“Today, Medina is simultaneously the archetype of Islamic democracy and the impetus for Islamic militancy. Islamic Modernists like the Egyptian writer and political philosopher Ali Abd ar-Raziq (d. 1966) pointed to Muhammad’s community in Medina as proof that Islam advocated the separation of religious and temporal power, while Muslim extremists in Afghanistan and Iran have used the same community to fashion various models of Islamic theocracy. In their struggle for equal rights, Muslim feminists have consistently drawn inspiration from the legal reforms Muhammad instituted in Medina, while at the same time, Muslim traditionalists have construed those same legal reforms as grounds for maintaining the subjugation of women in Islamic society. For some, Muhammad’s actions in Medina serve as the model for Muslim-Jewish relations; for others, they demonstrate the insurmountable conflict that has always existed, and will always exist, between the two sons of Abraham. Yet regardless of whether one is labeled a Modernist or a Traditionalist, a reformist or a fundamentalist, a feminist or a chauvinist, all Muslims regard Medina as the model of Islamic perfection. Simply put, Medina is what Islam was meant to be.”
― No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
― No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
“He who fights the destinies to stay with you,
He who finds his life better beside you, and clings to you despite of all the events,
He who hates your sadness, and tires himself to put a smile on your face,
He who cries when you’re away before smiling when you’re here,
But God didn’t decide that you’d stay with them despite of all this strugle,
Is the only one who deserves immortality in your memory.”
―
He who finds his life better beside you, and clings to you despite of all the events,
He who hates your sadness, and tires himself to put a smile on your face,
He who cries when you’re away before smiling when you’re here,
But God didn’t decide that you’d stay with them despite of all this strugle,
Is the only one who deserves immortality in your memory.”
―
“A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.”
― The Wretched of the Earth
― The Wretched of the Earth
“It took many years to cleanse Arabia of its “false idols.” It will take many more to cleanse Islam of its new false idols—bigotry and fanaticism—worshipped by those who have replaced Muhammad’s original vision of tolerance and unity with their own ideals of hatred and discord. But the cleansing is inevitable, and the tide of reform cannot be stopped. The Islamic Reformation is already here. We are all living in it.”
― No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
― No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
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— last activity Sep 19, 2013 12:08AM
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