The month of Dhul Hijjah has arrived, we nearing the end of the blessed ten days and Eid al-Adha is upon us.
Ibn Abbas reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “No good deeds are better than what is done in these first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah.” (Bukhari)
Abu Qatada al-Ansari narrated that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was asked about fasting on the Day of Arafah, whereupon he said: It expiates the sins of the preceding year and the coming year. (Muslim)
We also have a few announcements.
Donate Your Qurbani and Help the Oppressed
With Eid al-Adha around the corner, it is not too late to donate your qurbani. Please support and help alleviate the sufferings of fellow Muslims in Yemen, Nigeria or the Rohingya in Bangladesh. For more information and to donate, click on the donate link below.
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Watch: Poetry Reading with Baraka Blue: The Art of Remembrance
Last month, IHRC hosted an event with Baraka Blue who discussed and read poems from his new collection, The Art of Remembrance, interspersed with commentary about the great tradition of Islamic poetry and spirituality, as well as personal narrative from his journey.
Baraka Blue is a poet, musician, author, and teacher from Seattle, Washington. In addition to releasing multiple studio albums, authoring books of poetry, and performing internationally, Baraka Blue is a prolific educator with a master’s degree in Islamic Studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He spent a number of years studying with traditional spiritual masters in Africa, Turkey, Asia and the Arab world and founded the Rumi Center for Spirituality and the Arts which provides online courses to seekers from anywhere in the world.
Below are books that are currently in stock:
The Green Dinosaur Umbrella: A Hajj Story – Amina Banawan
A beautiful Hajj story about kindness, diversity, and love that will touch your heart
In this beautifully illustrated, whimsical story, a green dinosaur umbrella travels to Makkah and exchanges hands, helping pilgrims along their journey of Hajj.
Illustrated by Rania Hasan.
The Secrets of Pilgrimage – Al-Ghazali
Hajj is one of the pillars and foundations of Islam, the act of worship of a lifetime, the seal of all that is commanded, the perfection of Islam and the completion of religion. Such a worship deserves that much attention to be devoted to explaining it and to detailing its essential elements, its properties, its merits, and its mysteries. This little book is translated from Kitab Asrar al-Hajj, the seventh chapter of the celebrated 12th-century work, Ihya Ulum al-Din.
Al-Ghazali invites readers to dwell on the subject ofthe hajj beyond its mechanics and rituals, and to pay attention to its true substance, purpose and philosophy. And concerning it the Prophet – the blessing of God be upon him – said, ‘Whoever dies without, having performed the Pilgrimage let him die, if he wish, either a Jew or a Christian.’ How exalted is that act of worship without which religion is lacking in perfection, and the evader of which is equal in, waywardness to Jews and Christians: [Such a worship] deserves that much attention be devoted to explaining it and to detailing its essential elements (‘arkan), its proprieties, its merits, and its mysteries.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
They called him the ‘angriest black man in America’ . . .
Celebrated and vilified the world over for his courageous but bitter fight to gain for millions of black men and women the equality and respect denied them by their white neighbours, Malcolm X inspired as many people in the United States as he caused to fear him.
His remarkable autobiography, completed just before his murder in 1965, ranges from Omaha and Michigan to Harlem and Mecca, and tells of a young, disenfranchised man whose descent into drug addition, robbery and prison was only reversed by his belief in the rights struggle for black America, and his conversion to the Nation of Islam.
Not only is this an enormously important record of the Civil Rights Movement in America, but also the scintillating story of a man who refused to allow anyone to tell him who or what he was.
Go Home?: The Politics of Immigration Controversies
In July 2013, the UK government arranged for a van to drive through parts of London carrying the message ‘In the UK illegally? GO HOME or face arrest.’ This book tells the story of what happened next.
The vans were short-lived, but they were part of an ongoing trend in government-sponsored communication designed to demonstrate toughness on immigration.
The authors set out to explore the effects of such performances: on policy, on public debate, on pro-migrant and anti-racist activism, and on the everyday lives of people in Britain. This book presents their findings, and provides insights into the practice of conducting research on such a charged and sensitive topic.
Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move – Reece Jones
Forty thousand people died trying to cross international borders in the past decade, with the high-profile deaths along the shores of Europe only accounting for half of the grisly total.
In Violent Borders, Reece Jones argues that these deaths are not exceptional, but rather the result of state attempts to contain populations and control access to resources and opportunities.
Jones travels the border regions of the world, documenting the billions of dollars spent on border security projects, and their dire consequences for the majority of the people in the world. While the poor are restricted by the lottery of birth to slums and the aftershocks of decolonization, the wealthy travel freely, exploiting pools of cheap labour and lax environmental regulations. With the growth of borders and resource enclosures, argues Jones, the deaths of migrants in search of a better life are intimately connected to climate change, the growth of slums, and the persistence of global wealth inequality.
The Long View Vol 1, Issue 3 has been published
The Long View is a quarterly magazine published by IHRC.
This issue touches on this – both the despondence but also the changes in fortune as people at the grassroots organise. Such organisation are tackling economic structures that conspire to keep people off the property ladder in countries like the UK. It is resisting the oppressions created not just by regimes like the Israeli one but their
