Z. A. Siddique

Enjoys ancient aphorisms, triadic structure and Carthage must be destroyed.

[Z. A. Siddique @zainwalla]

Liberalism assumes that Islam is like Chinese food. It's some ethnic cuisine or vaguely interesting cultural practice that can be absorbed into society without challenging or offending the hegemonic discourse.

[Hasan Spiker @RealHasanSpiker]

A central reason Muslims have never yet flourished on a large scale in the West is our almost wholly negative attitude towards shari'a or sacred law. Negative shari'a should pivot on clear red lines, not a paranoia about whether or not everyday life is "halal."

The real purpose of sacred law is in any case positive; it provides principles for maximized human flourishing in accordance with the lofty vision of human nature that has been revealed to us, not a raft of complexes and prohibitions.

The true Muslim's natural assumption when encountering a new situation is not only that it is "halal", but that its halal status need not even be investigated. God created all that is in the earth for you; everything on this earth was created for our benefit, in order to help us in actualising the holistic flourishing demanded by our nature; it was not created so that we could be suspicious, uneasy, and paranoid about every unfamiliar thing that we encounter.

Instead, in everything you do be faithful and loyal to the haqa'iq and the sha'a'ir, the spiritual realities and the outward symbols of the din. It is that deep spiritual orientation and the pursuit of the corresponding truth, beauty, and goodness in all things which will keep you on the Straight Path, the path of closeness to Allah, not an unhealthy and morally lazy dependence on a "mufti" who has lost all touch with reality.

He created all that is in the earth for you is indeed one of the proof texts for the fiqh maxim "the default assumption is permissibility." We should combine it with the hadith, "Seek the moral judgement of your heart," and recognise that a pedantic and partisan fiqh madhhab calculus is rarely the right way to achieve the maqasid of the din in this time.

From the
ضروريات
to the
تحسينيات
the purposes of sacred law are configured to facilitate the cultivation of truth, beauty, and goodness in the life of each individual believer. Social and cultural non-participation, the self-incarceration of authentically Islamic creative energies, and our defaulting to "halal" medicine and engineering, and thus becoming grey, lifeless non-presences in Western societies that we should be transforming with light, is the price our communities pay for our lazy (and unislamic) legalism.

[Hasan Spiker @RealHasanSpiker]

It seems inevitable that the revival of Islam in the latter days will take place within Western cultural forms.

This will surely involve a transformation of the very highest of Western cultural forms,* as illuminated by the “Prophetic breeze" foreseen 200 years ago by al-Rawwas. Yes, in a (hitherto insufficiently well-known) visionary experience, the great Rifa'i saint Imam al-Rawwas saw that at the very height of the West's dominance and enmity towards Islam, an effusion from the Prophetic Presence ﷺ would bring large numbers of Westerners into Islam, who in virtue of that effusion, would be blessed with an extraordinarily profound understanding of the dīn. More recently, the great Moroccan saint Shaykh Muhammad Ibn al-Habib also foresaw that the revival of Islam would take place at the hands of individuals from the West.

Much of the Muslim presence in the West has failed. I will seek to avoid inciting defensiveness by mentioning names, but many of the initial forms in which the establishment of Islam was sought in the Western world were some or all of

1 formalistic and legalistic

2 narrow-mindedly ethnocentric

3 subordinate to economic concerns, with "Islamic" observance largely no more than a cocoon employed (despite the almost complete absence of an authentic Islamic worldview) to justify fear of a half-understood host culture, and thereby validate insularity, as well as to establish rigid family control structures.

4 intellectually fideistic in a manner that ironically played into the hands of default scientism and positivism

5 devoid of continuity with the historically normative twofold structure of . self-mastery and . purification leading to inward tasting and illumination.

Thus personally incapable of presenting a profound vision of Islam to our Western hosts, we became the skulking, sullen intruder whose presence makes no sense. Hence identitarianism, self-ghettoisation, and burning resentment.

To the contrary, to be sufficiently acknowledged by the ascendent cultural hegemon to be able to begin to transform it, Islam has to make deep, uniquely intelligible sense as vessel of sanctification, as both the redeemer and liberator of human nature, and as the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional consummator and fulfiller of the human journey through this world, embracing all human types.

Meanwhile, the West of advanced modernity has reached unprecedented heights in developing the apparatuses of techne capable of serving as multifarious vehicles for this supreme vision of human nature. But it lacks the cohesive, holistic, integral metaphysical worldview able to provide deep-rooted meaning and content to match that highly enriched matter; it lacks content, that is, beyond hedonism and an ultimately futile and bleak, nihilistic (but still highly arresting) depiction of the drama of human life.

And yet let's face it, we are utterly mimetically subordinate to these cultural forms; we cannot see outside them; and we cannot fully see inside them either. Hence our dismal creative weakness and lack of compelling narrative.

What we need most urgently of all as an Umma, is the return to the prioritisation of that Prophetic Presence ﷺ in all things. What could effect this transformation but the Presence of the Perfect Man ﷺ?

The uniter of all the human types, the full scope of the human experience, mystic, warrior, lawgiver, trader, husband, father, friend? The harmoniser of majesty and beauty in all of those human types, such that the Four Caliphs, the most complete of human beings, were but facets of his perfection ﷺ ?

The many of you who think this impossible, thank you, we don't need you. And if this has proved impossible hitherto, it is thanks to the likes of you.

For those who believe in the transformative power of the revelation to the Last Prophet ﷺ know that all is possible in the One God who sent him.

TBC ...

In an upcoming post I will set forward some possible solutions to replace the inadequacies I have outlined here. In the meantime, I'd be interested in your thoughts on all this, including 1-5 above.

* i.e., the transformation of Western e.g., literary, artistic, music, institutional, philosophical, and even religious forms.

[Keifer @DannyVegito]

imagine freeing one slave in your entire life and it’s Hitler

[The Knowledge Archivist @KnowledgeArchiv]

“I may speak the English Language better than the Chinese language, but I’ll never be an Englishman, not in a thousand generations.”

-Lee Kuan Yew (Founded Singapore)

[Muadh Chati @muadhchati]

Someone asked for 5 key takeaways, so after perusing my notes, here they are:

1. The nation state is a product of the enlightenment and therefore Euro-American in origins and its primary obsession is to use knowledge and nature to achieve control and domination. Think of how academic research and science is primarily for the purpose of how we can exploit and dominate nature more to bring it under more of our control. NASA wants to build a base on the moon while a very decent percentage of the lands the West colonised are living in poverty.

Even many of the problems the research attempts to solve are problems the state itself created in the journey of exploitation.

2. The relegation of the moral imperative to a secondary status and it's being largely divorced from science, economics, law and much else has been at the core of the modern project, leading us to promote or ignore poverty as both the legal and political are entirely connected to power and domination. This is the Is/Ought dichotomy or Facts/Values dichotomy that I will explain in the YouTube video. In Islamic governance, the rule of law is Shari'ah, and it works the other way around; the morality and values create the legal.

3. The legislative branch (parliament in the UK) is meant to be the only one creating the law, in reality, the executive (government) and judicial (courts) are also creating law arbitrarily. It's a mess.

4. In Islamic governance, neither the courts (judicial) nor the sultan (executive) create law, rather the jurists would DISCOVER the law of Allah (legislative). The jurists would be from the community of the courts itself, so therefore it has a stronger claim to being a bottom up system than the nation state does. Hallaq expands on the role of the "Mufti" in discovering law and the indispensability of the Mufti to the Shari'ah courts in his "Authority, Continuity and Change".

5. We are behaving and thinking exactly how the state wants us to think. We are "subjects" fashioned by the state for the state. This is done through education, media, etc. Think "British Values" plastered all over our school walls and how the terrorist in our movies is almost always a Muslim.

The whole TLDR of the book can be summed up in one verse of the Qur'an which so succinctly describes the problem with the nation-state:

أفرأيت من اتخذ إله هواه وأضله الله على علم وختم على سمعه وقلبه وجعل على بصره غشاوة

The 'Hawa' (desire) of the nation state could be dominance and control. This is the God of the nation state; I.e. itself. It has made itself and the dominance of itself its God. The 'Ilm' could be its science, laws and economic structures. Its 'Dalal' could be how its obsession with simply domination and control and using all its knowledge for domination and control only makes it more immoral and oppressive. But it sees itself as the standard for everyone else; thus its ears, heart and eyes are closed.

[MENA Unleashed @MENAUnleashed]

The UAE's downfall is the region's biggest redistribution of economic power since WWII.

Start with Saudi Arabia. Its stock exchange gained while Dubai's lost $120bn. Riyadh stayed open while Dubai took a missile. British Airways cancelled Dubai through to May and kept Jeddah flying. Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline now delivers 7 million barrels a day directly to Yanbu on the Red Sea, bypassing Hormuz entirely. That oil then moves through the Suez Canal. Every barrel that Riyadh reroutes is a barrel that no longer makes Dubai's Fujairah relevant.

This is the structural transfer Dubai's planners feared for a decade. It is happening in real time under Iranian fire.

Oman is the second winner. Muscat is the only Gulf capital untouched. Qatar Airways ran relief flights from Muscat when Doha was paralysed. SalamAir was selling tickets at UAE-Oman land border crossings. British evacuation flights for 138,000 stranded UK nationals departed Muscat. Oman positioned itself diplomatically as the only GCC state to condemn Operation Epic Fury and maintain back-channels with Tehran. Iran's new Supreme Leader explicitly signalled that Tehran values that relationship. Oman does not inherit Dubai's model. It inherits Dubai's irreplaceability.

Turkey is absorbing the aviation gap. Istanbul is the primary exit point for private capital fleeing the Gulf corridor. Senior finance executives were paying $100,000 per seat on Istanbul-bound private jets departing Dubai. Armenia and Azerbaijan are carrying the Europe-Asia overflight traffic that used to run through Emirati airspace. The northern Caucasus corridor is now the functional alternative to the Gulf route. Every aircraft that reroutes through that arc strengthens the case for Istanbul as the permanent regional waypoint.

Algeria and Libya are collecting the energy premium. As Qatar declared force majeure and Gulf LNG exports froze, Algerian gas to Europe commanded prices not seen since 2022. Dutch TTF benchmarks nearly doubled. Algeria has limited surge capacity, but it does not need volume. It needs price. The war gave it both.

Jordan and Egypt are repositioning on logistics. Egypt is providing alternative freight routing to the Gulf via its ports and the SUMED pipeline. Saudi oil from Yanbu now moves through Suez to Mediterranean markets. Egypt's fertiliser and aluminium exports are commanding higher prices as Gulf supply froze. Jordan's Port of Aqaba is the one functioning overland corridor between the Gulf and Syria with operational border infrastructure. Iraq is already moving some oil south by road tanker through Jordan rather than through Hormuz.

None of these countries designed this outcome. They did not need to. Dubai designed its own fragility by building an entire state model on the premise that it could remain geopolitically neutral while aligning militarily with Washington and economically with Tel Aviv. Abu Dhabi's intelligence and defence integration with Israel made the UAE Iran's primary Gulf target from day one.

The stability premium was priced on a fiction. Saudi Arabia, Oman, Turkey, Algeria, Jordan and Egypt are now pricing the reality.

[Camus @newstart_2024]

Rory Sutherland made a quietly devastating observation about one of the biggest societal shifts of the last 50 years.

He said the move to the double-income household started as an option but quickly became an obligation. The big winners? Governments (twice as many people to tax) and property owners (now two salaries were needed to buy a house). The big loser? The family itself, which lost roughly 35 hours of discretionary leisure time per week — with no real increase in living standards, because the extra money was largely soaked up by higher house prices and taxes.

It’s a classic example of how something that begins as liberation can quietly turn into a new form of constraint.

Longitudinal studies on happiness and time use (including data from the American Time Use Survey and OECD reports) show that the sharp rise in dual-earner households correlated with stagnant or declining leisure time for families, while subjective well-being metrics for parents have not risen in line with the additional income — supporting the idea that much of the gain was captured by housing costs and taxation rather than improved quality of life.

It’s a reminder to look carefully at changes that society presents as inevitable progress.

What do you think — has the double-income model delivered more freedom or more pressure for most families?

[SNEAKO @sneako]

The new strategy to combat growing antisemitism is to place all of the blame on Netanyahu individually, instead of Israel as a society. By making one man the fall guy the blame is alleviated from the rest of the demons. Do not fall for this lazy attempt to regain your trust.

[Reza Nasri @RezaNasri1]

The idea that every sovereign country near Israel must cap its conventional weapons, limit its defensive capabilities, restrict missile and fighter jet ranges, and even dismantle its own military industries—just so Israel can "feel safe"—is completely absurd.

Which other nation on Earth demands and receives this kind of privilege?

This exceptionalism is especially ridiculous coming from a regime with such an inherently aggressive posture and track record in the region.

[محمد حاتم غنامة @mohamadghnama]

The Curse of the 80 Years: Netanyahu Wages War on Iran to Break the Curse That Ended the Hasmonean Kingdom

Netanyahu is Fighting History – The Persistent Wars and the Obsession with the "Curse of the 80 Years

Benjamin Netanyahu does not view wars merely as reactions to threats; he sees them as a necessary tool for Israel's long-term survival. In a Torah study session he hosted in 2017, he explicitly stated that the Hasmonean Kingdom lasted only about 80 years before collapsing due to internal divisions.

He noted that the modern State of Israel, now entering its "eighth decade" around 2024–2025, must overcome this critical period to reach its centennial.

In his view, the real danger lies not only in external enemies but also in internal disintegration if comfort, political divisions, and social fractures prevail.
Continuous wars, therefore, are not a burden in his eyes but an existential remedy: they unify the Jewish people, justify his "strong" leadership, prevent early elections or accountability, and transform the "existential threat" into fuel that averts the "curse of the eighth decade."

The war with Iran represents the decisive test in his mind. He describes Iran as "the greatest existential threat" and refers to the conflict as a "war of resurrection," likening himself to Winston Churchill ، a leader confronting a fateful crisis and striving to enter history as the savior of the state.

Netanyahu believes in perpetuating wars as long as they ensure Israel's survival according to his historical logic.

Even after the confrontation with Iran ends, he does not anticipate wars ceasing in the future. He has previously spoken of preparing for a confrontation with an emerging "radical Sunni axis," explicitly pointing to Turkey as part of a hardline Islamic axis and possibly even Egypt, while closely monitoring the growth of its military capabilities.

The specter of the Hasmonean Kingdom haunts him constantly, making wars ... in his perspective ، the only means to transform Israel from a fragile state into a stable regional power that endures "forever," transcending the harsh lessons of history.

Mohammad hatem ghanama
محمد حاتم غنامة

[Yusuf A Ahmad Ansari یوسف انصاری @yusufpore]

Following the passing of the legendary Islamic scholar and thinker Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas of Malaysia, earlier this month, I ventured to revisit some of his works this Ramzān, beginning with the “The Concept of Education in Islam: A Framework for an Islamic Philosophy of Education.”

I recommend this slim volume to each and every Muslim parent, first for themselves and second, as a guideline to approach the education and intellectual-development of one’s children, on the basis of an Islamic paradigm.

In particular this work outlines the basic concepts at the heart of an Islamic approach and Islamic Adab, namely:

Ma‘nā: Meaning
‘Ilm: Knowledge
‘Adl: Justice
Hikmah: Wisdom
‘Amal: Action
Haqq: Right action vis. truth and reality
Nutq’: Reason
Nafs: Self
Qalb: Heart
‘Aql: Mind and intellect
Marātib & Darajāt: Order of creation
Āyāt: Words, signs and symbols
Tafsīr & Ta’wīl: Interpretation

The book is a good starting point and introductory, from which to explore Syed Naquib’s works.
@anwaribrahim #Islam #Education

[FrameTheGlobe @FrameTheGlobe]

Every empire needs a local partner willing to do what the empire cannot be seen doing. In the contemporary Middle East, that partner is Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and this piece traces the full architecture of what he has built: the financial stranglehold over Pakistan that cleared the way for a compliant Muslim world, the Abraham Accords that gave Israel Arab cover through a gen0cide, the military network across the Horn of Africa that serves Washington and Tel Aviv from Somali soil, and the systematic management of Saudi Arabia's crown prince away from any foreign policy that might threaten the design. MBZ is not a passive beneficiary of American and Israeli power. He is its Arab operating system, and the chaos consuming the region from Gaza to Khartoum to Tehran is not the unintended consequence of his strategy. It is the entire point.
https://t.co/3jrNcufsB1

[OK Then @okaythenfuture]

People really don't seem to understand that Malaysia is basically a first world economies at this point.

Salaries are even higher there for most tech roles than in London + most European cities now.

Especially around Penang, which is very notable given its not the main economic engine of the country but is a huge semiconductor/engineering hub, and around Johor, which is Southeast Asia's data hub.

The world has transformed massively in the past generation.

The Malaysian Century.

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

Two more Israelis were killed in Ramat Gan from an Iranian attack. A major train station in Tel Aviv was destroyed. The Israeli government and military intelligence are shocked by the volume and nature of Iranian attacks:

1) While the rate of Iranian missile launches has reportedly gone down, the initial waves were massive and aimed at saturating defenses. Iran has been able to sustain a higher than expected level since.
2) Iran has used "drone swarm saturation," very similar to what Russia uses in Ukraine with considerable success.
3) Israel has faced a notable increase in the use of cluster missiles. As of March 12, 11 such missiles had penetrated air defenses, compared to only three in previous conflicts. One such strike in Beit Shemesh killed nine people. This is a problem for defense systems.
4) Beyond the reported damage at the Savidor train station in Tel Aviv, cluster munitions also struck the Holon train station. These strikes appear aimed at paralyzing civilian mobility and logistics in the Gush Dan region.
5) Investigating officials have noted a recurring issue where sirens in some areas, specifically during the initial Tel Aviv strikes, failed to provide the full 90-second warning. This technological lag has contributed to the fatalities, such as the woman killed in Tel Aviv on February 28 because she could not reach shelter in time.
6) Israeli defense officials have publicly acknowledged that even standard reinforced "Mamad" (residential secure rooms) are proving vulnerable to direct hits from Iran’s heavy 500kg ballistic warheads. This has fundamentally shaken the public’s "fortress" mentality, as demonstrated by the Beit Shemesh disaster where victims died inside a communal bunker.
7) Israelis are frustrated because they are constantly being told Iran is losing its ability to strike, yet attacks continue constantly. This has demoralized the public.

Israelis are increasingly, and accurately, feeling that the government is unable to keep them safe. Instead it is constantly putting Israel at risk as part of their campaign for regional domination.

[Moazzam Begg @Moazzam_Begg]

#Pakistan granted the USA use of its soil, seaports and airspace to bomb #Afghanistan for 20+ years. I was in #Kabul when US cruise missiles landed. I was there when US planes bombed.

They killed thousands of their own people in KPK at America’s behest. That’s what caused the rise of the #TTP - which committed its own atrocities.

The Pak army and ISI kidnapped, detained, tortured and sold 1000s of innocent people to the Americans for bounty money.

Palestinian #AbuZubaydah was among them.

#AafiaSiddiqui and her children were among them.

I was among them.

They burst into my home in the middle of the night with their #CIA masters and took me at gunpoint, while my wife and young children watched, terrified.

Years passed but the very people they sold out in Afghanistan came back to power stronger, defeating America and its allies through patience and perseverance.

They now rule the country.

Instead of making amends for their past treachery and building relations based on mutual respect, intrinsic corruption and envy couldn’t bare to see Afghanistan building its own future, beginning the road to recovery and prosperity for once.

Boasting to the world about its military, with its arsenal of weapons and nuclear capabilities, Pakistan has only used its military against its own people over the past 30 years.

Meanwhile, #Kashmir remains occupied, its daughters violated and its men imprisoned and butchered by Modi’s BJP #Hindutva forces.

#Gaza, the West Bank and Al Quds are occupied and obliterated while Pakistan’s military join their impotent Arab and Turkish allies in giving lip service or organising protests instead of defending Gaza with their powerful militaries.

Non of their ballistic missiles, long range bombers or fighters threaten the murderous #Zionist state. None of their sophisticated anti-aircraft systems are utilised or sent to protect the #Palestinians.

Instead, in one of the most embarrassing displays of global sycophancy ever seen Pakistani leader Shehbaz Sharif nominated #DonaldTrump for the Nobel Peace Prize, right after the Gaza genocide, knowing the USA arms, trains, finances, excuses and backs Israeli war crimes at every level.

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Afghanistan many times since the US withdrawal. My work has focused on trying to get prisoners freed from US prisons like #Guantanamo, where people like Afghan Muhammad Rahim remain without charge or trial after 24 years. He too was handed over to the #CIA by Pakistan for a fee. When his young children asked to see their father for the last time, the #ISI agents beat them and kicked them down the stairs.

That was the last time they saw their father. They are now grown men. The scars are indelible.

My investigations have taken me to drug rehabilitation centres in Afghanistan to speak to eyewitnesses fighting addiction resulting from war trauma, neglect and depression. The work done in these centres cannot be overstated. People’s lives have been turned around and the drug addiction epidemic, which grew exponentially during the US occupation, has been eradicated through these hospitals.

Pakistan’s targeting of these places is a war crime.

But Pakistan’s past actions are also war crimes.

Long ago, Pakistan had the potential of being a role model of justice, honour, faith and dignity but it has consistently proved to be the opposite. That dream is dead - for now.

The cancer of corruption, nationalism and lack or principles has overtaken and they it needs reform, replacement and a new beginning.

When that day comes, everything will change forever.

I pray its soon.

[Alon Mizrahi @alon_mizrahi]

Things have just got real in Tel Aviv, and Israel. The actual pain and destruction have begun.

Earlier today, Iran targeted a train station in the center of the country. I didn't want to draw conclusions from it, and waited to see if it was the onset of something new.

Now, there's confirmation. Iran has just destroyed one of Israel's largest train stations in Tel Aviv, and potentially incapacitated a major part of train movement in the entire country.

Israel is a tiny country and has just one major north-south railway, with the biggest stations situated in Haifa and Tel Aviv. Cutting the train movement there means Israel has no mass transit (the roads are heavily jammed routinely).

These are also major transportation hubs, with Israel's busiest and most strategic roads going nearby; breaking some bridges along these roads puts the entire center of the country at a standstill.

This also has far-reaching military consequences: the train is the main transportation solution for IDF soldiers. If what I suspect is taking place becomes reality, hundreds of thousands of soldiers will not be able to travel to or from home with any measure of efficacy.

More importantly, it's going to become extremely more difficult for Israel to move large number of soldiers north or south when a major call for reservation is announced. A logistical nightmare.

The economic implications of the train being disabled are astronomical: hundreds of thousands of Israelis travel to work each day by train.

This could all be foreseen in advance. A year and a half ago I wrote an article titled 'Iran can end Israel in a few Hours', where I anticipated precisely this scenario.
-
Iran has started the strategic destruction of Israel.

[Amerikanets 📉 @ripplebrain]

Imagine how good this feels. You will never get to order the launch of a hypersonic MRBM against the population centers of your blood enemy in an existential war and stand triumphant in its exhaust plume watching it lift off.

[Ciarán Ó Múrchadha @CiaranMurchadha]

Sexual freedom is merely the foundational preamble to the greater liberation, that of capital.

Western elite-driven advances of changing sexualities foster de-normed individuals that define themselves not by family, nation, religious affiliation,mor tradition, as Iran 🇮🇷, but rather through self-creation according to the liberated individual will.

With this groundwork in place, corporations can then gain control of the populace by dictating and manipulating multiform identities based on nothing more than appetites atomized from any larger cultural networks.

Controlling the symbolic grammar of society is a stunningly effective means to achieve dominance.

[Dr Andreas Krieg @andreas_krieg]

Bottom line:

This war so far has been a complete strategic disaster

Israel will expand its failed long-term approach of mowing the lawn from Gaza to an entire region that wants stability

Btw Israel hasn’t won a war decisively and strategically since 1967

[Nicholas J. Fuentes @NickJFuentes]

Now the Zionists have started amplifying anti-immigration, anti-Muslim rhetoric to distract Right Wingers from the Iran War.

Probably the best way to prevent Muslim immigrants from coming here or attacking us is to stop killing them and destroying their countries for Israel.