The Holy Quran (Translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali )
40. THE BELIEVER  (THE FORGIVER [GOD] )

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

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THE LIFE OF IMAM HUSSAIN (a)

by Dr. Haider Hussain Shamsi (an excerpt from his book, " and The Message Continues".

DURING THE TIMES OF THE PROPHET
      The birth of second grandchild made the Prophet (s) very happy. He came to the house of Imam All and his beloved daughter Fatima and named the newborn Husain.

      It is quoted by many narrators that the Prophet (s) often used to carry his two grandsons on his shoulders.  When people remarked on how much he loved his grandsons, he used to say, "Hasan and Husain are the two princes of the youth of paradise." People also quote from him as praying to Allah by saying "O Allah, befriend those who befriend them and be the foe to whoever designs to hurt them."

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This is our heaven - or hell

by Karen Armstrong
Saturday October 18, 2003
The Guardian

     The Bishop of Durham has recently suggested that a belief in heaven or hell is not a core tenet of Christianity. This will be shocking news to those who imagine that the chief function of religion is to give us intimations of immortality. Human beings are the only animals who have to live with the knowledge of their inevitable demise. We are also meaning-seeking creatures, and as soon as we fell out of the trees and became recognizably human, we created religions at the same time as we began to produce works of art, in order to convince ourselves that, despite the crushing burden of our mortality, our lives had intrinsic meaning and value. What could be more consoling than the knowledge that death is not the end, and that we will enjoy a richer and fuller existence in the hereafter?

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SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA, THE HON. DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD, AT THE OPENING OF THE TENTH SESSION OF THE ISLAMIC SUMMIT CONFERENCE AT PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA ON OCTOBER 16, 2003

1.    Alhamdulillah, All Praise be to Allah, by whose Grace and Blessings we, the leaders of the Organisation of Islamic Conference countries are gathered here today to confer and hopefully to plot a course for the future of Islam and the Muslim ummah worldwide.

2.      On behalf of the Government and the people of many races and religions of Malaysia, may I extend a warm welcome to all and everyone to this Tenth Session of the Islamic Summit Conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital.

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The Future of Political Islam
by Graham E. Fuller, Palgrave MacMillan,
(an excerpt from his book with above title)

INTRODUCTION:    WHAT IS POLITICAL ISLAM? 

      How does it act in the world? What challenges does it pose to the world, and what challenges does it face? And finally, where is it headed? These are the fundamental questions
addressed in this book.

     These questions became a whole lot less academic with the 11 September 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which suddenly brought Middle Fast politics home to Americans with a vengeance. What is in many ways a struggle within the Middle East had burst out of its confines to affect everyone. The East and the West are now just beginning a long process of sorting out the repercussions that touch upon the nature of entrenched and ineffective Middle Eastern regimes, their Islamist oppositions, Western hostility, and the presence of terrorist groups feeding off all these problems.

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Rumi's Page 

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THE FIRST MUSLIM WOMAN NOBLE PRIZE WINNER
Shirin Ebadi

" An Iranian human rights lawyer who fell foul of her country's conservative clerics has won the Nobel peace prize, in what some see as a rebuff to the Pope, who was heavily tipped to win the prize.

A lawyer and activist who has been imprisoned by the theocratic authorities and threatened by hardline ideologues, Shirin Ebadi is the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian to win the prize.

"As a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist, she has spoken out clearly and strongly in her country, Iran, far beyond its borders," the awards committee said in the citation yesterday.

In Rome, the decision was seen as a humiliating rebuff for Pope John Paul 11.
His fellow Pole, Lech Walesa, said: "It's incredible. It's unbelievable."

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I had a dream
by Okasha Naqvi, 13 years
New Jersey

I had the strangest dream
not long ago
let us see if you notice the moral
my dream had meant to show

I was treading through the woods
the breeze brushing against my face
a voice had begun chanting
my name from place to place

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Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall
A Servant of Islam by Abu Ali Hadhrami

       He was born William Pickthall in 1875 in London, to an Anglican clergyman, and spent his formative years in rural Suffolk. He was contemporary of Winston Churchill at Harrow, the famous private school. During intervals from living a sedentary life in Suffolk, Pickthall traveled extensively in the Arab world and Turkey. In 1917, Pickthall reverted to Islam and soon became a leader among the emerging group of British Muslims.

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Ramadan 2004

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Tale of a few lectures
By M. Shahid Alam

          Five Ivy League colleges decide to invite a Muslim sage to talk to them and after much deliberation, narrow their choice to Mullah Nasruddin.

          Two years after September 11, 2001, when the righteous indignation of Americans at the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon had cooled a bit, five Ivy League colleges decided to invite a Muslim sage to talk to them about why such horrible things were done to Americans.

          After much deliberation, the five colleges narrowed their choice to Jalaluddin Rumi and Mullah Nasruddin, two Muslim sages best known to Americans (it does not mean that many Americans have heard about these sages). In the end, it was the Mullah who won out, since he was thought
to posses a keener mind on all matters mundane.

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Imam Of The Age, The Twelfth Imam: 
Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi (a)
(an execrpt from Dr. Haider Hussain Shamsi's book , " and The Message Continues
THE TIMES AND LIFE OF IMAM MUHAMMAD AL-MAHDI (a)

The Birth of Imam Mahdi(a):
           The intention of the Abbasid caliphs was to prevent the conception and birth of the awaited Mahdi from the union of Imam Hasan Askari (a) with Nargis Khatoon.  This was based on the several traditions circulating among the early days of Islam as well as the fact that he would be the last in the chain of the twelve representatives of the Prophet.  Further, it was believed that with the coming of the Mahdi, the tyrants will run for refuge, and the oppressed would be liberated.  As demonstrated by Allah in several places in the Qur'an, His divine Will can never be superseded.  Nargis was able to conceal her state of gravidity, and when the birth occurred, none other than Hakeema, daughter of Imam Muhammad Taqi (a), attended it.