Parliament with a beard?

That's the label used for the newly elected members of Egypt parliament.

The first Parliament in the Arab world dominated by Islamists — nearly half of its members come from Egypt’s mainstream Muslim Brotherhood and nearly a quarter are from the ultraconservative Salafi movement — is a laboratory for daily experiments in religion and democracy.

A Salafi member of the parliament (from the ultraconservative Salafi Asala Party) decided to interrupt the proceeding by reciting the Adhan (or the Muslim call of prayers).

He was promptly asked to shut-up by the speaker of the parliament, also a Sunni Muslim.

“After you’re done with the call for prayers, I’ll talk to you because you breached the order of the session,” he said. “You’re not more of a Muslim than we are,” Mr. Katatni added, once the call for prayers was over. “You don’t need the media show.” 

I've watched some of the parliamentary session in my own country (very well known for oppressing its Shia minority). We also have plenty of politicians that uses Islam to advance their own political agenda. This isn't something new. I guess that is why some Muslims are sick and tired of Islamic based political parties.

Also, one thing I have noticed about the parliament session is that the session always breaks for lunch and prayer (salat al-dhuhur) and then for teatime-break and prayer (salat al-asr). So I guess the speaker could be right when he said that the politician is just showing off.

Saudi Arabia moon-sighting blunders

When asked about the announcement by major Muslim organizations of Kerala that the Eid was tomorrow, Manicfan said,

"I have observed the moon-sighting issue in Kerala for the past 30 years and people say they have sighted the moon on days it is not possible. The lunar dates given in the various calendars in Kerala are different. Dates cannot and should not be changed like that. Even Saudi Arabia doesn't calculate this correctly. Only the Bedouins in the Arabian deserts follow the correct calculation."

He has a website highlighting some of the blunders made by the Saudis in sighting of the moon.

It’s not Eid yet!

The rest of the world (mostly Sunnis) has already celebrated the Eid, even though the moon was not sighted. Moon sighting is one of the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (may the peace and blessings be upon him and his family).

The moon-sighting site has a wealth of information. It is using scientific data to visualize the moon phases and sighting possibilities across the world. According to the site, the birth of the new moon is on Monday. The birth of the new moon is not a sign that it is the Eid. Before the Eid is announced to everyone, the new moon (hilal) needs to be sighted by a few trusted individuals. I know that this approach sounds archaic and old fashion, but this is how they use to decide the day of Eid in the time of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

The second important information from the moon-sighting site is the possibilities of the new moon being sighted/seen on earth. This is perhaps the most interesting information from everything else that is published on the website. The only places where the new moon can be sighted (with naked eyes, binoculars and using other instruments) are places like Hawaii and Chile (South America).

So if there is no possibility of the new moon being sighted on Monday anywhere else on Earth then why did a great majority of the people in the world declared Eid on Tuesday (as if the moon was either sighted or not sighted)?

It’s because the world is following Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are absolutely and without doubt wrong on this. They have either abandon the tradition of moon sighting in preference of the calendaring system or they went to see the new moon on the wrong day. Based on the scientific data on the moon sighting website, the two days where you may not see the new moon is on Sunday August 28 and Monday August 29. And that is exactly when most Sunnis might have gone to sight the new moon.

Ibn Taymiyyah’s anthropormorphism

This article is interesting because it points to Ibn Taymiyyah being influenced by the Sabians.

I am not the original author. This piece is written by David Livingstone from terrorism-illuminati.com



Few Muslims today, due to the effective propaganda of the Saudi state, are aware of Ibn Taymiyyah’s true pronouncements and the controversy of his career.

In fact, Ibn Taymiyyah spent much of his career in jail, placed there by the religious authorities of his time, usually for the accusation of anthropomorphism, or ascribing human attributes to God. Islamic theology is very clear about safeguarding the notion of God’s uniqueness and transcendence.

This is interesting because, despite all their numerous tangents into various other details, the Wahhabi and Salafi scholars are devoted to ideas derived from Ibn Taymiyyah’s anthropormorphism. It’s there. It’s never very overt, but it is always there.

Ibn Taymiyyah was born in Harran, which in the occult tradition, is one of the most important cities in its history, besides Babylon, Athens and Alexandria.

Harran was the seat of the Sabians. This was a Gnostic group, that cleverly identified themselves with the Sabeans of the Koran to escape persecution. But they were nothing of the sort. Instead they were satanists who practiced human sacrifice, worshipped Tammuz, and practiced Neoplatonism and Hermeticism.

In fact, when the Muslims began their great program of collecting and studying the works of the philosophers, by which the West eventually acquired this knowledge, it was the Sabians they turned to as translators.

What happens then is that it is Sabian influence that results Sufism, and a very important occult work known as the “Epistles of the Brethren of Sincerity”, or in Arabic, Rasa’il ikhwan as-safa’ wa khillan al-wafa. It was largely composed by Ismailis under Sabian influence.

“Abu Hayyan, of Andalusion origin, settled in Damascus, knew Ibn Taymiya personally, and held him in great esteem, until the day that Barinbari (d. 717/1317) brought him a work by Ibn Taymiya called Kitab al-‘arsh [The book of the Throne]. There they found, in Ibn Taymiya’s own handwriting (which was familiar to Abu Hayyan), anthropomorphic suggestions about the Deity that made Abu Hayyan curse Ibn Taymiya until the day he died… Abu Hayyan, in his own Qur’anic exegesis of Ayat al-Kursi (Qur’an 2:258) in surat al-Baqara, recorded something of what so completely changed his mind:

I have read in the book of Ahmad ibn Taymiya, this individual whom we are the contemporary of, and the book is in his own handwriting, and he has named it Kitab al-‘arsh [The book of the Throne], that “Allah Most High is sitting (yajlisu) on the Kursi but has left a place of it unoccupied, in which to seat the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace)” . Al-Taj Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Abd al-Haqq Barinbari fooled him [Ibn Taymiya] by pretending to be a supporter of his so that he could get it from him, and this is what we read in it (al-Nahwi, Tafsir al-nahr al-madd, 1.254).

As Keller notes, “This is of interest not only because it documents (at the pen of one of Islam’s greatest scholars) that Ibn Taymiya had a “double ‘aqida [theology],” one for the public, and a separate anthropomorphic one for an inner circle of initiates”

Ibn Taymiyyah just happened to live in Harran at a time to witness the end of the Sabian community, as a result of the conquest of the city by the Mongols. This may explain his continuing vociferous opposition to these new Mongol rulers.

Ibn Taymiyyah's Teaching (Tajsim, Ejtehad, Philosophy)

Ibn Taymiyyah was a firm believer of Tajsim (anthropomorphism). In one of his sermon, he (Ibn Taymiyyah) said

“God descended from his throne”. And while he was reading these words, he emphasized the meaning by descending a few steps, from the pulpit and continued by saying, “just as I am descending here (ka-nuzuli hadha)”

al-Dahabi and Ibn Hajjar al-Asqalani
Ibn Taymiyyah did not follow any of the Sunni school of taught in fiqh. He practiced Ejtehad and derives his own rulings. He also accepted qiyas as a method to derive Islamic laws.

Al-Sayuti quoted Ibn Taymiyyah
“These philosophers, as far as their teachings and living is concerned, are among the lowest people. The disbelieving Jews and Christians are to be preferred to them; the entire philosophy of these philosophers is not even on the level with Jews and Christians after accomplished falsification of their religious writings, much less does it attain the level before this forgery”

Al-Maqrizzi Khitat
Because of this and other teachings, Ibn Taymiyyah was frequently imprisoned and had to suffer much persecution from the officially recognized theologians. Yet, he had a considerable number of admirers among the Hanbalites and other Muslims both during his life and after his death.

On account of his opposition to al-Asharites philosophy of religion, and his independence of the orthodox legal schools, the one party condemned him as a heretic who left the consensus (kharij an ijma al-ummah), while others considered him worthy of the highest honors and called him the greatest Muslim of his time.

The following book was used as a reference
http://researchintoothersects.blogspot.com/2011/03/read-book-about-zahiri-islamic-law.html

Ibn Taymiyyah, forefather of the Wahhabiya movement, founder of the Salafi sect

Ibn Taymiyyah was a pseudo-Hanbalite. He lived in the Turkish region between 12-13 century AD.

Ignaz Goldziher in his book (the Zahiri) has revealed a lot of insightful information about this man.

Ibn Battuta, Voyages, I, p. 215
“He was an important man and could speak about the most varied fields, but he had a bee in his bonnet”

Many of Ibn Taymiyyah teachings were strange and at odds with the official Sunni school of thoughts (madhab).

• He disapproved of appealing for help from the Prophet (source Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani)
• He prohibited visiting the Prophet’s grave (source al-Qastallani)
• He is represented as having made harsh and disrespectful remarks about the first caliphs, and in his lectures he generally assaulted important and unimportant, old and modern scholars
• He accused Umar al-Khattab of errors (source Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani)
• He said Ali ibn Abi Talib made wrong decisions in seventeen questions(source Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani)
• He abused al-Ghazali and the other Asharites and insulted Ibn 'Arabi and other mystics(source Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani)

When you compare Ibn Taymiyyah teaching about God (below) to his teaching about Muslim personalities(above), the above seems pretty mild.

Ibn Taymiyyah taught tajsim (Anthropomorphism) by interpreting the metaphorical verses of the Holy Quran literally. (More will be in the next post)

According to Ibn Hajjar al-Asqalani
Ibn Taymiyyah did not renounce his deviancy/heresies despite being put before an inquisition and forced to signed a document that rejects his heresies.

Zahiri

From Wiki: Ẓāhirī is a school of thought in Islamic jurisprudence and Aqida. The founder of this school was Dawud ibn Khalaf (d. 270/883), also known as Daud al-Zahiri because of his insistence on sticking to the manifest (zahir) or literal meaning of expressions in the Qur'an and the Sunnah; the school and its followers are called Zahiriyah. Ibn Hazm was a well-known practitioner and teacher of this school.

The modern Salafi movement can be described as influenced by the Zahiri school.