First Women only Mosque in America

They were really upset that M. Hasna Maznavi and Sana Muttalib together with other women were set to organize the first mosque for Muslim women in America. They did not know either of them personally, but they were upset because they viewed this a Bida, an innovation. Some called it a deviation and some termed it a Western conspiracy to destroy Islam within. They all claimed to be pious and they considered themselves knowledgeable in religion and matters pertaining to the role and status of women in their faith.

The idea of starting up a women’s mosque is creating waves in Southern California and the discussion has already begun about its relevance and usefulness. The women’s mosque of America defines its objective in the following words:

“The Women's Mosque of America seeks to uplift the Muslim community by empowering women and girls through more direct access to Islamic scholarship and leadership opportunities. The Women's Mosque of America will provide a safe space for women to feel welcome, respected, and actively engaged within the Muslim Ummah. It will complement existing mosques, offering opportunities for women to grow, learn and gain inspiration to spread throughout their respective communities.

Starting in early 2015, the Women's Mosque of America will provide women-led Friday Jumma services for women and children (including boys 12 and under) once a month in Southern California. In addition, the Women's Mosque of America plans to provide programming, events, and classes open to both men and women that will aim to increase community access to female Muslim scholars and female perspectives on Islamic knowledge and spirituality.”

But this does not convince skeptics.as they call such a move innovation and deviation. Well, if it is Bida or deviation, then it was the Prophet of Islam and the messenger of Allah, who himself introduced this some 6 years after five daily prayers were made obligatory in the 15^th year of his mission and in the second year after the construction of what is now known as Masjid Quba and Masjid Nabavi. Based on the statements of Prophet Muhammad, it can be asserted that women's mosque was the third masjid in Medina.

It is reported in Masnad Abu Dawood, a book of ahadith (statement and actions of the Prophet) included in the six most authentic books on the subject by Sunni scholars of the subject that the Prophet gave one of his companions, Umm Waraqah, the permission to stay in Medina to lead prayers for her family and domestic helpers, men included, when she had gone to him offering nursing services to Muslims in the forthcoming Battle of Badr

Umm Waraqah was a single woman and she stayed single until her death. She was very wealthy and resourceful. She was one of the scribes of the Quran as well as an avid student of the holy scripture. Her knowledge of the Quran coupled with her piety was well known to the Prophet and his companions. She never married as she devoted her life to the study of the Quran. She recited the Quran beautifully and had memorized it.

It is reported that one day she came to the Prophet seeking permission to start a mosque in her home with proper facilities to have a call to the prayer as well as regular five daily prayers for her family, friends, and other relatives. The prophet blessed her and gave her permission to lead the prayers. Thus she became the first known Imam in a mosque that she started in her home.

It is reported that Umma Waraqah continued leading the prayers during the Caliphate of the first and second Caliphs of Islam. Not many details are available about the activities carried out in her home-turned mosque. What is known is that she donated the entire property to the service of Islam.

There is no statement of the Prophet that prevents women from organizing their own mosques or leading five daily prayers or running their own religious institutions. If the prophet advised a few Muslim women to pray in the darkest corner of their homes, it was meant to advise those who had asked him based on their circumstances as this statement cannot be seen as a general principle because he is reported to have said:” don’t prevent women from coming to the masjid” even if you like them to pray at home. The presence of women in the mosque is a well-established practice of Islam. Some people suggest that if women want to come to the mosque, they should accompany their husbands. This excludes unmarried women who do not have a male member to take care of them. In fact, the divine commandment to establish mosques is applicable to both men and women as both have been advised by the Creator to establish prayer.

There is no statement of the Prophet that says that women cannot give khutbah. The prophet spelled out the rights and duties that everyone should observe while visiting mosques and they are similar for both in essence. It is sometimes suggested that women should not come to the mosque wearing perfume. However, there is a statement of the Prophet suggesting that he was extremely fond of perfume and he encouraged people to wear perfume in public places including houses of worship. This statement does not exclude women. How can one deny women from following this Sunnah of the Prophet? Those who say that fragrance wearing women would distract men from worshiping devoted perhaps lose the essence of the faith and place undue importance to the notion of male superiority. Islam is a faith not created to favor men or women and focus only on the level of Iman (faith) of either of them only. If some men are unable to control their carnal desires, then they have to work on their thoughts and actions rather than denying religious equality to others. To say that women do not have desires and feelings is defying the laws of the Creator. Moreover, we should realize that in our world today men could, also, be an equal source of temptation for men.

Early Muslims understood the religious role of women in running their own mosques and in several countries, women have set up their own mosques.

Such mosques can be found particularly in the Chinese provinces of Henan, Shanxi, and Hebel. Some countries beyond China has also had women-only mosques, but they are rare.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, HuiChinese women had begun to form their own mosques. For religious reasons, the Hui Muslim communities started to cultivate more theological learning among women. As a result, women graduates served as Imams of women's mosques.

By the 20th century, there were separate places of worship as women-only mosques in China and other places of the world, including, Uzbekistan, the Maldives, Sudan, Amsterdam, and Berlin. There were women-only mosques in Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Somalia until recently, but they were closed down under the pressure of certain religious groups. There is nothing in Islam’s holy scriptures that prevent a woman from organizing mosques for women.

In fact, this is a welcome sign that Muslim women who had been marginalized in Muslim theological discourses for centuries are asserting themselves and carving a place for others who are still treated as second class citizens in none other than the house of Allah. The majority of women in the Muslim world is not allowed to visit mosques. In places, where they are allowed, there are no proper arrangements for the. In the houses of God, they are often treated worse than Rosa Park, the African American hero of the civil rights movement who refused to go to the back seat because white men and women did not blacks to occupy front rows. Unfortunately, this has been justified in the name of the Prophet and perpetuated continuously. It is a move that those Muslim men who believe in the divine wisdom in creating both men and women with dignity and equality should wholeheartedly support. Additionally, they should participate in the efforts to have a physical site owned by Muslims to serve Muslim women and others through the services led and run by women. In fact, the project should be a national project and in every state of America, there should be a women's mosque where they can produce their own scholars and speakers.
We are willing to accept the idea of a woman exclusive city, a woman exclusive university or a gym or a swimming pool or a departmental store. Why cannot we reconcile with the idea of women running their own religious institutions including mosques.

Speaking Against Terrorism is part of my Faith

In terrorists attacks innocent lives are lost without any gain for those who perpetrate these unforgiving crimes against humanity and above all against God. Laws of God dictate that every human life deserves a dignified existence and protection from all acts of violence, yet the attackers invoking the name of God seem to be determined to take innocent lives at will and show their sickening happiness at every drop of blood they shed in the name of their so called ideology.

As a Muslim who believes in the absolute power and wisdom of the divine for giving His guidance to humanity, I am horrified when I read that people who confess to be Muslim by name are involved in terrorist attacks. Surly such people do not understand what it means to submit to God to attain peace.
I feel outraged when I read that the killers used the name of Allah, the sustainer of the universe, the most gracious and the most merciful for their nefarious acts. I feel enraged at their audacity to justify the killing for the injustices caused by others to their folks.

I would have felt the same rage and shame if the perpetrators were members of other religious communities. After all, sufferings of human beings cannot be divided on the basis of their religious identities and tears cannot be selectively shed only for those who belong to my faith or my ethnicity. I cannot fulfill my covenant with God if I cry only for those who are like me and turn my face the other way when the victims are Jewish, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, atheists or belonging to any other faith.

I often wonder what I as an individual must do to stop these insane criminals from committing these acts. I have no way to communicate with them. Even if I get an opportunity to speak with them, I know they would not listen to me because they have not listened to God, who demands that life must be protected from all harm. They do not realize the basics of their professed faith that says, God is the creator of all life, He is the sustainer of each and every human, He does not discriminate among people in His mercy on the basis of their faith, He does not deny nourishment even to those who reject him and He describes the taking the life one person as a crime against all humanity.

I speak against terrorism in the places of worship when I am invited to give the Friday sermons. I write extensively against terrorists and I constantly remind my fellow Muslims that we must be in the forefront of our jihad against violence and terror and stand up for peace and justice. This is commanded by God when he says in the Quran,

O You who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in upholding equity, bearing witness to the truth for the sake of God, even though it be against your own selves or your parents and kinsfolk. Whether the person concerned be rich or poor, God's claim takes precedence over [the claims of] either of them. Do not, then, follow your own desires, lest you swerve from justice: for if you distort [the truth], behold, God is indeed aware of all that you do! (Quran 4:135)

I know that the people I speak with are absolutely against all forms of terrorism. I have not come across a single Muslim in my adult life who justifies violence because of the injustices perpetrated against Muslims anywhere in the world.

But, I also realize that governments and political parties and leaders use acts of terrorism to serve their political interests. They too have an agenda that is often determined by their religion, ethnicity or political goals. They may claim that they care for human life, but when it is time to act decisively they often show their blindness to the reality and demands of justice.
If we all had cared for human life and dignity, we would have not allowed millions of Jews to suffer during the second world war, millions of Muslims in Central Asia to die as a result of brutal communist policies, thousands of Bosnian men and women to be killed and raped, millions of Rwandans to be slaughter mercilessly, thousands of Darfurians to be brutalized, millions of Palestinians to live in refugees camps, and millions of people in Iraq, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places to live in miserable conditions.

We would have come together to show our determination to protect human life and human dignity. We would not have allowed hundreds of wars that have been waged during the last century in the name of ethnicity, nationalism and cultural and economic superiority. We would not have extolled the virtues of our nation to put down others. We would not have adopted a policy of economic and cultural imperialism to subjugate people.

Don't forget the fact that the rulers of Muslim counties are not absolved from this prevailing insensitivity to human dignity. In fact, their brutality can match anyone else in the world. They have killed at will anyone who appears to challenge them. They have destroyed their own people because they were afraid of losing power. They have pitched one against another to serve their own corrupt agenda.

I realize all this and often wonder what can be done to stop this menace and insanity. Speak, I will, write, I must, confront those who advocate violence, I shall and use every opportunity to challenge terrorists, I do. But in a world where leaders and parties often use their self serving agenda to define terrorism and the nature of fight against violence and terror and injustice, I am left bewildered.

I know I am not alone. Almost everyone within the Muslim community, whom I know, think the same way as I do, except those faceless and nameless, secret groups and individuals who have refused to listen to the divine call for respecting all human life. Yet, we all find ourselves incapable of stopping this insanity. There are forces that are out there that we do not know and there are groups and individuals who are constantly plotting to hurt fellow humans. There are people who are waiting to pour more fuel to add to the fire and there are countries that are keen to see wars and destruction.

The Muslim community needs partners in the fight against terror in defense of human dignity and human life. We need people who are willing to stand up for the protection of every human life regardless of its cultural, ethnic nationalistic and religious origin. There are many who say that they care for humanity as a whole. But where are they? Why do they speak only when someone like them is hurt? Where are their voices when human beings other than their own lose their dignity and life?

God describes himself as the guarantor of world peace to His creation. His guidance speaks to this clearly. But people acting on his behalf have done everything possible to destroy it. Can we Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and everyone else come together to stand for each of us and fight the menace jointly rather than using religious or nationalistic labels to vent our anger and serve the political agenda of the power elite?

Pornography: the Latest Craze in the Muslim world

Every second some 30,000 men and women visit a porn website. 70 percent of them are males between the ages of 18 and 34. Women account for 25 percent. These visitors account for 35 percent internet downloads and they generate some 2.5 billion sex-related emails daily. Pornographic websites occupy 12 percent of the web yet they generate billions of dollars every year, some $13 billion in the US alone
Of these 30,000 visitors, the majority come from the following countries, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco, Iran, Egypt, Vietnam, Poland, and the Philippines. Six of them are Muslim majority states with 37 percent of the Muslim world population. However, Utah tops the list of the cities with the highest number of paid subscribers of the porno site users.
The statistics coming from web search engines are quite revealing and shocking. In gay sex, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Iran are among the topmost countries. In animal sex, Pakistan tops the list in pig, donkey, goat, cat, horse, monkey, snake, bear, and elephant sex categories while Saudi Arabia heads the list in fox sex.
Almost all of these Muslim countries have blocked websites promoting pornography, yet people find creating methods to log on and enjoy it now even on their smartphones. It is estimated that some 30 percent smartphone holders, use the device to take care of their lust. Imagine, the number of users in the Muslim world, if internet access becomes free and unblocked and if the internet is available to all.
Religious groups have called for a ban on pornographic sites. The existing censorship of such sites in the Muslim world proves that it would not make any significant change. It is a problem that requires serious and urgent attention if we want to avoid the damaging aftereffects of porn viewing.
Despite an overwhelming number of Muslim youth getting exposed to all sorts of pornography, there is strong resistance to sex-related education in schools and religious institutions on the part of education experts as well as religious clergy in the  Muslim world. There is not much written about this issue among Muslims. There are few clerics who are willing to tackle this issue in their Friday sermons or religious discourses. Not only in the Muslim world, but in the US and Europe, where sex education has become part of the school curriculum, Muslim institutions have been hesitant to introduce it as a subject within their moral framework.
If extraordinary measures are not taken care of immediately, the entire world would plunge into a state of affairs where sex-related deviations would become normative for all. The way to handle this situation is to develop effective educational tools to be used at home and at schools and seminaries and other institutions of learning.

At what age, a child should be exposed to this education would be a challenging question. What would be included and excluded from the discussion and discourse would be another. How would one respond to the ever-changing scenario within an ethical framework would be another challenging issue? Apparently, Muslim scholarship tends to believe that by reciting the verse of the Quran: "Nor come nigh to adultery: for it is a shameful (deed) and an evil, opening the road (to other evils).(17:32) is not going to solve the problem. After all, there are instances that suggest that those who have memorized the Quran and often teach it to others are also among the violators of this verse. Reminding people of hadith dealing with sex-related issues alone would not convince the people to avoid porn sites. One has to focus on the causes for such a habit and address its root effectively. The religious clergy in its present intellectual capacity is unable to address the issue. We need a larger pool of experts in all aspects of life to focus on this. Such an effort would be more meaningful if it is addressed at an interfaith level as an ever religious community is involved in it. The least that can be done is to talk about the problem openly with youth who are its most frequent users.

Kill Them because they Insulted the Prophet! Did the Prophet or the Quran Say So?  No.

We love the Prophet. We try to follow him in every aspect of our lives. We adore him. We sing praises in his glory. We recite his name in every prayer that we offer. We regard him, dearest, to use. We give preference to him over our own lives.
But should we kill or insult those who insult him or who are critical of him or who ridicule him? Should we tell the world that if our sentiments are not respected, we would be at war and we would destroy or try to silence everyone who stands in our way?
If murder is the answer to every word of criticism, then no one is safe, because we all are critical of each other in a way or the other.  We all are disrespectful to each other in one way or the other.
We cannot impose our love for our Prophet, upon others. We will have to earn that respect for our Prophet through our actions patterned after his life. We cannot expect people to give him the same regard as we do. If some do we are thankful to them, but if they do not, we cannot complain.
Despite all the efforts to project a positive image of our Prophet or Islam, if some people still choose to reject him or insult him, we have to accept the right of the people to do so, because this is the right that has been given to them by the divine.
Among Muslims, especially among many of their scholars and intellectuals prevails a criticism of the United States, Europe and what they term as western thinkers and policymakers that they have double standards towards the principle of free speech. When it comes to criticism of the state of Israel, the West unanimously prefers to remain silent while when it comes to Islam, the West pursues a path of ecstasy.
This is a weak and meaningless argument. We follow a principle because we believe in its divine origin and its supremacy. Thus, we respect free speech because it is an essential right in Islam. It is a right that no government or establishment can ever take away. In the Quranic phraseology, it is considered one of the worst sins against God.
The right to dissent or have a different perspective other than the one that is popular or dominant or acceptable by Muslims is the right that is the essence of Islamic thinking. It is a right that the Prophet secured and stood for. During the endorsement proceedings of the constitution of Medina in the initial stages of the formation of a state of the newly adopted city, four Muslim tribes of Aws refused to sign the treaty. The prophet never retaliated against them and used violence to bring them in line with his ideals.
The Prophet defended the rights non-Muslims to reject him. He never retaliated against those who were his harshest critics. Many members of the early Arabian society were his worst critics. They were his sworn enemies. They hurled abuses at him. They called him different derogatory names. They even plotted to kill him. Yet he did not retaliate against them. Rather, he forgave them. What better example of forgiveness one can find them to quote his exemplary behavior after the opening of Makkah, the city that had persecuted him for 13 years. Did he ask people to slaughter the people of Makkah? No, he offered them general amnesty and embraced his critics.
Freedom should not be measured by the behavior and attitude of the West or the East. Freedom, in itself, is the essence of faith. Freedom is absolute and it cannot be sliced by special interest groups. Muslims cannot expect others to respect their freedom without defending the rights of others.
Yes, freedom means that people have a right to be critical of Islam and the Prophet. Our love for our Prophet should not prevent others from entertaining their own ideas. It would hurt us, but we cannot silence them using coercion. If we want them to show respect to our Prophet, then we should demonstrate the essential traits of the Prophet's character in our lives. Those traits are forgiveness, controlling one's anger, showing love and respect to others and defending life.
When we show these characteristics in our lives, we become true followers of the Prophet, When we respect the freedom of others to be critical of Islam and its Prophet, we show our highest commitment to him. His personality is powerful. It would not crumble under any criticism of his critics. It would shine in all situations and circumstances. It is through respecting this right of others to practice free speech, we would promote the real dignity of our prophet.