Thoughts Archives - AlJumuah Magazine

“Take Off Your Sandals” Its Multiple Religious Facets

In the Zabur of Prophet David it is written: “One thing God has spoken; two things have I heard.” (Psalms 62:11/12). The rabbis in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 34a) asserted that this means there are multiple interpretations of each verse of Sacred Scripture…

Two Sanctuaries that Shared Their Blessings

According to the Muslim scholars Ibn Abbas and Suddi, after the death of Hagar [Hajar], her son Prophet Ishmael [Ismâ’îl] married, divorced and remarried again. Ibn Kathir says that Ishmael’s first wife was an inhospitable Amalekite woman who was rejected by her…

How Should Muslims Approach Philosophy?

Have you ever wondered whether your father and mother are real? Maybe they are just projections of your mind. Have you ever thought about the nature of the connection between your mind and your body? In fact, does the mind (as we…

HAJJ DAIRY 2015

“I’m going for Hajj this year!” When I announced this decision, my mother who had spent almost three decades in the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] as an expat pulled out delicately preserved newspaper cut-outs that she had painstakingly taken from the ‘Islam…

The Art of Giving in Islam Empowers the Economy

Islam is a complete code of life that deals with every facet of human life. In the early centuries Islam was shortly to reign supreme in the Arabian Peninsula, Africa and Europe in regard to bringing about economic justice. Eradicating poverty and…

Racism in Islam?!

If someone asks you, “What is your identity?” how would you answer this question? Would you state your name (I am Ibrahim), or job title (I am a doctor), or nationality (I am Palestinian), or ethnicity (I am an Arab), or lineage…

Dhul Hijjah, hajj 2020, hajj steps, hajj defination, hajj quotes

Dhul Hijjah 2020

We have reached a point in this pandemic where most of us have adjusted to a new way of doing things. For most of our lives, we worked and studied in such specific ways that it commonly became accepted as convention. Today,…

King David, the Prophet

Muslims understand David as one of the major prophets sent by God —while Jews have emphasized David as the great foundational King of historical Israel. Why the difference in Islamic and Jewish orientations? Who Was David? Before David was a Prophet or…

What is the Meaning of Pilgrimage? Why Makkah?

PILGRIMAGE (Hajj) –like Prayer (Salah)– in Islam is a sequence of physical acts performed at a distinctive destination and designed to channel and to develop mankind’s innate longing to come “close’ to their Creator-Sustainer. Pilgrimage is common to the world’s religions. Central…

Jewish Scholars Who Admired Islam

Ignác/Ignaz [Yitzhaq Yehuda] Goldziher (June 22, 1850 – November 13, 1921), was a Hungarian scholar of Islam and is considered one of the three founders of modern Islamic studies in Europe. Goldziher was educated at the universities of Budapest, Berlin, Leipzig and…