Ahmed Lotfy Rashed's Blog, page 3

‘Before Orthodoxy’ by Shahab Ahmed

Summary of Main Thesis Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam is Shahab Ahmed’s study of early Muslim attitudes to the Satanic verses incident. The story of the Satanic verses narrates the occasion on which the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is alleged to have mistaken words suggested to him by Satan as divine revelation. These […]

The Verse of the Sword

Regarding ayahs 9:2–6, is God commanding an Islamic state to conduct a foreign policy, which is the following: First, make a treaty with idolatrous nations and if they maintain the terms of the treaty then peaceful coexistence is possible. Second, if these nations refuse to make a treaty or violate the terms of the agreement, […]

Prayer of the Oppressed

This attachment is so profound, so inspiring, and so poignant, that I had to share. . . It touches on many points regarding the cosmic purpose and response to oppression and puts them all in the context of over-arching justice. It answers the “big questions” that we often forget when discussing the details. Shaykh Hamza […]

The Legal Validity of the Sunnah

Nobody in early Islamic history denied the legal validity of the Sunnah مَنْ يُطِعِ الرَّسُولَ فَقَدْ أَطَاعَ اللَّهَ Whoever obeys the Messenger is obeying God. (4:80) When the archangel Gabriel revealed a new passage of the Qur’an to the Prophet (pbuh), he also instructed where that passage belongs. Some passages were before, some were after, and […]

The Future of Islamophobia

Eliminating This Form of Bigotry Speaking truth to power has never been easy. Anyone who objects to Islamophobia or points out anti-Muslim prejudice often assumes personal risk in doing so. The Islamophobia network responds with smears and reputation attacks against anybody that counters their bigoted messaging with calls for religious tolerance, equality, and justice. This […]

The Backers of Islamophobia

The Correlation with Right-Wing Zionism On the producer side of Islamophobia rhetoric, ideological Christian personalities are the primary content-creators and preach fear to their followers, but there is another faction that produces – or more usually supports the production of – this misinformation: the right-wing Zionists. The Islamophobia industry deploys “intellectual” attacks backed by hardline […]

The Bigotry of Islamophobia

Introduction Despite what many people think, Islamophobia did not come out from the tragedy of 9/11. The systematic use of stereotypes and hyperbolic media against Islam and Muslims started as the US invasion and occupation of Iraq turned vicious in 2006, the popular discontent with the Iraq War escalated, and the inception of the anti-Israel […]

What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam?

I stumbled across this info-graphic and wanted to share it with you. . . What are some of the paths that lead toward doubt for American Muslims? Based on the inaugural project of  Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research exploring the dynamics of doubt in the American Muslim community, this info-graphic provides an elaboration of some […]

Muslims and Mental-Spiritual Health

Spirituality and religion are key strengths in personal well-being. This holistic paradigm brings into balance all aspects of the human experience, addressing those maladies and character flaws which would otherwise be considered out-of-scope for contemporary clinical psychotherapy. The goals of this approach are not only to provide hope and relief to the care-seeker, but also […]

The Validity and Applicability of the Sunnah

Did anyone in early Islamic history deny the legal validity of the Sunnah? Explain why there has been and continues to be a heated debate over the applicability of the Sunnah. Also, explain some ways, and give examples, in which different approaches to the Sunnah and Hadith criticism could result in different understandings of Islam […]