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Featuring Silvery K and taikou @ Panic of Pumpkin in Okinawa (closing October 31st @ 8 AM SLT).
Tonight through the night of October 29th marks the celebration of Mawlid al-Nabi, the birth of the prophet Muhammad. Although its commemoration is forbidden in Saudi Arabia and Qatar because of the Wahhabi and Salafi movements in those countries, it is celebrated in other Muslim-majority and high Muslim population countries (e.g. Egypt, Iran, India, Indonesia) as part-carnival, part-religious ritual.
This petition is a wake up call to all patriotic Indians who love this country. India is under attack from enemies within our own borders: Islamic terrorists. Sign the petition to save India!
#BanWahhabloodism #Wahhabism #wahhabi #India #NewDelhi #Delhi #Modi #salafi #salafism #ISIS #ISIL #Daesh #Modijee #terrorism #terrorist #terrorists #extremism #bigotry #hatespeech #hatepreaching #war #worldwar #SaudiArabia #islamist #jihad #jaihind #Hind #caliph #sharia
His Holiness Younus AlGohar on MFI's history in Pakistan and the revolutionary message of Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi.
- In 1980, Lord Ra Riaz, after vigorous spiritual retreat in Lal Bagh forest, began to raise awareness of spiritual sciences in Pakistan. The young generation in Pakistan embraced Lord Ra Riaz's call and started to practise spirituality.
- Lord Ra Riaz's message is beyond traditional Sufi doctrine. It can be called 'Sufi Plus Doctrine'. In the past, before you were initiated in spirituality, you spent 12 years in hermitage under auspicious supervision of a spiritual master. But making such efforts is impossible for people today. Lord Ra Riaz has exempted people from this process with His new doctrine. He gives people the method to purify the heart and ensures the Ego (Nafs) get purified along with it. The method: www.theawaitedone.com/teaching...
- He did not stop anyone from anything. He had no conditions or prerequisite for seekers of the path. The type of changes in spirituality that Lord Ra Riaz brought about - this spiritual freedom was not even given to any prophet! This proves He is the Awaited One.
- Lord Ra Riaz teaches His followers that God can make anybody from any religion a saint of God. His followers have respect for all. The hearts trained by Lord Ra Riaz can never have intolerance or hatred.
- His door is open to the LGBT community, to those who commit adultery, alcoholics, etc. Faith has to do with the soul, not the body. The message of love is for all regardless of whether or not they follow a religion or believe in God.
- As Lord Ra Riaz's message gained popularity in Pakistan, sectarian elements, especially Salafis and Wahhabis, became dedicated enemies of Lord Ra Riaz and His message. They called for assassination to be carried out if Lord Ra Riaz were to go to Saudi Arabia.
You can watch the live recordings of these videos every day at 22:00 GMT on younusalgohar.com
Can't access this video? Watch it on Daily Motion: www.dailymotion.com/mehdifound...
Listen to this speech on the go with SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/younusalgohar/
This simple question from one poster which kept repeating in my head for sometime " What's special about Egypt ?"
I meant to answer it back sooner I've seen the question . An answer could have been given in one sentence as in : " Because I visited Egypt . " But an answer like it isn't enough to let go with my clear conscience . It was a standing question which I could leave and let go . I thought about it and since I have yet many photos of Egypt in archive , I guess it's time again to post a few .
Egypt stands out in history and of its antiquities ( Pyramids ,Great Spinx , Valley of the Kings etc. ) a great factor drawing millions of tourists to the country . The tourism industry is so vital for Egypt's survival where it brings big bulk for the national income . Apart from the grand historical monuments as mentioned , it has very interesting museums , souks , shopping , it's culture , snorkeling ,safaris , nature and beauty of the Nile ( on a felucca or a boat cruise )enough to lull your mind for a little while by the experience . Fine dining was pointed out ( not to worry of the deli-belly ) actually the food is relatively good depending on where you go , some holiday brochures talks about night life too which I haven't got any idea . I have gone past the age for the longing of night life . Nonetheless on my list and for the Bible savvy , this country is Biblical place . Egypt is mentioned many times in the Bible in the Old and New Testament and as one of the countries in the end time countdown involve in one of the regional apocalyptic wars ( Arab coallition ) against the distruction of Israel .
I was glad to have seen Egypt before the Arab Spring happened . According to reports the Egyptian tourism industry suffered a blow from the uprising . Record number of tourist visits dramatically fall since then . Spilling more trouble , a political party of the Muslim Brotherhood ( Islamist group ) suggested some change for Egypt's tourism . A spokesperson of the Salafi group Dawa , believed the famous Pyramids and Sphinx should be hidden from public eye and demanded that faces of ancient statues should be covered with wax with reference to their religious dictates . Can you picture out what would happen to Egypt when the Muslim Brotherhood dominates the Egyptian political scene ? It hasn't gone a year since Mubarak was ousted from the regime and sweeping changes can now be felt leading Egypt towards a different direction.
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Here are some links of news / videos I find interesting .
Prophecy of the Future of Egypt
WOULD THIS BE ONE OF THE PHOPHECIES SOON BE FULFILLED ? THEN IF SO ,YOU KNOW WHERE WE ARE IN TIME . DON'T BE MISLEAD BY THE BLIND ATHEISTS EMPTY RHETHORICS AND BASHINGS AGAINST THE WORD OF GOD AND CHRIST - THE BIBLE HOLDS THE TRUTH AND FUTURE NEWS .
WMD ( Weapons of Mass Destruction ) might be use in this foreseable war !
IDF general: Likelihood of regional war growing
Top General Expects 'Islamic Winter'
Qassam Rocket Attacks Continue in Southern Israel
Israel sends 2 warships to Egyptian border
This is really heavy for those who aren't into prophecies .
The Battle Of Armageddon Different From Other Wars .
I find this video clips about Armageddon very interesting .On a different light , I'm not so keen of the odd sign popping out in the middle of the sermon or in the beginning which absolutely is OCCULTIC symbolism - if you see the triangle with the all seeing eye of Horus --- many who are familiar with the OCCULT SATANIC SYMBOLS should have noticed this immediately . It has nothing to do with the International Bible Conference agenda which I see as purely Christian / Biblical sermons , this has to do with the god tv web hosting / design . This is clearly mocking the Biblical sermons through injecting satanic graphics on its web pages - not nice !
Part 2: flic.kr/p/2jucxQB
Original Artwork. 4K Version available. Little Amy got captured by some salafi haters. They tied her up and made her wear the niqab.
Do you want to see what she is wearing underneath :3?
The Role of Spiritual Knowledge in the Divine Plan
www.goharshahi.us/articles/view/role-spiritual-knowledge-...
In light of incidents of terrorism occurring globally, we ask ourselves: why are some people drawn to brutality and others to spirituality? Where is our world heading to?
His Holiness Younus AlGohar responds to Wahhabis who defend the Wahhabi cult and reveals what will happen in the near future in the Arab world.
Main points:
- Individuals who are now trying to defend Wahhabism are doing so in order to save their own skin; in order to tell themselves that they have not been wrong. The problem is: most Wahhabis do not know what Wahhabism is.
- Wahhabis say that those who disrespect Islam should be killed; but there is no such thing in Islam. Prophet Mohammad did not say, ‘Kill them because they are blaspheming your true God.’ Rather, he said, ‘You should not blaspheme their false God; and in return, they will not blaspheme your true God.’
- Abdul Wahhab Najdi is the man who Wahhabism is named after. However, the doctrine he is inspired by does not come from himself. It is the continuation of the doctrine of Ibn Taymiyyah. Then, Ibn Taymiyyah must have been inspired by Umar bin Khattab.
- The Quran 49:2 says, ‘Do not raise your voice over the voice of Prophet Mohammad.’ This verse does not apply to us because Prophet Mohammad is not here. This verse was for Prophet Mohammad’s time. Umar bin Khattab was actually and factually the founder of Wahhabism.
- The Quran 68:4 also said ‘Have we not sent you as blessings for the entire universe?’ Is the universe filled with Muslims only and there are no non-Muslims? Prophet Mohammad’s mercy and blessings are not confined, restricted or limited to Muslims only. It is for the entire universe.
- According to Prophetic Traditions, Imam Mehdi will snatch away the Saudi Kingdom. This is why they don’t like Imam Mehdi. The time has come; overnight Imam Mehdi will become known to every single human being on Earth.
You can watch the video by clicking the link below:
posted at youtube discussion tab
Who called
me a Qadiani
Which I am not ..
I am a Shia born
he forgot ..
i dont mind being
a rafiddi a heretic
but not a Wahabi
Salafi Jamati
Tabliki Brelvi
bot ,, on the soul
of Humanity a blot
I deleted his comment
reported him for
harassment
cyber bullying
a wrong man in his
net he caught ,,
may in the fires of
his apostasy he rot
this is what his vile
Shia hating
Sufi hating
Ahmediya hating
madrsa to him taught
his comment
sayed abdul rohman Qadri
2 hours ago
•
Potentially inappropriate
Qaadiyani hain aap joabi kucha bi karo orijnel mussalmaan nahi ho sakte
sayed abdul rohman Qadri
sayed abdul rohman Qadri
2 hours ago
•
Potentially inappropriate
Tu pehlebi jahnumm ta abi bi jahnum hogaya
sayed abdul rohman Qadri
sayed abdul rohman Qadri
2 hours ago
•
Potentially inappropriate
Mannhuss
Qadiyani
A team from Messiah Foundation USA visited Washington Monument, Washington D.C. USA to raise awareness about 'Ban Wahhabism' Campaign amongst the public. Here are some of the comments from people we spoke to.
--------------------
The Wahhabi ideology is the backbone of Islamic terrorism, sponsored by Saudi Arabia. It is responsible for the radicalisation of American youth and vulnerable individuals. It is a form of hate speech that incites enmity for the West and threatens everything the United States of America stands for.
ISIS (Daesh) is getting stronger. As long as the Wahhabi ideology is practised here, ISIS will have supporters in the United States. There are many Wahhabi mosques promoting this twisted ideology all over the United States.
Homegrown terrorism is a result of the Wahhabi ideology infiltrating the United States.
Recent terrorist attacks across Europe indicate that action is needed - and fast. Since 9/11, the US has seen many attempts by our enemies to carry out attacks on US soil.
Now, ISIS has very publicly threatened Washington D.C. and New York City.
Wahhabi mosques in the United States effectively work as terrorist-producing factories. They have converted vulnerable people into barbarians.
Even with continued airstrikes in Syria, we will have achieved nothing while the ideology of ISIS, Wahhabism, thrives within our borders.
To tackle homegrown terrorism and restore peace, it is necessary now to ban Wahhabism from the United States. We must protect ourselves and the next generation from this poisonous ideology!
We are in great danger from the death cult of Wahhabism. This is a matter of national security and our very future.
Let's demand that President Obama take a firm stand against homegrown terrorism. President Obama must ban Wahhabism - before it is too late!
The Role of Spiritual Knowledge in the Divine Plan
www.goharshahi.us/articles/view/role-spiritual-knowledge-...
In light of incidents of terrorism occurring globally, we ask ourselves: why are some people drawn to brutality and others to spirituality? Where is our world heading to?
The Comments I Get Here From YouTube Trolls Racists Bigots
That I am Heretic
That I am a Pakhandi
That I am a Hindu
I am a Jew Lover
I am a Christian Lover
I block report and delete
My humble response ,... beauty lies in the eyes of the Beholder
I am everything you say
But I am not a radical Muslim or a fundamentalist I am not ISIS I am not a Taliban I am not a Ahle Hadis I am not a Wahabi or an accursed Salafi..
Om Namo Narayan
Jai Shree Ram..
I become the religion I shoot behind the Camera ,,
And I am lucky to be born in India ..
The Great Mosque of Brussels (French: Grande mosquée de Bruxelles, Dutch: Grote Moskee van Brussel) is located in the Cinquantenaire Park. The original building was built by architect Ernest Van Humbeeck in an Arabic style, to form the Oriental Pavilion of the National Exhibition in Brussels in 1880. At that time the pavilion housed a monumental painting on canvas: “Panorama of Cairo”, by the Belgian painter Emile Wauters, which enjoyed major success. However, lack of maintenance in the twentieth century caused the building to gradually deteriorate.
In 1967, King Baudouin lent the building to King Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia with a 99-year rent-free lease, on an official visit to Belgium as part of negotiations to secure oil contracts. The building was turned into a place of worship for the use of Muslim immigrants to Belgium, who at the time were notably from Morocco and Turkey. As part of the deal, imams from the Gulf area would be hired, although their orthodox salafism was a tradition, according to Georges Dallemagne, different from that of the more open-minded immigrants but their teachings would over time turn them into a more orthodox tradition and imams would discourage immigrants from integrating into the Belgian society, according to Georges Dallemagne. The mosque, after a long reconstruction carried out at the expense of Saudi Arabia by Tunisian architect Mongi Boubaker, was inaugurated in 1978 in the presence of Khalid ibn Abd al-Aziz and Baudouin.
In the immediate vicinity of the Mosque, the Monument to the Belgian Pioneers in Congo depicts a scene called "Belgian military heroism wipes out the Arab slave trader". Visitors of the Mosque complained about the mention of the "Arab slave trade". Together with the Jordan and Saudi ambassadors, the imam of the Mosque filed a complaint regarding the inscription, leading to the removal of the mention "Arab" in 1988.
The Mosque's role as the leading religious institution within the Belgian Islamic community—as well as its intended role as a diplomatic bridge between the Saudi and Belgian monarchies—has been a point of debate since its re-foundation. The mosque is popular with Muslim diplomats and is a popular location for Belgians seeking to convert to Islam. It has also taught thousands of Muslim students.
Imams and officials have come out to repeat the message that Islam is a religion of peace and has nothing to do with the terrorists in the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks. The ICC's director Khalid Alabri who propagated the Takfiri dogma was expelled by Belgian authorities for his extreme views in 2012.
In October 2017 the Belgian secretary of state of asylum and migration Theo Francken revoked the residence permit of the Egyptian-trained imam of the mosque, Abdelhadi Sewif. cited his salafist ideology, his conservative stance and the imam being a danger to Belgian society and national security as reasons for the revocation. Sewif denied any connection with extremism and appealed to the country’s highest migration authority, but Belgium’s deputy premier, Jan Jambon, has shot down his chance of a successful appeal. A public commission investigating the 2016 Brussels bombings found that 9 participants of courses at the mosque had joined the ranks of foreign fighters of radical groups in the Middle East. Due to these findings, the commission recommended in October 2017 that Saudi control of the mosque be annulled. The commission also stated that the salafi and wahhabist doctrine of the mosque were antithetical to a liberal Islam compatible with European society.
While the mosque leadership claims to promote an inclusionist vision of Islam, Belgian authorities state that the mosque encourage worshippers to close themselves off from mainstream Belgian society and that lead imam Abdelhadi Sewif spoke neither French nor Dutch, official languages of Belgium.
The Postcard
A postally unused Photocolour postcard that was printed and published in the mid 1960's by E. T. W. Dennis & Sons of Scarborough and London.
The card has a divided back.
The Manchester Arena Bombing
On the 22nd. May 2017, an Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by American singer Ariana Grande.
Twenty-three people were killed, including the attacker, and 1,017 were injured, many of them children. Several hundred more suffered psychological trauma.
The bomber was Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old local man of Libyan ancestry. After initial suspicions of a terrorist network, police later said that they believed Abedi had largely acted alone, but that others had been aware of his plans.
In March 2020, the bomber's brother, Hashem Abedi, was found guilty of 22 counts of murder and attempting to murder 1,017 others, and was sentenced to life in prison.
The incident was the deadliest terrorist attack and the first suicide bombing in the United Kingdom since the 7th. July 2005 London bombings.
The Bombing
On the 22nd. May 2017 at 22:15 a member of the public reported Abedi, wearing black clothes and a large rucksack to Showsec security. A security guard observed Abedi, but said that he did not intervene in case his concerns about Abedi were wrong, and out of fear of being considered a racist.
The security guard tried to use his radio to alert the security control room, but was unable to get through.
Police officers on duty that night were subsequently criticised for their behaviour in the hours leading up to the atrocity - including a two-hour dinner break and a 10-mile round trip to buy a kebab.
At one point, when Abedi took his final trip through the station to his hiding place in the foyer, there were no BTP officers on duty in the area.
At 22:31 the suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device, packed with nuts and bolts to act as shrapnel, in the foyer area of the Manchester Arena.
The attack took place after a concert by Ariana Grande that was part of her Dangerous Woman Tour. 14,200 people had attended the concert.
Many exiting concert-goers and waiting parents were in the foyer at the time of the explosion. According to evidence presented at the coroner's inquest, the bomb was powerful enough to kill people up to 20 metres (66 ft) away.
A report by inquiry chair John Saunders blamed “failings by individuals” for “missed opportunities” to detect and stop bomber Salman Abedi.
Saunders outlined a “litany” of failures by venue operators SMG, security firm Showsec and British Transport Police (BTP) - failures that included taking unauthorised two-hour meal breaks and ignoring members of the public who tried to raise the alarm:
-- Reconnaissance Oversights
Abedi went to the arena several times to carry out hostile reconnaissance in the run-up to the bombing, visiting on the 18th. and 21st. May, and also on the afternoon of the day of the attack.
Although arena operator SMG and security firm Showsec “had experience of identifying and responding to potential hostile reconnaissance effectively”, the system for passing on information about suspicious behaviour was “insufficiently robust”.
If the Showsec staff on duty at the time, Kyle Lawler and Mohammed Agha - then aged 18 and 19 respectively - had been aware of previous reports of suspicious activity, “it would have increased the possibility” of Abedi being spotted.
Inquiry chair Saunders also notes that SMG could have extended the permitted security perimeter from the entrance doors of the arena to the City Room, the foyer where the bomb detonated. The report says:
“Had permission to push out the perimeter
been granted, an attack in the City Room
would have been much less likely.”
-- Absence of Officers
Despite five officers being assigned to the arena on the night of the attack, “there was a complete absence of any BTP officer in the City Room” in the half hour before Abedi detonated the bomb. And no officers were policing the public areas of the venue between 8.58pm and 9.36pm.
The report found that BTP officers “took breaks substantially and unjustifiably” longer than their authorised one hour. Instructions to stagger breaks between 7.30pm and 9pm - when younger children could be leaving the venue - were also ignored.
The public inquiry into the attack had previously heard how two officers on duty at the concert, PC Jessica Bullough and PCSO Mark Renshaw, had taken a “two-hour-and-nine-minute dinner break to get a kebab five miles from the arena”. The Telegraph reported:
"Bullough has since admitted that were
she present on her shift as she should
have been, she would have likely stopped
Abedi and asked him what was in his bag”.
-- The CCTV Blindspot
Saunders' report says that Abedi chose an “obvious hiding place” in a CCTV blindspot of the arena City Room foyer, having no doubt identified this area during his hostile reconnaissance:
“Had the area been covered by CCTV so that
there was no blind spot, it is likely that this
behaviour by Abedi would have been identified
as suspicious by anyone monitoring the CCTV."
Giving evidence to the inquiry, Showsec security guard Agha said that he had noticed Abedi in the City Room, but only because he “liked the look” of Abedi's trainers.
-- Inadequate Patrols
The inquiry report says that:
"A further missed opportunity to spot Abedi
in the half hour before the bomb detonated
arose from the absence of an adequate
security patrol by Showsec at any stage
during this time”.
The supervisor charged with carrying out “pre-egress” checks, Jordan Beak, did so “only very briefly”, patrolling for about ten minutes, during which he just “looked towards the staircases up to the mezzanine area”, where Abedi was sitting.
The report notes:
“He did not consider them a very important
part of the check because it was not an
egress route. Mr Beak did not go up on to the
mezzanine area, and so he did not see Abedi.
This was a significant missed opportunity.”
-- Concerns ‘Fobbed Off’
Saunders wrote that:
"The most striking missed opportunity, and the
one that is likely to have made a significant
difference, was an attempt by a member of the
public to raise concerns about Abedi after
becoming suspicious about the bomber's large
and obviously heavy backpack".
Christopher Wild told the inquiry how he had spotted Abedi while waiting for his 14-year-old daughter to leave the concert.
According to the BBC, Wild recalled how he approached Abedi and said:
“It doesn't look very good you know, what you
see with bombs and such, you with a rucksack
in a place like this, what are you doing?”
Abedi reportedly told Wild that he was “waiting for somebody, mate”, before asking what time it was.
Wild alerted security guard Agha about his suspicions around fifteen minutes before the blast. But according to the inquiry report:
"Agha did not take Christopher Wild’s
concerns as seriously as he should have”.
Wild felt that he had been “fobbed off” by the guard, who claimed to already be aware of Abedi. Agha is said to have made “inadequate” efforts to flag down his supervisor or pass on the message via his colleague Lawler, who had a radio.
Although Agha did share Wild’s concerns with Lawler, the latter “felt conflicted about what to do” and “stated he was fearful of being branded a racist and would be in trouble if he got it wrong”.
Lawler ultimately made an attempt to contact a senior supervisor through the radio, but couldn’t get through, and made no further efforts to communicate what he had been told to anyone else. Saunders wrote:
“The inadequacy of Mr Lawler’s response
was a product of his failure to take Mr Wild’s
concern and his own observations sufficiently
seriously. Mr Wild’s behaviour was very
responsible. He stated that he formed the
view that Abedi might let a bomb off.
That was sadly all too prescient, and makes
all the more distressing the fact that no effective
steps were taken as a result of his efforts.”
Aftermath of the Explosion
Three hours after the bombing, police conducted a controlled explosion on a suspicious item of clothing in Cathedral Gardens. This was later confirmed to have been abandoned clothing and not dangerous.
Residents and taxi companies in Manchester offered free transport or accommodation via Twitter to those left stranded at the concert. Parents were separated from their children attending the concert in the aftermath of the explosion.
A nearby hotel served as a shelter for people displaced by the bombing, with officials directing separated parents and children there. Manchester's Sikh temples along with local homeowners, hotels and venues offered shelter to survivors of the attack.
Manchester Victoria railway station, which is partly underneath the arena, was evacuated and closed, and services were cancelled. The explosion caused structural damage to the station, which remained closed until the damage had been assessed and repaired, resulting in disruption to train and tram services.
Victoria Station reopened eight days later, following the completion of police investigation work and repairs to the fabric of the building.
On the 23rd. May, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the UK's terror threat level had been raised to "critical", its highest level.
In the aftermath of the attack, Operation Temperer was activated for the first time, allowing up to 5,000 soldiers to reinforce armed police in protecting parts of the country.
Tours of the Houses of Parliament and the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace were cancelled on 24 May, and troops were deployed to guard government buildings in London.
On the 23rd. May, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, via the Nashir Telegram channel, said the attack was carried out by "a soldier of the Khilafah". The message called the attack:
"An endeavor to terrorise the mushrikin,
and in response to their transgressions
against the lands of the Muslims."
Abedi's sister said that he was motivated by revenge for Muslim children killed by American airstrikes in Syria.
The Manchester Arena remained closed until September 2017, with scheduled concerts either cancelled or moved to other venues. It reopened on the 9th. September 2017, with a benefit concert featuring Noel Gallagher and other acts associated with North West England.
Later that month, Chris Parker, a homeless man who stole from victims of the attack whilst assisting them, was jailed for 4 years and three months.
Casualties of the Attack
The explosion killed the attacker and 22 concert-goers and parents who were in the entrance waiting to pick up their children following the show. 119 people were initially reported as injured. This number was revised by police to 250 on the 22nd. June, with the addition of severe psychological trauma and minor injuries.
During the public inquiry into the bombing, it was updated in December 2020 to 1,017 people sustaining injuries.
The dead included ten people aged under 20; the youngest victim was an eight-year-old girl, and the oldest was a 51-year-old woman. Of the 22 victims, twenty were Britons and two were British-based Polish nationals.
North West Ambulance Service reported that 60 of its ambulances attended the scene, carried 59 people to local hospitals, and treated walking wounded on site. Of those hospitalised, 12 were children under the age of 16.
The first doctor thought to have been on scene was an off-duty consultant anaesthetist, Michael Daley. In recognition of his bravery for the role he played in the immediate medical response to the incident, Daley's name was entered into the BMA's Book of Valour in June 2017.
The Attacker
The bomber, Salman Ramadan Abedi, was a 22-year-old British Muslim of Libyan ancestry. He was born in Manchester to a Salafi family of Libyan-born refugees who had settled in Manchester after fleeing to the UK to escape the government of Muammar Gaddafi.
He had two brothers and a sister. He grew up in Whalley Range and lived in Fallowfield. Neighbours described the Abedis as a very traditional and "super religious" family who attended Didsbury Mosque.
Abedi attended Wellacre Technology College, Burnage Academy for Boys and The Manchester College. A former tutor remarked that:
"Abedi was a very slow, uneducated
and passive person".
He was among a group of students at his high school who accused a teacher of Islamophobia for asking them what they thought of suicide bombers. He also reportedly said to his friends that being a suicide bomber "was OK" and fellow college students raised concerns about his behaviour.
Abedi's father was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a Salafi jihadist organisation proscribed by the United Nations, and father and son fought for the group in Libya in 2011 as part of the movement to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.
Abedi's parents, both born in Tripoli, remained in Libya in 2011, while 17-year-old Abedi returned to live in the United Kingdom. He took a gap year in 2014, where he returned with his brother Hashem to Libya to live with his parents. Abedi was injured in Ajdabiya that year while fighting for an Islamist group.
The brothers were rescued from Tripoli by the Royal Navy survey ship HMS Enterprise in August 2014 as part of a group of 110 British citizens as the Libyan civil war erupted, taken to Malta and flown back to the UK.
According to a retired European intelligence officer, Abedi met with members of the ISIS Battar brigade in Libya, and continued to be in contact with the group upon his return to the UK.
An imam at Didsbury mosque recalled that Abedi looked at him "with hate" after he preached against ISIS and Ansar al-Sharia in 2015.
Abedi's sister said her brother was motivated by the injustice of Muslim children dying in bombings stemming from the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War.
A family friend of the Abedi's also remarked that Salman had vowed revenge at the funeral of Abdul Wahab Hafidah, who was run over and stabbed to death by a Manchester gang in 2016 and was a friend of Salman and his younger brother Hashem. Hashem later co-ordinated the Manchester bombing with his brother.
According to an acquaintance in the UK, Abedi was "outgoing" and consumed alcohol, while another said that Abedi was a "regular kid who went out and drank" until about 2016. Abedi was also known to have used cannabis.
He enrolled at the University of Salford in September 2014, where he studied business administration, before dropping out to work in a bakery. Manchester police believe Abedi used student loans to finance the plot, including travel overseas to learn bomb-making.
The Guardian reported that despite dropping out from further education, he was still receiving student loan funding in April 2017. Abedi returned to Manchester on the 18th. May after a trip to Libya and bought bomb-making material, apparently constructing the acetone peroxide-based bomb by himself. Many members of the IS Battar brigade trained people in bomb-making in Libya.
He was known to British security services and police but was not regarded as a high risk, having been linked to petty crime but never flagged up for radical views.
A community worker told the BBC he had called a hotline five years before the bombing to warn police about Abedi's views and members of Britain's Libyan diaspora said they had "warned authorities for years" about Manchester's Islamist radicalisation.
Abedi was allegedly reported to authorities for his extremism by five community leaders and family members, and had been banned from a mosque; the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, however, said Abedi was not known to the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme.
On the 29th. May 2017, MI5 launched an internal inquiry into its handling of the warnings it had received about Abedi and a second, "more in depth" inquiry, into how it missed the danger.
On the 22nd. November 2018, a Parliamentary report said that MI5 had acted "too slowly" in its dealings with Abedi. The committee's report noted:
"What we can say is that there were a number
of failings in the handling of Salman Abedi's case.
While it is impossible to say whether these would
have prevented the devastating attack on the
22nd. May, we have concluded that as a result of
the failings, potential opportunities to prevent it
were missed."
Investigation Into the Bombing
The property in Fallowfield where Abedi lived was raided on the 23rd. May. Armed police breached the house with a controlled explosion and searched it. Abedi's 23-year-old brother was arrested in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in south Manchester in relation to the attack.
Police carried out raids in two other areas of south Manchester and another address in the Whalley Range area. Three other men were arrested, and police initially spoke of a network supporting the bomber; however they later announced that Abedi had sourced all the bomb components himself, and that they now believed he had largely acted alone. On the 6th. July, police said that they believed others had been aware of Abedi's plans.
According to German police sources, Abedi transited through Düsseldorf Airport on his way home to Manchester from Istanbul four days before the bombing. French interior minister Gérard Collomb said that Abedi may have been to Syria, and had "proven" links with IS.
Abedi's younger brother and father were arrested by Libyan security forces on the 23rd. and 24th. May respectively. The brother was suspected of planning an attack in Libya, and was said to be in regular touch with Salman, and was aware of the plan to bomb the Manchester Arena, but not the date.
According to a Libyan official, the brothers spoke on the phone about 15 minutes before the attack was carried out. On the 1st. November 2017, the UK requested Libya to extradite the bomber's younger brother, Hashem Abedi to the UK in order to face trial for complicity in the murder of the 22 people killed in the explosion.
Photographs of the remains of the IED published by The New York Times indicated that it had comprised an explosive charge inside a lightweight metal container which was carried within a black vest or a blue Karrimor backpack.
Most of the fatalities occurred in a ring around the bomber. His torso was propelled by the blast through the doors to the arena, indicating that the explosive charge was held in the backpack and blew him forward on detonation. A small device thought to have possibly been a hand-held detonator was also found.
The bomb contained the explosive TATP, which had been used in previous bombings. According to Manchester police, the explosive device used by Abedi was the design of a skilled bomb-maker and had a back-up means of detonation. Police also said that Salman Abedi bought most of the bomb components himself, and that he was alone during much of the time before carrying out the Manchester bombing.
On the 28th. May, police released images showing Abedi on the night of the bombing, taken from CCTV footage. Further images showed Abedi walking around Manchester with a blue suitcase.
According to US intelligence sources, Abedi was identified by the bank card that he had with him and the identification was confirmed using facial recognition technology.
A public inquiry into the attack was launched in September 2020. The first of three reports to be produced was a 200-page report published on the 17th. June 2021. It found that:
"There were a number of missed opportunities
to alter the course of what happened that night,
and more should have been done by police and
private security guards to prevent the bombing."
News Leaks
Within hours of the attack, Abedi's name and other information that had been given confidentially to security services in the United States and France was leaked to the news media. This led to condemnation from Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
Following the publication of crime scene photographs of the backpack bomb used in the attack in the 24th. May edition of The New York Times, UK counterterrorism police chiefs said the release of the material was detrimental to the investigation.
On the 25th. May, Greater Manchester Police said that it had stopped sharing information on the attack with the US intelligence services. Theresa May said she would make clear to President Trump that:
"Intelligence that has been
shared must be made secure."
Donald Trump described the leaks to the news media as "deeply troubling", and pledged to carry out a full investigation.
New York Times editor Dean Baquet declined to apologise for publishing the backpack bomb photographs, saying:
"We live in different press worlds.
The material was not classified at
the highest level."
On the 26th. May, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States government accepted responsibility for the leaks.
Links with the Muslim Brotherhood
According to a secret recording unveiled by the BBC, Mostafa Graf, the imam of the Didsbury Mosque where Salman Abedi and his family were regulars, made a call for armed jihad ten days before Abedi bought his concert ticket.
Following these revelations, the Manchester Police opened an investigation into the mosque and its imam, who also fought with a Libyan Islamist militia. Mostafa Graf is a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, an organisation founded by the Muslim Brotherhood and Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Al-Qaradawi is known for having claimed:
"Suicide bombings are a duty".
Haras Rafiq, head of the Quilliam think tank, told The Guardian that the Muslim Brotherhood runs the Didsbury Mosque.
The Didsbury Mosque is controlled by The Islamic Centre (Manchester), an English association headed by Dr. Haytham al-Khaffaf, who is also a director of the Human Relief Foundation, a Muslim Brotherhood organisation blacklisted for terrorism by Israel. Between 2015 and 2016, al-Khaffaf's Human Relief Foundation received over £1.5 million from the Qatar Charity, which is also subject to US counterterrorism surveillance.
Trial and Sentencing of Hashem Abedi
On the 17th. July 2019, Salman Abedi's brother Hashem was charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion. He had been arrested in Libya and extradited to the UK.
His trial began on the 5th. February 2020. On the 17th. March, Hashem Abedi was found guilty on 22 charges of murder, on the grounds that he had helped his brother to source the materials used in the bombing, and had assisted with the manufacture of the explosives which were used in the attack.
On the 20th. August, Hashem Abedi was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 55 years. The judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, said that sentencing rules prevented him from imposing a whole life order as Abedi had been 20 years old at the time of the offence. The minimum age for a whole life order is 21 years old. Abedi's 55-year minimum term is the longest minimum term ever imposed by a British court.
Ismail Abedi
In October 2021 it was reported that Salman Abedi's older brother Ismail had left the UK despite being summonsed by Sir John Saunders to testify before the public inquiry into the bombing. Saunders had refused Ismail Abedi's request for immunity from prosecution while testifying.
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande posted on Twitter:
"Broken. from the bottom of my
heart, i am so so sorry. i don't
have words."
The tweet briefly became the most-liked tweet in history. Grande suspended her tour and flew back to her mother's home in Florida.
On the 9th. July 2017, a performance to benefit the Manchester bombing victims was held in New York City's The Cutting Room, called "Break Free: United for Manchester", with Broadway theatre and television performers interpreting Ariana Grande songs.
On the 4th. June, Ariana Grande hosted a benefit concert in Manchester, entitled "One Love Manchester" at Old Trafford Cricket Ground that was broadcast live on television, radio and social media.
At the concert, Grande performed along with several other high-profile artists. Free tickets were offered to those who had attended the show on the 22nd. May. The benefit concert and associated Red Cross fund raised £10 million for victims of the attack, and £17 million by August. New York's Vulture section ranked the event as the No. 1 concert of 2017.
The Kerslake Report
On the 27th. March 2018, a report by Bob Kerslake named the "Kerslake Report" was published. The report was an independent review into the preparedness for, and emergency response to, the Manchester Arena attack on the 22nd. May 2017.
In the report, Kerslake "largely praised" the Greater Manchester Police and British Transport Police, and noted that it was "fortuitous" that the North West Ambulance Service was unaware of the declaration of Operation Plato, a protocol under which all responders should have withdrawn from the arena in case of an active killer on the premises.
However, it found that the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service was "brought to a point of paralysis" as their response was delayed for two hours due to poor communication between the firefighters' liaison officer and the police force.
The report was critical of Vodafone for the "catastrophic failure" of an emergency helpline hosted on a platform provided by Content Guru, saying that delays in getting information caused "significant stress and upset" to families.
It also expressed criticism of some news media, saying:
"To have experienced such intrusive and
overbearing behaviour at a time of such
enormous vulnerability seemed to us to
be completely and utterly unacceptable".
However, it was also noted that:
"We recognise that this was some, but by
no means all of the media, and that the
media also have a positive and important
role to play."
Memorial to the Bombing
The victims of the bombing are commemorated by The Glade of Light, a garden memorial located in Manchester city centre near Manchester Cathedral. The memorial opened to the public in January 2022.
The memorial was vandalised on the 9th. February 2022, causing £10,000 of damage. A 24-year-old man admitted to the offence in April and will be sentenced at a later date.
The 2018 Manchester Terror Attack
The Manchester Arena is next to Victoria Station, and in fact partly above it. Victoria Station witnessed a subsequent terror attack on the 31st. December 2018 at 20.52.
Mahdi Mohamud, a 25 year old man from Somalia stabbed three people in a knife attack at the station. He appears to have acted alone.
Mohamud shouted "Allah!" and "Long live the Caliphate!" during the attack, and "Allahu Akbar" after being arrested. A witness alleged that during the attack he also shouted a slogan criticising Western governments. BBC producer Sam Clack reported that he heard Mohamud saying:
"As long as you keep bombing other
countries this sort of s--- is going to
keep happening,"
Mohamud had lived in England for about 10 years, and resided in Manchester's Cheetham neighbourhood with his parents and siblings.
Two of the three victims, a couple in their 50's who had come into town to celebrate the New Year, were hospitalised with serious injuries. The third victim was a British Transport Police officer who received a stab wound to his shoulder.
Despite suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, Mohamud was convicted of a terror offence and the attempted murder of three people, due to his possession of significant amounts of extremist material and the attack's extensive planning. He pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted murder and a terror offence.
The perpetrator, who was initially detained under the Mental Health Act, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a high-security psychiatric hospital.
The Second Inquiry into the Arena Bombing
On the 3rd. November 2022, inquiry chair Sir John Saunders issued a second report into the atrocity. Within the 884 pages he said that the emergency services failed to communicate properly in response to the incident, stemming from 'failures to prepare.'
He concluded that "Failing" emergency services thought a terror attack "could never happen" before the Manchester Arena bombing.
Sir John Saunders said the majority of those who died were so badly injured they could not have survived. However, it is believed that two of the 22 fatalities could have recovered if they had received better medical care.
Pointing the finger at leaders of the police, fire and ambulance services, he said:
“On the night of the attack, multi‐agency
communication between the three
emergency services was non‐existent.
That failure played a major part in what
went wrong.”
He added:
“There had been failures to prepare. There
had been inadequacies in training.
Well-established principles had not been
ingrained in practice.
Why was that? Partly it was because, despite
the fact that the threat of a terrorist attack was
at a very high level on the 22nd. May 2017, no
one really thought it could happen to them.”
The report also paid tribute to the “heroic” actions of ordinary members of the public who joined police and security and medical teams trying to save lives in a “war zone”.
Sir John said that two fatalities, John Atkinson, 28, and the youngest victim, eight year old Saffie-Rose Roussos, did have a chance of survival. Sir John said:
“I have concluded that one of those who
died, John Atkinson would probably have
survived had the emergency response
been better.”
He added:
“In the case of Saffie Rose Roussos, I have
concluded that there was a remote possibility
that she could have been saved if the rescue
operation had been conducted differently.”
The inquiry heard that only three paramedics went into the City Room after the attack. Crews from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service took more than two hours to attend the Arena.
Sir John added:
“GMP (Greater Manchester Police) did not
lead the response in accordance with the
guidance that it had been given or parts of
its own plans.
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
(GMFRS) failed to turn up at the scene at a
time when they could provide the greatest
assistance.
North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) failed
to send sufficient paramedics into the City
Room.
NWAS did not use available stretchers to
remove casualties in a safe way, and did not
communicate their intentions sufficiently to
those who were in the City Room.”
Despite highlighting a series of failings, he said that:
"There were some parts of the emergency
response that worked well, and that no doubt
lives were saved”.
Paying tribute to those who helped the victims, he said:
“The heroism shown by very many people
that night is striking. I have seen the terrible
footage from the CCTV and body-worn video
cameras of the scene of devastation in the City
Room.
The description of that area as being like a
“warzone” was used by a number of witnesses.
That is an accurate description. To enter the
City Room or remain there to help victims
required great courage.”
Sir John added:
“At the centre of my Inquiry is the terrible loss
of twenty two lives. Each family and each person
at the Arena has a deeply personal story to tell
about the impact of the attack on them.
My report cannot change what has happened.
My intention is to uncover what went wrong and
find ways of improving practices so that no one
has to suffer such terrible pain and loss again.”
The report also stated that responsibility for the deaths lies with suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, and his brother Hashem, 25, who is serving life behind bars for his part in the plot.
The inquiry found that the brothers had “planned to cause as much harm to as many people as they could" when Abedi exploded his home made device.
The day after the Army killed at least 24 protestors marching for greater protection of Egypt's minorities. Though it was a brutal assault, clearly aimed at fostering sectarian tensions, people made great efforts to show unity between faiths. 'Muslims, Christians, One Hand' was the chant that rang the loudest.
Salafi bintou Khan s.khan2@bol.com.br
Assalamu alaykum
Greetings to you and your family in good faith.
I want you to read this letter very carefully because I know you will be surprise on receiving my letter but as a servant of the living Allah you should known that our ways is not his ways he work in many ways and all things work out for good to those that believe in him.
I am Mrs. Salafi Bintou Khan from London (United Kingdom) I am married to Mr. Tijani A. Khan before he died from heat attack that last for only 1 day.
My late husband was very wealthy business man and after his death, I inherited all his business and wealth.
Recently, my doctor made it clear to me that I can not live for more than one month due to my cancer sickness, so now I decided to share part of our wealth, to contribute to the development of orphanages in AFRICA, ASIA, AMERICA and EUROPE for almighty Allah to have mercy upon my soul and my husband soul whenever it may occur.
I chose you, after v isiting the site directory and I prayed about it before I decided to donate part of the funds through you to help the less privileged and improvement of our good Muslim, I am willing to donate the sum of $ 750,000 (Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand United State dollars) I want this fund to be used in Muslim Activities like, Orphanages, Islamic schools, and Mosque for propagating the word of Allah and to endeavour that the house of Allah is maintained. Al-Ma'un 107:1. (PBUH) Saids in Holy Qur'an(Fathalika allathee yaduAAAAu alyateema).
The Qur'an made us to understand that "Blessed is the hand that gives". I took this decision because I discovered that wealth without charity is vanity.
Al-'Asr 103:2.(PBUH) (Save those who believe and do good works, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance)
Please I want you to know that the fund is lying in a bank here in London, United Kingdom, Once I hear from you, I will write a cheque on your name to enable you cash the fund in any bank of your choice in your country.
I sincerely I pray that this fund when it is in your possession that you will use it for the purpose as I said because I came to discover that the acquisition of wealth without charity is vanity. If you are willing to help me handle this project kindly send to me with the below information, as listed below for I officially write a cheque on your name.
Your full name
Your occupation
Your Country
As soon as I receive this information from you I shall instruct my bank to issue you the fund on a cheque to enable you cash the fund in any bank of your choice in your country for the expansion of our good Muslim.
Al-Ahzab 33:21.(PBUH) (And when the true believers saw the clans, they said: This is that which Allah and his messenger promised us. Allah and his messenger are true. it did but confirm them in their faith and resignation
I am willing to offer you 35% of the total fun d for your kind assistant in this project for the improvement of our good Muslim, the rest of the fund should be use as I instructed on this message.
May Allah (SWT) bless you as you do your work
Please if you can not be able to handle this project kindly let me know urgently to enable me look for some one else that can handle this project immediately because I can not figure what to happen to me for the next minutes and it is not good to abandon this fund in the bank while there are many children suffering, homeless children are uncountable.
I await your urgent reply soon.
salafibintoukhan@yahoo.com
Yours Islamic Sister.
Mrs. Salafi Bintou Khan
Great Kind words indeed
Mrs Salafi Bintou Khan for your
kindness generosity
May Gods Will Be Done,.decreed
.let our people free ..as bomb after bomb
destroys humanity ,, this is the
new message of Islam hijacked
by terrorists jehadis ..pay heed
.suicide bombers nonchalantly
breed .. killing those at Karbala
who come to pay tribute to
Imam Hussain..upholder of
our creed ..but sadly Muslims
love killing Muslims ..satanic
reality of hate propagated
by an evil seed .. children
of Yazid..everywhere in
the Islamic world,,,chaos
turbulence as the Message
of the Holy Messenger distorted
misinterpreted...is what they make
others read creating sectarian
violence strife peace that money
cant buy is what we need ...Afghanistan
Bangladesh Egypt Syria Pakistan Africa
as the Minaret bleeds ...
Man Kunto Maulaa
Fahaaza Aliun Maulaa
To Whom I am the Master
Ali is the master...a Kutbah
at Ghadeer .....
“Ali b. Abi Talib is my brother, successor and the Imam after me… he enjoys mastership over your selves after Allah and His Messenger.” (Khutbah al-Ghadeer, 71; Al-Ehtejaaj, vol. 1, pg. 66; Behaarul Anwaar, vol. 37, pg. 201)
Undoubtedly, the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) made this declaration on the day of Ghadeer. Ghadeer-e-Khumm is an event, the celebration of which instills the Mastership and love of Ameerul Momineen Ali b. Abi Talib (a.s.) in the hearts and minds of people. Just as the Prophethood of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) is definite and conclusive, similarly, the incident of Ghadeer is also certain and irrefutable, the origin and source of which can be found in the books of history.
The traditional Afghan burqa covers the entire body and head, with a grid at eye level. Only the feet and hands are visible. Women who wear the burqa Salafi, which comes from the Gulf and Pakistan, they have gloved hands and feet covered.
La burqa traditionnelle afghane couvre entièrement le corps et la tête, avec une grille au niveau des yeux. Seuls les pieds et les mains sont apparents. Les femmes qui portent la burqa salafiste, qui vient du Golfe et du Pakistan, ont elles les mains gantées et les pieds recouverts.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A niqab (Arabic: نِقاب niqāb , "veil" or "mask"; also called a ruband ) is a cloth which covers the face as a part of sartorial hijab. It is worn by some Muslim women in public areas and in front of non-mahram adult males. The niqab is worn in the Arab countries of the Arabian Peninsula such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the UAE. The niqab is also worn in countries such as Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh as well as some parts of Palestinian-ruled territories, southern provinces of Iran, neighborhoods in England, and additional areas with sizeable Muslim populations. Because of the wide variety of hijab worn in the Muslim world, it can be difficult to definitively distinguish between one type of veil and another. The terms niqab and burqa are often incorrectly used interchangeably; a niqab covers the face while a burqa covers the whole body from the top of the head to the ground. The Quran admonishes Muslim women to dress modestly and cover their private parts.[1]
Pre-Islamic Use of the Face Veil[edit]
It is sometimes alleged that the face-veil was originally part of women's dress among certain classes in the Byzantine Empire and was adopted into Muslim culture during the Arab conquest of the Middle East.[3] However, although Byzantine art before Islam commonly depicts women with veiled heads or covered hair, it does not depict women with veiled faces. In addition, the Greek geographer Strabo, writing in the first century AD, refers to some Persian women veiling their faces;[4][not in citation given] and the early third-century Christian writer Tertullian clearly refers in his treatise The Veiling of Virgins to some pagan women of "Arabia" wearing a veil that covers not only their head but also the entire face.[5] Clement of Alexandria commends the contemporary use of face coverings.[6][7] There are also two Biblical references to the employment of covering face veils in Genesis 38.14 and Genesis 24.65, by Tamar and by Rebekah, Jacob and Abraham's daughters-in-law respectively.[8][9][10] These primary sources show that some women in Egypt, Arabia, Canaan and Persia veiled their faces long before Islam. In the case of Tamar, the Biblical text,'When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face' indicates customary, if not sacral, use of the face veil to accentuate rather than disguise her sexuality.[11]
Niqab in Islam[edit]
Views among Muslim scholars[edit]
There is a difference of opinion amongst scholars in Islam as to whether or not covering the face is obligatory (fard). The niqab has continued to arouse debate between Muslim scholars and jurists both past and present concerning whether it is fard (obligatory), mustahabb (recommended/preferable), or cultural.[12]
Sunni[edit]
The opinions of the four traditional Sunni schools of jurisprudence are as follows:
Maliki: In the Maliki madhhab, the face and the hands of a woman are not awrah; therefore covering the face is not obligatory. However, Maliki scholars have stated that it is highly recommended (mustahabb) for women to cover their faces.
Hanafi: The Hanafi school does not consider a woman's face to be awrah;however it is still obligatory (wajib) for a woman to cover her face. While the Hanafi school has not completely forbidden a male’s gaze towards a female’s face when there exists absolutely no fear of attraction, the woman has no way of knowing whether the gazes directed towards her are free of desire or not, especially when she is out in public. The Hanafi school has thus obliged women to cover their faces in front of strangers.[13][14]
Shafi'i: The Shafi'i school has had two well-known positions on this issue. The first view is that covering the face is obligatory at all times when in presence of non-mahram men.[15] The second view is that covering the face is preferred in general, but obligatory only in a time of fitnah (where men do not lower their gaze; or when a woman is very attractive)[16]
Hanbali: According to the Hanbali school, there are two differing views on whether a woman's whole body is awrah or not. Mālik, Awzāʿī, and Shafiʿī suggest that the awrah of a woman is her entire body excluding her face and her hands. Hence, covering the face would not be obligatory (fard) in this madhhab.[17] According to scholars like Tirmidhī and Ḥārith b. Hishām, however, all of a woman's body is awra, including her face, hands, and even fingernails. There is a dispensation though that allows a woman to expose her face and hands, e.g. when asking for her hand in marriage, because it is the centre of beauty.[18]
The modern Salafi movement (with the only exception of Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani) state that it is obligatory for a woman to cover her entire body when in public or in presence of non-mahram men.[19][20] Some interpretations say that a veil is not compulsory in front of blind, asexual or gay men.[21][22][23]
Shia, Sufism and other denominations[edit]
Salafi women in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, veil their faces because they believe the face of a woman is considered awrah. Wearing the niqab, however, is not exclusive to the Salafi movement and other Sunni Muslims may regard niqab either as obligatory or as mustahabb (recommended, an additional act of worship).[24][not in citation given][25][not in citation given] In the Shi'a Ja'fari school of fiqh, covering the face is not obligatory.[26]
Rationale[edit]
The claimed rationale of the niqab comes from the Qur'an and Hadith. It was known that the wives of the Prophet Muhammad covered themselves around non-mahram men. However the Quran explicitly states that the wives of the Prophet are held to a different standard.[27] It is claimed that under Islam the niqab is a requirement for all women, since womanhood is mentioned along with the wives of Muhammad in the Qur'anic dictat to cover.[28] The following verse from the Qur'an is cited as support for this:[29]
"O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters, and the believing women, to draw their cloaks (veils) over their bodies. That will be better that they should be known (as respectable woman) so as not to be annoyed. And Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."[Quran 33:59 (Translated by Ahmed Ali)]
This verse was in response to harassment on the part of the "hypocrites",[30] although it does not clearly refer to covering the face itself.
It is also argued by some Muslims that the reasons for the niqab are to keep Muslim women from worrying about their appearances and to conceal their looks.[29][31]
Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, previous dean of Cairo's Al-Azhar University, called full-face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith. "The niqab is a cultural tradition and has nothing to do with Islam."[36] The decision came from an incident in which he forced a school girl to remove her niqab during a visit to an Al-Azhar school, when Tantawy reportedly said that he would call for an official ban for the face veil in Islamic schools. Tantawy's decision stems from his views that more younger Muslims have lost touch with traditional Islamic scholarship and have come under the influence of extremist imams who have little or no formal training in Islamic scholarship, despite some of the most influential Islamic scholars holding the position that the niqab is from Islam. Islamic Sharia law, according to certain public pundits (e.g., Mudar Zahran) and Islamic scholars, in fact bans women from wearing the niqab in Mecca during worshiping rituals.
In Europe, the niqab is controversial, and it has been banned in public in France and Belgium.[37] Similar to its pre-Islamic use, the use of the niqab has also been described in facilitating prostitution.[38]
Styles[edit]
There are many styles of niqab and other facial veils worn by Muslim women around the world. The two most common forms are the half niqab and the gulf-style or full niqab.
The half niqab is a simple length of fabric with elastic or ties and is worn around the face. This garment typically leaves the eyes and part of the forehead visible.
The gulf-style or full niqab completely covers the face. It consists of an upper band that is tied around the forehead, together with a long wide piece of fabric which covers the face, leaving an opening for the eyes. Many full niqab have two or more sheer layers attached to the upper band, which can be worn flipped down to cover the eyes or left over the top of the head. Contrary to common belief[according to whom?], eyeveils do not generally restrict vision any more than a dark pair of sunglasses would.[citation needed] While a person looking at a woman wearing a niqab with an eyeveil would not be able to see her eyes, the woman wearing the niqab would be able to see out through the thin fabric.
Other less common and more cultural or national forms of niqab include the Afghan style burqa, a long pleated gown that extends from the head to the feet with a small crocheted grille over the face.[2] The Pak Chador is a relatively new style from Pakistan, which consists of a large triangular scarf with two additional pieces.[2] A thin band on one edge is tied behind the head so as to keep the chador on, and then another larger rectangular piece is attached to one end of the triangle and is worn over the face, and the simple hijāb wrapped, pinned or tied in a certain way so as to cover the wearer's face.
Other common styles of clothing popularly worn with a niqab in Western countries include the khimar, a semi-circular flare of fabric with an opening for the face and a small triangular underscarf. A khimar is usually bust-level or longer, and can also be worn without the niqab. It is considered a fairly easy form of headscarf to wear, as there are no pins or fasteners; it is simply pulled over the head. Gloves are also sometimes worn with the niqab, because many munaqabāt believe no part of the skin should be visible other than the area immediately around the eyes or because they do not want to be put in a position where they would touch the hand of an unrelated man (for instance, when accepting change from a cashier).
Most munaqabāt also wear an overgarment (jilbab, abaya etc.) over their clothing, though some munaqabat in Western countries wear a long, loose tunic and skirt instead of a one-piece overgarment.
In different countries[edit]
An Iranian Arab wearing a niqab in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran
Woman in Saudi Arabia wearing a niqab
Woman in Yemen wearing a niqab
A woman wearing a niqab in the United Arab Emirates
Egypt[edit]
The niqab in Egypt has a complex and long history. On 8 October 2009, Egypt's top Islamic school and the world's leading school of Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar, banned the wearing of the niqab in classrooms and dormitories of all its affiliate schools and educational institutes.[39]
Iran[edit]
The niqab was traditionally worn in Southern Iran from the arrival of Islam until the end of the Qajar era. There were many regional variations of niqab, which were also called ruband or pushiye. Traditionally, Iranian women wore chadors long before Islam arrived.
The 20th century ruler, Reza Shah, banned all variations of face veil in 1936, as incompatible with his modernistic ambitions. Reza Shah ordered the police to arrest women who wore the niqab and to remove their face veils by force. This policy outraged the clerics who believed it was obligatory for women to cover their faces. Many women gathered at the Goharshad Mosque in Mashhad with their faces covered to show their objection to the niqab ban.[40]
Between 1941 and 1979 wearing the niqab was no longer against the law, but it was considered by the government to be a "badge of backwardness." During these years, wearing the niqab and chador became much less common and instead most religious women wore headscarves only. Fashionable hotels and restaurants refused to admit women wearing niqabs. High schools and universities actively discouraged or even banned the niqab, though the headscarf was tolerated.[41]
After the new government of 'Islamic Republic' was established, the niqab was not enforced by officials.
In modern Iran, the wearing of niqab is not common and is only worn by certain ethnic minorities and a minority of Arab Muslims in the southern Iranian coastal cities, such as Bandar Abbas, Minab and Bushehr. Some women in the Arab-populated province of Khuzestan still wear niqab.
Saudi Arabia[edit]
Saudi women are not required by a secular law to wear the niqab. However, the niqab is an important part of Saudi culture and in most Saudi cities (including Riyadh, Mecca, Medina, Abha, etc.) the vast majority of women cover their faces. Saudi women are expected to wear a face-veil in public and they may be harassed by the religious police if they do not cover their faces. Dammam and Jeddah, as the most liberal cities of Saudi Arabia, are exceptions.
The Saudi niqab usually leaves a long open slot for the eyes; the slot is held together by a string or narrow strip of cloth.[42] Many also have two or more sheer layers attached to the upper band, which can be worn flipped down to cover the eyes. Although a person looking at a woman wearing a niqab with an eyeveil would not be able to see her eyes, she would still be able to see out through the thin fabric. In 2008, the religious authority in Mecca, Mohammad Habadan called on women to wear veils that reveal only one eye, so that women would not be encouraged to use eye make-up.[43]
According to Saudi Arabia's Shariah law, women's clothing should meet the following conditions:
Women must cover their entire body, but they are allowed to expose one or both eyes in necessity.
Women should wear abaya and a headscarf thick enough to conceal what is underneath, and the abaya should be loose-fitting.
Women should not wear brightly coloured clothes or clothes that are adorned so that they may attract men's attention.[44]
Syria[edit]
1,200 niqab-wearing teachers were transferred to administrative duties in the summer of 2010 in Syria because the face veil was undermining the secular policies followed by the state as far as education is concerned.[45] In the near future, other ministers are expected to do the same as Ali Saad, the Syrian Minister of Education.[45] Also, in the summer of 2010, students wearing the Niqab were prohibited from registering for university classes. The ban was associated with a move by the Syrian government to re-affirm Syria's traditional secular atmosphere.[46]
On 6 April 2011 it was reported that teachers would be allowed to once again wear the niqab.[47]
Yemen[edit]
Since antiquity, the Arab tradition of wearing the niqab has been practiced by women living in Yemen.[48] Traditionally, girls begin wearing veils in their teenage years.[49][50] Acceptance of the niqab is not universal in Yemen. Senior member of the Al-Islah political party, Tawakel Karman, removed her niqab at a human rights conference in 2004 and since then has called for "other women and female activists to take theirs off".[51] Also it depends on lifestyles and was not commonly worn among nomadic and pastoralist tribes as it was incompatible with animal shepherding.
Enforcement, encouragement and bans[edit]
Enforcement[edit]
Covering the face was enforced by the Taliban regime with the traditional Afghan face veil called the burka.[52] While some women appeared to embrace the coercive rules, others protested.
Non-governmental enforcement of niqab is found in many parts of the Muslim world. In Saudi Arabia, all Saudi Muslim women are required to wear the niqab in cities such as Mecca, Medina and Taif. In other cities such as Dammam and Abha, women are not required to wear it by law but it remains de facto obligatory. In southern cities also, most women observe niqab. The Saudi niqab usually leaves a long open slot for the eyes; the slot is held together by a string or narrow strip of cloth. In 2008, the religious authority in Mecca, Mohammad Habadan called on women to wear veils that reveals only one eye, so that women would not be encouraged to use eye makeup.[43]
Politics[edit]
The niqab is outlawed in Azerbaijan, Tunisia and Turkey, where the overwhelming majority of the population is Muslim. Niqabi women, just like women wearing hijab, cannot work as public servants, neither can they continue studies at schools, including the private schools. Although there is no single law banning niqab at private companies, it would be nearly impossible for a niqabi woman to find work[citation needed] .
In February 2010, an Arab country's unnamed ambassador to Dubai had his marriage annulled after discovering that his bride was cross-eyed and had facial hair. The woman had worn a niqab on the occasions that the couple had met prior to the wedding. The ambassador informed the Sharia court that he had been deliberately deceived by the bride's mother, who had shown him photographs of the bride's sister. He only discovered the problem when he lifted the niqab to kiss his bride. The court annulled the marriage, but refused a claim for compensation.[53][54][55]
Sultaana Freeman gained national attention in 2003 when she sued the U.S. state of Florida for the right to wear a niqab for her driver's license photo.[56] However, a Florida appellate court ruled that there was no violation in the state requiring her to show her face to a camera in a private room with only a female employee to take the picture, in exchange for the privilege of driving.[citation needed]
One female, non-Muslim student at Eastern Michigan University spent a semester in 2005 wearing a niqab for a class project (she referred to the face veil as a 'burqa'). Her stated experiences, such as her own feeling as if no one wanted to be near her, led her to assert that conservative Muslim dress is disapproved of in the United States.[57] No reference in the student's project was made to the disapproval or banning of niqab in various Muslim-majority countries.
Some Muslim Palestinian women, particularly students, have worn white niqabs during Arab protest activities relating to the Arab–Israeli conflict.[58][59] These women have reportedly worn green banners with Arabic messages in them.
In 2006, Female candidates from the Hamas party campaigned during the Palestinian Authority parliamentary elections, wearing niqabs. Since Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah during the Battle of Gaza (2007), Muslim women in Gaza have been wearing, or were mandated to wear, niqabs in increasingly large numbers.[60][61]
Europe[edit]
Main article: Islamic dress in Europe
Woman in Bosnia and Herzegovina wearing a niqab, c. 1906
Although the burqa is a more emphatic symbol, the niqab has also been prominent in political controversies on Islamic dress in Europe.
In socialist Yugoslavia wearing the niqab or forcing women to wear it were forbidden in order to prevent the subjugation of women to men.
In 2007, the government of the Netherlands planned a legal ban on face-covering Islamic clothing, popularly described as the 'burqa ban', which included the niqab.[62]
On 29 April 2010, the Belgian Chamber of Representatives adopted a law prohibiting people to wear "attire and clothing masking the face in such a way that it impairs them to be recognizable". The penalty for violating this directive can run from up to 14 days imprisonment and a 250 euro fine. Even though there is no direct mention of the burqa or niqab, this decision practically does prohibit its use in public spaces. This new law has spurred a lot of anger amongst members of the traditional Islamist community.
In the United Kingdom, comments by Jack Straw, MP started a national debate over the wearing of the "veil" (niqab), in October 2006. This was further inflamed by extensive media coverage of the case of Aishah Azmi, a teaching assistant in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, who lost her appeal against suspension from her job for wearing the niqab while teaching English to young children whose first language is different. It was decided that being unable to see her face prevented the children from learning effectively. Azmi argued that it was helping the children understand different people's beliefs.[63]
On 13 July 2010 France's lower house of parliament overwhelmingly approved a ban on wearing burqa-style Islamic veils. The legislation forbids face-covering Muslim veils in all public places in France and calls for fines or citizenship classes, or both. The bill also is aimed at husbands and fathers — anyone convicted of forcing someone else to wear the garb risks a year of prison and a fine, with both penalties doubled if the victim is a minor. In Italy, a law issued in 1975 strictly forbids wearing any dress or supply that could hide the face of a person. Penalties (fines and imprisonment) are provided for such behaviour.
In 2012 in Norway, a professor at the University of Tromsø denied a student's use of niqab in the classroom.[64] The professor claimed that Norway's parliament has granted each teacher the right to deny the use of niqab in his/her classroom.[64]
North America[edit]
United States[edit]
The niqab in its extreme forms is becoming more common in the US and is often seen in larger cities.[65] In 2002, Sultaana Freeman, (formerly Sandra Keller, who converted to Islam in 1997 when marrying a Muslim man) sued the U.S. state of Florida for the right to wear a niqab for her driver's license photo.[56] However, a Florida appellate court ruled that there was no violation in the state requiring her to show her face to a camera in a private room with only a female employee to take the picture, in exchange for the privilege of driving. The prevailing view in Florida is currently that hiding one's face on a form of photo identification defeats the purpose of having the picture taken,[56] although 15 other states (including Arkansas, California, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, and Louisiana) have provisions that allow for driver's licenses absent of an identifying photograph in order to accommodate individuals who may have a religious reason to not have a photograph taken.[66]
Canada[edit]
Elections Canada, an independent agency responsible for elections and referendums, stated that Muslim women can cover their faces while voting. The decision was criticized by all major political parties of Canada except the New Democrats who did not oppose this decision.[67]
More recently the Conservative Government has introduced legislation which would bar citizens from voting if they show up at polling stations with a veiled face. This law was proposed in the wake of the Government's recent dispute with Elections Canada, which has refused to bar people with veiled faces from polling places.[citation needed] The niqab became an issue in the 2007 election in Quebec after it became public knowledge that women wearing the niqab were allowed to vote under the same rules as electors who did not present photo ID, namely, by sworn oath in the presence of a third party who could vouch for their identity. The chief electoral officer received an overwhelming number of complaints that this policy was too accommodating of cultural minorities (a major theme in the election), and had to be accompanied by bodyguards due to threatening phone calls. All three major political parties were against the policy, with the Parti Québécois and Action démocratique du Québec vying for position as most opposed. The policy was soon changed to require all voters to show their face, even if they did not carry photo ID. However, Quebec residents who wear the niqab stated that they had no issue with showing their faces for official purposes, such as voting.[68] Salam Elmenyawi of the Muslim Council of Montreal estimated that only 10 to 15 Muslim voters in all of the province wear the niqab, and that since their veils have become controversial, most would probably not vote.[69]
In October 2009, the Muslim Canadian Congress called for a ban on burqa and niqab (though not the hijab), saying that they have "no basis in Islam".[70] Spokesperson Farzana Hassan cited public safety issues, such as identity concealment, as well as gender equality, stating that wearing the burqa and niqab is "a practice that marginalizes women."[70]
In December 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced a policy directive that Muslim women must remove niqabs throughout the citizenship ceremony where they declare their Oath of Allegiance.[71]
In December 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Muslim women must remove niqabs in some cases when testifying in court.[72]
The Quran (English pronunciation: /kɔrˈɑːn/ kor-AHN , Arabic: القرآن al-qur'ān, IPA: [qurˈʔaːn], literally meaning "the recitation", also romanised Qur'an or Koran) is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God (Arabic: الله, Allah). Its scriptural status among a world-spanning religious community, and its major place within world literature generally, has led to a great deal of secondary literature on the Quran. Quranic chapters are called suras and verses are called ayahs.
Muslims believe that the Quran was verbally revealed by God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibril), gradually over a period of approximately 23 years, beginning on 22 December 609 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death. Muslims regard the Quran as the most important miracle of Muhammad, a proof of his prophethood, and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam and ended with Muhammad. They consider the Quran to be the only revealed book that has been protected by God from distortion or corruption.
According to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammad's death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and memorized parts of it. These codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthman's codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran we have today. However, the existence of variant readings, with mostly minor and some significant variations, and the early unvocalized Arabic script mean the relationship between Uthman's codex to both the text of today's Quran and to the revelations of Muhammad's time is still unclear.
The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Jewish and Christian scriptures. It summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance. It sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law. During prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic.
Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz. Some Muslims read Quranic ayahs (verses) with elocution, which is often called tajwīd. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers. In order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir.
ETYMOLOGY & MEANING
The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself, assuming various meanings. It is a verbal noun (maṣdar) of the Arabic verb qaraʼa (قرأ), meaning "he read" or "he recited". The Syriac equivalent is (ܩܪܝܢܐ) qeryānā, which refers to "scripture reading" or "lesson". While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, the majority of Muslim authorities hold the origin of the word is qaraʼa itself. Regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammad's lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the "act of reciting", as reflected in an early Quranic passage: "It is for Us to collect it and to recite it (qurʼānahu)."
In other verses, the word refers to "an individual passage recited [by Muhammad]". Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example: "So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it and keep silent." The word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel.
The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran. Each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb (book); āyah (sign); and sūrah (scripture). The latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with a definite article (al-), the word is referred to as the "revelation" (waḥy), that which has been "sent down" (tanzīl) at intervals. Other related words are: dhikr (remembrance), used to refer to the Quran in the sense of a reminder and warning, and ḥikmah (wisdom), sometimes referring to the revelation or part of it.
The Quran describes itself as "the discernment or the criterion between truth and falsehood" (al-furqān), "the mother book" (umm al-kitāb), "the guide" (huda), "the wisdom" (hikmah), "the remembrance" (dhikr) and "the revelation" (tanzīl; something sent down, signifying the descent of an object from a higher place to lower place). Another term is al-kitāb (the book), though it is also used in the Arabic language for other scriptures, such as the Torah and the Gospels. The adjective of "Quran" has multiple transliterations including "quranic," "koranic" and "qur'anic," or capitalised as "Qur'anic," "Koranic" and "Quranic." The term muṣḥaf ('written work') is often used to refer to particular Quranic manuscripts but is also used in the Quran to identify earlier revealed books. Other transliterations of "Quran" include "al-Coran", "Coran", "Kuran" and "al-Qurʼan".
HISTORY
PROPHETIC ERA
Islamic tradition relates that Muhammad received his first revelation in the Cave of Hira during one of his isolated retreats to the mountains. Thereafter, he received revelations over a period of 23 years. According to hadith and Muslim history, after Muhammad emigrated to Medina and formed an independent Muslim community, he ordered many of his companions to recite the Quran and to learn and teach the laws, which were revealed daily. It is related that some of the Quraish who were taken prisoners at the battle of Badr regained their freedom after they had taught some of the Muslims the simple writing of the time. Thus a group of Muslims gradually became literate. As it was initially spoken, the Quran was recorded on tablets, bones, and the wide, flat ends of date palm fronds. Most suras were in use amongst early Muslims since they are mentioned in numerous sayings by both Sunni and Shia sources, relating Muhammad's use of the Quran as a call to Islam, the making of prayer and the manner of recitation. However, the Quran did not exist in book form at the time of Muhammad's death in 632 CE. There is agreement among scholars that Muhammad himself did not write down the revelation.
Sahih al-Bukhari narrates Muhammad describing the revelations as, "Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell" and Aisha reported, "I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over)." Muhammad's first revelation, according to the Quran, was accompanied with a vision. The agent of revelation is mentioned as the "one mighty in power", the one who "grew clear to view when he was on the uppermost horizon. Then he drew nigh and came down till he was (distant) two bows' length or even nearer." The Islamic studies scholar Welch states in the Encyclopaedia of Islam that he believes the graphic descriptions of Muhammad's condition at these moments may be regarded as genuine, because he was severely disturbed after these revelations. According to Welch, these seizures would have been seen by those around him as convincing evidence for the superhuman origin of Muhammad's inspirations. However, Muhammad's critics accused him of being a possessed man, a soothsayer or a magician since his experiences were similar to those claimed by such figures well known in ancient Arabia. Welch additionally states that it remains uncertain whether these experiences occurred before or after Muhammad's initial claim of prophethood. The Quran describes Muhammad as "ummi", which is traditionally interpreted as "illiterate," but the meaning is rather more complex. The medieval commentators such as Al-Tabari maintained that the term induced two meanings: first, the inability to read or write in general; second, the inexperience or ignorance of the previous books or scriptures (but they gave priority to the first meaning). Besides, Muhammad's illiteracy was taken as a sign of the genuineness of his prophethood. For example, according to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, if Muhammad had mastered writing and reading he possibly would have been suspected of having studied the books of the ancestors. Some scholars such as Watt prefer the second meaning.
COMPILATION
Based on earlier transmitted reports, in the year 632 CE, after Muhammad died and a number of his companions who knew the Quran by heart were killed in a battle by Musaylimah, the first caliph Abu Bakr (d. 634CE) decided to collect the book in one volume so that it could be preserved. Zayd ibn Thabit (d. 655CE) was the person to collect the Quran since "he used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle". Thus, a group of scribes, most importantly Zayd, collected the verses and produced a hand-written manuscript of the complete book. The manuscript according to Zayd remained with Abu Bakr until he died. Zayd's reaction to the task and the difficulties in collecting the Quranic material from parchments, palm-leaf stalks, thin stones and from men who knew it by heart is recorded in earlier narratives. After Abu Bakr, Hafsa bint Umar, Muhammad's widow, was entrusted with the manuscript. In about 650 CE, the third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan (d. 656CE) began noticing slight differences in pronunciation of the Quran as Islam expanded beyond the Arabian peninsula into Persia, the Levant, and North Africa. In order to preserve the sanctity of the text, he ordered a committee headed by Zayd to use Abu Bakr's copy and prepare a standard copy of the Quran. Thus, within 20 years of Muhammad's death, the Quran was committed to written form. That text became the model from which copies were made and promulgated throughout the urban centers of the Muslim world, and other versions are believed to have been destroyed. The present form of the Quran text is accepted by Muslim scholars to be the original version compiled by Abu Bakr.
According to Shia and some Sunni scholars, Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661CE) compiled a complete version of the Quran shortly after Muhammad's death. The order of this text differed from that gathered later during Uthman's era in that this version had been collected in chronological order. Despite this, he made no objection against the standardized Quran and accepted the Quran in circulation. Other personal copies of the Quran might have existed including Ibn Mas'ud's and Ubayy ibn Kab's codex, none of which exist today.
The Quran most likely existed in scattered written form during Muhammad's lifetime. Several sources indicate that during Muhammad's lifetime a large number of his companions had memorized the revelations. Early commentaries and Islamic historical sources support the above-mentioned understanding of the Quran's early development. The Quran in its present form is generally considered by academic scholars to record the words spoken by Muhammad because the search for variants has not yielded any differences of great significance. Although most variant readings of the text of the Quran have ceased to be transmitted, some still are. There has been no critical text produced on which a scholarly reconstruction of the Quranic text could be based. Historically, controversy over the Quran's content has rarely become an issue, although debates continue on the subject.
In 1972, in a mosque in the city of Sana'a, Yemen, manuscripts were discovered that were later proved to be the most ancient Quranic text known to exist. The Sana'a manuscripts contain palimpsests, a manuscript page from which the text has been washed off to make the parchment reusable again - a practice which was common in ancient times due to scarcity of writing material. However, the faint washed-off underlying text (scriptio inferior) is still barely visible and believed to be "pre-Uthmanic" Quranic content, while the text written on top (scriptio superior) is believed to belong to Uthmanic time. Studies using radiocarbon dating indicate that the parchments are dated to the period before 671 AD with a 99 percent probability.
SIGNIFICANCE IN ISLAM
WORSHIP
Muslims believe the Quran to be the book of divine guidance revealed from God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years and view the Quran as God's final revelation to humanity. They also believe that the Quran has solutions to all the problems of humanity irrespective of how complex they may be and in what age they occur.
Revelation in Islamic and Quranic concept means the act of God addressing an individual, conveying a message for a greater number of recipients. The process by which the divine message comes to the heart of a messenger of God is tanzil (to send down) or nuzūl (to come down). As the Quran says, "With the truth we (God) have sent it down and with the truth it has come down."
The Quran frequently asserts in its text that it is divinely ordained. Some verses in the Quran seem to imply that even those who do not speak Arabic would understand the Quran if it were recited to them. The Quran refers to a written pre-text, "the preserved tablet", that records God's speech even before it was sent down.
The issue of whether the Quran is eternal or created became a theological debate (Quran's createdness) in the ninth century. Mu'tazilas, an Islamic school of theology based on reason and rational thought, held that the Quran was created while the most widespread varieties of Muslim theologians considered the Quran to be co-eternal with God and therefore uncreated. Sufi philosophers view the question as artificial or wrongly framed.
Muslims believe that the present wording of the Quran corresponds to that revealed to Muhammad, and according to their interpretation of Quran 15:9, it is protected from corruption ("Indeed, it is We who sent down the Quran and indeed, We will be its guardian."). Muslims consider the Quran to be a guide, a sign of the prophethood of Muhammad and the truth of the religion. They argue it is not possible for a human to produce a book like the Quran, as the Quran itself maintains.
Muslims commemorate annually the beginning of Quran's revelation on the Night of Destiny (Laylat al-Qadr), during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the month during which they fast from sunrise until sunset.
The first sura of the Quran is repeated in daily prayers and in other occasions. This sura, which consists of seven verses, is the most often recited sura of the Quran:
"All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Universe, the Beneficent, the Merciful and Master of the Day of Judgment, You alone We do worship and from You alone we do seek assistance, guide us to the right path, the path of those to whom You have granted blessings, those who are neither subject to Your anger nor have gone astray."
Respect for the written text of the Quran is an important element of religious faith by many Muslims, and the Quran is treated with reverence. Based on tradition and a literal interpretation of Quran 56:79 ("none shall touch but those who are clean"), some Muslims believe that they must perform a ritual cleansing with water before touching a copy of the Quran, although this view is not universal. Worn-out copies of the Quran are wrapped in a cloth and stored indefinitely in a safe place, buried in a mosque or a Muslim cemetery, or burned and the ashes buried or scattered over water.
In Islam, most intellectual disciplines, including Islamic theology, philosophy, mysticism and Jurisprudence, have been concerned with the Quran or have their foundation in its teachings. Muslims believe that the preaching or reading of the Quran is rewarded with divine rewards variously called ajr, thawab or hasanat.
IN ISLAMIC ART
The Quran also inspired Islamic arts and specifically the so-called Quranic arts of calligraphy and illumination.[1] The Quran is never decorated with figurative images, but many Qurans have been highly decorated with decorative patterns in the margins of the page, or between the lines or at the start of suras. Islamic verses appear in many other media, on buildings and on objects of all sizes, such as mosque lamps, metal work, pottery and single pages of calligraphy for muraqqas or albums.
INIMITABILITY
Inimitability of the Quran (or "I'jaz") is the belief that no human speech can match the Quran in its content and form. The Quran is considered an inimitable miracle by Muslims, effective until the Day of Resurrection - and, thereby, the central proof granted to Muhammad in authentication of his prophetic status. The concept of inimitability originates in the Quran where in five different verses opponents are challenged to produce something like the Quran: "If men and sprites banded together to produce the like of this Quran they would never produce its like not though they backed one another."[61] So the suggestion is that if there are doubts concerning the divine authorship of the Quran, come forward and create something like it. From the ninth century, numerous works appeared which studied the Quran and examined its style and content. Medieval Muslim scholars including al-Jurjani (d. 1078CE) and al-Baqillani (d. 1013CE) have written treatises on the subject, discussed its various aspects, and used linguistic approaches to study the Quran. Others argue that the Quran contains noble ideas, has inner meanings, maintained its freshness through the ages and has caused great transformations in individual level and in the history. Some scholars state that the Quran contains scientific information that agrees with modern science. The doctrine of miraculousness of the Quran is further emphasized by Muhammad's illiteracy since the unlettered prophet could not have been suspected of composing the Quran.
TEXT & ARRANGEMENT
The Quran consists of 114 chapters of varying lengths, each known as a sura. Suras are classified as Meccan or Medinan, depending on whether the verses were revealed before or after the migration of Muhammad to the city of Medina. However, a sura classified as Medinan may contain Meccan verses in it and vice versa. Sura titles are derived from a name or quality discussed in the text, or from the first letters or words of the surah. Suras are arranged roughly in order of decreasing size. The sura arrangement is thus not connected to the sequence of revelation. Each sura except the ninth starts with the Bismillah (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم) an Arabic phrase meaning 'In the name of God.' There are, however, still 114 occurrences of the Bismillah in the Quran, due to its presence in Quran 27:30 as the opening of Solomon's letter to the Queen of Sheba.
Each sura consists of several verses, known as ayat, which originally means a 'sign' or 'evidence' sent by God. The number of verses differs from sura to sura. An individual verse may be just a few letters or several lines. The total number of verses in the Quran is 6236, however, the number varies if the bismillahs are counted separately.
In addition to and independent of the division into suras, there are various ways of dividing the Quran into parts of approximately equal length for convenience in reading. The 30 juz' (plural ajzāʼ) can be used to read through the entire Quran in a month. Some of these parts are known by names - which are the first few words by which the juzʼ starts. A juz' is sometimes further divided into two ḥizb (plural aḥzāb), and each hizb subdivided into four rubʻ al-ahzab. The Quran is also divided into seven approximately equal parts, manzil (plural manāzil), for it to be recited in a week.
Muqatta'at, or the Quranic initials, are 14 different letter combinations of 14 Arabic letters that appear in the beginning of 29 suras of the Quran. The meanings of these initials remain unclear.
According to one estimate the Quran consists of 77,430 words, 18,994 unique words, 12,183 stems, 3,382 lemmas and 1,685 roots.
CONTENTS
The Quranic content is concerned with the basic beliefs of Islam which include the existence of God and the resurrection. Narratives of the early prophets, ethical and legal subjects, historical events of Muhammad's time, charity and prayer also appear in the Quran. The Quranic verses contain general exhortations regarding right and wrong and the historical events are related to outline general moral lessons. Verses pertaining to natural phenomena have been interpreted by Muslims as an indication of the authenticity of the Quranic message.
MONOTHEISM
The central theme of the Quran is monotheism. God is depicted as living, eternal, omniscient and omnipotent (see, e.g., Quran 2:20, 2:29, 2:255). God's omnipotence appears above all in his power to create. He is the creator of everything, of the heavens and the earth and what is between them (see, e.g., Quran 13:16, 50:38, etc.). All human beings are equal in their utter dependence upon God, and their well-being depends upon their acknowledging that fact and living accordingly.
The Quran uses cosmological and contingency arguments in various verses without referring to the terms to prove the existence of God. Therefore, the universe is originated and needs an originator, and whatever exists must have a sufficient cause for its existence. Besides, the design of the universe, is frequently referred to as a point of contemplation: "It is He who has created seven heavens in harmony. You cannot see any fault in God's creation; then look again: Can you see any flaw?"
ESCHATOLOGY
The doctrine of the last day and eschatology (the final fate of the universe) may be reckoned as the second great doctrine of the Quran. It is estimated that around a full one-third of the Quran is eschatological, dealing with the afterlife in the next world and with the day of judgment at the end of time. There is a reference of the afterlife on most pages of the Quran and the belief in the afterlife is often referred to in conjunction with belief in God as in the common expression: "Believe in God and the last day". A number of suras such as 44, 56, 75, 78, 81 and 101 are directly related to the afterlife and its preparations. Some of the suras indicate the closeness of the event and warn people to be prepared for the imminent day. For instance, the first verses of Sura 22, which deal with the mighty earthquake and the situations of people on that day, represent this style of divine address: "O People! Be respectful to your Lord. The earthquake of the Hour is a mighty thing."
The Quran is often vivid in its depiction of what will happen at the end time. Watt describes the Quranic view of End Time:
"The climax of history, when the present world comes to an end, is referred to in various ways. It is 'the Day of Judgment,' 'the Last Day,' 'the Day of Resurrection,' or simply 'the Hour.' Less frequently it is 'the Day of Distinction' (when the good are separated from the evil), 'the Day of the Gathering' (of men to the presence of God) or 'the Day of the Meeting' (of men with God). The Hour comes suddenly. It is heralded by a shout, by a thunderclap, or by the blast of a trumpet. A cosmic upheaval then takes place. The mountains dissolve into dust, the seas boil up, the sun is darkened, the stars fall and the sky is rolled up. God appears as Judge, but his presence is hinted at rather than described. [...] The central interest, of course, is in the gathering of all mankind before the Judge. Human beings of all ages, restored to life, join the throng. To the scoffing objection of the unbelievers that former generations had been dead a long time and were now dust and mouldering bones, the reply is that God is nevertheless able to restore them to life."
The Quran does not assert a natural immortality of the human soul, since man's existence is dependent on the will of God: when he wills, he causes man to die; and when he wills, he raises him to life again in a bodily resurrection.[68]
PROPHETS
According to the Quran, God communicated with man and made his will known through signs and revelations. Prophets, or 'Messengers of God', received revelations and delivered them to humanity. The message has been identical and for all humankind. "Nothing is said to you that was not said to the messengers before you, that your lord has at his Command forgiveness as well as a most Grievous Penalty." The revelation does not come directly from God to the prophets. Angels acting as God's messengers deliver the divine revelation to them. This comes out in Quran 42:51, in which it is stated: "It is not for any mortal that God should speak to them, except by revelation, or from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger to reveal by his permission whatsoever He will."
ETHICO-RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS
Belief is the center of the sphere of positive moral properties in the Quran. A number of scholars have tried to determine the semantic contents of the words meaning 'belief' and 'believer' in the Quran [70] The Ethico-legal concepts and exhortations dealing with righteous conduct are linked to a profound awareness of God, thereby emphasizing the importance of faith, accountability and the belief in each human's ultimate encounter with God. People are invited to perform acts of charity, especially for the needy. Believers who "spend of their wealth by night and by day, in secret and in public" are promised that they "shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve" It also affirms family life by legislating on matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance. A number of practices such as usury and gambling are prohibited. The Quran is one of the fundamental sources of the Islamic law, or sharia. Some formal religious practices receive significant attention in the Quran including the formal prayers and fasting in the month of Ramadan. As for the manner in which the prayer is to be conducted, the Quran refers to prostration. The term used for charity, Zakat, actually means purification. Charity, according to the Quran, is a means of self-purification.
LITERARY STYLE
The Quran's message is conveyed with various literary structures and devices. In the original Arabic, the suras and verses employ phonetic and thematic structures that assist the audience's efforts to recall the message of the text. Muslims[who?] assert (according to the Quran itself) that the Quranic content and style is inimitable.
The language of the Quran has been described as "rhymed prose" as it partakes of both poetry and prose, however, this description runs the risk of compromising the rhythmic quality of Quranic language, which is certainly more poetic in some parts and more prose-like in others. Rhyme, while found throughout the Quran, is conspicuous in many of the earlier Meccan suras, in which relatively short verses throw the rhyming words into prominence. The effectiveness of such a form is evident for instance in Sura 81, and there can be no doubt that these passages impressed the conscience of the hearers. Frequently a change of rhyme from one set of verses to another signals a change in the subject of discussion. Later sections also preserve this form but the style is more expository.
The Quranic text seems to have no beginning, middle, or end, its nonlinear structure being akin to a web or net. The textual arrangement is sometimes considered to have lack of continuity, absence of any chronological or thematic order and presence of repetition. Michael Sells, citing the work of the critic Norman O. Brown, acknowledges Brown's observation that the seeming disorganization of Quranic literary expression – its scattered or fragmented mode of composition in Sells's phrase – is in fact a literary device capable of delivering profound effects as if the intensity of the prophetic message were shattering the vehicle of human language in which it was being communicated. Sells also addresses the much-discussed repetitiveness of the Quran, seeing this, too, as a literary device.
A text is self-referential when it speaks about itself and makes reference to itself. According to Stefan Wild the Quran demonstrates this meta-textuality by explaining, classifying, interpreting and justifying the words to be transmitted. Self-referentiality is evident in those passages when the Quran refers to itself as revelation (tanzil), remembrance (dhikr), news (naba'), criterion (furqan) in a self-designating manner (explicitly asserting its Divinity, "And this is a blessed Remembrance that We have sent down; so are you now denying it?"), or in the frequent appearance of the 'Say' tags, when Muhammad is commanded to speak (e.g. "Say: 'God's guidance is the true guidance' ", "Say: 'Would you then dispute with us concerning God?' "). According to Wild the Quran is highly self-referential. The feature is more evident in early Meccan suras.
INTERPRETATION
The Quran has sparked a huge body of commentary and explication (tafsīr), aimed at explaining the "meanings of the Quranic verses, clarifying their import and finding out their significance".
Tafsir is one of the earliest academic activities of Muslims. According to the Quran, Muhammad was the first person who described the meanings of verses for early Muslims. Other early exegetes included a few Companions of Muhammad, like ʻAli ibn Abi Talib, ʻAbdullah ibn Abbas, ʻAbdullah ibn Umar and Ubayy ibn Kaʻb. Exegesis in those days was confined to the explanation of literary aspects of the verse, the background of its revelation and, occasionally, interpretation of one verse with the help of the other. If the verse was about a historical event, then sometimes a few traditions (hadith) of Muhammad were narrated to make its meaning clear.
Because the Quran is spoken in classical Arabic, many of the later converts to Islam (mostly non-Arabs) did not always understand the Quranic Arabic, they did not catch allusions that were clear to early Muslims fluent in Arabic and they were concerned with reconciling apparent conflict of themes in the Quran. Commentators erudite in Arabic explained the allusions, and perhaps most importantly, explained which Quranic verses had been revealed early in Muhammad's prophetic career, as being appropriate to the very earliest Muslim community, and which had been revealed later, canceling out or "abrogating" (nāsikh) the earlier text (mansūkh). Other scholars, however, maintain that no abrogation has taken place in the Quran. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has published a 10-volume Urdu commentary on the Quran, with the name Tafseer e Kabir.
ESOTERIC INTERPRETATION
Esoteric or Sufi interpretation attempts to unveil the inner meanings of the Quran. Sufism moves beyond the apparent (zahir) point of the verses and instead relates Quranic verses to the inner or esoteric (batin) and metaphysical dimensions of consciousness and existence. According to Sands, esoteric interpretations are more suggestive than declarative, they are 'allusions' (isharat) rather than explanations (tafsir). They indicate possibilities as much as they demonstrate the insights of each writer.
Sufi interpretation, according to Annabel Keeler, also exemplifies the use of the theme of love, as for instance can seen in Qushayri's interpretation of the Quran. Quran 7:143 says:
"when Moses came at the time we appointed, and his Lord spoke to him, he said, 'My Lord, show yourself to me! Let me see you!' He said, 'you shall not see me but look at that mountain, if it remains standing firm you will see me.' When his Lord revealed Himself to the mountain, He made it crumble. Moses fell down unconscious. When he recovered, he said, 'Glory be to you! I repent to you! I am the first to believe!'"
Moses, in 7:143, comes the way of those who are in love, he asks for a vision but his desire is denied, he is made to suffer by being commanded to look at other than the Beloved while the mountain is able to see God. The mountain crumbles and Moses faints at the sight of God's manifestation upon the mountain. In Qushayri's words, Moses came like thousands of men who traveled great distances, and there was nothing left to Moses of Moses. In that state of annihilation from himself, Moses was granted the unveiling of the realities. From the Sufi point of view, God is the always the beloved and the wayfarer's longing and suffering lead to realization of the truths.[90]
Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei says that according to the popular explanation among the later exegetes, ta'wil indicates the particular meaning a verse is directed towards. The meaning of revelation (tanzil), as opposed to ta'wil, is clear in its accordance to the obvious meaning of the words as they were revealed. But this explanation has become so widespread that, at present, it has become the primary meaning of ta'wil, which originally meant "to return" or "the returning place". In Tabatabaei's view, what has been rightly called ta'wil, or hermeneutic interpretation of the Quran, is not concerned simply with the denotation of words. Rather, it is concerned with certain truths and realities that transcend the comprehension of the common run of men; yet it is from these truths and realities that the principles of doctrine and the practical injunctions of the Quran issue forth. Interpretation is not the meaning of the verse - rather it transpires through that meaning, in a special sort of transpiration. There is a spiritual reality - which is the main objective of ordaining a law, or the basic aim in describing a divine attribute - and then there is an actual significance that a Quranic story refers to.
According to Shia beliefs, those who are firmly rooted in knowledge like Muhammad and the imams know the secrets of the Quran. According to Tabatabaei, the statement "none knows its interpretation except God" remains valid, without any opposing or qualifying clause. Therefore, so far as this verse is concerned, the knowledge of the Quran's interpretation is reserved for God. But Tabatabaei uses other verses and concludes that those who are purified by God know the interpretation of the Quran to a certain extent.
According to Tabatabaei, there are acceptable and unacceptable esoteric interpretations. Acceptable ta'wil refers to the meaning of a verse beyond its literal meaning; rather the implicit meaning, which ultimately is known only to God and can't be comprehended directly through human thought alone. The verses in question here refer to the human qualities of coming, going, sitting, satisfaction, anger and sorrow, which are apparently attributed to God. Unacceptable ta'wil is where one "transfers" the apparent meaning of a verse to a different meaning by means of a proof; this method is not without obvious inconsistencies. Although this unacceptable ta'wil has gained considerable acceptance, it is incorrect and cannot be applied to the Quranic verses. The correct interpretation is that reality a verse refers to. It is found in all verses, the decisive and the ambiguous alike; it is not a sort of a meaning of the word; it is a fact that is too sublime for words. God has dressed them with words to bring them a bit nearer to our minds; in this respect they are like proverbs that are used to create a picture in the mind, and thus help the hearer to clearly grasp the intended idea.
HISTORY OF SUFI COMMENTARIES
One of the notable authors of esoteric interpretation prior to the 12th century is Sulami (d. 1021 CE) without whose work the majority of very early Sufi commentaries would not have been preserved. Sulami's major commentary is a book named haqaiq al-tafsir ("Truths of Exegesis") which is a compilation of commentaries of earlier Sufis. From the 11th century onwards several other works appear, including commentaries by Qushayri (d. 1074), Daylami (d. 1193), Shirazi (d. 1209) and Suhrawardi (d. 1234). These works include material from Sulami's books plus the author's contributions. Many works are written in Persian such as the works of Maybudi (d. 1135) kash al-asrar ("the unveiling of the secrets"). Rumi (d. 1273) wrote a vast amount of mystical poetry in his book Mathnawi. Rumi makes heavy use of the Quran in his poetry, a feature that is sometimes omitted in translations of Rumi's work. A large number of Quranic passages can be found in Mathnawi, which some consider a kind of Sufi interpretation of the Quran. Rumi's book is not exceptional for containing citations from and elaboration on the Quran, however, Rumi does mention Quran more frequently. Simnani (d. 1336) wrote two influential works of esoteric exegesis on the Quran. He reconciled notions of God's manifestation through and in the physical world with the sentiments of Sunni Islam. Comprehensive Sufi commentaries appears in the 18th century such as the work of Ismail Hakki Bursevi (d. 1725). His work ruh al-Bayan (the Spirit of Elucidation) is a voluminous exegesis. Written in Arabic, it combines the author's own ideas with those of his predecessors (notably Ibn Arabi and Ghazali), all woven together in Hafiz, a Persian poetry form.
LEVELS OF MEANING
Unlike the Salafis and Zahiri, Shias and Sufis as well as some other Muslim philosophers believe the meaning of the Quran is not restricted to the literal aspect. For them, it is an essential idea that the Quran also has inward aspects. Henry Corbin narrates a hadith that goes back to Muhammad:
"The Quran possesses an external appearance and a hidden depth, an exoteric meaning and an esoteric meaning. This esoteric meaning in turn conceals an esoteric meaning (this depth possesses a depth, after the image of the celestial Spheres, which are enclosed within each other). So it goes on for seven esoteric meanings (seven depths of hidden depth)."
According to this view, it has also become evident that the inner meaning of the Quran does not eradicate or invalidate its outward meaning. Rather, it is like the soul, which gives life to the body. Corbin considers the Quran to play a part in Islamic philosophy, because gnosiology itself goes hand in hand with prophetology.
Commentaries dealing with the zahir (outward aspects) of the text are called tafsir, and hermeneutic and esoteric commentaries dealing with the batin are called ta'wil ("interpretation" or "explanation"), which involves taking the text back to its beginning. Commentators with an esoteric slant believe that the ultimate meaning of the Quran is known only to God. In contrast, Quranic literalism, followed by Salafis and Zahiris, is the belief that the Quran should only be taken at its apparent meaning.
TRANSLATIONS
Translation of the Quran has always been a problematic and difficult issue. Many argue that the Quranic text cannot be reproduced in another language or form. Furthermore, an Arabic word may have a range of meanings depending on the context, making an accurate translation even more difficult.
Nevertheless, the Quran has been translated into most African, Asian and European languages. The first translator of the Quran was Salman the Persian, who translated surat al-Fatiha into Persian during the seventh century. Another translation of the Quran was completed in 884 CE in Alwar (Sindh, India now Pakistan) by the orders of Abdullah bin Umar bin Abdul Aziz on the request of the Hindu Raja Mehruk.
The first fully attested complete translations of the Quran were done between the 10th and 12th centuries in Persian language. The Samanid king, Mansur I (961-976), ordered a group of scholars from Khorasan to translate the Tafsir al-Tabari, originally in Arabic, into Persian. Later in the 11th century, one of the students of Abu Mansur Abdullah al-Ansari wrote a complete tafsir of the Quran in Persian. In the 12th century, Najm al-Din Abu Hafs al-Nasafi translated the Quran into Persian. The manuscripts of all three books have survived and have been published several times.
Islamic tradition also holds that translations were made for Emperor Negus of Abyssinia and Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, as both received letters by Muhammad containing verses from the Quran. In early centuries, the permissibility of translations was not an issue, but whether one could use translations in prayer.
In 1936, translations in 102 languages were known. In 2010, the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review reported that the Quran was presented in 112 languages at the 18th International Quran Exhibition in Tehran.
posted at YouTube community tab
They sanctimonious Muslims on this platform
Want to know if I am a Muslim or not ,,,
I am certainly not a Muslim like those
that say Namaz and bomb innocent people
on the soul of Islam brotherhood peace
Add a blot ..those who call themselves Jihadis
That I am not ..I am not a Wahabi Salafi Tabliki
Jamati...my soul my breath God in a Shia mothers
womb bought ,,,I dont terrorize people with my
peaceful thoughts ...Muslims love killing Muslims
across a demonic border purity of a Message of
Hope Humanity they forgot ,,
You can call me a Kafir a Rafidi a heretic ,but
please dont insult people I have shot ,,,
I am a metaphor called
Firoze Qalandari
Firoze Giri
Firoze Aghori
Firoze Lama
but a rabid Muslim
that insults abuses
other I am not
I dont drink
I dont take drugs
I dont fornicate
I dont take pot
God created me out of
Nothingness ,..added my
poetic soul to his holistic
cosmic plot .
I dont belong to a Madrsa
In a dark dungeon I do not rot
in my prayers to the Almighty
what I did not ask I got ..
I am on Facebook since a long time I post all my updates to friends none of my posts are marked Public,, I am a photo journalist blogger I shoot events rituals cultures and as diverse in India the country of my Birth.. I am a educated sane Muslim not a radical ,, I respect humanity I dont post Porn nor do I argue with people when I was racially profiled deactivated my account several times here at Facebook.. I dont promote any product nor my Shia faith but I do shoot it .. and post pictures now if someone who had added me finds problem with them he should Unfriend me instead of reporting my pictures I deleted those pictures out of respect to all of you and I follow Facebook rules regulations but I am hurt terribly hurt ,, I mean who are these persons to censor what I shoot I dont shoot porn , or hurt communities all my timeline is at your disposable so if you find it inappropriate I am ready to abide by it ,, I mean if this persists I will delete my Facebook account .. this is mental torture and you should other wise also include the name of the person who reported it so I can remove him from my Friends circle ,, I mean why does he not read my profile before adding me ,,my profile is same be it Google Twitter Blogspot or Flickr where I post everything publicly ,,
Please review my account and guide me ,, I think one sided harassment is not fair at all.. if a person is a Wahabi Salafi radical Muslim he will definitely not like my Shia rituals or images so what am I to do..
Please read me seriously ,, as my problem could touch others ,, who may not be able to explain to you as vocally as I am doing it ,, I am 63 year old a grand father and a man of peace who shoots respects all religion Hinduism Judaism Shiasm Sufism and others..
Firoze Shakir .
Nihilism begins with the intelligent recognition that you have been conned by eternalism. Nihilism is the defiant determination not to get fooled again. Having been swindled over and over by false promises of meaning, the nihilist stance refuses to acknowledge even the most obvious manifestations of meaningfulness—lest they, too, turn out to be illusory.Eternalism makes seductive promises: that you are always loved, that the universe is in good order, that right and wrong can be known for certain, that your suffering has meaning, that you have a special role in creation, that there will be cosmic justice after death.When you have been disappointed often enough, you start to realize these sweet lies are poison. Such grand promises cannot be kept. Discovering that you have been betrayed by eternalism, and have lost out on the promises it made, is a horrendous emotional blow.One’s first reaction to recognizing the nebulosity of meaningness is to deny it. On some level, you realize that not everything has a definite meaning; that eternalism is false. But since that seems too awful to contemplate, you refuse to admit it. You redouble your insistence that everything is peachy keen—and prepare to do violence to anyone and anything that contradicts you.This is wavering eternalism. You try to maintain the eternalist stance using ploys such as kitsch, arming, and mystification. These are not nihilistic strategies; but they can easily flip into nihilism, when nebulosity becomes so obvious that pretending becomes impossible.
Along with images of brutality, ISIL presents itself as "an emotionally attractive place where people 'belong', where everyone is a 'brother' or 'sister'. A kind of slang, melding adaptations or shortenings of Islamic terms with street language, is evolving among the English-language fraternity on social media platforms in an attempt to create a 'jihadi cool'."[236] The "most potent psychological pitch" of ISIL media is the promise of heavenly reward to dead jihadist fighters. Frequently posted in their media are dead jihadists smiling faces, their ISIS 'salute' of a 'right-hand index finger pointing heavenward', and testimonies of their happy widowsResponse against civilization of death.Solidarity facing barbarism. fight a terror potential.fight back.Preserve the friendship with others.Nihilism is a simple inversion of eternalism. It denies that there anything is meaningful at all. At times when meaning is particularly evanescent, when you are particularly bitterly disappointed in it, you may commit to nihilism. “I’ll never get fooled again!”But this commitment is difficult—probably impossible. Meaningfulness is, at other times, obvious. As a result, in practice all nihilism is wavering nihilism.Whereas wavering eternalism consists of eternalism plus secret doubt, wavering nihilism consists of nihilism plus secret passion. Passion is the recognition of meaningfulness. To maintain wavering nihilism, you must blind yourselves to meaningfulness, which is even more difficult than blinding yourselves to the nebulosity of meaning.Rage is one way wavering nihilism reacts to evidence of meaningfulness. This is a defiant negativity: “I don’t care! No matter what you say, I will not admit life is meaningful!” Nihilistic rage wants to destroy whatever has meaning, and whoever points to meaning. (This is the mirror-image strategy to armed eternalism.)Nihilistic rage can be transformed into clear-minded rejection of fixation; nihilistic intellectualization into non-conceptual appreciation of nebulosity; nihilistic depression into enjoyment of meaninglessness with equanimity.
meaningness.com/emotional-dynamics-of-nihilism
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, /ˈaɪsɨs/), the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham, or simply Islamic State (IS),is a Wahhabi/Salafi jihadist extremist militant group, self-proclaimed to be a caliphate and Islamic state. Conspiracy theorists in the Arab world have advanced rumours that the U.S. is secretly behind the existence and emboldening of ISIL, as part of an attempt to further destabilize the Middle East. After such rumors became widespread, the U.S. embassy in Lebanon issued an official statement denying the allegations, calling them a complete fabrication. The rumours claim that ISIL leader al-Baghdadi is an Israeli Mossad agent and actor called Simon Elliot and that NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal this connection. Snowden's lawyer has called the story "a hoax."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levan...
According to The New York Times, many in the Middle East believe that an alliance of the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia is directly responsible for the creation of ISIL. Egyptian, Tunisian, Palestinian, Jordanian and Lebanese news organisations have reported on the conspiracy theory
ISIS, where the Civilization of Death has taken the place of the life-affirming .Thoughts for the Times on War and Death.The individual who is not himself a combatant - and so is a cog in the gigantic machine of war - feels bewildered in his orientation, and inhibited in his powers and activities. I believe that he will welcome any indication, however slight, which will make it easier for him to find his bearings within himself at least. I propose to pick out two among the factors which are responsible for the mental distress felt by non-combatants, against which it is such a heavy task to struggle, and to treat of them: the disillusionment which this war has evoked, and the altered attitude towards death which this - like every other war - forces upon us.The enjoyment of this common civilization was disturbed from time to time by warning voices, which declared that old traditional differences made wars inevitable, even among the members of a community such as this. We refused to believe it; but if such a war were to happen, how did we picture it? We saw it as an opportunity for demonstrating the progress of comity among human beings since the era when the Greek Amphictyonic Council proclaimed that no city of the league might be destroyed, nor its olive-groves cut down, nor its water-supply stopped; we pictured it as a chivalrous passage of arms, which would limit itself to establishing the superiority of one side in the struggle, while as far as possible avoiding acute suffering that could contribute nothing to the decision, and granting complete immunity for the wounded who had to withdraw from the contest, as well as for the doctors and nurses who devoted themselves to their recovery. There would, of course be the utmost consideration for the non-combatant classes of the population - for women who take no part in war-work, and the children who, when they are grown up, should become on both sides one another's friends and helpers. And again, all the international undertakings and institutions in which the common civilization of peace-time had been embodied would be maintained.
I have been shooting the hijra ethnicity for many years now I shoot them for myself ,,and I have a great bond with most of them ,.but it remains ephemeral and transitional..
Once I return from Ajmer the moments are lost forever I never call them I have their numbers ..I only shoot ,,,demystify their captured souls like women genies in a thick glass bottle .
But this documentary shot upclose necessitated the faith trust of the hijras in me not only as a photographer but as a person too..
Sadly I locked up this documentation one of its kind at Flickr from public view ,,,
Now I am posting videos and images some of them as slide shows ..
The hijra pictures did not come easy I sometimes had to invoke the generosity of the Gurus but once I became a Malang it became much easier as most of them know Syed Masoom Ali Baba ,,the head of my order of the Dam Madar Malangs ,
I have shot boys pretty boys who got initiated as hijras ,,,I have also shot the initiation of a hijra at the defunct Hijra Gully no 1.
But all in all I prefer shooting the beggar hijra s , I meet them in all walks of life even here in Bandra .
What I really miss is the dance performing hijras who are invited at Muslim Nikahs ,,, wedding receptions in the slums ,,,but a Salafi mindset has stopped dancing and qawalis...
We hardly have Badhai and no hijra cam to my house when my grandkids were born...
I dont think anyone has shot the angst of the hijra as poetically as I have shot them..
It was never to create a coffee table book...it was only for awareness of their human rights to live as women and they already have the double edged sword of Article 377 hanging over their heads ,
I always moderated my vision when I was shooting them many wanted me to shoot them in thr raw as an art form I politely refused,,
I shot them in the redlight areas chatting with them on bed bug ridden mattresses and the creaky metal beds the foul smell of urine .. and the muskiness of despair ,,, thanks to a hijra friend and a commercial worker and her Guru,
I have not gone there since a very long time ,,
This is my genre as a people photographer and hijras in relevance with Dargahs , Yoni temples , possession exorcism and black magic and the relation of hijras with tantrics and Aghoris who treat them like goddesses felicitating them with gifts money at the cremation grounds ,,after midnight havan sessions .
The Great Mosque of Brussels (French: Grande mosquée de Bruxelles, Dutch: Grote Moskee van Brussel) is located in the Cinquantenaire Park. The original building was built by architect Ernest Van Humbeeck in an Arabic style, to form the Oriental Pavilion of the National Exhibition in Brussels in 1880. At that time the pavilion housed a monumental painting on canvas: “Panorama of Cairo”, by the Belgian painter Emile Wauters, which enjoyed major success. However, lack of maintenance in the twentieth century caused the building to gradually deteriorate.
In 1967, King Baudouin lent the building to King Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia with a 99-year rent-free lease, on an official visit to Belgium as part of negotiations to secure oil contracts. The building was turned into a place of worship for the use of Muslim immigrants to Belgium, who at the time were notably from Morocco and Turkey. As part of the deal, imams from the Gulf area would be hired, although their orthodox salafism was a tradition, according to Georges Dallemagne, different from that of the more open-minded immigrants but their teachings would over time turn them into a more orthodox tradition and imams would discourage immigrants from integrating into the Belgian society, according to Georges Dallemagne. The mosque, after a long reconstruction carried out at the expense of Saudi Arabia by Tunisian architect Mongi Boubaker, was inaugurated in 1978 in the presence of Khalid ibn Abd al-Aziz and Baudouin.
In the immediate vicinity of the Mosque, the Monument to the Belgian Pioneers in Congo depicts a scene called "Belgian military heroism wipes out the Arab slave trader". Visitors of the Mosque complained about the mention of the "Arab slave trade". Together with the Jordan and Saudi ambassadors, the imam of the Mosque filed a complaint regarding the inscription, leading to the removal of the mention "Arab" in 1988.
The Mosque's role as the leading religious institution within the Belgian Islamic community—as well as its intended role as a diplomatic bridge between the Saudi and Belgian monarchies—has been a point of debate since its re-foundation. The mosque is popular with Muslim diplomats and is a popular location for Belgians seeking to convert to Islam. It has also taught thousands of Muslim students.
Imams and officials have come out to repeat the message that Islam is a religion of peace and has nothing to do with the terrorists in the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks. The ICC's director Khalid Alabri who propagated the Takfiri dogma was expelled by Belgian authorities for his extreme views in 2012.
In October 2017 the Belgian secretary of state of asylum and migration Theo Francken revoked the residence permit of the Egyptian-trained imam of the mosque, Abdelhadi Sewif. cited his salafist ideology, his conservative stance and the imam being a danger to Belgian society and national security as reasons for the revocation. Sewif denied any connection with extremism and appealed to the country’s highest migration authority, but Belgium’s deputy premier, Jan Jambon, has shot down his chance of a successful appeal. A public commission investigating the 2016 Brussels bombings found that 9 participants of courses at the mosque had joined the ranks of foreign fighters of radical groups in the Middle East. Due to these findings, the commission recommended in October 2017 that Saudi control of the mosque be annulled. The commission also stated that the salafi and wahhabist doctrine of the mosque were antithetical to a liberal Islam compatible with European society.
While the mosque leadership claims to promote an inclusionist vision of Islam, Belgian authorities state that the mosque encourage worshippers to close themselves off from mainstream Belgian society and that lead imam Abdelhadi Sewif spoke neither French nor Dutch, official languages of Belgium.
Most Indonesian Moslems are very friendly. The Islamists are all controlled by Mossad and the CIA, and their job is to keep the feudal lords in power. It was the British who built up the Salafi-Wahabi extremists as a device for breaking up the Ottoman empire.
posted at you tube community tab
They maybe hardcore Wahabbi Salafi or any other radical Muslim segment and they hate everyone who does not follow their ideology these serpents of radical thought ..they are perhaps paid by their handlers to attack people like me who respect all religiosity faith spirituality .
And all their comments I have reported as cyber bullying harassment and blocked them too as my comment box here is moderated their comments wont ever see the light of day .. most of these trolls dont even have a video to their credit but You Tube needs them as they are the faceless subscribers .
I respect subscribers but if you are from the gang of trolls you are not my target audience ..
You cannot choke my voice but I have choked yours ,,,forever .
RIP You Tube Trolls Haters .
They wonder whether I am a Hindu or a Muslim
Whatever I am
I am not a Jamati
I am not a Tabliki
I am not a Wahhabi
I am not a Salafi
I am not a Ahle Hadeez
I am not a ISIS Taliban.
Ala Hazrat
Radical or Fundamentalist
Thankfully whatever I am
It's all because of him
With my shortcomings
My aberrations my flaws
My poetry My Whim
This frame was shot
By Magic Eye...
As directed by me
I humbly thank him
My cell phone Vivo 9
My emergency camera
Has a Airtel Jio SIM
Despite the pain of
Living my Life is filled
With Pathos to the Brim
Coach Surendra Pawars
Tennis Court is my only Gym
Yes for giving me a new lease
On my life I owe it to him.
تاریخ کے اوراق اٹھا کر دیکھیں تواسلام کا شیرازہ بکھیرنے میں کئی قوموں کا ہاتھ نظر آتا ہے ان طاغوتی طاقتوں کو پھلنے پھولنے کا موقع دینے والے مسلمان ہی تھے اسلام پرسب سےبرا وار وہابیوں نے کیا ہے۔
اللہ نے313 دین اور سوا لاکھ انبیاء بھیجے لیکن مسلمان اسلام کے سوا کسی کو حق نہیں سمجھتے جبکہ حقیقت یہ ہے کےایک ہی دین سے کئی کئی شاخیں نکلیں، جیسا کے ہندو دین اور سکھ یہ آدم صفی اللہ کے سلسلے کی ایک کڑی ہے ان کو غلط نہیں کہہ سکتے ۔
اسلام قبول نہ کرنا کفر نہیں ہے اصل کفرہے نبی کو رد کرنا ہے۔ یہ ان کافروں کی بات ہے جن کے دل کافر ہیں، زبان پر کلمہ اور دل میں محمد کے لیے بغض ہے۔ اسلام کی تباہی اس بات میں نہيں کے لوگ نمازیں پڑھنا چھوڑدیں، دین اس وقت تباہ ہوتا ہے جب دین والے سے تعلق ٹوٹ جائے۔
قرآن کے مطابق دلوں کا مرض کسے کہتے ہیں ۔ فساد اور کذب کیا ہے، اللہ کی لعنت کے زمرے میں کون آتا ہے اور وہ لوگ کون ہیں جن کو اللہ اپنا دوست بنا لیتا ہے ۔
سورۃ بقرہ کی ابتدائی آیات اور چند دیگر آیات قرآنی کی باطنی تشریح کے لیے گفتگو ملاحظہ کریں۔
HH Younus AlGohar discusses the state of the Muslim world today and clears misconceptions which have taken root in the minds of some Muslims.
Main points:
Islam has been distorted to an extent where you cannot see remnants of Islam. Islam is to be seen no more. Today’s Muslim is in love with the word, ‘Islam’ but they’re not interested in Islam.
Many liberal Muslims and non-Muslims do not want to hear it anymore that Islam does not promote terrorism. However, Islam was practised for 1400 years and it was only recently that terrorists emerged.
There are now just Wahhabis or Shiites; there are no Muslims left. Shiites give more importance to Ali and the Prophet’s Household while Wahhabis give all respect to Umar bin Khattab. There is no room in their lives for Prophet Mohammad, the Prophet of Islam.
Muslims say that Jews and Christians are infidels because they think that to believe in Prophet Mohammad, one has to become a Muslim. Muslims are required to believe in Jews, Abraham - so by that token, they would have to convert to Christianity or Judaism to prove their belief.
HH Younus AlGohar has expressed his intentions to continue to speak the truth in order to stop the spread of falsehood. He reminds those threatening him, ‘This take has been given to me by my Lord Imam Mehdi Gohar Shahi. I am afraid of none.’
The Great Mosque of Brussels (French: Grande mosquée de Bruxelles, Dutch: Grote Moskee van Brussel) is located in the Cinquantenaire Park. The original building was built by architect Ernest Van Humbeeck in an Arabic style, to form the Oriental Pavilion of the National Exhibition in Brussels in 1880. At that time the pavilion housed a monumental painting on canvas: “Panorama of Cairo”, by the Belgian painter Emile Wauters, which enjoyed major success. However, lack of maintenance in the twentieth century caused the building to gradually deteriorate.
In 1967, King Baudouin lent the building to King Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia with a 99-year rent-free lease, on an official visit to Belgium as part of negotiations to secure oil contracts. The building was turned into a place of worship for the use of Muslim immigrants to Belgium, who at the time were notably from Morocco and Turkey. As part of the deal, imams from the Gulf area would be hired, although their orthodox salafism was a tradition, according to Georges Dallemagne, different from that of the more open-minded immigrants but their teachings would over time turn them into a more orthodox tradition and imams would discourage immigrants from integrating into the Belgian society, according to Georges Dallemagne. The mosque, after a long reconstruction carried out at the expense of Saudi Arabia by Tunisian architect Mongi Boubaker, was inaugurated in 1978 in the presence of Khalid ibn Abd al-Aziz and Baudouin.
In the immediate vicinity of the Mosque, the Monument to the Belgian Pioneers in Congo depicts a scene called "Belgian military heroism wipes out the Arab slave trader". Visitors of the Mosque complained about the mention of the "Arab slave trade". Together with the Jordan and Saudi ambassadors, the imam of the Mosque filed a complaint regarding the inscription, leading to the removal of the mention "Arab" in 1988.
The Mosque's role as the leading religious institution within the Belgian Islamic community—as well as its intended role as a diplomatic bridge between the Saudi and Belgian monarchies—has been a point of debate since its re-foundation. The mosque is popular with Muslim diplomats and is a popular location for Belgians seeking to convert to Islam. It has also taught thousands of Muslim students.
Imams and officials have come out to repeat the message that Islam is a religion of peace and has nothing to do with the terrorists in the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks. The ICC's director Khalid Alabri who propagated the Takfiri dogma was expelled by Belgian authorities for his extreme views in 2012.
In October 2017 the Belgian secretary of state of asylum and migration Theo Francken revoked the residence permit of the Egyptian-trained imam of the mosque, Abdelhadi Sewif. cited his salafist ideology, his conservative stance and the imam being a danger to Belgian society and national security as reasons for the revocation. Sewif denied any connection with extremism and appealed to the country’s highest migration authority, but Belgium’s deputy premier, Jan Jambon, has shot down his chance of a successful appeal. A public commission investigating the 2016 Brussels bombings found that 9 participants of courses at the mosque had joined the ranks of foreign fighters of radical groups in the Middle East. Due to these findings, the commission recommended in October 2017 that Saudi control of the mosque be annulled. The commission also stated that the salafi and wahhabist doctrine of the mosque were antithetical to a liberal Islam compatible with European society.
While the mosque leadership claims to promote an inclusionist vision of Islam, Belgian authorities state that the mosque encourage worshippers to close themselves off from mainstream Belgian society and that lead imam Abdelhadi Sewif spoke neither French nor Dutch, official languages of Belgium.
Abu Bakr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people named Abu Bakr, see Abu Bakr (name).
Abu Bakr
Caliph Abu Bakr's Empire at its greatest extent.
Born c. 573 CE Mecca, Arabia or present-day Saudi Arabia
Died 23 August 634 Medina, Saudi Arabia
Reign 8 June 632–23 August 634
Title(s) as-Siddeeq, as-Sadiq, Sadiq al-Akbar, Khalifa-tul-Rasool (Successor of messenger of Allah)
Buried Al-Masjid al-Nabawi
Predecessor Muhammad
Successor Umar
Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Abi Quhafa As-Siddiq (Arabic: أبو بكر الصديق or عبد الله بن أبي قحافة; Transliteration: Abū Bakr as-Siddīq or 'Abdallah bin Abī Quhāfah, c. 573 CE – 23 August 634/13 AH)[1] was an early person to convert to Islam and a senior companion (Sahaba) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[2] Throughout his life, Abu Bakr remained a friend and confidante of Muhammad. Upon Muhammad's death he became the first Muslim ruler (632–634), regarded in Sunni Islam as the first of the Rashidun (righteously guided Caliphs).[3] His caliphate lasted two years and three months, during which time he consolidated the Muslim state. Upon the death of Muhammad, some tribes rebelled, and in return he fought the Ridda wars against these Arab tribes to establish Islamic rule over all of Arabia. He also conquered the lands of Syria and Iraq.[4]
Lineage
Full name 'Abd Allah ibn 'Uthman ibn Amir ibn Amru ibn Ka'ab ibn Sa'ad ibn Taim ibn Murrah ibn Ka'ab ibn Lu'ai ibn Ghalib ibn Fihr al-Quraishi at-Taimi [5][6].
Early life
Abu Bakr was born in Mecca some time in the year 573 CE, in the Banu Taym branch of the Quraysh tribe. Abu Bakr's father's name was Uthman Abu Qahafa nicknamed Abu Qahafa, and his mother was Salma Umm-ul-Khair nicknamed Umm-ul-Khair. The birth name of Abu Bakr was Abdul Kaaba (servant of Kaaba) and when he accepted Islam in 610 he was named Abdullah (servant of Allah) by Muhammad. Abu Bakr was a thin man with white skin [7]. Tabari relates (Suyuti also relates the same through Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi's report) from Aisha her description of Abu Bakr:
He was a man with fair skin, thin, emaciated, with a sparse beard, a slightly hunched frame, sunken eyes and protruding forehead, and the bases of his fingers were hairless. [8]
By most reports he was very handsome,[citation needed] and for his beauty he earned the nickname of Atiq. He was born in a rich family. He spent his early childhood like other Arab children of the time among the Bedouins who called themselves Ahl-i-Ba'eer- the people of the camel, he developed a particular fondness for camels.
Wazir Khan Mosque, in Pakistan, (16th century) sayings of the companions of Muhammad on the northern wall of the arched gateway of the central prayer chamber.In his early years he played with the camel foals and goats, and his love for camels earned him the nickname of Abu Bakr, the father of the foal of the camel.[9] It is said that he didn't worship idols since his youth. When Abu Bakr was 10 years old he went to Syria along with his father with the merchants' caravan. Muhammad who was 12 years old at the time, was also with the caravan. Like other children of the rich Meccan merchant families, he was literate and developed a fondness for poetry. He used to attend the annual fair at Ukaz, and participate in poetical symposia. He had a very good memory. In 591 at the age of 18, Abu Bakr went into trade and adopted the profession of a cloth merchant which was the family's business. In the coming years Abu Bakr traveled extensively with caravans. Business trips took him to Yemen, Syria, and elsewhere. These travels brought him wealth and added to his experience. His business flourished and he rose in the scale of social importance. Though his father Uthman Abu Qahafa was still alive, he came to be recognized as chief of his tribe. Abu Bakr was assigned the office of awarding blood money in cases of murder. His office was something like the office of an honorary magistrate.[10] Abu Bakr was an expert in genealogical lore and he knew intimately who was who in Mecca, and what his ancestry was.
During Muhammad's times
When Muhammad married Khadijah bint Khuwaylid and moved to her house, he became a neighbor of Abu Bakr who lived in the same locality. That was the quarter of Meccan aristocracy. Like the house of Khadija, the house of Abu Bakr was double storied and palatial in structure.
As neighbors, Muhammad and Abu Bakr came in contact with each other. Both of them were of the same age, traders and good managers.
Acceptance of Islam
On his return from a business trip from Yemen, he was informed by some of his friends that in his absence Muhammad had declared himself as the Messenger of God, and proclaimed a new religion. Abu Bakr was the first akhir baligh (post-puberty) free male to accept Muhammad's Prophethood. Scholars, as well as other Sunnis and all Shi'a Muslims maintain that the second person (and first male) to accept Muhammed as the messenger of Allah was Ali ibn Abi Talib.[11] However, 'Ali was still a pre-pubescent child when he accepted Islam, and therefore excluded from the duties of a Muslim. Also he was the first person outside the family of Muhammad to become a Muslim.
Life after accepting Islam
Part of a series on
Sunni Islam
Beliefs
Monotheism
Prophethood & Messengership
Holy Books • Angels
Judgement Day • Predestination
Pillars
Declaration of Faith • Prayer
Charity • Fasting • Pilgrimage
Rightly Guided Caliphs
Abu Bakr • Umar ibn al-Khattab
Uthman ibn Affan • Ali ibn Abi Talib
Schools of Law (Shariah)
Hanafi • Shafi`i • Maliki • Hanbali
Schools of Theology
Maturidi • Ash'ari • Athari
Modern Movements
Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon • Deobandi • Barelwi • Salafi • Wahhabi • Tablighi Jamaat
Hadith Collections
Sahih Bukhari • Sahih Muslim
Al-Sunan al-Sughra
Sunan Abu Dawood
Sunan al-Tirmidhi
Sunan ibn Maja • Al-Muwatta
Sunan al-Darami
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His birth name Abdul Kaaba was changed to Abdullah, because the former was indicative of paganism. His wife Qutaylah bint Abd-al-Uzza did not accept Islam and he divorced her. His other wife, Um Ruman, became a Muslim at his insistence. All his children except ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr accepted Islam, and Abu Bakr separated from his son Abdur Rahman.
His conversion brought the most benefit to Islam. Abu Bakr's dawah brought many people to Islam. He persuaded his intimate friends to convert to Islam. [12][13] He presented Islam to others in such a way that many of his friends opted for Islam. Those who converted to Islam at the instance of Abu Bakr were:
Uthman Ibn Affan (who would became the 3rd Caliph)
Al-Zubayr (part of the Muslim conquest of Egypt)
Talhah
Abdur Rahman bin Awf (who would remain an important part of the Rashidun Empire)
Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas (part of the Islamic conquest of Persia)
Umar ibb Masoan
Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah (who remained commander in chief of the Rashidun army in Syria )
Abdullah bin Abdul Asad
Abu Salma
Khalid ibn Sa`id
Abu Hudhaifah ibn al-Mughirah
Abu Bakr's acceptance proved to be a milestone in Muhammad's mission. Slavery was common in Mecca, and many slaves accepted Islam. When an ordinary free man accepted Islam, despite opposition, he would enjoy the protection of his tribe. For slaves however, there was no such protection, and were subjected to persecution. He gave 40.000 dinar for the sake of Islam. [14][15] Abu Bakr felt for these slaves, so he purchased them and set them free. Abu Bakr purchased the freedom of eight slaves, four men and four women.
The men were:
Bilal ibn Ribah
Abu Fakih
Ammar ibn Yasir
Abu Fuhayra
The women were:
Lubaynah
Al-Nahdiah
Umm Ubays
Harithah bint al-Muammil
Most of the slaves liberated by Abu Bakr were either women or old and frail men.[16] The father of Abu Bakr asked him to for why doesn't he liberate strong and young slaves who could be a source of strength for him, Abu Bakr replied that he was freeing the slaves for the sake of Allah, and not for his own sake. According to Sunni tradition the following verses of the Qur'an were revealed due to this:
He who gives in charity and fears Allah And in all sincerity testifies to the Truth; We shall indeed make smooth for him the path of Bliss {92:5-7}.
Those who spend their wealth for increase in self-purification; And have in their minds no favor from any one For which a reward is expected in return, But only the desire to seek the Countenance, Of their Lord, Most High; And soon they shall attain complete satisfaction {92:8-21}.
Persecution by the Quraysh
Main article: Persecution of Muslims by the Meccans
For three years after the advent of Islam, Muslims kept secret their faith, and prayed in secret. In 613 Muhammad received a revelation to call people to Islam openly. The first public address inviting people to offer allegiance to Muhammad was delivered by Abu Bakr. In a fit of fury the young men of the Quraysh tribe rushed at Abu Bakr, and beat him mercilessly till he lost consciousness.[17] Following this incident Abu Bakr's mother converted to Islam. Abu Bakr was persecuted many times by the Quraysh.
Last years in Mecca
In 617, the Quraysh enforced a boycott against the Banu Hashim. Muhammad along with his supporters from Banu Hashim, were shut up in a pass away from Mecca. All social relations with the Banu Hashim were cut off and their state was that of imprisonment. Before it many Muslims migrated to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Abu Bakr, feeling distress, set out for Yemen and then to Abyssinia from there. He met a friend of his named Ad-Dughna (chief of the Qarah tribe) outside Mecca, who invited Abu Bakr to seek his protection against the Quraysh. Abu Bakr went back to Mecca, it was a relief for him, but soon due to the pressure of Quraysh, Ad-Dughna was forced to renounce his protection. Once again the Quraysh were free to persecute Abu Bakr. In the year 620 Muhammad's wife and uncle died. Abu Bakr's daughter Aisha was engaged to Muhammad, however it was decided that the actual marriage ceremony would be held later. In the year 620 Abu Bakr was the first person to testify to Muhammad's Isra and Mi'raj (night Journey).[18] According to Sunni traditions, he was given title al-Siddîq, meaning "the truthful," "the upright," or "the one who counts true," due to his immediate belief of the journey. During the Roman-Persian Wars, the sympathies of the Quraysh of Mecca was with the Persians who were Zoroastrian. The Muslims on the other hand had their sympathies for the Byzantines who were Christians and were the People of the Book with a belief in the Abrahamic God. After the Persian victories over Byzantine, verses of the Qur'an revealed of Surah rum with the prophesy that Byzantine (Romans) will regain what they lost and the Persians will be defeated within few years. Over this Abu Bakr had a wager with Ubaiy bin Khalf, it was decided that one who lost the wager will pay one hundred camels. With a decisive Byzantine victory in 627 against the Persians, Abu Bakr won the wager, though Ubaiy bin Khalf was not alive but his heirs honored the agreement and gave Abu Bakr one hundred camels. Abu Bakr gave away all the camels as charity..
Migration to Medina
Main article: Hijra (Islam)
In 622 on the invitation of the Muslims of Medina, Muhammad ordered Muslims to migrate to Medina. The migration began in batches. Abu Bakr accompanied Muhammad in his migration for Medina. Due to the danger of the Quraysh, they did not take the road to Medina. They moved in the opposite direction, and took refuge in a cave in Mount Thaur some five miles south of Mecca. `Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr the son of Abu Bakr would listen to the plans and talks of the Quraysh, and at night he would carry the news to the fugitives in the cave. Asma bint Abi Bakr the daughter of Abu Bakr brought them meals every day.[19] Aamir a servant of Abu Bakr would bring a flock of goats to the mouth of the cave every night where they were milked. The Quraysh sent search parties in all directions. One party came close to the entrance to the cave, but was unable to sight them. Due to this the following verse of the Qur'an was revealed:
If ye help not (your Leader) (it is no matter): for Allah did indeed help him; when the unbelievers drove him out: he had no more than one companion: they two were in the cave, and he said to his companion "Have no Fear, for Allah is with us": then Allah sent down His peace upon him, and strengthened him with forces which ye saw not, and humbled to the depths the word of the Unbelievers. But the word of Allah is exalted to the heights: for Allah is Exalted in might, Wise. [Qur'an 9:40]
'Aa'ishah, Abu Sa`eed al-Khudri and ibn 'Abbaas in interpreting this verse said
Abu Bakr was the one who stayed with the Prophet in that cave
It is narrated from al-Barra' ibn 'Azib, he said,
Once Abu Bakr bought a ride from 'Azib for 10 Dirham, then Abu Bakr said to 'Azib, "Tell your son the Barra to deliver that beast." Then 'Azib said, "No, until you tell us how yourjourney with the Messenger of Allah when he went out of Makkah while the Mushrikeen were busy looking for you." Abu Bakr said, "We set out from Makkah, walking day and night, until it came the time of Zuhr, so I was looking for a place to so that we can rest under it, it came to be that I saw a big rock, so I came to it and there was the place, so I spread a matress for the Prophet, then I said to him, " Rest O' Prophet of Allah." So he rested, while I surveyed the area around me, are there people looking for us coming here to spy. Suddenly I saw there was a shepherd herding his sheep to the direction of the place under the rock wanting to shade himself like us, so I asked, "Who is your master O' slave?" He answered, "Slave of the fulan, someone of the Quraish." He mentioned the name of his master and I knew him, then I asked, "Does your sheep have milk?" He answered, "Yes!" So he took one of the sheep, after that I ordered him to clean the breasts of the sheep first from dirt and dust, then I ordered him to blow his hand from dust, so he pat his two hands and he started milking, while I prepared a vessel with its mouth wrapped with cloth to contain the milk, so I poured the milk that was milked to the vessel and I waited until the bottom was cold, then I brought to the Prophet and it was that he had waken up, instantly I told him him, "Drink O' Messenger of Allah." So he started to drink until I saw that he was full, then I told him, "Are we not going to continue walking O' Messenger of Allah?" He answered, "Yes!" At last we continued the journey while the mushrikeen keep looking for us, not one one that could pursue us except Suraqah ibn Malik ibn Ju'sham who rode his horse, so I said to the Messenger of Allah, "This man has succeded in pursuing us O' Messenger of Allah," but he answered, "ﻻ ﺗﺤﺰ ﻥ ﺇ ﻥ ﺍﷲ ﻣﻌﻨﺎ" (Do not worry, verily Allah is with us).
It is narrated from Anas from Abu Bakr he said,
I said to the Prophet when were in the cave, "If only they had looked under their feet we would assuredly be seen" The Messenger answered, "ﻣﺎ ﻇﻨﻚ ﻳﺎ ﺃ ﺑﺎ ﺑﻜﺮ ﺑﺎ ﺛﻨﻴﻦ ﺍﷲ ﺛﺎ ﻟﺘﻬﻤﺎ" (What do you think O' Abu Bakr with two people while Allah is the third)[20]
After staying at the cave for three days and three nights, Abu Bakr and Muhammad proceed to Medina, staying for some time at Quba, a suburb of Medina.
Life in Medina
In Medina, Muhammad decided to construct a mosque. A piece of land was chosen and the price of the land was paid for by Abu Bakr. Muslims constructed a mosque named Al-Masjid al-Nabawi at the site and Abu Bakr also took part in construction. Abu Bakr was paired with Khaarij ah bin Zaid Ansari as a brother in faith. Abu Bakr's relationship with his brother-in-Islam was most cordial, which was further strengthened when Abu Bakr married Habiba, a daughter of Khaarijah.
Khaarij ah bin Zaid Ansari used to live at Sukh, a suburb of Medina, and Abu Bakr also settled there. After Abu Bakr's family arrived in Medina he bought another house near Muhammad's.[21]
The climate of Mecca was dry, but the climate of Medina was damp and this adversely affected the health of the immigrants, so that on arrival most of them fell sick. Abu Bakr also suffered from fever for several days and during this time he was attended to by Khaarijah and his family. At Mecca, Abu Bakr was a trader in cloth and he started the same business in Medina. He was a wholesaler, and had his store at Sukh, and from there cloth was supplied to the market at Medina. Soon his business flourished at Medina. Early in 623, Abu Bakr's daughter Aisha, who was already engaged to Muhammad, was handed over to Muhammad in a simple marriage ceremony, and this further strengthen the relation between Abu Bakr and Muhammad.
In 624 Abu Bakr participated in the first battle between the Muslims and the Quraysh of Mecca known as the Battle of Badr. In 625 he participated in the Battle of Uhud. Before the battle begun, Abu Bakr's son ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr who was still non-Muslim and was fighting from the side of the Quraysh, came forward and threw down a challenge for a duel. Abu Bakr accepted the challenge but was stopped by Muhammad. His son later converted to Islam and gained fame during the Muslim conquest of Syria as a fierce warrior. In the second phase of the battle, Khalid ibn al-Walid’s cavalry attacked the Muslims from behind, changing a Muslim victory to defeat. Many Muslim warriors were routed from the battle field but Abu Bakr remained, guarding Muhammad from the attacks of the Quraysh soldiers. During one such attack, two discs from Muhammad’s shield penetrated into Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah's cheeks. Abu Bakr went forward with the intention of extracting these discs but Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah requested he leave the matter to him, losing his two incisors during the process. Subsequently, Abu Bakr, along with other companions, led Muhammad to a place of safety. Later in the year Abu Bakr was a part of campaign again the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir.
Later, in 627 he participated in the Battle of the Trench and also in the Battle of Banu Qurayza.[22] In 628 he participated in Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and was made one of the witnesses over the pact.[22]
In the year 628 he was a part of the Muslim campaign to Khaybar. In 629 Muhammad sent 'Amr ibn al-'As to Zaat-ul-Sallasal from where he called for reinforcements and Muhammad sent Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah. Commanding an army under him were Abu Bakr and Umar and they attacked and defeated the enemy.[23]
In 630 when Muslim armies rushed for the Conquest of Mecca, Abu Bakr was a part of the army. Before the conquest of Mecca his father Uthman Abu Qahafa converted to Islam. In 630 he was part of Battle of Hunayn and Siege of Ta'if. He was part of the Muslim army in the campaign of Tabuk under Muhammad's command and he was reported to have given all his wealth for the preparation of this expedition.
In 631, Muhammad sent from Medina a delegation of three hundred Muslims to perform the Hajj according to the new Islamic way. Abu Bakr was appointed as the leader of the delegates. Abu Bakr had thus the honor of being the first Amir-ul-Haj in the history of Islam. In the year 632 Abu Bakr followed Muhammad to Mecca for the farewell Hajj.
ORAN. IT IS HERE THAT RAI IS BORN...The raï was born in Oran with the likes of Cheb Khaled, Cheb Mami... This incredible concentration of Oranese folklore, flamenco, jazz, of the Egyptian genre is a true explosion amplified today of the auto-tune, tilting these robotic complaints in spirals of rhythm boxes, of wah-wah pedal. Le Raï is also a very rich local scene (including Amine Matelot, hiding here her sweetness behind her terrible glasses...). These songs speak of the city with a recurrent geography (the road of the high school, the car park, the beach...). It is also a way to enter into the heart of the city, its feeling and its "discernment" (Rai). Oran is a singing, polyphonic city, bordering on the hips of her songs.
Raï (IPA: [rɑi]; Arabic: راي), sometimes written rai, is a form of Algerian folk music that which dates back to the 1920s. Singers of Raï are called cheb (Arabic: شاب) (or shabab, i.e. young) as opposed to sheikh (Arabic: شيخ) (shaykh, i.e. old), the name given to Chaabi singers. The tradition arose in cities like Oran, Relizane, Mostaganem, Chlef, Aïn Témouchent and Sidi-Bel-Abbès, primarily among the poor. Traditionally sung by men, by the end of the 20th century, female singers had become common. The lyrics of Raï have concerned social issues such as disease and the policing of European colonies that affected native populations
Raï is a type of Algerian popular music that arose in the 1920s[citation needed] in the port city of Oran and that self-consciously ran counter to accepted artistic and social mores. It appealed to young people who sought to modernize the traditional Islamic values and attitudes. Regional, secular, and religious drum patterns, melodies, and instruments were blended with Western electric instrumentation. Raï emerged as a major world-music genre in the late 1980s.
In the years just following World War I, the Algerian city of Oran—known as “little Paris”—was a melting pot of various cultures, full of nightclubs and cabarets; it was the place to go for a bawdy good time. Out of this milieu arose a group of male and female Muslim singers called chioukhs and cheikhates, who rejected the refined, classical poetry of traditional Algerian music. Instead, to the accompaniment of pottery drums and end-blown flutes, they sang about the adversity of urban life in a raw, gritty, sometimes vulgar, and inevitably controversial language that appealed especially to the socially and economically disadvantaged. The cheikhates further departed from tradition in that they performed not only for women but also and especially for men.
The music performed was called raï. It drew its name from the Algerian Arabic word raï (“opinion” or “advice”), which was typically inserted—and repeated—by singers to fill time as they formulated a new phrase of improvised lyrics. By the early 1940s Cheikha Rimitti el Reliziana had emerged locally as a musical and linguistic luminary in the raï tradition, and she continued to be among the music’s most prominent performers into the 21st century.
In the early 20th century, Oran was divided into Jewish, French, Spanish, and Arab quarters. By independence in 1962, the Jewish quarter (known as the Derb), was home to musicians like Reinette L'Oranaise, Saoud l'Oranais and Larbi Bensari. Sidi el Houari was home to Spanish fishermen and many refugees from Spain who arrived after 1939. These two quarters had active music scenes,[4] and the French inhabitants of the city went to the Jewish and Spanish areas to examine the music. The Arabs of Oran were known for al-andalous, a classical style of music imported from Southern Spain after 1492. Hawzi classical music was popular during this time, and female singers of the genre included Cheikha Tetma, Fadila D'zirya and Myriam Fekkai. Another common musical genre was bedoui (or gharbi), which originated from Bedouin chants. Bedoui consisted of Melhun poetry being sung with accompaniment from guellal drums and gaspa Flutes. Bedoui was sung by male singers, known as cheikhs, who were dressed in long, white jellabas and turbans. Lyrics came from the poetry of people such as Mestfa ben Brahim and Zenagui Bouhafs. Performers of bedoui included Cheikh Hamada, Cheikh Mohammed Senoussi, Cheikh Madani, Cheikh Hachemi Bensmir and Cheikh Khaldi. Senoussi was the first to have had recorded the music in 1906.
French colonization of Algeria changed the organization of society, producing a class of poor, uneducated urban men and women. Bedoui singers mostly collaborated with the French colonizers, though one exception from such collaboration was Cheikh Hamada.[5] The problems of survival in a life of poverty were the domain of street musicians who sang bar-songs called zendanis. A common characteristic of these songs included exclamations of the word "raï!" and variations thereof. The word "rai" implies that an opinion is being expressed.
In the 1920s, the women of Oran were held to strict code of conduct. Many of those that failed became social outcasts and singers and dancers. They sang medh songs in praïse of the prophet Mohammed and performed for female audiences at ceremonies such as weddings and circumcision feasts. These performers included Les Trois Filles de Baghdad, Soubira bent Menad and Kheira Essebsadija. Another group of female social outcasts were called cheikhas, who were known for their alluring dress, hedonistic lyrics, and their display of a form of music that was influenced from meddhahates and zendani singers. These cheikhas, who sang for both men and women, included people such as Cheikha Remitti el Reliziana, Cheikha Grélo, Cheikha Djenia el Mostganmia, Cheikha Bachitta de Mascara, and Cheikha a; Ouachma el Tmouchentia. The 1930s saw the rise of revolutionary organizations, including organizations motivated by Marxism, which mostly despised these early roots raï singers. At the same time, Arab classical music was gaining popularity across North Africa, especially the music of Umm Kulthum.
When first developed, raï was a hybrid blend of rural and cabaret musical genres, invented by and targeted toward distillery workers, peasants who had lost their land to European settlers, and other types of lower class citizens. The geographical location of Oran allowed for the spread of many cultural influences, allowing raï musicians to absorb an assortment of musical styles such as flamenco from Spain, gnawa music, and French cabaret, allowing them to combine with the rhythms typical of Arab nomads. In the early 1930s, social issues afflicting the Arab population in the colony, such as the disease of typhus, harassment and imprisonment by the colonial police, and poverty were prominent themes of raï lyrics. However, other main lyrical themes concerned the likes of wine, love, and the meaning and experiences of leading a marginal life. From its origins, women played a significant role in the music and performance of raï. In contrast to other Algerian music, raï incorporated dancing in addition to music, particularly in a mixed-gender environment.
In the 1930s, Raï, al-andalousm, and the Egyptian classical style influenced the formation of wahrani, a musical style popularized by Blaoui Houari. Musicians like Mohammed Belarbi and Djelloul Bendaoud added these influences to other Oranian styles, as well as Western piano and accordion, resulting in a style called bedoui citadinisé. Revolt began in the mid-1950s, and musicians which included Houari and Ahmed Saber supported the Front de Libération National. After independence in 1962, however, the Marxist government of the Houari Boumédienne regime, along with President Ahmed Ben Bella, did not tolerate criticism from musicians such as Saber, and suppression of Raï and Oranian culture ensued. The amount of public performances by female raï singers decreased[clarification needed], which led to men playing an increased role in this genre of music. Meanwhile, traditional raï instruments such as the gasba (reed flute), and the derbouka (Maghrebi drums) were replaced with the violin and accordion.
In the 1960s, Bellamou Messaoud and Belkacem Bouteldja began their career, and they changed the raï sound, eventually gaining mainstream acceptance in Algeria by 1964. In the 1970s, recording technology began growing more advanced, and more imported genres had Algerian interest as well, especially Jamaican reggae with performers like Bob Marley. Over the following decades, raï increasingly assimilated the sounds of the diverse musical styles that surfaced in Algeria. During the 1970s, raï artists brought in influences from other countries such as Egypt, Europe, and the Americas. Trumpets, the electric guitar, synthesizers, and drum machines were specific instruments that were put into raï music. This marked the beginning of pop raï, which was performed by a later generation which adopted the title of Cheb (male) or Chaba (female), meaning “young,” to distinguish themselves from the older musicians who continued to perform in the original style. Among the most prominent performers of the new raï were Chaba Fadela, Cheb Hamid, and Cheb Mami. However, by the time the first international raï festival was held in Algeria in 1985, Cheb Khaled had become virtually synonymous with the genre. More festivals followed in Algeria and abroad, and raï became a popular and prominent new genre in the emergent world-music market. cheb (young man) and cheba (young woman).[8] International success of the genre had begun as early as 1976 with the rise to prominence of producer Rachid Baba Ahmed.
During the 1970s, raï artists brought in influences from other countries such as Egypt, Europe, and the Americas. Trumpets, the electric guitar, synthesizers, and drum machines were specific instruments that were put into raï music. This marked the beginning of pop raï, which was performed by a later generation of chabs (young men) and chabates (young women).[8] International success of the genre had begun as early as 1976 with the rise to prominence of producer Rachid Baba Ahmed.
The added expense of producing LP's as well as the technical aspects imposed on the medium by the music led to the genre being released almost exclusively onto cassette by the early 1980s, with a great deal of music having no LP counterpart at all and a very limited exposure on CD.
While this form of raï increased cassette sales, its association with mixed dancing, an obscene act according to orthodox Islamic views, led to government-backed suppression. However, this suppression was overturned due to raï's growing popularity in France, where it was strongly demanded by the Maghrebi Arab community. This popularity in France was increased as a result of the upsurge of Franco-Arab struggles against racism. This led to a following of a white audience that was sympathetic to the antiracist struggle.[6]
After the election of president Chadli Bendjedid in 1979, Raï music had a chance to rebuild because of his lessened moral and economic restraints. Shortly afterwards, Raï started to form into pop-raï, with the use of instruments such as electrical synthesizers, guitars, and drum machines.
In the 1980s, raï began its period of peak popularity. Previously, the Algerian government had opposed raï because of its sexually and culturally risqué topics, such as alcohol and consumerism, two subjects that were taboo to the traditional Islamic culture.
The government eventually attempted to ban raï, banning the importation of blank cassettes and confiscating the passports of raï musicians. This was done to prevent raï from not only spreading throughout the country, but to prevent it from spreading internationally and from coming in or out of Algeria. Though this limited the professional sales of raï, the music increased in popularity through the illicit sale and exchange of tapes. In 1985, Algerian Colonel Snoussi joined with French minister of culture Jack Lang to convince the Algerian state to accept raï. He succeeded in getting the government to return passports to raï musicians and to allow raï to be recorded and performed in Algeria, with government sponsorship, claiming it as a part of Algerian cultural heritage. This not only allowed the Algerian government to financially gain from producing and releasing raï, but it allowed them to monitor the music and prevent the publication of "unclean" music and dance and still use it to benefit the Algerian State's image in the national world. In 1986, the first state-sanctioned raï festival was held in Algeria, and a festival was also held in Bobigny, France.
In 1988, Algerian students and youth flooded the streets to protest state-sponsored violence, the high cost of staple foods, and to support the Peoples' Algerian Army. President Chadli Bendjedid, who held power from 1979 to 1992, and his FLN cronies blamed raï for the massive uprising that left 500 civilians dead in October 1988. Most raï singers denied the allegation, including Cheb Sahraoui, who said there was no connection between raï and the October rebellion. Yet raï's reputation as protest music stuck because the demonstrators adopted Khaled's song "El Harba Wayn" ("To Flee, But Where?") to aid their protesting:
Where has youth gone?
Where are the brave ones?
The rich gorge themselves
The poor work themselves to death
The Islamic charlatans show their true face...
You can always cry or complain
Or escape... but where?
In the 1990s, restrictions[specify] were placed on raï, and those who did not submit to censorship faced consequences such as exile. One exiled raï singer, Cheb Hasni, accepted an offer to return to Algeria and perform at a stadium in 1994. Hasni's fame and controversial songs led to him receiving death threats from Islamic fundamentalist extremists. On September 29, 1994, he was the first raï musician to be murdered, outside his parents' home in the Gambetta district of Oran, reportedly because he let girls kiss him on the cheek during a televised concert. His death came amid other violent actions against North African performers. A few days before his death, the Kabyle singer Lounès Matoub was abducted by the GIA. The following year, on February 15, 1995, Raï producer Rachid Baba-Ahmed was assassinated in Oran.
The escalating tension of the Islamist anti-raï campaign caused raï musicians such as Chab Mami and Chaba Fadela to relocate from Algeria to France. Moving to France was a way to sustain the music's existence. France was where Algerians had moved during the post-colonial era in order to find work, and where musicians had a greater opportunity to oppose the government without censorship.
Though raï found mainstream acceptance in Algeria, Islamic fundamentalists still protested the genre, saying that it was still too liberal and too contrasting to traditional Islamic values. The fundamentalists claimed that the musical genre still promoted sexuality, alcohol and Western consumer culture, but critics of the fundamentalist viewpoint stated that fundamentalists and raï musicians were ultimately seeking converts from the same population, the youth, who often had to choose where they belonged between the two cultures. Despite the governmental support, a split remained between those citizens belonging to strict Islam and those patronizing the raï scene.
International success
Cheb Khaled was the first musician with international success, including his 1988 album Kutché, though his popularity did not extend to places such as the United States and Latin America. Other prominent performers of the 1980s included Houari Benchenet, Raïna Raï, Mohamed Sahraoui, Cheb Mami, and Cheb Hamid.
International success grew in the 1990s, with Cheb Khaled's 1992 album Khaled. With Khaled no longer in Algeria, musicians such as Cheb Tahar, Cheb Nasro, and Cheb Hasni began singing lover's raï, a sentimental, pop-ballad form of raï music. Later in the decade, funk, hip hop, and other influences were added to raï, especially by performers like Faudel and Rachid Taha, the latter of whom took raï music and fused it with rock. Taha does not call his creation raï music, but rather describes it as a combination of folk raï and punk. Another mix of cultures in Arabic music of the late 1990s came through Franco-Arabic music released by musicians such as Aldo.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a rise in female raï performers. According to authors Gross, McMurray, and Swedenburg in their article "Arab Noise and Ramadan Nights: Raï, Rap, and Franco-Maghrebi Identity," raï musician Chaba Zahouania was forbidden by her family to perform or even appear in public. According to Gross et al., the raï record companies have pushed female artists to become more noticed.
Throughout the course of raï music's development and commercialization in Algeria, there have been many attempts to stifle the genre. From lyrical content to the album cover images, raï has been a controversial music. Religious identity and transnationalism function to define the complexities of Maghrebi identity. This complex identity is expressed through raï music and is often contested and censored in many cultural contexts.
In 1962, as Algeria claimed its national independence, expression of popular culture was stifled by the conservative nature of the people. During this time of drastic restriction of female expression, many men started to become raï singers. By 1979, when president Chadli Bendjedid endorsed more liberal moral and economic standards, raï music became further associated with Algerian youth. The music remained stigmatized amongst the Salafi Islamists and the Algerian government. Termed the "raï generation", the youth found raï as a way to express sexual and cultural freedoms.[22] An example of this free expression is through the lyrics of Cheb Hasni in his song "El Berraka". Hasni sang: "I had her ... because when you're drunk that's the sort of idea that runs through your head!" Hasni challenged the fundamentalists of the country and the condemnation of non-religious art forms.
Raï started to circulate on a larger scale, via tape sales, TV exposure, and radio play. However, the government attempted to "clean up" raï to adhere to conservative values. Audio engineers manipulated the recordings of raï artists in order to submit to such standards. This tactic allowed for the economy to profit from the music by gaining conservative audiences. The conservativeness not only affected the way listeners received raï music, but also the way the artists, especially female artists, presented their own music. For instance, many[weasel words] female raï artists do not appear on their album covers. Such patriarchal standards pressure women to societal privacy.
From: Mr. Hamid Mohamed
Foreign Operations Department,
United Bank for Africa
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Email: hamidbk57@yahoo.fr
Dear friend,
I am contacting you based on my conviction that you will be capable of championing this business cause. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $10.8m (Ten Million Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in an air crash in the year 2005.
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin, business partner or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately I learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him in the air crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the business partner to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.
The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after ten years, the money will be transferred into the bank treasury account as unclaimed fund. The request of a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkina citizen cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. I wish to inform you that 40% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, while the remaining 60% would be for me. Thereafter I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as a business partner / next of kin of the deceased indicating the bank details wherein the money will be remitted. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you a text of application with which you will use in applying to the bank as the business partner / next of kin of the deceased. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction will be hitch free as I have taken my time to do the underground work before contacting you.
You should contact me immediately you receive this mail through my private email address: hamidbk57@yahoo.fr
I am looking forward to hear from you as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully,
Hamid Mohamed
maamhamil8@aol.fr
thank you hamid mohamed
your message added hope
to this beggar poet ,,,who
every year sheds his blood
hussain is humanity faith
scripted as words....karbala
the land of sorrow ,,, truth
held in every speck of mud
he gave his head but did
no give allegiance to accursed
yazid i am sure you must
have heard..without wings
what is freedom for a bird
sadly today muslims love
killing muslims ...message
of peace brotherhood in
the myopic muslim world
totally battered blurred
faith hopelessly fractured
jihadis salafis wahabbis
fundamentalists ...but
humanity prematurely
interred ...we were once
the hope of tomorrow
highly sensitive cultured
now innocence eaten
as carrion by evil vultures
by the evil deeds of a few
it is islam that they have
victimized injured ...your
$10.8m money that is not
mine or yours i wish to
give to poor of the world
to eradicate ignorance
hunger .. tolerance the
only path to world harmony
should be harbored ..like
our dear rahul says women
should be first empowered
Posted at YouTube Community Tab
First you can post as much hate comments here at this Community platform..
it wont ever see the light of day ..I report your comment as hate speech and block you,
Unlike you I dont hide behind a nameless faceless mask..unlike you I post videos you have nothing to post with all your vacuous brains ,, I pity your ancestry your upbringing and your parentage ,,
I am an Indian a Indian that as a photographer I shoot all religion faith without discrimination ...my religious priorities is none of your business ..one thing is sure I am not a foul mouthed dog like those that post hate comments ..you could be a Wahabbi or a Salafi does not interest me at all ...I dont need your religious advise if you are so keen on changing my beliefs you better go and do such teaching with fundamentalists talibans and other such people maligning Islam killing innocent people ,, and giving Peace and Brotherhood a bad name .
Go find some other soft target for your headhunting...
Hussainiyat Zindabad Yazidiyat Murdabad .
I would rather be a Bawa than a sucked Wahabbi
I would rather be a Hindu than a Misplaced Muslim like you ..
'Wahhabism has so damaged the world, shattered the peace, and caused no end of suffering throughout the four corners of the earth. We all want our sanity back. Please, I beg of you...stop and end this barbaric sect. Thank you.' - Anne Dunn
This is a navy blue crepe back satin A-line Abaya with blue and gold 3D sequin flower trim on sleeves.
Walking down the street, you watch the stereotypical Muslim Arab
couple as they pass by you.
The husband, in the crisp white dishdasha that marks him as a
traditional Arab male, coupled with the starched patterned white
shemagh that is crowned by a stiff black egal .
The wife, covered in black from head to toe, ebony chiffon swirling
around her as her feet move, invisible.
His skin is the dusky brown of a Khaleeji Arab; his beard dark, wiry,
and clearly trying to grow longer. The hem of his dishdasha rises
above his ankles, signifying that he is of those troublesome religious
types. What are they called? Oh yes, Salafis.
Who knows what color the wife’sskin is? Poor woman, she probably can’t
breathe behind that layered veil.
His eyes do not smile, his lips are pursed. Horrible man, he must
beangry at his wife for how the sleeve of her cloak pulled below her
wrists! Poor woman is probably going to get beaten tonight. If only
you could save her, liberate her from this oppressive society.
These poor, pathetic, backward Arab savages!
Except, they’re not.
Oh, he is Arab, but she loves to describe herself as a Canadian of
washed-out desi descent, except she’s not really desi because her
parents and grandparents were born and raised in South Africa. She was
raised in Canada her whole life and refuses to be anything but
Canadian.
He is awkward about his Arab heritage, half-Egyptian and half-Kuwaiti,
raised partly in Canada but never feeling at homethere or anywhere
else. She rolls her eyes and tells him that he is exotic, fawns over
his copper skin and high cheekbones, saying that he is her Orientalist
fantasy sheik. And at least the Egyptian genes ensure that their
daughter will be a great dancer, since she can’t dance to save her
life.
He thinks that his beard is too long already, that it must be scaryto
others. She forbids him to cut it, or even trim it, because she loves
threading her fingers through his beard and tugging on the wiry curls.
His lips are pursed because she has just made a snarky, suggestive
comment, giggling behind her niqab , while he tries to stop himself
from laughing out loud and attracting attention.
Never able to resist the temptation to unnerve him, she breathily
whispers something that makes him blush furiously and duck his head in
embarrassment.
The only one to get hit when they get home is him, when she punches
him in the arm teasinglyand cracks a joke about her wearing the pants
in the house.
His dark, serious eyes sparkle when he sees her, even if he’s not too
impressed with the shock of blue streaks in her hair.
When she fidgets in front of the mirror, comparing herself to the
voluptuous Arab women of his family, he tells her to stop being silly
and that he thinks she is the sexiest woman in the world. He waggles
his eyebrows at her, ridiculously although he’s actuallyaiming for
suggestive, until she starts laughing and kisses him tomake him stop.
Of course, you can’t see all that.
They are just another Muslim couple, walking down the street.
It is only after they walk by you that you see their hands join
together, fingers entwined.
Posted by AnonyMouse at 7:28 AM
Labels: Arabs , love , muslim men , muslim women , romance
2 comments:
ireminisces said...
Asalamu alaikum
Congratulations on a wonderful blog.
Belief In The Aakhirah is my latestbloglet come on have a read
comment/follow welcomed, stay blessed.
8:55 AM, May 10, 2012
hamza khanzada said...
love of husband and wife is never ending......
and the first love is never forgotten/
A Salafi guy holding photo of the woman dragged by military police in December 2011, in front of army troops cordoning off the way to Defense Ministry headquarters.
Here's a link of the footage: youtu.be/q2j4xKQ2jdI
-
On April 27, 2012 thousands of Egyptians decided to march to Defense Ministry headquarters. Military Police and Central Security Forces blocked the way to the Ministry from Abassiya. Protesters decided to start a sit-in in front of army/police troops on April 28.
Majority of protesters were Salafis (mostly supporters of ousted presidential candidate Hazem Abu Ismail). The protested Article 28 of Constitutional Deceleration (which states that results of Presidential Electoral Commission PEC can't be appealed).
But all the people in the sit-in had a common/main demand, which is for SCAF to leave.
posted at facebook
I am a peoples photographer and I am quite tired of street photography I shoot if I like something and as I am not into commercial photography I dont shoot stock.
I like to shoot the myriad colors of peace and the spiritual sweetness of Sufism.. as a photographer ..I want to shoot different Sufi orders and so when I met Nasir Bhai Rafaee I decided to do a comprehensive pictorial documentary but more as videos ..creating the Qadri Rafaee playlist at my You Tube Channel and a photo set of this Sufi order widely spread in India at my Flickr photo stream.
At my You Tube Community tab I get lot of stick for my Sufi and Shia documentation by the Salafis Whabbis others of their ilk but as my comment box is moderated the hateful comments I block and report ..although I have strangulated my You Tube video comment box ,...
I do not promote or proselytize I shoot all faith...with my time my camera my vision so why should I be dictated to as to what I should shoot and not shoot ,,
I do not shoot porn I dont belittle any faith I shoot ..and honestly I should not be judged as to what I want to shoot .
The Qadri Rafaee Silsila is my latest Sufi documentation ,,,my interest is Ratib body piercing and zarb..
In Gujrat too it is a formidable force I shot BiliMora and Gandhevi.
The first person to introduce me to the Qadri Rafaee Silsila was Shakib Ahmed Siddiqi Mahimi and Firoz Rafaee and now finally Nasir Bhai rafaee of Dongri
The Wahhabi Mind-Set: www.goharshahi.us/articles/view/the-mind-set-of-wahhabis/
What the world needs to know about 'Islamic' Terrorism.
#SaudiArabia #Wahhabism #Wahhabi #Mindset #Article #ISIS #Salafism #Salafi #philosophy #shiite #terrorism #islamicterrorism #deobandi #extremism #fanaticism #fundamentalism #puritan #ISIL #Daesh #Yemen #Hadith #Quran #ProphetMohammad #Muhammad #Mohammad #sharia #fundamental #airstrikes #alqaeda #houthi
I would rather be a Hindu than a Salafi like you ''
His comment on my post at You Tube Forum
You are just trying to gain fame by using belief and emotions of people and broadcasting casting even things against Islam , you are playing with your Emaan, those madari malang , and those Hijra dance Party and these shrine “bidha” with these miss guided sufis who does not represent Islam, please seek a good Muslim scholar and see I doubt you may not be good Muslim or even a Muslim please go and Do Kaleema again please brother you seriously need help. Otherwise if you are not a Muslim by heart and you are talking rubbish to gain fame and make money with youtube then you are definitely a Munafeq (hypocrite) May Allah Guide us brother!!
The Postcard
A high-definition photograph on a postally-unused postcard with no publisher's name.
Note the Woolworth store behind the large monument to Queen Victoria which was created by Onslow Ford.
Interestingly, many of the faces of the people in the gardens have been blocked out, presumably to preserve their anonymity.
A Season of Operas
The photograph was taken in 1955, as there is a floral display in the gardens dated 1855 - 1955. It is likely that the display is commemorating the centenary of a remarkable season of operas.
In his autobiography (1819-1860), Sir Charles Hallé wrote:
"There came in the winter of 1855 the
offer to conduct a series of operas at
the Theatre Royal, Manchester.
A very excellent troupe had been engaged,
comprising Mme. Eudersdorff, Mme. Caradori,
Mlle. Agnes Biiry, Herr Reichardt, Carl Formes,
and other remarkable vocalists.
Most of the operas were given in German,
and it was happiness to me to conduct really
first-rate performances of 'Fidelio,' 'Don
Giovanni,' 'Der Freyschutz,' 'Die Entfuhrung
aus dem Serail,' alternately with more modern
works such as 'Robert le Diable,' 'Les
Huguenots,' 'La Favorita,' and others'.
The Manchester Arena Bombing
Piccadilly Gardens are just over half a mile from the Manchester Arena. On the 22nd. May 2017, an Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by American singer Ariana Grande.
Twenty-three people were killed, including the attacker, and 1,017 were injured, many of them children. Several hundred more suffered psychological trauma.
The bomber was Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old local man of Libyan ancestry. After initial suspicions of a terrorist network, police later said that they believed Abedi had largely acted alone, but that others had been aware of his plans.
In March 2020, the bomber's brother, Hashem Abedi, was found guilty of 22 counts of murder and attempting to murder 1,017 others, and was sentenced to life in prison.
The incident was the deadliest terrorist attack and the first suicide bombing in the United Kingdom since the 7th. July 2005 London bombings.
The Bombing
On the 22nd. May 2017 at 22:15 a member of the public reported Abedi, wearing black clothes and a large rucksack to Showsec security. A security guard observed Abedi, but said that he did not intervene in case his concerns about Abedi were wrong, and out of fear of being considered a racist.
The security guard tried to use his radio to alert the security control room, but was unable to get through.
Police officers on duty that night were subsequently criticised for their behaviour in the hours leading up to the atrocity - including a two-hour dinner break and a 10-mile round trip to buy a kebab.
At one point, when Abedi took his final trip through the station to his hiding place in the foyer, there were no BTP officers on duty in the area.
At 22:31 the suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device, packed with nuts and bolts to act as shrapnel, in the foyer area of the Manchester Arena.
The attack took place after a concert by American pop star Ariana Grande that was part of her Dangerous Woman Tour. 14,200 people had attended the concert.
Many exiting concert-goers and waiting parents were in the foyer at the time of the explosion. According to evidence presented at the coroner's inquest, the bomb was strong enough to kill people up to 20 metres (66 ft) away.
A report by inquiry chair John Saunders blamed “failings by individuals” for “missed opportunities” to detect and stop bomber Salman Abedi.
Saunders outlined a “litany” of failures by venue operators SMG, security firm Showsec and British Transport Police (BTP) - failures that include taking unauthorised two-hour meal breaks and ignoring members of the public who tried to raise the alarm.:
-- Reconnaissance Oversights
Abedi went to the arena several times to carry out hostile reconnaissance in the run-up to the bombing, visiting on the 18th. and 21st. May, and also the afternoon on the day of the attack.
Although arena operator SMG and security firm Showsec “had experience of identifying and responding to potential hostile reconnaissance effectively”, the system for passing on information about suspicious behaviour was “insufficiently robust”.
If the Showsec staff on duty at the time, Kyle Lawler and Mohammed Agha - then aged 18 and 19 respectively - had been aware of previous reports of suspicious activity, “it would have increased the possibility” of Abedi being spotted.
Inquiry chair Saunders also notes that SMG could have extended the permitted security perimeter from the entrance doors of the arena to the City Room, the foyer where the bomb detonated. “Had permission to push out the perimeter been granted, an attack in the City Room would have been much less likely,” the report says.
-- Absence of Officers
Despite five officers being assigned to the arena on the night of the attack, “there was a complete absence of any BTP officer in the City Room” in the half hour before Abedi detonated the bomb. And no officers were policing the public areas of the venue between 8.58pm and 9.36pm.
The report found that BTP officers “took breaks substantially and unjustifiably” longer than their authorised one hour. Instructions to stagger breaks between 7.30pm and 9pm - when younger children could be leaving the venue - were also ignored.
The public inquiry into the attack had previously heard how two officers on duty at the concert, PC Jessica Bullough and PCSO Mark Renshaw, had taken a “two-hour-and-nine-minute dinner break to get a kebab five miles from the arena”. The Telegraph reported:
"Bullough has since admitted that were
she present on her shift as she should
have been, she would have likely stopped
Abedi and asked him what was in his bag”.
-- The CCTV Blindspot
Saunders' report says Abedi chose an “obvious hiding place” in a CCTV blindspot of the arena City Room foyer, having no doubt identified this area during his hostile reconnaissance:
“Had the area been covered by CCTV so that
there was no blind spot, it is likely this
behaviour by Abedi would have been identified
as suspicious by anyone monitoring the CCTV."
Giving evidence to the inquiry, Showsec security guard Agha said that he had noticed Abedi in the City Room, but only because he “liked the look” of Abedi's trainers.
-- Inadequate Patrols
The inquiry report says that:
"A further missed opportunity to spot Abedi
in the half hour before the bomb detonated
arose from the absence of an adequate
security patrol by Showsec at any stage
during this time”.
The supervisor charged with carrying out “pre-egress” checks, Jordan Beak, did so “only very briefly”, patrolling for about ten minutes, during which he just “looked towards the staircases up to the mezzanine area”, where Abedi was sitting:
The report notes:
“He did not consider them a very important
part of the check because it was not an
egress route. Mr Beak did not go up on to the
mezzanine area and so he did not see Abedi.
This was a significant missed opportunity.”
-- Concerns ‘Fobbed Off’
Saunders wrote that:
"The most striking missed opportunity, and the
one that is likely to have made a significant
difference, was an attempt by a member of the
public to raise concerns about Abedi after
becoming suspicious about the bomber's large
and obviously heavy backpack".
Christopher Wild told the inquiry how he had spotted Abedi while waiting for his 14-year-old daughter to leave the concert.
According to the BBC, Wild recalled how he approached Abedi and said:
“It doesn't look very good you know, what you
see with bombs and such, you with a rucksack
in a place like this, what are you doing?”
Abedi reportedly told Wild that he was “waiting for somebody, mate”, before asking what time it was.
Wild alerted security guard Agha about his suspicions around fifteen minutes before the blast. But according to the inquiry report:
"Agha did not take Christopher Wild’s
concerns as seriously as he should have”.
Wild felt that he had been “fobbed off” by the guard, who claimed to already be aware of Abedi. Agha is said to have made “inadequate” efforts to flag down his supervisor or pass on the message via his colleague Lawler, who had a radio.
Although Agha did share Wild’s concerns with Lawler, the latter “felt conflicted about what to do” and “stated he was fearful of being branded a racist and would be in trouble if he got it wrong”.
Lawler ultimately made an attempt to contact a senior supervisor through the radio, but couldn’t get through, and made no further efforts to communicate what he had been told to anyone else. Saunders wrote:
“The inadequacy of Mr Lawler’s response
was a product of his failure to take Mr Wild’s
concern and his own observations sufficiently
seriously. Mr Wild’s behaviour was very
responsible. He stated that he formed the
view that Abedi might let a bomb off.
That was sadly all too prescient, and makes
all the more distressing the fact that no effective
steps were taken as a result of his efforts.”
Aftermath of the Explosion
Three hours after the bombing, police conducted a controlled explosion on a suspicious item of clothing in Cathedral Gardens. This was later confirmed to have been abandoned clothing and not dangerous.
Residents and taxi companies in Manchester offered free transport or accommodation via Twitter to those left stranded at the concert. Parents were separated from their children attending the concert in the aftermath of the explosion.
A nearby hotel served as a shelter for people displaced by the bombing, with officials directing separated parents and children there. Manchester's Sikh temples along with local homeowners, hotels and venues offered shelter to survivors of the attack.
Manchester Victoria railway station, which is partly underneath the arena, was evacuated and closed, and services were cancelled. The explosion caused structural damage to the station, which remained closed until the damage had been assessed and repaired, resulting in disruption to train and tram services.
Victoria Station reopened eight days later, following the completion of police investigation work and repairs to the fabric of the building.
On the 23rd. May, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the UK's terror threat level had been raised to "critical", its highest level.
In the aftermath of the attack, Operation Temperer was activated for the first time, allowing up to 5,000 soldiers to reinforce armed police in protecting parts of the country.
Tours of the Houses of Parliament and the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace were cancelled on 24 May, and troops were deployed to guard government buildings in London.
On the 23rd. May, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, via the Nashir Telegram channel, said the attack was carried out by "a soldier of the Khilafah". The message called the attack:
"An endeavor to terrorise the mushrikin,
and in response to their transgressions
against the lands of the Muslims."
Abedi's sister said that he was motivated by revenge for Muslim children killed by American airstrikes in Syria.
The Manchester Arena remained closed until September 2017, with scheduled concerts either cancelled or moved to other venues. It reopened on the 9th. September 2017, with a benefit concert featuring Noel Gallagher and other acts associated with North West England.
Later that month, Chris Parker, a homeless man who stole from victims of the attack whilst assisting them, was jailed for 4 years and three months.
Casualties of the Attack
The explosion killed the attacker and 22 concert-goers and parents who were in the entrance waiting to pick up their children following the show. 119 people were initially reported as injured. This number was revised by police to 250 on the 22nd. June, with the addition of severe psychological trauma and minor injuries.
During the public inquiry into the bombing, it was updated in December 2020 to 1,017 people sustaining injuries.
The dead included ten people aged under 20; the youngest victim was an eight-year-old girl, and the oldest was a 51-year-old woman. Of the 22 victims, twenty were Britons and two were British-based Polish nationals.
North West Ambulance Service reported that 60 of its ambulances attended the scene, carried 59 people to local hospitals, and treated walking wounded on site. Of those hospitalised, 12 were children under the age of 16.
The first doctor thought to have been on scene was an off-duty consultant anaesthetist, Michael Daley. In recognition of his bravery for the role he played in the immediate medical response to the incident, Daley's name was entered into the BMA's Book of Valour in June 2017.
The Attacker
The bomber, Salman Ramadan Abedi, was a 22-year-old British Muslim of Libyan ancestry. He was born in Manchester to a Salafi family of Libyan-born refugees who had settled in Manchester after fleeing to the UK to escape the government of Muammar Gaddafi.
He had two brothers and a sister. He grew up in Whalley Range and lived in Fallowfield. Neighbours described the Abedis as a very traditional and "super religious" family who attended Didsbury Mosque.
Abedi attended Wellacre Technology College, Burnage Academy for Boys and The Manchester College. A former tutor remarked that:
"Abedi was a very slow, uneducated
and passive person".
He was among a group of students at his high school who accused a teacher of Islamophobia for asking them what they thought of suicide bombers. He also reportedly said to his friends that being a suicide bomber "was OK" and fellow college students raised concerns about his behaviour.
Abedi's father was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a Salafi jihadist organisation proscribed by the United Nations, and father and son fought for the group in Libya in 2011 as part of the movement to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.
Abedi's parents, both born in Tripoli, remained in Libya in 2011, while 17-year-old Abedi returned to live in the United Kingdom. He took a gap year in 2014, where he returned with his brother Hashem to Libya to live with his parents. Abedi was injured in Ajdabiya that year while fighting for an Islamist group.
The brothers were rescued from Tripoli by the Royal Navy survey ship HMS Enterprise in August 2014 as part of a group of 110 British citizens as the Libyan civil war erupted, taken to Malta and flown back to the UK.
According to a retired European intelligence officer, Abedi met with members of the ISIS Battar brigade in Libya, and continued to be in contact with the group upon his return to the UK.
An imam at Didsbury mosque recalled that Abedi looked at him "with hate" after he preached against ISIS and Ansar al-Sharia in 2015.
Abedi's sister said her brother was motivated by the injustice of Muslim children dying in bombings stemming from the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War.
A family friend of the Abedi's also remarked that Salman had vowed revenge at the funeral of Abdul Wahab Hafidah, who was run over and stabbed to death by a Manchester gang in 2016 and was a friend of Salman and his younger brother Hashem. Hashem later co-ordinated the Manchester bombing with his brother.
According to an acquaintance in the UK, Abedi was "outgoing" and consumed alcohol, while another said that Abedi was a "regular kid who went out and drank" until about 2016. Abedi was also known to have used cannabis.
He enrolled at the University of Salford in September 2014, where he studied business administration, before dropping out to work in a bakery. Manchester police believe Abedi used student loans to finance the plot, including travel overseas to learn bomb-making.
The Guardian reported that despite dropping out from further education, he was still receiving student loan funding in April 2017. Abedi returned to Manchester on the 18th. May after a trip to Libya and bought bomb-making material, apparently constructing the acetone peroxide-based bomb by himself. Many members of the IS Battar brigade trained people in bomb-making in Libya.
He was known to British security services and police but was not regarded as a high risk, having been linked to petty crime but never flagged up for radical views.
A community worker told the BBC he had called a hotline five years before the bombing to warn police about Abedi's views and members of Britain's Libyan diaspora said they had "warned authorities for years" about Manchester's Islamist radicalisation.
Abedi was allegedly reported to authorities for his extremism by five community leaders and family members, and had been banned from a mosque; the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, however, said Abedi was not known to the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme.
On the 29th. May 2017, MI5 launched an internal inquiry into its handling of the warnings it had received about Abedi and a second, "more in depth" inquiry, into how it missed the danger.
On the 22nd. November 2018, a Parliamentary report said that MI5 had acted "too slowly" in its dealings with Abedi. The committee's report noted:
"What we can say is that there were a number
of failings in the handling of Salman Abedi's case.
While it is impossible to say whether these would
have prevented the devastating attack on the
22nd. May, we have concluded that as a result of
the failings, potential opportunities to prevent it
were missed."
Investigation Into the Bombing
The property in Fallowfield where Abedi lived was raided on the 23rd. May. Armed police breached the house with a controlled explosion and searched it. Abedi's 23-year-old brother was arrested in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in south Manchester in relation to the attack.
Police carried out raids in two other areas of south Manchester and another address in the Whalley Range area. Three other men were arrested, and police initially spoke of a network supporting the bomber; however they later announced that Abedi had sourced all the bomb components himself, and that they now believed he had largely acted alone. On the 6th. July, police said that they believed others had been aware of Abedi's plans.
According to German police sources, Abedi transited through Düsseldorf Airport on his way home to Manchester from Istanbul four days before the bombing. French interior minister Gérard Collomb said that Abedi may have been to Syria, and had "proven" links with IS.
Abedi's younger brother and father were arrested by Libyan security forces on the 23rd. and 24th. May respectively. The brother was suspected of planning an attack in Libya, and was said to be in regular touch with Salman, and was aware of the plan to bomb the Manchester Arena, but not the date.
According to a Libyan official, the brothers spoke on the phone about 15 minutes before the attack was carried out. On the 1st. November 2017, the UK requested Libya to extradite the bomber's younger brother, Hashem Abedi to the UK in order to face trial for complicity in the murder of the 22 people killed in the explosion.
Photographs of the remains of the IED published by The New York Times indicated that it had comprised an explosive charge inside a lightweight metal container which was carried within a black vest or a blue Karrimor backpack.
Most of the fatalities occurred in a ring around the bomber. His torso was propelled by the blast through the doors to the arena, indicating that the explosive charge was held in the backpack and blew him forward on detonation. A small device thought to have possibly been a hand-held detonator was also found.
The bomb contained the explosive TATP, which had been used in previous bombings. According to Manchester police, the explosive device used by Abedi was the design of a skilled bomb-maker and had a back-up means of detonation. Police also said that Salman Abedi bought most of the bomb components himself, and that he was alone during much of the time before carrying out the Manchester bombing.
On the 28th. May, police released images showing Abedi on the night of the bombing, taken from CCTV footage. Further images showed Abedi walking around Manchester with a blue suitcase.
According to US intelligence sources, Abedi was identified by the bank card that he had with him and the identification was confirmed using facial recognition technology.
A public inquiry into the attack was launched in September 2020. The first of three reports to be produced was a 200-page report published on the 17th. June 2021. It found that:
"There were a number of missed opportunities
to alter the course of what happened that night,
and more should have been done by police and
private security guards to prevent the bombing."
News Leaks
Within hours of the attack, Abedi's name and other information that had been given confidentially to security services in the United States and France was leaked to the news media. This led to condemnation from Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
Following the publication of crime scene photographs of the backpack bomb used in the attack in the 24th. May edition of The New York Times, UK counterterrorism police chiefs said the release of the material was detrimental to the investigation.
On the 25th. May, Greater Manchester Police said that it had stopped sharing information on the attack with the US intelligence services. Theresa May said she would make clear to President Trump that:
"Intelligence that has been
shared must be made secure."
Donald Trump described the leaks to the news media as "deeply troubling", and pledged to carry out a full investigation.
New York Times editor Dean Baquet declined to apologise for publishing the backpack bomb photographs, saying:
"We live in different press worlds.
The material was not classified at
the highest level."
On the 26th. May, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States government accepted responsibility for the leaks.
Links with the Muslim Brotherhood
According to a secret recording unveiled by the BBC, Mostafa Graf, the imam of the Didsbury Mosque where Salman Abedi and his family were regulars, made a call for armed jihad ten days before Abedi bought his concert ticket.
Following these revelations, the Manchester Police opened an investigation into the mosque and its imam, who also fought with a Libyan Islamist militia. Mostafa Graf is a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, an organisation founded by the Muslim Brotherhood and Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Al-Qaradawi is known for having claimed:
"Suicide bombings are a duty".
Haras Rafiq, head of the Quilliam think tank, told The Guardian that the Muslim Brotherhood runs the Didsbury Mosque.
The Didsbury Mosque is controlled by The Islamic Centre (Manchester), an English association headed by Dr. Haytham al-Khaffaf, who is also a director of the Human Relief Foundation, a Muslim Brotherhood organisation blacklisted for terrorism by Israel. Between 2015 and 2016, al-Khaffaf's Human Relief Foundation received over £1.5 million from the Qatar Charity, which is also subject to US counterterrorism surveillance.
Trial and Sentencing of Hashem Abedi
On the 17th. July 2019, Salman Abedi's brother Hashem was charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion. He had been arrested in Libya and extradited to the UK.
His trial began on the 5th. February 2020. On the 17th. March, Hashem Abedi was found guilty on 22 charges of murder, on the grounds that he had helped his brother to source the materials used in the bombing, and had assisted with the manufacture of the explosives which were used in the attack.
On the 20th. August, Hashem Abedi was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 55 years. The judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, said that sentencing rules prevented him from imposing a whole life order as Abedi had been 20 years old at the time of the offence. The minimum age for a whole life order is 21 years old. Abedi's 55-year minimum term is the longest minimum term ever imposed by a British court.
Ismail Abedi
In October 2021 it was reported that Salman Abedi's older brother Ismail had left the UK despite being summonsed by Sir John Saunders to testify before the public inquiry into the bombing. Saunders had refused Ismail Abedi's request for immunity from prosecution while testifying.
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande posted on Twitter:
"Broken. from the bottom of my
heart, i am so so sorry. i don't
have words."
The tweet briefly became the most-liked tweet in history. Grande suspended her tour and flew back to her mother's home in Florida.
On the 9th. July 2017, a performance to benefit the Manchester bombing victims was held in New York City's The Cutting Room, called "Break Free: United for Manchester", with Broadway theatre and television performers interpreting Ariana Grande songs.
On the 4th. June, Ariana Grande hosted a benefit concert in Manchester, entitled "One Love Manchester" at Old Trafford Cricket Ground that was broadcast live on television, radio and social media.
At the concert, Grande performed along with several other high-profile artists. Free tickets were offered to those who had attended the show on the 22nd. May. The benefit concert and associated Red Cross fund raised £10 million for victims of the attack, and £17 million by August. New York's Vulture section ranked the event as the No. 1 concert of 2017.
The Kerslake Report
On the 27th. March 2018, a report by Bob Kerslake named the "Kerslake Report" was published. The report was an independent review into the preparedness for, and emergency response to, the Manchester Arena attack on the 22nd. May 2017.
In the report, Kerslake "largely praised" the Greater Manchester Police and British Transport Police, and noted that it was "fortuitous" that the North West Ambulance Service was unaware of the declaration of Operation Plato, a protocol under which all responders should have withdrawn from the arena in case of an active killer on the premises.
However, it found that the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service was "brought to a point of paralysis" as their response was delayed for two hours due to poor communication between the firefighters' liaison officer and the police force.
The report was critical of Vodafone for the "catastrophic failure" of an emergency helpline hosted on a platform provided by Content Guru, saying that delays in getting information caused "significant stress and upset" to families.
It also expressed criticism of some news media, saying:
"To have experienced such intrusive and
overbearing behaviour at a time of such
enormous vulnerability seemed to us to
be completely and utterly unacceptable".
However, it was also noted that:
"We recognise that this was some, but by
no means all of the media, and that the
media also have a positive and important
role to play."
Memorial to the Bombing
The victims of the bombing are commemorated by The Glade of Light, a garden memorial located in Manchester city centre near Manchester Cathedral. The memorial opened to the public in January 2022.
The memorial was vandalised on the 9th. February 2022, causing £10,000 of damage. A 24-year-old man admitted to the offence in April and will be sentenced at a later date.
The 2018 Manchester Terror Attack
The Manchester Arena is next to Victoria Station, and in fact partly above it. Victoria Station witnessed a subsequent terror attack on the 31st. December 2018 at 20.52.
Mahdi Mohamud, a 25 year old man from Somalia stabbed three people in a knife attack at the station. He appears to have acted alone.
Mohamud shouted "Allah!" and "Long live the Caliphate!" during the attack, and "Allahu Akbar" after being arrested. A witness alleged that during the attack he also shouted a slogan criticising Western governments. BBC producer Sam Clack reported that he heard Mohamud saying:
"As long as you keep bombing other
countries this sort of s--- is going to
keep happening,"
Mohamud had lived in England for about 10 years, and resided in Manchester's Cheetham neighbourhood with his parents and siblings.
Two of the three victims, a couple in their 50's who had come into town to celebrate the New Year, were hospitalised with serious injuries. The third victim was a British Transport Police officer who received a stab wound to his shoulder.
Despite suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, Mohamud was convicted of a terror offence and the attempted murder of three people, due to his possession of significant amounts of extremist material and the attack's extensive planning. He pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted murder and a terror offence.
The perpetrator, who was initially detained under the Mental Health Act, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a high-security psychiatric hospital.
The Second Inquiry into the Arena Bombing
On the 3rd. November 2022, inquiry chair Sir John Saunders issued a second report into the atrocity. Within the 884 pages he said that the emergency services failed to communicate properly in response to the incident, stemming from 'failures to prepare.'
He concluded that "Failing" emergency services thought a terror attack "could never happen" before the Manchester Arena bombing.
Sir John Saunders said the majority of those who died were so badly injured they could not have survived. However, it is believed that two of the 22 fatalities could have recovered if they had received better medical care.
Pointing the finger at leaders of the police, fire and ambulance services, he said:
“On the night of the attack, multi‐agency
communication between the three
emergency services was non‐existent.
That failure played a major part in what
went wrong.”
He added:
“There had been failures to prepare. There
had been inadequacies in training.
Well-established principles had not been
ingrained in practice.
Why was that? Partly it was because, despite
the fact that the threat of a terrorist attack was
at a very high level on the 22nd. May 2017, no
one really thought it could happen to them.”
The report also paid tribute to the “heroic” actions of ordinary members of the public who joined police and security and medical teams trying to save lives in a “war zone”.
Sir John said that two fatalities, John Atkinson, 28, and the youngest victim, eight year old Saffie-Rose Roussos, did have a chance of survival. Sir John said:
“I have concluded that one of those who
died, John Atkinson would probably have
survived had the emergency response
been better.”
He added:
“In the case of Saffie Rose Roussos, I have
concluded that there was a remote possibility
that she could have been saved if the rescue
operation had been conducted differently.”
The inquiry heard that only three paramedics went into the City Room after the attack. Crews from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service took more than two hours to attend the Arena.
Sir John added:
“GMP (Greater Manchester Police) did not
lead the response in accordance with the
guidance that it had been given or parts of
its own plans.
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
(GMFRS) failed to turn up at the scene at a
time when they could provide the greatest
assistance.
North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) failed
to send sufficient paramedics into the City
Room.
NWAS did not use available stretchers to
remove casualties in a safe way, and did not
communicate their intentions sufficiently to
those who were in the City Room.”
Despite highlighting a series of failings, he said that:
"There were some parts of the emergency
response that worked well, and that no doubt
lives were saved”.
Paying tribute to those who helped the victims, he said:
“The heroism shown by very many people
that night is striking. I have seen the terrible
footage from the CCTV and body-worn video
cameras of the scene of devastation in the City
Room.
The description of that area as being like a
“warzone” was used by a number of witnesses.
That is an accurate description. To enter the
City Room or remain there to help victims
required great courage.”
Sir John added:
“At the centre of my Inquiry is the terrible loss
of twenty two lives. Each family and each person
at the Arena has a deeply personal story to tell
about the impact of the attack on them.
My report cannot change what has happened.
My intention is to uncover what went wrong and
find ways of improving practices so that no one
has to suffer such terrible pain and loss again.”
The report also stated that responsibility for the deaths lies with suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, and his brother Hashem, 25, who is serving life behind bars for his part in the plot.
The inquiry found that the brothers had “planned to cause as much harm to as many people as they could" when Abedi exploded his home made device.
irrevocable divorce)[1] that was practised by Muslims in India. It allowed any Muslim man to legally divorce his wife by stating the word talaq (the Arabic word for "divorce") three times in verbal, written, or more recently electronic form. It has been a subject of controversy and debates within the country, raising the issues of justice, gender equality, human rights and secularism. The government of India and the Supreme Court of India have been involved in addressing the issues. On 22 August 2017, the Indian Supreme Court struck down instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat) and termed it unconstitutional.[2] Three judges of the five-judge panel decided against triple talaq while two ruled in favour.[3]
The issue has also caused a debate on the need for a uniform civil code in India.[4]
Triple talaq is a form of divorce that was practised in India, whereby a Muslim man could legally divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq (the Arabic word for divorce) three times. The pronouncement could be oral or written, or, in recent times, delivered by electronic means such as telephone, SMS, email or social media. The man did not need to cite any cause for the divorce and the wife need not be present at the time of pronouncement. After a period of iddat, during which it is ascertained whether the wife is pregnant, the divorce becomes irrevocable.[5][6] In the recommended practice, a waiting period was required before each pronouncement of talaq, during which reconciliation is attempted. However, it had become common to make all three pronouncements in one sitting. While the practice was frowned upon, it was not prohibited.[7] A divorced woman might not remarry her divorced husband unless she first married another man, a practice called nikah halala. Until she remarried, she retained the custody of male toddlers and pre-pubertal female children. Beyond those restrictions, the children came under the guardianship of the father.[6]
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), had told the Supreme Court that women could also pronounce triple talaq, and could execute nikahnamas that stipulated conditions so that the husbands could not pronounce triple talaq.[8] The practice of instant divorce is already banned in 20 Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan.[9]
Background[edit source]
Further information: Islam in India and Divorce in Islam
The Muslim family affairs in India are governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 (Muslim Personal Law), one of the first acts to be passed after the Government of India Act, 1935 became operational, introducing provincial autonomy and a form of dyarchy at the federal level. It replaced the so-called "Anglo-Mohammedan Law" previously operating for Muslims, and became binding on all of India's Muslims.[10][11]
The shariat is open to interpretation by the ulama (class of Muslim legal scholars). The ulama of Hanafi Sunnis consider this form of divorce binding, provided the pronouncement was made in front of Muslim witnesses and later confirmed by a sharia court. However, the ulama of Ahl-i Hadith, Twelver and Musta'li persuasions do not regard it as proper. Scholar Aparna Rao states that, in 2003, there was an active debate among the ulama.[6]
In traditional Islamic jurisprudence, triple talaq is considered to be a particularly disapproved, but legally valid, form of divorce.[12] Changing social conditions around the world have led to increasing dissatisfaction with traditional Islamic law of divorce since the early 20th century and various reforms have been undertaken in different countries.[13] Contrary to practices adopted in most Muslim-majority countries, Muslim couples in India are not required to register their marriage with civil authorities.[14] Muslim marriages in India are considered to be a private matter, unless the couple decided to register their marriage under the Special Marriage Act of 1954.[14] Owing to these historical factors, the checks that have been placed on the husband's unilateral right of divorce by governments of other countries, such as prohibition of triple talaq, have not been implemented in India.[14]
Opposition[edit source]
The practice had faced opposition from Muslim women,[15] some of whom filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court against the practice, terming it "regressive".[16] The petitioner asked for section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, to be scrapped, describing it as being against Article 14 of the Constitution.[17]
On 13 May 2017, during the hearings before its final judgement, the Supreme Court described triple talaq as the "worst form of marriage dissolution". It noted that the custom is banned in the Muslim-majority countries of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Afghanistan and Pakistan.[4][18]
On 8 December 2016, the Allahabad High Court observed in a ruling that the practice of Triple Talaq was unconstitutional and violated the rights of Muslim women.[19][20]
In March 2017, over 1 million Indian Muslims, a majority of whom were women, signed a petition to end triple talaq. The petition was started by the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, an Islamic organization affiliated to the right wing Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.[21]
On May 10, 2017, senior cleric Maulana Syed Shahabuddin Salafi Firdausi denounced triple talaq and nikah halala, calling them un-Islamic practices and instruments to oppress women.[22][23]
Support[edit source]
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) defends the practice.[16] In April 2017, citing a report prepared by Muslim Mahila Research Kendra in coordination with Shariah Committee for Women, AIMPLB has claimed that Muslims have a lower rate of divorce compared to other religious communities, countering the argument that Muslims have the highest number of divorce in the country due to the practice of triple talaq. It also claimed that it had received forms from 35 million Muslim women across the country, supporting shariat and triple talaq.[24][25][26]
AIMPLB issued a code of conduct in April 2017 regarding talaq in response to the controversy over the practice of triple talaq. It also warned that those who divorce for reasons not prescribed under shariat will be socially boycotted in addition to calling for boycott of those who use triple talaq recklessly and without justification.[27] In addition, it also stated that it should be delivered in three sittings with a gap of at least one month each.[28]
Judgment[edit source]
A multi-faith bench heard the controversial triple talaq case in 2017.[29][30] Though two judges upheld validity of triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat), the three other judges held that it was unconstitutional, thus barring the practice by 3:2 majority. The bench asked the central government to promulgate legislation within six months to govern marriage and divorce in the Muslim community.[31] The court said that until the government formulates a law regarding triple talaq, there would be an injunction against husbands pronouncing triple talaq on their wives.[32][33]
See also[edit source]
Shias dont have Triple Talaq ..
posted at Facebook ,, here only for record
indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/gujarat-...
I am not a political person I am neither a Muslim Hindu dividing person so any of you have a problem with my personal views you can unfriend block me ,,, I do not wish to debate argue ,,
And I am not a wee bit a fan of the Gandhis or the Congress
I am not a fan of NCP but I have good friends in all the parties including Shiv Sena ,I would die before I ever vote AMIM ..
I live in Mumbai and not a ghetto in Hyderabad.
My detractors call me a Hindu Shia and I am proud to be a Hindu and a Shia ,,I would rather be a kafir than a Salafi or a Wahabbi..
But Yes despite my opinionated views I am a Indian..my grandmother a widow with 4 kids did not go with her step sons when they took the fucked train to Pakistan..