terror attacks, helped convict drug cartel
lords, facilitated complex crime investigations and returned
kidnapped children to their parents. These are just a few
examples of the critical security support our systems have
provided worldwide," a spokesperson said in an emailed
statement sent to Forbes.
They said there were some problems with the Citizen Lab
research. In particular, NSO does not sell in many of the 45
countries listed, the spokesperson added, noting that all
contracts went through a business ethics committee.
"The product will not operate outside of approved countries.
As an example, the product is specifically designed to not
operate in the USA," the spokesperson said.
Marczak said that, given there were 33 suspected operators
with infections across 45 suspected countries, the list
necessarily included nations that do not themselves operate
Pegasus.
I cover security and privacy for Forbes. I've been breaking
news and writing features on these topics for major
publications since 2010. As a freelancer, I worked
for...MORE
Thought....
From Foreign Policy Magaziine
We cannot defeat al-Qaida and ISIS
Time for Peace Talks........
Remembrance of Allah can remove the Rust of the Heart.
'Nahmaduhu Wa Nusalli Ala Rasoolilah Kareem~'Amma
'Baad..
Fa' Aouzobillahi Minash Shaitaannir Rajeem'...
'Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim'
'Assalaamualaykum Wa Rahmatuallahi Wa Barakatahu'
"There is a Polish for everything that takes away RUST and
the Polish for the Heart is ....? The Remembrance of
Allah."
[Source: S.Bukhari]
Al-Bayhaqee relates from Ibn 'Umar [Radiallaahu 'anhu] ....
that Allah's Messenger [Sallallahu 'alayhi wa Salaam]
said:
"For everything there is a Polish, and the Polish for the
Hearts is the 'DHIKR'.... [Remembrance] of Allah.....!
There is nothing more potent in saving a person from the
punishment of Allah than the 'Dhikr' of Allah."
It was said... 'Not even 'Jihaad' in the path of Allah'
{?}
Prophet [Sallallahu 'Alayhi wa Salaam] replied..
" Not even if you were to continue striking with your sword
until it breaks."
[Source: Saheeh: Related by Ahmad (4/352), from Mu'aadh ibn
Jabal [Radiallaahu 'anhu].
A Little Note....
The polish for a rusty heart is the 'Dhikr' of ALLAH !
This is because 'Dhikr' is like a polish [which polishes the
heart] like a
shiny mirror. When 'Dhikr' is left, the rust returns...
But when 'Dhikr' resumes then the Heart is again
Polished.
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (Rahimahullah) said... "Doubtless, a
heart grows
tarnished like brassor silver, and its polish is by
remembrance which may
make it shine like a crystal mirror.... So when one neglects
the
remembrance it Tarnishes...and when he returns it
shines.
Since the heart is Tarnished by two [2] things...
Heedlessness and Sin...
it is polished by two [2] things.... Remembrance and asking
Forgiveness.{Subhan Allah}
[Source: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (r)-The Invocation of
God]
My 'Salaams' To All.
Y a s m i n.
'Never Despair Of The Mercy Of Allah'
