Book Review: The Imam and the Atheist, by Mohamed Abdul Azeez

This is a good introduction to philosophical arguments for the existence of God for anyone of faith who – like me – is a philosophy newbie. It's written as a series of conversations between an Imam and the uncle of a boy who has renounced his faith in God. The uncle is struggling to understand his nephew and the Imam is helping the uncle to understand the philosophical ideas that the youth is grappling with.

Framing the book as a series of discussions, each building on the last, gives the book a nice sense of a story. Framing the book as a series of discussions between the Imam and the uncle – a receptive listener – rather than the Imam and the atheist allows the author to get away with some oversimplifications of the opposing view. You could view this as a criticism of the book. However, this is what allows the book to remain an elementary level read so this is a good thing as far as I am concerned.

I must commend the author for having a go at a couple of really sensitive topics during the course of the book: Evolution and LGBTQA+. The chapter on evolution was my favourite of all the chapters by far. It has left me with food for thought to ponder on well beyond my reading of the book. Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone of faith who wants an easy to read introduction to a number of philosophical concepts. If you're like me, it will leave you with plenty of topics to plug into your conversational AI tool of choice during and after your read of it!

Below are some passages from the book that stood out for me:

"Helping my kids sail their intellectual boats to the shores of safety took priority over pretending that the ocean is stormless."

"... to say: God doesn't exist, is more of a statement of faith than a statement of science or reason."

"The Quran usually describes at length the fact that God created the diversity of life on earth, but it doesn't say how. It only alludes to the origins of everything, which is the Arabic word Turab, or the dirt of the earth. It certainly doesn't describe how it all happens."

"... 'be and it is is' doesn't necessarily suggest the instant sprouting of a being into existence. God in the Quran talks about how man is the product of 'be and it is' yet it takes us, and all creation really, actual time – in our case nine months – to come into existence. And if that is the case, then the evolution of one species from another could be one possible way by which God 'creates'..."

"... the evolutionary process, although it involves what we might consider random processes of natural selection and random genetic mutations, [may] not actually [be] random at all... they [may be] subject to a plethora of factors, of which we simply have no knowledge, and that's why we, out of mental laziness, call it random chance."

"... normalising sin and sinful lifestyle in the name of biological tendencies rips man of agency and free will."

"... things are not as black and white as some might think."

"... the enmity between established Christianity in Europe in the Middle Ages and any form of free thought, made the two mutually exclusive, hence it became necessary to neutralise religion if any progress in science, economics or politics were to be achieved. The same was not true in the Muslim world..."

"... no metaphysical idea managed to survive the incessant molestation of philosophy than that of a Creator."

"... the assumption that the universe has a Maker has not been committed to the museum of antiquated human thought, despite the constant battery. It's not a relic of the past, but an instrument of the present. What are we to do with this interminable lust for God?"

"... God endures."

Timeline of early Muslim scholars

Below is a chronology of birth dates of famous Muslim scholars of the past:

AH Year	CE Year	Scholar
21	642	Hasan Al-Basri – One of the most celebrated of the Tab'iun whose name is often encountered in commentaries of the Quran.
80	702	Abu Hanifa – Famous for his school of jurisprudence.
85	704	Ibn Ishaq – Famous for his biography of the Prophet ﷺ.
93	711	Malik ibn Anas – Famous for his school of jurisprudence.
150	767	Al-Shaafi'i – Famous for his school of jurisprudence.
164	780	Ahmad Ibn Hanbal – Famous for his school of jurisprudence.
194	810	Muhammad Al-Bukhari – Famous for his Hadith collection.
204	819	Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj – Famous for his Hadith collection.
214	829	Al-Nasa'i – Famous for his Hadith collection.
240	854	Ibn Abi Hatim
270	883	Ibn Hibban
321	933	Al-Haakim
384	994	Al-Bayhaqi
392	1002	Al-Khateeb Al-Baghdadi
450	1058	Al-Ghazali – Famous for his works entitled The Incoherence of the Philosophers and The Revival of the Religious Sciences.
631	1233	Al-Nawawi – Famous for his collection of 40 Hadith and his work entitled The Meadows of the Righteous.
661	1263	Ibn Taymiyyah
691	1292	Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya
701	1300	Ibn Kathir – Famous for his commentary on the Quran.

Note: AH is short for After Hijrah; CE is short for Common Era.

Top ten tips for Umrah 🕋

Below are ten practical tips to help you make the most of your Umrah and your stay in and around Al-Masjid Al-Haraam.

1. Carry your hotel name on you. Each person in your group should have their hotel name and address written on them. It's very easy to get separated from your group during Tawaf or Sa'ee. You want the peace of mind that everybody in your group can make their own way back to the hotel should they get separated.
2. Keep your footwear on when doing Tawaf and Sa'ee. Unless you're used to walking long distances bare foot on hard surfaces, doing so will cause strain to your feet and legs and hamper your ability to do follow-up Tawafs and/or Umrahs.
3. Carry plasters and antiseptic wipes on you during Tawaf and Sa'ee. Individuals pushing wheelchairs are careless and often hit and cut those in front of them. I hope you never have to administer the plasters and wipes that you're carrying but, sadly, it's likely you will.
4. Protect yourself against the sun. Pack sunglasses, sun cream and a light coloured scarf or umbrella. Take these items with you on each daytime trip to the Masjid. Remember not to wear the sun cream whilst in the state of Ihram.
5. Set off early for prayer. Leave half an hour before the Adhan at least to get a place inside the Masjid or the extension.
6. Use the first floor for Nafl Tawafs. The ground floor is currently exclusive for those doing Umrah. The roof is currently off limits for Tawaf due to construction works.
7. Use the Mosque extension for a more tranquil prayer. There is always plenty of space inside and it is nicely carpeted. The ground and first floors of the main Mosque are currently exclusive for Umrah and Tawaf. As a result, they are quite disruptive to pray in.
8. Ask the cleaners for help and advice. Avoid asking the Saudi guards for help and advice. Asking the Saudi guards for advice is like asking a Magic 8 Ball for advice.
9. Avoid getting mobile data if you can. Entering the Masjid without internet is a great way to maximise your time inside and to have a detox from all the distractions online and outside.
10. Install the Maps.ME app on your mobile device. Download the offline map for Saudi Arabia in the app to get a better visual layout of the Masjid and the surrounding area than what is available with Google Maps.

Book Review: Inside the Brotherhood, by Hazem Kandil

This is proving to be a difficult read. I've made it to the end of the first chapter and I'm really going to have to push myself to continue on with it.

The book has thus far been a one-way critique of the Muslim Brotherhood based on interviews with anonymous nobodies. It is devoid of objectivity and balance, and full of sarcasm and straw man arguments.

If you're looking for unchallenged arguments to confirm negative opinions that you already hold about the Muslim Brotherhood, this book is for you. For me though, there's just too much political spin here. Everything the Brotherhood stands for and does is shed in a negative light and it's hard to take a book seriously that presents a caricature of its subject material.

Resources for learning and practicing Arabic

In this post, I have put together Book and Video resources for anybody who wants to study Arabic at their own pace as opposed to joining a class. If you prefer to study at the pace of a class, then see this post instead.

The resources below are ordered alphabetically and not in an order of recommendation.

Books

• Arabic Reader (Published by Lund Humphries) – This is a fantastic resource to practice your reading once you know the basic rules of grammar. It provides comprehensive vocabulary and footnotes so you don't have to keep digging into the dictionary. However, note that it is advanced so not a good book to start with.
• Mastering Arabic (Published by Palgrave Macmillan) – There are four books in the series: 'Mastering Arabic Script', 'Mastering Arabic', 'Mastering Arabic 2' and 'Mastering Arabic Grammar'. This is a good series to have in your library but I wouldn't say it is sufficient to learn Arabic. It is a little sparse in detail and in repeating concepts so you'll need other resources to hand in order to solidify the concepts that you learn in these books.

Videos

Arabic Language Academy (YouTube Playlists)

The following three playlists offer a good means of improving your vocabulary of everyday words and sentences:

• Arabic Dialogues (49 videos: each video is around 10 minutes)
• Arabic Stories and Reading Text (14 videos; each video is around 5 minutes)
• Arabic Vocabulary (15 videos; each video is around 8 minutes)

Bayyinah TV

Paying $11 (£8-ish) per month to get access to the full library of content on the Bayyinah TV platform is well worth it if you're going to spend a few hours on there per week. Otherwise, the following YouTube playlists are a good starting point:

• Dream Intensive 1 (13 videos; each video is around 2 hours)
• Dream Intensive 2 (11 videos; each video is around 2-and-a-half hours)
• Dream Intensive 3 (15 videos; each video is around 1-and-a-half hours)
• Dream Intensive 4 (19 videos; each video is around 1-and-a-half hours)

FC LangMedia (YouTube Playlists)

The Arabic grammar videos in the following playlists are as clear and as concise as you will find. I'll be very surprised if anyone can point me to a set of videos which can match these for clarity and conciseness.

• First-Year Arabic Grammar Videos (45 videos; each video is around 7 minutes)
• Second-Year Arabic Grammar Videos (37 videos; each video is around 9 minutes)
• Third-Year Arabic Grammar Videos (32 videos; each video is around 9 minutes)

Hidaya Center (YouTube channel)

The videos on this channel have an animated and repetitive style. I find that this helps to learn and remember new vocabulary. For the full set of playlists available in this channel, see here. The two playlists that I have enjoyed particularly so far are the following:

• Al-Arabiyya Bayna Yadayk – Book 1 (98 videos; each video is around 6 minutes)
• Al-Arabiyya Bayna Yadayk – Book 2 (57 videos; each video is around 6 minutes)

Arabic grammar terms

Below are the names and definitions of some Arabic grammar terms which I sometimes struggle to recall:

• Ajwaf (أَجْوَف) – a root verb which has an alif, waw or yaa as its second letter, e.g. قَالَ.
• Lafeef Mafrooq (لَفِيف مَفْرُوق) – a root verb which has an alif, waw or yaa as its first and third letter, e.g. وَلَى.
• Lafeef Maqroon (لَفِيف مَقْرُون) – a root verb which has an alif, waw or yaa as its second and third letter, e.g. طَوَى.
• Mithaal (مِثال) – a root verb which has an alif, waw or yaa as its first letter, e.g. وَعَدَ.
• Mudhaa'af (مُضَاعَف) – a root verb which has the same letter in two positions, e.g. سَبَّ.
• Naaqis (ناقِص) – a root verb which has an alif, waw or yaa as its third letter, e.g. رَمَى.

Book Review: Women in the Quran, by Asma Lamrabet

This book is at its best when it's recounting the stories of the women mentioned in the Quran and the stories of the female companions of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to whom the Quran was revealed. The stories told are stories we are familiar with as Muslims but they're told with a feminine voice that is both strong and refreshing.

In my opinion, the author really should have stuck to these stories and the lessons of courage, endurance and sacrifice extracted from them. Instead, she continues and closes off by opening up and trying to take on some contentious issues like polygamy and women's inheritance and testimony. The problem is that she raises questions in this domain but doesn't really offer substantiated, convincing answers. It comes across a little ill-conceived and rushed, and it's a classic case of less is more.

My other problem with the book is that the translator seems to have taken to the thesaurus to pick the most difficult word on offer whenever there was a choice. It hurts the readability of the book. Expect words like anachronism, ethnocentric, hegemony and preponderance... and that's just in the first three pages of the introduction. It would be great in future editions of this book if the choice of words was revisited and simpler words chosen wherever possible.