ImanWire Podcast

The ImanWire hosts convene to discuss the current events in Syria, Khaled Nabhan, and Muslims celebrating Christmas.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction

1:35 - Smartphone Doomscrolling

6:48 - Syria is Free

45:00 - Soul of My Soul: Remembering Khaled Nabhan

48:59 - Conferences and the Zawiyah-Mobile

57:34 - Muslims and the Christmas Season

Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui discusses the process of spiritual growth and freedom from attachments. He emphasizes the importance of detaching oneself from worldly desires and possessions using the analogy of the embryo within the egg shell.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction

03:17 - Spiritual Q&A Session Importance

05:28 - Overcoming Ego Constraints

14:56 - Expanding Awareness Beyond Limits

20:24 - Severing Unhealthy Attachments

24:10 - Journey to Spiritual Liberation

26:25 - Embodying Freedom: Bird Metaphor

31:15 - Human Experience and Detachment

34:55 - Understanding Dunya's Cage

38:45 - Escaping Dunya's Confinement

Husain Abdullah joins the podcast to discuss his previous career in professional football and his recent unique experience of walking in the footsteps of the Prophet on the Hijrah route. He is the author of "Mecca to Medina: 100 Personal Reflections on Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ Hijrah Journey".

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction

3:07 - Fasting and Football: Worship 24-7

8:18 - The Sajda Heard Around the World

14:06 - Showing Off or Praising Allah?

17:18 - Elite Athletes, Spirituality and Gratitude

23:42 - Retracing the Hijrah of the Prophet

27:30 - Recognizing When Allah Chooses You

29:41 - GPS Mapping of the Hijrah

34:52 - Changing Terrain and the Footsteps of the Prophet

50:53 - Nafs-Breaker: Submitting to the Mountain

52:29 - In the Presence of Sacred History

1:00:16 - A Trip of Love

Dr. Celene Ibrahim, author of "Women and Gender in the Qur'an", joins the podcast to discuss her analysis of the rich and wide-ranging portrayals of female figures in the Qur'anic sacred history. Using the women around Prophet Musa to anchor the discussion, she offers insights on how their stories exemplify the spiritual truths of the Qur'anic message.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction

1:50 - Analyzing the Female Figures in the Qur'an

8:26 - The Mother of Prophet Musa: Faith and Resilience

17:32 - The Sister of Prophet Musa: Watchfulness & Wit

21:03 - The Sisters of Madyan: Multiculturalism, Marriage and Modesty

29:54 - The Wife of Pharoah and Tyranny at Home

40:06 - Women's Speech and Agency in the Qur'an

Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui emphasizes the need to focus on internal transformation and seeking closeness to Allah. He highlights the stagnancy of hearts despite outward actions, urging individuals to rectify their intentions and break free from the confinement of their own existence.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction to Tazkiyah

1:17 - Tazkiyah Essentials: Himmah & Qurb

2:34 - Al-Hakim Al-Tirmidhi Biography

6:21 - Himmah's Goal: Achieving Qurb

14:56 - Spiritual Steps: Understanding Qurb

23:20 - Exploring the Heart's Spiritual Path

25:25 - Analyzing the Heart in Worship

35:50 - Improving Heart's Worship: First Step

43:10 - Metaphor for the Seeker's Journey

44:30 - Heart's Liberation: Escaping the Egg

46:20 - Heart's Liberation: Breaking Barriers

Alex Kronemer and Michael Wolfe, co-founders of Unity Productions Foundation, join the podcast to reflect on lessons learned from over 20 years at UPF, sharing the stories of Muslims in the media, and tackling Rumi and the refugee crisis onscreen in Lamya's Poem.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction

4:48 - Hajj: Bringing the Recipe of Islam Together

9:35 - Working to Create Understanding of Islam and Muslims

14:18 - Framing in the Context of Stories

19:43 - Islam Requires People

21:43 - The Prophetic Legacy of Communication

24:57 - Emergence of UPF

32:30 - Telling the American Muslim Story

41:11 - Adapting to Changing Times

49:07 - Rumi, Refugees and Lamya's Poem

59:24 - Muslims in the Media: The Artist and the Audience

In part 1 of this double episode, Dr. Denise Spellberg, author of "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders" discusses how conceptions of Muslims played a crucial role in the religious pluralism in the early republic, anxieties over a Muslim president, and the clash between principles and prejudice that continues today.

In part 2, the ImanWire hosts get together for a round table discussion on Muslims and the 2024 election.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction

2:50 - Conceptions of Islam at the Time of the Founders

11:16 - Jefferson's Qur'an

15:55 - John Locke, Jefferson and Religious Freedom

23:51 - A Muslim President?

30:48 - Imaginary Vs Real Muslims

32:22 - Slavery and Racial Hypocrisy

37:06 - Omar bin Said and the Legacy of Islam in the United States

41:19 - Participating in a Flawed Political System

48:40 - A Critique of the Judeo-Christian Construct

52:20 - Retelling Islam in American History

58:30 - Round Table Discussion on Muslims and the 2024 Election

1:05:18 - The Moral Obligation of American Muslims

1:09:50 - Weakening Religiosity and Liberalism

1:13:38 - Returning to the Source of Peace and Community

1:16:26 - Conceptualizing a Spiritual Framework

1:29:27 - Political Differences

1:41:05 - Anchoring in the Divine Reality

1:45:26 - American Muslims Mattering

"Those whom your right hands possess", a Qur'anic descriptor for female slaves, can evoke a number of charged emotions and thoughts that can be difficult to reconcile with our modern sensibilities today. What does slave-concubinage mean? How was it understood in the formative years of Islam?

In the final part of our series on slavery, Ustadha Zaynab Ansari, a resident scholar and instructor at Tayseer Seminary, reflects on this challenging topic.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction

1:44 - A Review Culture: Framing the Discussion

3:44 - An Overview of Slavery and Islam

6:50 - Those Whom Your Right Hands Possess: An Ethical Framework

23:52 - Insights Into the Qur'anic Pairing of Wives and Slave-Concubines

25:42 - On the Context of Surah Nisaa

33:34 - Was Slave-Concubinage Discouraged?

49:18 - The Issue of Consent

54:56 - The Battle of Hunain and Conduct of Armies

1:04:38 - A Moral Imperative For Consent?

1:12:28 - Legal Applications of Harm Vs Modern Notions of Consent

1:19:14 - On Coercive Relations

1:22:07 - The Prophet and Maria

1:32:35 - Moving Forward as a Community

In part 3 of our series on slavery, Imam Dawud Walid considers the aftereffects of slavery on our current condition, its historical role in contributing to anti-blackness in the community today, and how it affects our understanding of Qur'anic language and theological concepts such as 'ubudiyyah (being a slave to God).

Imam Dawud Walid is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) and member of the Imams Council of Michigan. He is the author of several books, including Blackness and Islam, Towards Sacred Activism, and Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles Among the Early Pious Muslims.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction

5:39 - The Conflation of Slavery and Anti-Blackness

11:50 - Racialization in Language During the Abbasids & The Zanj Rebellion

16:20 - The Fabrication of Anti-Black Narrations

17:50 - Deployment of Racially-Specific Language

21:00 - Blackness and Arabness

21:56 - A Story of Imam Ali ibn Musa al-Rida

24:54 - Effects of Slavery on Fomenting Anti-Blackness

26:44 - Anti-Blackness and Representation

36:26 - Scholars Fighting Anti-Blackness and Race-Based Slavery

46:17 - Revisiting the "Arab Slave Trade"

1:00:13 - Slavery to God and Freedom

1:10:52 - Qur'anic Parables of the Slave and Free

1:16:06 - Egalitarianism Vs. Social Hierarchy in the Qur'an

1:20:31 - Modern-Day Slaves

Our series on slavery continues as Dr. Bilal Ware joins the podcast to explore the Islamic tradition and the abolition of slavery, debunk the myths of the "Arab-Islamic" slave trade and reflect on how these histories impact our lives today.

Dr. Bilal Ware is a historian of Africa and Islam and is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at UC-Santa Barbara. He is the author of several books including, "The Walking Qur'an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge & History in West Africa", which details the intellectual and spiritual tradition in West Africa and tells the story of African Muslims in the 18th century abolishing slavery and monarchy.

Link to previous episode with Dr. Ware: https://www.almadina.org/studio/podcasts/ep-9-walking-qurans-of-africa-scholarship-liberty-the-abolition-of-slavery-dr-rudolph-ware

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction

5:54 - Was Slavery Uncontested in Islamic Law?

6:50 - The Single Most Misunderstood Aspect of the Sunnah

12:30 - Freedom: The Fundamental Principle of Humanity

16:00 - West African Scholars and Abolitionism

19:22 - Challenging Every Element of Slavery

27:00 - Orientalist Aims of Normalizing an Islamic Legacy of Slavery

32:22 - An Intellectual Geneology of Abolition in West Africa

37:44 - The Lead-Up to Revolutionary Emanicipation

45:44 - 1776: The End of Monarchy and Slavery in Senegambia

48:22 - Expanding Identity to Free, Not Enslave

50:18 - Scholarship Independent From Political Authority

53:37 - Was Senegambian Abolition A Blip in History?

56:06 - Sokoto and Uthman Dan Fodio

59:33 - Exporting the Revolution: The Spirit of Muslim Slave Revolt

1:01:12 - Savannah, Georgia: "A Believer Cannot Own Another Believer"

1:04:59 - The Link Between West African Abolitionists and Frederick Douglass

1:06:52 - Written Out of History: The Legacy of Abdulqadir Kan

1:07:59 - Prophetic Examples Against Slavery

1:10:48 - The Intellectual Dishonesty of the "Arab-Islamic Slave Trade"

1:30:33 - The Imprint of History on Our Engagement With Islam