The Thinking Muslim

Paul Williams of Blogging Theology talks to Muhammad Jalal about his ten most influential books, why he recommends them and the importance of reading. Titles mentioned in order of rank: 1. The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali2. Islam and the Destiny of Man by Charles Le Gai Eaton3. The Book of Hadith: Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad from the Mishkat Al Masabih selected by Charles Le Gai Eaton 4. Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age by Dale C. Allison Jr.5. Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation by Carl Sharif El-Tobgui6. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Teachings by Martin Lings7. Misquoting Muhammad by Jonathan A.C. Brown 8. The Oxford Book of English Verse edited by Christopher Ricks 9. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant 10. The Making of a Salafi Muslim Woman by Anabel IngeThis Ramadan please consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim, to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact.
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The recent atrocity at al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan underscores the brutality of Israel’s settler colonial project. Our guest this week, Palestinian and Islamic activist Dr Azzam Tamimi gave us a background to the apartheid policies of the state and explained why he believes, ultimately, the severity of Israel’s brutality only serves to express its sheer failure as a project. Azzam Tamimi is a British Palestinian academic and political activist. He is currently the Chairman of Alhiwar TV Channel and is its Editor in Chief. He is a prolific writer and public speaker.This Ramadan please consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim, to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact. ⁠⁠https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/Donate

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The great Damascene scholar Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) authored the masterpiece of Islamic psychology Madarij al-Salikin, (Ranks of the Divine Seekers). It sets out the great Hanbalite's advice on how to journey to Allah and reach the ranks of a loving believer of our Lord. Professor Ovamir Anjum, the translator into English of this great work, talks to The Thinking Muslim about Ibn Qayyim’s spiritual perspectives, including the wisdom of sin, what attributes a believer should shun and acquire, the multiple stations on the route to this journey and the role of obedience to Allah for spiritual felicity.Dr. Ovamir Anjum is the Imam Khattab Endowed Chair of Islamic Studies at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Toledo. He obtained his Ph.D. in Islamic Intellectual history in the Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Masters in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and Masters in Computer Science and Bachelors in Nuclear Engineering and Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before higher education, his Islamic training began at home while growing up in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States with a broad range of scholars, including his remarkable grandmother, and continued as he studied fiqh with South Asian Ḥanafī and Ahl-e-hadīs scholars and usūl al-fiqh and qirā’āt of the Quran with scholars from Egypt’s Al-Azhar and Syria. He currently leads the Ummatics Institute and is the Editor in-Chief of Yaqeen Institute.

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This fascinating interview with Dr Sohail Hanif looks to uncover the secrets of Ramadan. What should the month indeed mean to believers? And what should we be striving to achieve this month? How should we treat its minutes and hours? And how do we know whether, as the hadith suggests, we have lost its blessings or gained success out of it? Dr Sohail is the Chief Executive of the National Zakat Foundation. He previously held the position of BA Manager and Lecturer at Cambridge Muslim College and has also held the position of Head of Sciences at Qasid Arabic Institute in Amman. He studied extensively with traditional scholars and holds a PhD from Oxford University. His PhD thesis, which explores Islamic legal epistemology, won the 2019 prize of the British Association for Islamic Studies. He has lectured widely on Islamic law and Qur’anic studies in academic, public and traditional settings.

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Dr Imran Waheed is a consultant psychiatrist who specialises in acute mental health cases. We ask him about the mental health crisis, whether the lack of iman has a role in its prevalence and whether Islam has role in its cure. We look at consumer capitalism and sadness, the absence of community and faith and how one can build mental resilience.

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Dr Jonathan Brown joins us this week to engage in an in-depth discussion about the Hadith corpus and why contemporary arguments forwarded by orientalists and modernists lack rigour. He takes us on a journey of informed exploration of some of the key personalities and thinkers of early Islam and the lengths they went through to determine the veracity of a tradition attributed to the Messenger of Allah (saw).    

His books include The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon, Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oneworld, 2009) and His most recent book, Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy (Oneworld, 2014), was named one of the top books on religion in 2014 by the Independent. He is the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.   

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99 years ago, the Ottoman Caliphate, the world's last widely recognised caliphate, was abolished on 3 March 1924 (27 Rajab 1342 AH) by decree of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The process was one of Atatürk's reforms following the replacement of the Ottoman Empire with the Republic of Turkey. Abdulmejid II was deposed as the last Ottoman caliph, as was Mustafa Sabri as the last Ottoman shaykh al-Islām.

We explore the circumstances that led to this momentous event. Why the Ottoman caliphate fell. What this date should mean to us? And the impact this decision had on Muslims at the time and has on us today.

Dr Yakoob Ahmed holds a PhD graduate from SOAS, University of London. An Ottoman historian, he is currently teaching Islamic history at Istanbul University and was a visiting fellow at the Modern Turkish Studies Centre at Istanbul Şehir University. His research focuses are Muslim intellectual thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Islamic constitutionalism, identity, nationalism and collective memory construction.

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The British Conservative government has for some time embarked upon a project to make life difficult for ordinary Muslims. We have spoken previously about its policy of Prevent, an extraordinary state plan to compel all public servants to monitor Muslims in their midst and report on them if they showed signs of extremism. This project has enveloped the community within a cloud of suspicion, spread fear and self censorship and led to a series of malicious or ignorant allegations that has scarred thousands.   

The project has failed to root out violent extremism and has alienated a large number of Muslims, yet the response of the government is to tighten the screws. It’s failure is because it is not punitive enough according to the Home Secretary. This is where the new Shawcross review comes in. William Shawcross, known for his anti-Islamic opinions was cynically commissioned to lead an independent review into Prevent and suggest a way forward. The report suggests that normative Muslim positions should be viewed with suspicion, including believing that Islam should be the basis of one’s identity.   

Dr Layla Aitlhadj, my guest today, has been a tenacious campaigner to expose the extent of to which the government has violated the most basic rights of ordinary Muslim citizens. Her organisation Prevent Watch has helped countless Muslim families that have been caught up in this net of accusation. We ask her about the Shawcross review and its implications with some truly chilling revelations.

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The sadness we feel after the earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria is heightened by our Ummatic feelings of closeness to the worldwide muslim community. Many of those affected have been subject to years of civil war at the hands of a brutal dictator. Sadly, this is yet another disaster that has befallen this Umma and we pray that Allah has mercy on those that died and enter them into a place where there is eternal peace. This week we interview Dr Omar Suleiman to discuss the issue of earthquakes and whether they are a punishment from Allah, as many ascribe to these natural events or whether they are a test. Human beings can never understand the wisdom of Allah (swt) and we are without knowledge of the ultimate good and bad impacts of natural disasters. 

We ask Dr Suleiman to give us an understanding of the texts from the Quran and sunna that explain these events to us. Sadly, many especially in the West who may have not consolidated their Iman on a strong footing, question the wisdom of Allah and fail to develop the intellectual and spiritual resilience that is required to be a believer. We tackle how to build up this store of resilience. We also take the opportunity to discuss some of his political views on the broader Syrian civil war and the inconsistencies in some political activists. As always, you can comment your thoughts below. You can donate to the show here: 

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The war on terror, a US-led strategy that saw deadly interventions in the Muslim world, has transformed a generation of Muslims. Some, like my guest today, unwittingly got caught up in this mindless campaign and 21 years after the events of 9/11, we still feel the aftereffects of programmes that placed every Muslim in categories, moderate or extreme, good and bad, loyal or disloyal.

Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo detainee upon his release, has been a tireless campaigner for the truth, exposing its lies and deceits. In the process, he and his organisation CAGE international have tactically contacted non-Muslim sympathisers and wider Human Rights organisations. But I asked him about the risks involved in this strategy. Many a time, Muslims that receive such support are forced to compromise. The left wants Islam to change and come with various social positions we find problematic. The right often possesses a chauvinism that calls upon Muslims to accept a secondary role in society. I ask Moazzam to conceptualise how he navigates these binaries.

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