c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Any critique of Islam is denounced as an expression of Western Islamophobia, Salman Rushdie is denounced for unnecessarily provoking Muslims and being (partially, at least) responsible for the fatwa condemning him to death, and so on. The result of such stances is what one should expect in such cases: the more the Western liberal Leftists probe into their guilt, the more they are accused by Muslim fundamentalists of being hypocrites who try to conceal their hatred of Islam. [T]his constellation perfectly reproduces the paradox of the superego: the more you obey what the Other demands of you, the guiltier you are. It is as if the more you tolerate Islam, the stronger its pressure on you will be. What this implies is that terrorist fundamentalists, be they Christian or Muslim, are not really fundamentalists in the authentic sense of the term--what they lack is a feature that is easy to discern in all authentic fundamentalists, from Tibetan Buddhists to the Amish in the US: the absence of resentment and envy, the deep indifference towards the non-believers' way of life. If today's so-called fundamentalists really believe they have found their way to Truth, why should they feel threatened by non-believers, why should they envy them? When a Buddhist encounters a Western hedonist, he hardly condemns. He just benevolently notes that the hedonist's search for happiness is self-defeating. In contrast to true fundamentalists, the terrorist pseudo-fundamentalists are deeply bothered, intrigued and fascinated by the sinful life of the non-believers. One can feel that, in fighting the sinful other, they are fighting their own temptation. The passionate intensity of a fundamentalist mob bears witness to the lack of true conviction; deep in themselves, terrorist fundamentalists also lack true conviction--their violent outbursts are proof of it. How fragile the belief of a Muslim would be if he felt threatened by, say, a stupid caricature in a low-circulation Danish newspaper? Fundamentalist Islamic terror is not grounded in the terrorists' conviction of their superiority and in their desire to safeguard their cultural-religious identify from the onslaught of global consumerist civilization. The problem with fundamentalists is not that we consider them inferior to us, but, rather, that they themselves secretly consider themselves inferior. This is why our condescending politically correct assurances that we feel no superiority towards them only makes them more furious and feed their resentment. The problem is not cultural difference (their effort to preserve their identity), but the opposite: the fact that the fundamentalists are already like us, that, secretly, they have already internalized our standards and measure themselves by them.
— Slavoj Žižek
If we suggest that it is okay to make fun of everything except certain aspects of Islam because Muslims are much more sensitive than the rest of the population, isn’t that discrimination? Shouldn’t we treat the second-largest religion in France, exactly as we treat the first? It’s time to put an end to the revolting paternalism of the white, middle-class, “leftist” intellectual trying to coexist with these “poor, subliterate wretches.” “'I’m' educated; obviously I get that 'Charlie Hebdo' is a humor newspaper because, first, I’m very intelligent, and second, it’s my culture. But you—well, you haven’t quite mastered nuanced thinking yet, so I’ll express my solidarity by fulminating against Islamaphobic cartoons and pretending not to understand them. I will lower myself to your level to show you that I like you. And if I need to convert to Islam to get even closer to you, I’ll do it!” These pathetic demagogues just have a ravenous need for recognition and a formidable domination fantasy to fulfil.
— Charb, Open Letter: On Blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the True Enemies of Free Expression
Jahan mein ehle-e-imaan soorat-e-khursheed jeetay hain,Idhar doobey, udhar nikley; udhar doobey, idhar nikleyIn this world, men of faith and self-confidence are like the sun,They go down on one side to come up on the other.
— Allama Iqbal
Saying of the ProphetMonkishnessNo monkery in Islam.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
I was not always a Muslim, but once I was led into the absorption of prayer and the mysteries of the Qur’an, something troubled in me became still.
— Camilla Gibb
Confronted with such flagrant acts of intolerance—such abuses of the freedom of speech—a free society must surely do more. For intolerance is the one thing a free society cannot afford to tolerate.
— Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now
Terrorism has no religion, but secularism has one and only one.
— Satyendra Singh 'Shyamal'
Our creator is one. However you name him. Whatever you call him. He is the only one having 99 names...
— Munia Khan
It’s never easy to stand when the storm hits. And that’s exactly the point. By sending the wind, He brings us to our knees: the perfect position to pray.
— Yasmin Mogahed, Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Breaking Free from Life's Shackles
Tawakkul is having complete trust that Allah's plan is the best plan.
— Yasmin Mogahed
President Barack Obama and many liberal-minded commentators have been hesitant to call this Islamist ideology by its proper name. They seem to fear that both Muslim communities and the religiously intolerant will hear the word “Islam” and simply assume that all Muslims are being held responsible for the excesses of the jihadist few.I call this the Voldemort effect, after the villain in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. Many well-meaning people in Ms. Rowling’s fictional world are so petrified of Voldemort’s evil that they do two things: They refuse to call Voldemort by name, instead referring to “He Who Must Not Be Named,” and they deny that he exists in the first place. Such dread only increases public hysteria, thus magnifying the appeal of Voldemort’s power.The same hysteria about Islamism is unfolding before our eyes. But no strategy intended to defeat Islamism can succeed if Islamism itself and its violent expression in jihadism are not first named, isolated and understood. From: Maajid Nawaz's article titled, 'How to Beat Islamic State', December 11th, 2015.
— Maajid Nawaz
Almost all religions from Buddhism to Islam feature either a humble prophet or a prince who comes to identify with the poor, but what is this if not populism? It is hardly a surprise if religions choose to address themselves first to the majority who are poor and bewildered and uneducated.
— Christopher Hitchens, god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
You can't have freedom of religion with a religion that hates freedom!
— Celso Cukierkorn
Running away has been futile. Wherever I went life would be the same. Resisting my chains only seem to tighten them. Yet all around me women found ways to slip those bonds, to discreetly flout the rules and then return to their so-called captivity before anyone noticed.
— Sherry Jones, The Jewel of Medina
The Islamic State’s ideology exerts powerful sway over a certain subset of the population. Life’s hypocrisies and inconsistencies vanish in its face. Musa Cerantonio and the Salafis I met in London are unstumpable: No question I posed left them stuttering. They lectured me garrulously and, if one accepts their premises, convincingly. To call them un-Islamic appears, to me, to invite them into an argument that they would win. If they had been froth-spewing maniacs, I might be able to predict that their movement would burn out as the psychopaths detonated themselves or became drone-splats, one by one. But these men spoke with an academic precision that put me in mind of a good graduate seminar. I even enjoyed their company, and that frightened me as much as anything else.
— Graeme Wood
It would be facile, even exculpatory, to call the problem of the Islamic State 'a problem with Islam.' The religion allows many interpretations, and Islamic State supporters are morally on the hook for the one they choose. And yet simply denouncing the Islamic State as un-Islamic can be counterproductive, especially if those who hear the message have read the holy texts and seen the endorsement of many of the caliphate’s practices written plainly within them.
— Graeme Wood
The problem is that, when places like Saudi Arabia just implement the penal code, and don’t provide the social and economic justice of the Sharia—the whole package—they simply engender hatred toward the Sharia.
— Anjem Choudary
Centuries have passed since the wars of religion ceased in Europe, and since men stopped dying in large numbers because of arcane theological disputes. Hence, perhaps, the incredulity and denial with which Westerners have greeted news of the theology and practices of the Islamic State. Many refuse to believe that this group is as devout as it claims to be, or as backward-looking or apocalyptic as its actions and statements suggest."Their skepticism is comprehensible. In the past, Westerners who accused Muslims of blindly following ancient scriptures came to deserved grief from academics—notably the late Edward Said—who pointed out that calling Muslims 'ancient' was usually just another way to denigrate them. Look instead, these scholars urged, to the conditions in which these ideologies arose—the bad governance, the shifting social mores, the humiliation of living in lands valued only for their oil."Without acknowledgment of these factors, no explanation of the rise of the Islamic State could be complete. But focusing on them to the exclusion of ideology reflects another kind of Western bias: that if religious ideology doesn’t matter much in Washington or Berlin, surely it must be equally irrelevant in Raqqa or Mosul. When a masked executioner says Allahu akbar while beheading an apostate, sometimes he’s doing so for religious reasons.
— Graeme Wood
I believe that the victims and their families should start lodging civil actions for negligence against the politicians. Allowing treasonous murderers into our countries, at the tragic cost to our citizens is worthy of a court action. And as soon as the first judgment goes in favour of the plaintiff, that will change the immigration policies overnight, because, as we know, money is the only thing that talks.
— Robert  Black
With my veil I put my faith on display—rather than my beauty. My value as a human is defined by my relationship with God, not by my looks. I cover the irrelevant. And when you look at me, you don’t see a body. You view me only for what I am: a servant of my Creator.You see, as a Muslim woman, I’ve been liberated from a silent kind of bondage. I don’t answer to the slaves of God on earth. I answer to their King.
— Yasmin Mogahed, Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Breaking Free from Life's Shackles
Here is something I have learned the hard way, but which a lot of well-meaning people in the West have a hard time accepting: All human beings are equal, but all cultures and religions are not. A culture that celebrates femininity and considers women to be the masters of their own lives is better than a culture that mutilates girls’ genitals and confines them behind walls and veils or flogs or stones them for falling in love. A culture that protects women’s rights by law is better than a culture in which a man can lawfully have four wives at once and women are denied alimony and half their inheritance. A culture that appoints women to its supreme court is better than a culture that declares that the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man. It is part of Muslim culture to oppress women and part of all tribal cultures to institutionalize patronage, nepotism, and corruption. The culture of the Western Enlightenment is better. In the real world, equal respect for all cultures doesn’t translate into a rich mosaic of colorful and proud peoples interacting peacefully while maintaining a delightful diversity of food and craftwork. It translates into closed pockets of oppression, ignorance, and abuse. Many people genuinely feel pain at the thought of the death of whole cultures. I see this all the time. They ask, “Is there nothing beautiful in these cultures? Is there nothing beautiful in Islam?” There is beautiful architecture, yes, and encouragement of charity, yes, but Islam is built on sexual inequality and on the surrender of individual responsibility and choice. This is not just ugly; it is monstrous.
— Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations
And while it’s nice of you to want to call us ‘modern’ or ‘moderate,’ we’ll do without the redundancy. Islam is by definition moderate, so the more strictly we adhere to its fundamentals — the more moderate we’ll be. And Islam is by nature timeless and universal, so if we’re truly Islamic — we’ll always be modern.We’re not ‘Progressives’; we’re not ‘Conservatives’. We’re not ‘neo-Salafi’; we’re not ‘Islamists’. We’re not ‘Traditionalists’; we’re not ‘Wahabis’. We’re not ‘Immigrants’ and we’re not ‘Indigenous’. Thanks, but we’ll do without your prefix.We’re just Muslim.
— Yasmin Mogahed, Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Breaking Free from Life's Shackles
American liberals today are hesitant to speak out against the denial of rights that is perpetrated in the name of Islam.
— Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The Islamic Revolution, as it turned out, did more damage to Islam by using it as an instrument of oppression than any alien ever could have done.
— Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran
Allowing Islamic Sharia law into the constitutions of the U.S-created Islamic (!) Republic of Afghanistan and Republic of Iraq in 2004 and 2005 was as foolhardy as it would have been to write emperor-worship and Shinto militarism into Japan's 1946 constitution.
— Robert Spencer
I lived in my head most of the time— a lonely and messed up place —and suddenly there was a higher force called Allah I could lean on. A companion, who'd travel with me this road less trodden... My life. Islam means surrendering yourself to God.
— Fadia Faqir, Willow Trees Don't Weep
A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western. Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.
— Jalaluddin Rumi
Allah says in Surah Ar-Rahman that every thing in the Heavens and the Earth begs Allah for its needs. The argument can be made that an atheist doesn't ask Allah for anything at all. The answer to that is simple: his throat begs to Allah when it is thirsty, his heart seeks permission from Allah before beating each and every single time, and every blood cell asks Allah's permission before traveling through his veins. There is only one small part of his heart, his free will, that is in disobedience to Allah. And even that part will beg to Allah on Judgment Day.
— Nouman Ali Khan
You could read a dozen large tomes on the history of Islam from its very beginnings and you still wouldn't understand what is going on in Algeria. But read 30 pages on colonialism and decolonisation and then you'll understand quite a lot.
— Amin Maalouf, In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong
Every moment for us is Laylatul Qadr.
— Shaykh Abu Bakr bin Salim
Muhammad was not yet establishing a new religion
—  he was calling for sweeping social reforms. He was not yet preaching monotheism
While fasting, people refrain from fulfilling their basic desires for food, drink and sexual relations. This shows them that their mission in this religion is to control their desires and not allow their desires to control them and to overcome their desires and not be overcome by them. By doing so they take the path of self-rectification and do not fall into that which corrupts them.
— الحبيب عمر بن حفيظ - Habib Umar bin Hafiz
Sufism (tasawwuf) is not wearing clothes that you patched; it is not weeping when the singers sing their songs; and it is not dancing, shouting, experiencing ecstatic states, or passing out as if you’ve gone mad. Rather, Sufism is to become whole without any impurities; to follow the truth, the Qur’an, and this religion; and to be seen in a state of awe, broken and remorseful about all of your sins.
— Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi
God does not care where you pray. He only cares what is in your heart.
— Tucker Elliot, The Rainy Season
If Layla and Majnoon had seen Rasoolallah and Sayyiduna Abu Bakr, they would have bowed their heads and admitted they knew nothing about love and sacrifice.
— Shaykh Mohammed Aslam
Einige Leute gedenken Allah beim Essen, während andere beim Beten an das Essen denken. Beide essen und beten, sind aber so weit entfernt voneinander, wie es die Himmel von der Erde sind. Some people remember Allah when they are eating while some people think about food when they are praying. Both eat and pray, but they are as far apart from each other as the heavens are from the earth.
— الحبيب عمر بن حفيظ - Habib Umar bin Hafiz
All these schools of though gradually transformed into legal institutions, the diversity of ideas and freedom of opinion that characterized their early development gave way to rigid formalism, strict adherence to precedent, and an almost complete stultification of independent though
— Reza Aslan, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
Certainly the shahadah contained an important theological innovation, but that innovation was not monotheism. With this simple profession of faith, Muhammad was declaring to Mecca that the God of the heavens and the earth required no intermediate whatsoever, but could be accessed by anyone.
— Reza Aslan, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
No one speaks for God - not even the prophets (who speak about God)
— Reza Aslan
Husbandry is the foundation of civilization - all sustenance derives from it, as well as the principal benefits and blessings that civilization brings.
— Ibn 'Abdun
Learn! For learning is an adornment for one who possesses it, avirtue and a prelude to every praiseworthy action. Profit eachday by increasing [your] learning, and swimming in the seas ofbeneficial knowledge. Give yourself up to the study of jurisprudence,for the knowledge of jurisprudence is the best guide to piety andthe fear of God, and it is the straightest path to the ultimate goal.It is the milestone leading to the ways of proper guidance;it is the fortress that saves [one] from all hardships.Indeed, one godly person versed in jurisprudence is more powerfulagainst Satan than a thousand [ordinary] worshipers.
— Instruction of the Student by Imam al-Zarnuji
Food is not to enjoy. That's not the reason why you're eating it. That's why the Glutton eats. But someone who's serious about maintaining their health - they eat for health. We're literally digging our graves with our teeth.
— Hamza Yusuf
The violent injunctions of the Quran and the violent precedents set by Muhammad set the tone for the Islamic view of politics and of world history. Islamic scholarship divides the world into two spheres of influence, the House of Islam (dar al-Islam) and the House of War (dar al-harb). Islam means submission, and so the House of Islam includes those nations that have submitted to Islamic rule, which is to say those nations ruled by Sharia law. The rest of the world, which has not accepted Sharia law and so is not in a state of submission, exists in a state of rebellion or war with the will of Allah. It is incumbent on dar al-Islam to make war upon dar al-harb until such time that all nations submit to the will of Allah and accept Sharia law. Islam's message to the non-Muslim world is the same now as it was in the time of Muhammad and throughout history: submit or be conquered. The only times since Muhammad when dar al-Islam was not actively at war with dar alharb were when the Muslim world was too weak or divided to make war effectively. But the lulls in the ongoing war that the House of Islam has declared against the House of War do not indicate a forsaking of jihad as a principle but reflect a change in strategic factors. It is acceptable for Muslim nations to declare hudna, or truce, at times when the infidel nations are too powerful for open warfare to make sense. Jihad is not a collective suicide pact even while "killing and being killed" (Sura 9:111) is encouraged on an individual level. For the past few hundred years, the Muslim world has been too politically fragmented and technologically inferior to pose a major threat to the West. But that is changing.
— Jake Neuman, Islam: Evil in the Name of God
Multiculturalism should not mean that we tolerate another culture’s intolerance. If we do in fact support diversity, women’s rights, and gay rights, then we cannot in good conscience give Islam a free pass on the grounds of multicultural sensitivity.
— Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now
Saying of the ProphetObligation to LearnThe pursuit of knowledge is obligatory on every Muslim.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Saying of the ProphetTruthSpeaking the truth to the unjust is the best of holy wars.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Some people make the mistake of confusing "submission" with "weakness", whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend.
— Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love
Saying of the ProphetTHE PEOPLEIt is the people who are God's family.(Muhammad the Prophet)
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Saying of the ProphetSome behaviourI am like a man who has lighted a fire, and all the creeping things have rushed to burn themselves in it.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
The little dove, in her nest, in my kitchen window, still awake, all scared, waiting for the storm to pass and we humans are sleeping peacefully, believing that our concrete houses will save us...
— Nauman Khan
Everywhere where detestable Islam has not yet driven out the ancient, profound religions of humanity with fire and sword, my ascetic results would have to fear the reproach of being trivial
— Arthur Schopenhauer, On The Will In Nature
Saying of the ProphetThe BequestI have nothing to leave you except my family.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Some people make the mistake of confusing "submission" with "weakness", whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend.I accepted the fact that there are things beyond my limits. I can only see some parts, like floating fragments from a movie, but the bigger scheme is beyond my comprehension.
— Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love
It's rather simple. God deliver us from people who know so little that they will kill for what little they know.
— R. Joseph Hoffmann
Just now at Magrib Salah, a very old man was standing next 2 me, he was exactly behind the imam so he must b the 1st one in the masjid, it was difficult for him to stand but he stood with shivering hands and feet using the support of a stick, while saying takbir he only raised 1 hand coz the other hand was on the stick, supporting him in standing, while in ruku, he placed the handle of the stick near his shoulder and supported his whole body on the stick, if he coming to masjid to offer salah in my time, what excuse will I give to Allah?
— Nauman Khan
True freedom is doing what Allah wants which is the defintion of freedom in Islam. The 'Abdullah is the only real hur because he is a servant and a slave to Allah and not to creation.The one who is a slave to himself is not free and will never be free until he is freed of himself.And this is why in arabic language the word for freed slave is also the word for master: "Maula"; like we call Allah "Maulana". So the freed slave is the one who is the master of himself.
— Hamza Yusuf
Because Muhammad is considered Allah's final prophet and the Quran the eternal, unalterable words of Allah himself, there is also no evolving morality that permits the modification or integration of Islamic morality with that from other sources. The entire Islamic moral universe devolves solely from the life and teachings of Muhammad.
— Jake Neuman, Islam: Evil in the Name of God
Saying of the ProphetFoodNobody has eaten better food than that won by his own labour.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Saying of the ProphetAccusationsAnyone reviling a brother for a sin will not himself die before committing it.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Saying of the Prophet.Lies, promises, trustHe is not of mine who lies, breaks a promise or fails in his trust.
— Idries Shah
Saying of the ProphetTasksWhoever makes all his tasks one task, God will help him in his other concerns.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
We know Jesus taught that if someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to the left. We know that Mohammed was sacked from his village and stoned at Ta'if, but he quietly left for Medina.If both of these men, beaten, and bloodied—the incarnations of their respective faiths—asked God to forgive their aggressors, then who were today's religious leaders to advocate holy war?
— Eliza Griswold
Indeed, for the righteous is attainment - Gardens and grapevines And full-breasted [companions] of equal age And a full cup. No ill speech will they hear therein or any falsehood - [As] reward from your Lord, [a generous] gift [made due by] account, [From] the Lord of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, the Most Merciful. They possess not from Him [authority for] speech.[The Quran, 78:31-37]
— Anonymous, The Qur'an / القرآن الكريم
For us (Muslims) death is an incident: for them (the Europeans), the end.
— Marmaduke William Pickthall
People say to you, 'you've changed', or something like that. Well, I hope, for the sake of God, that I have changed, because I don't want to be the same person all my life. I want to be growing, I want to be expanding. I want to be changing. Because animate things change, inanimate things don't change. Dead things don't change. And the heart should be alive, it should be changing, it should be moving, it should be growing and its knowledge should be expanding.
— Hamza Yusuf
Saying of the ProphetPracticeWho are the learned? Those who put into practice what they know.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
I die, and yet not dies in meThe ardour of my love for Thee,Nor hath Thy Love, my only goal,Assuaged the fever of my soul.To Thee alone my spirit cries;In Thee my whole ambition lies,And still Thy Wealth is far aboveThe poverty of my small love.I turn to Thee in my request,And seek in Thee my final rest;To Thee my loud lament is brought,Thou dwellest in my secret thought.However long my sickness be,This wearisome infirmity,Never to men will I declareThe burden Thou has made me bear.To Thee alone is manifestThe heavy labour of my breast,Else never kin nor neighbors knowThe brimming measure of my woe.A fever burns below my heartAnd ravages my every part;It hath destroyed my strength and stay,And smouldered all my soul away.Guidest Thou not upon the roadThe rider wearied by his load,Delivering from the steeps of deathThe traveller as he wandereth?Didst Thou not light a beacon tooFor them that found the Guidance trueBut carried not within their handThe faintest glimmer of its brand?O then to me Thy Favour giveThat, so attended, I may live,And overwhelm with ease from TheeThe rigor of my poverty.
— ذو النون المصري, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam
There was one thing the experience had taught him. He said he'd learned that when millions of people, a whole political system, countless numbers of citizens who believed in God, said they were going to kill you - just listen to them.
— Terry Hayes
Why have not Al-Bukhari himself wrote what he has collected? Is it really possible for Muslims to depend on writers about whom they know nothing; and, consequently, build a whole religion on nothing but a guess?
— مُضر آل أحميّد, Dismantling ISIS
Freedom is the backbone of Islam, and it is guaranteed for all humans. Whether you are a Muslim, Christian, Jew, agnostic or an atheist; one is free to believe in what they want. Other people have no religious obligation to impose their beliefs on you; in fact, they have an obligation NOT to.
— مُضر آل أحميّد, Dismantling ISIS
We need to track back ISIS ideology to its origins, so as to pull it up by its roots. Then, and only then, we can establish a whole new understanding of the righteous religion rather than mere individuals’ interpretations that satisfy clerks desires and fantasies.
— مُضر آل أحميّد
It was inevitable, as soon as legends of miracles became attached to the names of the great mystics, that the credulous masses should applaud imposture more than true devotion; the cult of the saints, against which orthodox Islam ineffectually protested, promoted ignorance and superstition, and confounded charlatanry with lofty speculation. To live scandalously, to act impudently, to speak unintelligibly—this was the easy highroad to fame, wealth, and power.
— A.J. Arberry, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam
The Islamic State or The State of Islam are the titles under which ISIS and the like are committing their evil deeds and legalizing their crimes. Oddly, there are no such titles through the history of political Islam; we have heard of an Omayyad Empire, an Abbasside Empire, an Ottoman Empire, the Ayyubid State, and other states which made use of religion to expand their territories and control peoples’ minds and lives. These states held the names of the ruling dynasties but never Islam.
— مُضر آل أحميّد, Dismantling ISIS
Invasion was never a holy war in Islam, but it was holy in political Islam and the Islamic states and empires; after all, what is better than religion to drive people to war?!
— مُضر آل أحميّد, Dismantling ISIS
Apostasy was the major justification for terminating internal opposition throughout the history of Islamic empires. That is why we have heard of whole tribes and groups being eradicated for apostasy. Muslim philosophers, mathematicians and scientists were killed or exiled for apostasy and thus, the Muslim world stood still in all scientific and aesthetic fields.
— مُضر آل أحميّد, Dismantling ISIS
Many Islamic clerks are spreading the discourse of violence and the spirit of hatred; then they object on the actions of ISIS! They are producing ISIS generation by another, throughout their discourse and curricula.
— مُضر آل أحميّد, Dismantling ISIS
Saying of the ProphetOppressionWhen oppression exists, even the bird dies in its nest.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
For this world has neither worth nor weight with God; so slight it is, it weighs not with God so much as a pebble or a single clod of earth; as I am told, God has created nothing more hateful to Him than this world, and from the day He created it He has not looked upon it, so much He hates it.
— al-Hasan al-Basri, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam
Helping othersI order you to assist any oppressed person, whether he is a Moslem or not.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Saying of the ProphetDistributionGod it is who gives: I am only a distributor.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Saying of the ProphetWomenWomen are the twin-halves of men.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Saying of the ProphetReflectionThe Faithful are mirrors, one to the other.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Saying of the ProphetPrivacyWhoever invades people´s privacy corrupts them.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
The Hebrews have no name for Him, the Moslems have a hundred. Both suggest the same thing, that there are concepts as well as emotions that can be communicated only allegorically.
— Dagobert D. Runes, A Dictionary of Thought
Saying of the ProphetLoveDo you think you love your Creator? Love your fellow-creature first.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
The rejection of Western democracy derives from the same rejection of secularism but was further sharpened by the Saudi Arabian establishment’s aversion to democracy’s subversive streak and the threat it posed to the Saudi monarchy if unleashed. Saudi scholars such as Sheikh Bakr Ibn Abu Zaid consistently attacked democracy and the freedoms it flaunted as anti-Islamic. Mohammed Yusuf was heavily influenced by the writings of Saudi-based scholars such as Bakr Ibn Abu Zaid, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Ibn Abd-Allah Ibn Baaz (1910-99), and Sheikh Muhammad al-Amin ash Shanqiti (1907-73). As mentioned before, all of Yusuf’s opponents side-stepped the issue of democracy being un-Islamic, thereby making the issue appear incontestable or settled.
— Kyari Mohammed, Boko Haram: Islamism, politics, security and the state in Nigeria
Reh Gyi Rasm-e-Azan, Rooh-e-Bilali Na RahiFalsafa Reh Gya, Talqeen-e-Ghazali Na RahiAzan yet sounds, but never now Like Bilal’s, soulfully;Philosophy, conviction-less, Now mourns its Ghazzali
— Muhammad Iqbal
A world that becomes more Muslim becomes less everything else. First it’s Jews, already abandoning France. Then it’s homosexuals, already under siege from gay-bashing in Amsterdam, ‘the most tolerant city in Europe’. Then it’s uncovered women, targetted for rape in Oslo. And if you don’t any longer have any Jews or (officially) any gays or (increasingly) uncovered women, there are always just Christians in general, from Nigeria to Egypt to Pakistan. More space for Islam means less space for everything else, and in the end for you.
— Mark Steyn
This division is not one by religious affiliation, rather it separates the extremists and the peace-loving people.Therefor I'm optimistic: now a humanistic Islam is getting shaken awake. Moderate Islam needs now to finally break cover and explain how to deal with the violence-glorifying parts of the Quran. The (psychological) repression that this has nothing to do with our belief doesn't work anymore. We have to face this challenge.
— Mouhanad Khorchide
The universe and the events in it are thus perfect examples to imitate. However, no matter how perfect the example is, everyone will draw and interpret objects according to their abilities. Charles Lako, commenting on aesthetics once said, that the magnificent scene at sunset would remind a farmer of the rather unaesthetic thought of dinner; the physicist, not of beauty or ugliness, but of the rightness or wrongness of the analysis of a matter. Thus, for Lalo, the sunset is beautiful only for those who are aware of beauty. Therefore, only those who see with God and hear with God can appreciate the beauty that spreads throughout existence as their senses are tuned to the spiritual realms.
— M. Fethullah Gülen, Speech and Power of Expression: On Language, Esthetics, and Belief
You think it's impossible to be a passive fighter? Well, sometimes fighting just means existing. Existing, not going away, and quietly biding your time.
— Sophie Hardach, The Registrar's Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages
Manuscripts - at least for Muslims who understand the subject - are to be read as books whose contents are to be known and understood, for that is why they were written, and not to be regarded as enigmatic specimens for critical textual and philological exercises. To them what is in the manuscripts is more important than what is on them, and so they say: Al-'ilmu fi'l-sudur la fi'l-sutur.
— Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, Comments on the Re-Examination of Al-Raniri's Hujjatu'l-Siddiq: A Refutation
There can be no religious discourse which is in conflict with its environment and with the world and therefore, we Muslims need to modify this religious discourse. And this has nothing to do with conviction and with religious beliefs, because those are immutable. But we need a new discourse that will be adapted to a new world and which will remove some of the misconceptions.
— Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Ich bin lieber eine Frau als ein Mann. Frauen dürfen weinen, hübsche Kleider tragen, und sie werden als Erste von einem sinkenden Schiff gerettet.I'm glad that I'm a woman and not a man. Women are allowed to cry and to wear pretty dresses, and they are the first to be saved from a sinking ship.
— Antonia Rau
To understand the extreme lengths to which the Sufis were prepared to go in reading esoteric meanings into the quite simple language of their Scriptures, it is necessary to remember that the Koran was committed to memory by all deeply religious men and women, and recited constantly, aloud or in the heart; so that the mystic was in a state of uninterrupted meditation upon the Holy Book. Many passages which would otherwise pass without special notice were therefore bound to arrest their attention, already sufficiently alert, and to quicken their imagination, already fired by the discipline of their austerities and the rigor of their internal life.
— A.J. Arberry, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam
What are the chances that of all 1.59629 quadrillion square feet of physical land on planet Earth, three major world religions are literally fighting over one single rock?
— Jared Brock, A Year of Living Prayerfully: How a Curious Traveler Met the Pope, Walked on Coals, Danced with Rabbis, and Revived His Prayer Life
A sincere call to the Almighty can change what you may have thought was impossible to change. Never lose hope.
— Mufti Ismail Menk
The word Ilaah means something that deserves to be worshiped AND obeyed at the same time. It is not enough to worship Allah through rituals. We have to give His obedience precedence over our desires in every situation of our life.
— Nouman Ali Khan
The statement 'the Shariah says...' is thus automatically misleading, as there is almost always more than one answer to any legal question.
— Jonathan A.C. Brown
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.To know the pain of too much tenderness.TO be wounded by your own understanding of love;And to bleed willingly and joyfully.To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.TO rest at the noon hour and meditate on love's ecstacy;To return home at eventide with gratitude;And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
— The Prophet
sometimes we need the world and all the people on her to abandon us so we can turn to the One who will never leave us stranded.
— Aisha Mirza
Treat this world as I do, like a wayfarer; like a horseman who stops in the shade of a tree for a time, and then moves on.
— Idries Shah
A good deed that follows upon another is the reward for the first one, and an evil deed that follows upon another is a punishment for the first one.
— Junayd
Jesus, the son of Mary, peace be upon them, was accustomed to say, "O my God, surely I have entered into the morning unable to neither forestall what I fear nor hasten what I hope for. The whole affair is in another’s hand. I have arisen bound to my deeds. There is no one poorer than me. Do not make me the cause of my enemies being cursed, nor make me the reason any harm should come to a friend. Do not place tribulation in my spiritual path, nor empower anyone over me who shows me no mercy.""Walk on Water: The Wisdom of Jesus"From Traditional Arabic sources, translated by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.
— Ibn Abī al-Dunyā
Islam desists violence practised by terrorists who kill their brethren and commit all despicable actions under the shelter of religion. Islam dissociates itself strictly from these people and their actions.
— Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan
There is one thing only which a Muslim can profitably learn from the west, the exact sciences in their pure and applied form. Only natural sciences and mathematics should be taught in Muslim schools, while tuition of European philosophy, literature and history should lose the position of primacy which today it holds on the curriculum.
— Muhammad Asad
Courtesy with them is tariqa and following them is haqiqa.
— Imam Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ja'far
Saying of the ProphetObjectsIt is your attachment to objects which make you blind and deaf.
— Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Yahya related to me from Malik that he heard that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "I have left two things with you. As long as you hold fast to them, you will not go astray. They are the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet.
— according to the Muwatta by Malik ibn Anas
A believer covers up and give Naseehah, whereas an evil-doer exposes and humiliates.
— Fudial bin Ayyad
In times of strife, taliban have usually mobilized in defense of tradition. British documents from as early as 1901 decry taliban opposition to colonialism in present-day Pakistan. However, as with so much else, it was the Soviet invasion and the US response that sent the transformative shock. In the 1980s, as guns and money coursed through the ranks of the Kandahar mujahedeen, squabbling over resources grew so frequent that many increasingly turned to religious law to settle their disputes. Small, informal bands of taliban, who were also battling against the Russians, established religious courts that heard cases from feuding fighters from across the south. Seemingly impervious to the lure of foreign riches, the taliban courts were in many eyes the last refuge of tradition in a world in upheaval....Thousands of talibs rallied to the cause, and an informal, centuries-old phenomenon of the Pashtun countryside morphed into a formal political and military movement, the Taliban. As a group of judges and legal-minded students, the Taliban applied themselves to the problem of anarchy with an unforgiving platform of law and order. The mujahedeen had lost their way, abandoned their religious principles, and dragged society into a lawless pit. So unlike most revolutionary movements, Islamic or otherwise, the Taliban did not seek to overthrow an existing state and substitute it with one to their liking. Rather, they sought to build a new state where none existed. This called for “eliminating the arbitrary rule of the gun and replacing it with the rule of law—and for countryside judges who had arisen as an alternative to a broken tribal system, this could only mean religious law.Jurisprudence is thus part of the Taliban’s DNA, but its single-minded pursuit was carried out to the exclusion of all other aspects of basic governance. It was an approach that flirted dangerously with the wrong kind of innovation: in the countryside, the choice was traditionally yours whether to seek justice in religious or in tribal courts, yet now the Taliban mandated religious law as the compulsory law of the land. It is true that, given the nature of the civil war, any law was better than none at all—but as soon as things settled down, fresh problems arose. The Taliban’s jurisprudence was syncretic, mixing elements from disparate schools of Islam along with heavy doses of traditional countryside Pashtun practice that had little to do with religion. As a result, once the Taliban marched beyond the rural Pashtun belt and into cities like Kabul or the ethnic minority regions of northern Afghanistan, they encountered a resentment that rapidly bred opposition.
— Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes
It is but knowledge, putting it into practice, circumspection, fear of God, and sincerity with Him, August and Majestic is He.
— Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Habashi
There is so much debate about moderate and radical Islam but there is only one Islam.
— Imran Khan
Holy Prophet PBUH promulgated a justice system regardless of status of people, yet in Pak the powerful easily escapes.
— Imran Khan
I want you all to stand like the Muslims who stood with La ilaaha ilalla for Truth and Right
— Imran Khan
In our towns and cities they will continue to be born, in our communities they will go on to be nurtured & radicalised & from within our neighbourhoods they will terrorise & murder our citizens including women & children in their attempt to destroy the very fabric & order of our civilised society. They are influenced by our ignorance, our lack of knowledge is their power, martyrdom in the name of their God and prophet is their aspiration & so it is critical that we waste no time & learn more about them & this ideology they follow before we can even begin to eradicate this chilling & growing endemic Islamic faith based terrorism’.
— Cal Sarwar
In Malta, the Wars of Religion reached their climax. If both sides believed that they saw Paradise in the bright sky above them, they had a close and very intimate knowledge of Hell.
— Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford, The Great Siege
In Islam, it is the "moderate" who is left to split hairs,because the basic thrust of the doctrine is undeniable: convert, sub-jugate, or kill unbelievers; kill apostates; and conquer the world.
— Sam Harris
In the physical ascension one sees the signs upon the horizons
—  in the spiritual ascension one sees the signs within himself.
People have been fighting and dying over religion for thousands of years. I could understand that fear. It creeps up on you a bit more when you’re alone in a foreign land. You certainly worry about it more when you walk the same streets as violent people that harbor a clear hatred of your beliefs and values. The reality is some Muslims in the world would kill me for being Christian, just as some Christians in the world would kill Maya, Gita, Farid and Ridwan for being Muslim. Nowadays news outlets and social media have reified that fear. It keeps some people focused and aware. It paralyzes others. It blinds some of us. That’s what happened to me. It’s why I felt the whole world shake. Twice.
— Tucker Elliot, The Rainy Season
In a proper Islamic University, fard 'ain knowledge which represents the permanent intellectual and spiritual needs of the human soul--should form the core curriculum, and should be made obligatory to all students. Fard kifayah knowledge--reflecting societal needs and global trends--is not obligatory to all, but must be mastered by and adequate number of Muslims to ensure the proper development of the Community and to safeguard its proper place in world affairs. The fard 'ain knowledge shall include knowledge of the traditional Islamic sciences such as the Arabic language, metaphysics, the Qur'an and Hadith, ethics, the shari'ah sciences, and the history of Islam. Consonant with our position that these fard 'ain sciences are not static but dynamic, they should be continuously studied, analyzed, and applied in relation to the fard kifayah sciences; i.e. the fields of their specialization.
— Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, Islamization of Contemporary Knowledge and the Role of the University in the Context of De-Westernization and Decolonization
The Islamic faith and ideology is at another pivotal moment in its history. Having survived for a thousand years or more after the Western Crusades it has been hauled back into the fire by some of its frustrated followers. Followers who have literally re interpreted or re translated the many open verses and chapters of the holy Qu’ran. These followers of the extreme Islamic beliefs are hankering to take our social order back and return it to the time of the prophet (mpbuh). The very turbulent dark and bloody days of religion and cults when ideologies were spread by the sword.
— Cal Sarwar on facebook
I was against the Iraq war I was against the Afghan war I was against bombing Libya and Syria but to be quite honest and with a heavy heart because more innocent people are gonna be killed....We have to step in and help wipeout ISIS!
— Cal Sarwar
The concept of ta'dib, if properly understood and competently explicated, is the correct concept of education in Islam, and not ta'lim or tarbiyah, which are currently in vogue among Muslims all over the world. this is because ta'dib already includes within its conceptual structure the elements of knowledge ('ilm), instruction (ta'lim), and good breeding (tarbiyah).
— Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, Islamization of Contemporary Knowledge and the Role of the University in the Context of De-Westernization and Decolonization
God was inviting me to go on Hajj, but before that I needed to settle my debts. Muslims may only embark on their pilgrimage if they are debt-free or at least have made an arrangement for repayment.
— Kristiane Backer, From MTV to Mecca: How Islam Inspired My Life