View high resolution

February 2013: “Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources” by Martin Lings.

"Our goal is not to tell you what to think but to empower you with knowledge you can use to make your own decisions."

“Introduction to Biotechnology” by Thieman and Palladino, 3rd ed., page 8

Societal obligations allow no Muslim to remain a passive spectator in the community. There is always work to be done, whether it pertains to urgent needs or more general requirements. 

Those who are not able or qualified to perform societal obligations must give material and moral support to those who are performing them. 

Muslims who are qualified to fulfill societal obligations must take part in them to the extent that they are able, but as before, the communal responsibility for failing to meet societal obligations falls upon both the qualified and the unqualified alike.

[“Living Islam with Purpose” by Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah, page 26]

All professions and fields of learning that serve the community’s material and cultural needs fall under societal obligations [fardh kifayah]. There can be no place in the community for elitism; any honest profession is a good profession.

Whether a person is driving a taxi or working in a hospital emergency room, each livelihood helps serve a vital societal function. Too often, however, our community’s attitudes toward career choices and professions have everything to do with money and social status and little to do with our overall societal needs as a developing Muslim community…

[“Living Islam with Purpose” by Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah, page 28]

The operational principle of stressing societal obligations shows that Islam is much more than a religion of personal pieties and that it cannot be narrowly restricted to the activities of mosques or Islamic centers. The performance of individual obligations like prayer and fasting never removes a Muslim’s moral duty to meet societal ones. The most seemingly upright of Muslims are liable for divine retribution if they ignore societal obligations and content themselves with personal piety alone. At the same time, there must be no confusion; personal dedication to the community’s needs does not remove a Muslim’s individual obligation to perform acts of personal piety.

[“Living Islam with Purpose” by Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah, page 25]

Some Muslims today confuse intra-Muslim dissent with discord and regard questions and dissenting opinions as threat to unity. Unity grows out of general agreement based on discussion and free choice. 

Unity must not be confused with uniformity. Traditional Islamic societies did not promote uniformity; they promoted unity in diversity. Uniformity can only be imposed by intimidation and social pressure; it cannot extend beyond the range of the force that imposes it. Imposing uniformity does not strengthen societies; it weakens them. 

Respect for dissent, on the other hand, provides a basis for true social cohesion. By promoting self-respect and human dignity, the operational principle of respecting dissent fosters mutual understanding and creates the basis upon which a healthy community can be built.

[“Living Islam with Purpose” by Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah, page 21]

Receptivity to dissent counteracts rigidity and dogmatism; familiarity with competing interpretations and different points of view leads to flexibility and intellectual maturity. 

For reasons such as these, Islamic scholarship looked upon well-reasoned dissent as a divine gift and a special mercy to humankind.

[“Living Islam with Purpose” by Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah, page 19]

Each text has a context, and the religious scholar must understand both; the law cannot be applied mechanically or by rote. In acknowledgement of the rational insight and wisdom required for the proper application of the law in different times and places, competent legal scholars are known as “people of understanding” (fuqaha). The same skills are not required for committing the Qur’an and Hadith to memory; thsose who master these arts are respectfully called “memorizers” (huffaz).

[“Living Islam with Purpose” by Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah, page 10]

Reason lies at the heart of Islam’s worldview. God endowed human beings with dignity, and the capacity to reason is one of the principal grounds of their unique distinction among beings. The rational order of the universe makes it accessible to human reason and transforms it from a world of random phenomena into a marvelous sign of God and an object of speculation and scientific investigation.

[“Living Islam with Purpose” by Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, page 5-6]

View high resolution

January 2013: “Living Islam with Purpose” by Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah.