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Commentary from the 2011 Islamic Cultural Center Conference @ New York University. |
According to my understanding of ICNYU 2011 Conference I was driven to produced this commentary that deserves commentation on the reality that I have a duty to respect the Creator's creations, even though, I may not agree with the way his established His creation. May Allah the Almighty, the Wise, the Ruler, and King forgive me if I said anything to offend Him, the scholars, anyone who's associated with or not associated with this conference, my community, neighbors, and or strangers near and far. Ameen. I further understand that violating the Creator's creation causes a disservice to G'd, myself, mankind, and everything in existence. Allahu Alameen! (G'd knows). May G'd give me the ability to used quotation marks in my writings so I will not mistakenly say something that someone said, and grant me the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to promote His purpose, not mine. Ameen! One of the scholars spoke about how a Fatwa ( Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar) is an art that should be given by qualified individuals to assure the law conforms to the time and space of issuance. What does this mean? a scholar shouldn't make rulings for people living in different parts of the world unless it conforms to their communities and cultures, and that he should be well grounded in knowledge about the ones he's helping because he can cause major problems that destroys entire communities. Abu Sufyan ibn Harb (may G'd be pleased with him) was a great Islamic scholar who paid attention to the people and their circumstances; and established his rulings in according the what situation individuals were in. One example of this was when a young and an old men asked him should they kiss their wives while fasting. He told the young man no and the old man yes, because the young man was newly wedded, he ran the risk of taking his passion for his wife a step further and and break his fast. While the older man had better control over his over his circumstance and was married to his wife for a while.. Scholars words carries weight, their rulings should be sensitive and just towards all people not just Muslims. Music is haram! Music is haram because it raises our emotions, and deprives us from their purist convictions as Muslims. When something impacts us the way music does, it's dangerous, because it moves us away from the remembrance of Allah transforming our thoughts and actions towards a purpose that's it (music) was created for. I totally agree! I remembered listening to a lecture of a well known scholar that stated that we sometimes we over react to things, and that music is almost everywhere and around us. We shouldn't go crazy not wanting take the elevator because there's music playing. We shouldn't yell at your Muslim friends because they decided to take the elevator telling them music is haram. The whole point in this story is to prove how we need to stop being critically judgmental about things we have no control over. I say, Ameen! Ameen! Ameen! Glory belongs to our Lord! and He needs not our help to spread his justice for He is a Just G'd! Marriage and Racism One of the major issues the Muslim communities face is that we don't think about the consequences of our actions, and the devastating affect we may have on others. When we tell people we don't want to marry them because they are from a different country, culture, and or race, it destroys lives and communities leaving them without true guidance and Islamic principals. I could have quoted scriptures from the Quran in matters relating to this subject I'm about discuss, but I'm going to push forth with my notes I've taken from the conference. The words of G'd in the Quran clearly speaks how we are witnesses to the book and that G'd taught us what we did not know. It also has other references to that supports the point of the scholars at the conference that we should use divine guidance to invite people to the way of our Lord, and not be arrogant and oppressive to them. I mean, lets look at the reality of things. Did we accept Islam because someone was ugly towards us? or did we accept Islam because someone embraced us and made us feel like we belong? We should treat people respect and dignity regardless of their circumstances. In the same manner, have we evaluated how we want G'd to treat us after we've repeatedly violated His creation? Homosexually Every religion have to deal with the issues of homosexually, therefore, it's inappropriate for us to make judgmental statements to people who may have experienced some traumatic incident, or incidents that caused them to be in the situation they're in. Because we don't know their circumstances and if we oppress them, then we have done a disservice to Islam. This goes back to my earlier writings, and the reality that only Allah create Muslims. Who are we to tell someone that they can't be a Muslim because of they're personal sexual choice? This is not our religion. This belong to Allah, and Allah alone. He doesn't need us to correct what he created! We need to re evaluated our way of thinking and not be blinding by the bad things people do, but find the good and sponge off of that. Are we the judges, the juries and the executors? taking on the role of the Prophets(May Allah be pleased with them)? Parenting One last subject I want to write about that was a discussed at the conference is our style of parenting. Parenting is a hard job but if we learn to respect our children, because of course we want them to respect us, then we have to learn how to respect them, too. It's a fine line between how we can be overprotective parents, and, or reckless parents by not being protective enough. Do we prevent our children from becoming independent causing more damage than good, and, or allowing them to get away with too much which is causes an imbalanced upbringing and turning them into monsters? Therefore, a careful balance in parenting to assure us that our children get the greatest benefits of growing up healthy. Well, I going to sum this up and say that the ICNYU was a conference worthy of this commentary, because it promotes it's true meaning of their slogan "What a community should feel like" . I place where I belong and a place where all all welcomed. Malikah |