Search the Community

Greetings, This is not an anti semite topic. I found this when i was looking for reasons of hatred that was directed to jews in Europe. Through studying history, it seems that usury played a key role in this situation. In the old world , there were three major religions :Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The last 2 religions forbade usury. Judaism forbade taking interests from other jews but made it ok to take it from non jews and according to some interpretations, it is an obligation upon a jew to take interest from non jew. In this wiki page, there is a mention of the role of banking in the crusades. But I am very poor in economy and can't get the whole mechanism of how it worked. would someone explain? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_banking

Salaam, Came across this latest lecture series by Sayyid Hussain Makke on the history of the life of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (a), and wow! It's amazing, highly recommend it, all the lectures are on his YouTube channel and a new lecture is being released everyday, here is lecture 1: Sayyid Makke is doing an incredible job presenting the epitome of Islam, Imam Ali (a), and the events which occured after the demise of the Prophet (s). A well produced, objective and holistic, and heart-touching series. He also has a wonderful series on the life of Prophet Muhammad (s) from last Shar Ramadhan.

[This will be a series of blog entries on the history of ShiaChat.com; how it was founded, major ups and down, politics and issues behind running such a site and of course, the drama! I will also provide some feedback on development efforts, new features and future goals and objectives] Part 1 - The IRC (#Shia) Days! Sit children, gather around and let me speak to you of tales of times before there was ever high-speed Internet, Wi-Fi, YouTube or Facebook; a time when the Internet was a much different place and 15 yearold me was still trying to make sense of it all. In the 90s, the Internet was a very different place; no social media, no video streaming and downloading an image used to take anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending on how fast your 14.4k monster-sized dial-up modem was. Of course you also had to be lucky enough for your mom to have the common courtesy not to disconnect you when you’re in the middle of a session; that is if you were privileged enough to have Internet at home and not have to spend hours at school or libraries, or looking for AOL discs with 30 hour free trials..(Breathe... breathe... breathe) - I digress. Back in 1998 when Google was still a little computer sitting in Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s basement, I was engaged in endless debates with our Sunni brothers on an IRC channel called #Shia. (Ok, a side note here for all you little pups. This is not read as Hashtag Shia, the correct way of reading this is “Channel Shia”. The “Hashtag” was a much cooler thing back in the day than the way you young’uns use it today). For those of you who don’t know what IRC was (or is... as it still exists), it stands for Internet Relay Chat, which are servers available that you could host chat rooms in and connect through a client. It was like the Wild West where anyone can go and “found” their own channel (chat room), become an operator and reign down their god-like dictator powers upon the minions that were to join as a member of their chat room. Luckily, #Shia had already been established for a few years before by a couple of brothers I met from Toronto, Canada (Hussain A. and Mohammed H.). Young and eager, I quickly rose up the ranks to become a moderator (@Ali) and the chatroom quickly became an important part of my adolescent years. I learned everything I knew from that channel and met some of the most incredible people. Needless to say, I spent hours and dedicated a good portion of my life on the chatroom; of course, the alternate was school and work but that was just boring to a 15-year-old. In the 90’s, creating a website was just starting to be cool so I volunteered to create a website for #Shia to advertise our services, who we are, what we do as well as have a list of moderators and administrators that have volunteered to maintain #Shia. As a result, #Shia’s first website was hosted on a friend’s server under the URL http://786-110.co.uk/shia/ - yes, ShiaChat.com as a domain did not exist yet – was too expensive for my taste so we piggybacked on one of our member’s servers and domain name. The channel quickly became popular, so popular that we sometimes outnumbered our nemesis, #Islam. As a result, our moderator team was growing as well and we needed a website with an application that would help us manage our chatroom in a more efficient style. Being a global channel, it was very hard to do “shift transfers” and knowledge transfers between moderators as the typical nature of a chatroom is the fact that when a word is typed, its posted and its gone after a few seconds – this quickly became a pain point for us trying to maintain a list of offenders to keep an eye out for and have it all maintained in a historical, easily accessible way. A thought occurred to me. Why not start a “forum” for the moderators to use? The concept of “forums” or discussion boards was new to the Internet – it was the seed of what we call social media today. The concept of having a chat-style discussion be forever hosted online and be available for everyone to view and respond to at any time from anywhere was extremely well welcomed by the Internet users. I don’t recall what software or service I initially used to set that forum up, but I did – with absolutely no knowledge that the forum I just set up was a tiny little acorn that would one day be the oak tree that is ShiaChat.com. [More to follow, Part 2..] So who here is still around from the good old #Shia IRC days?

In the Bible, it states that Palestine was under the rule of King David [Nabi Dawud, peace be upon him] in the 11th century [before Isa, Jesus, peace be upon him] - yes, the same King David who is said to have committed adultery with a woman and executed her husband because of it. Although many historians of old, due to lack of any material, relied upon the Bible for most things surrounding this time period, the information is not historically accurate, because King David was dated to exist about 100 years later to his rule. He was first put into question as to his existence, but when no further evidence found, he was dubbed a myth. Although we Muslims believe he existed, the Bible does a job on distorting history and writing via oral tradition decades after something was said. This puts into question the authenticity of the Bible yet again, despite Dawud (peace be upon him) being one of the great Messengers of Allah that all Abrahamic faiths agree upon. The Philistines did not have a specific religion - if any at all - which is why the Jews tended to look down upon them. The Jews did not eat pig meat and leave their children uncircumcised whereas the Philistines did. However, the Jews did not inhabit their lands prior. The original inhabitants were the Canaanites - followed by the Phoenicians, Syrians, Egyptians, Caucasians, and the Mesopotamians, who later settled in the land of Canaan when majority of their civilization had fallen apart. Some Canaanites were Hebrew, not Jewish, as Judaism and the concept of Jewry began with Moses, according to Biblical chronology. There had been a very small portion of Israelites in this region, but they were not originally from this area. This is shown through demographics and sociological factors of them residing on the outskirts of the area. They were well-known for being destitute. This later changed in the future when an influx of Israelites came in. They, the Canaanites, had formed an alliance with the ancient Egyptians before they had finally taken it in as part of their kingdom (Levant, at the time). When the Israelites started to grow in the land of Palestine, they had split up into two kingdoms - one being Israel and the other being Judah, Israel being the most advanced and growing out of the two. It must be noted that the language of the Philistines had originally been Hebrew but later developed into Aramaic in the 4th century B.C. Moving forward past the Romans and Persians fighting over Palestine, Jesus was born in the land of Galilea, which was the northwest side of Roman Palestine. Jews like to claim that Israel was there prior to Jesus and how their history extends way before the late 1940s, but this is half of the truth. The land of Palestine belonged to the Philistines and destitute Israelites later moved in and had a kingdom within this land that grew years after. Jesus spoke Aramaic, although he understood and spoke some Hebrew. It is similar to how the Anglo-Saxon languages and it's sisters [French, German, Latin, English] can all be understood despite one not being fluent in them based on the similarities. Take for instance someone living in West Germany or Luxembourg - they are likely to understand and speak French, though they would speak German every day as opposed to the aforementioned. Nonetheless, Jesus was born in the land of the Philistines which had been conquered by the Romans at the time. It is argued that Jesus was a Jew - meaning from the tribe of Judah, and by extention, Israel - which is correct. The lineage of Jesus in the Bible stems from Israel [better known as Jacob/Ayyub] to one of his 12 sons, Judah. This, however, has nothing to do with the "nation" or "state" of Israel, as this was thousands of years later. While Jacob was born in Canaan, he never claimed any leadership nor authority there. This was all established by his son Joseph in Egypt, where the family of Joseph thrived and lived happily under him. I do apologize for not putting references, but I wanted to write this as quickly as I can before I forgot. I pray you learned something from this! May Allah increase you in sincerity, guidance, and knowledge - ameen. With that, I now say: Assalamu 'alaykum warahamatullahi wabarakatuhu.

I made a video recently on how the current content of education material plays a role in the oppression of Shi'a Muslims. I posted the video in General Islamic Discussion before, but just now realised that since it is so focused on Pakistani education, I should post it here. JazakAllah

In the name of Allah, I have made a video touching upon my country's education system and how it effectively contributes to Shi'a oppression. JazakAllah

https://youtu.be/fwTB9FNtbos

Bismillah i Rahman i Raheem Assalaam o 'Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah i Wa Barakaatuh I recall listening to a Majlis where the speaker mentioned the story of Prophet 'Isma'il (عليه السلام), but not the son of Prophet Ibrahim (عليه السلام), rather another prophet with the same name. The story goes that the people he preached to put him through severe suffering (of which I will not go in the details here unless asked to) and an angel descended and asked him if he would like to curse these people. The Prophet 'Isma'il (عليه السلام) replied that he does not want that, and instead just wants his name to be among the names of the martyrs of Karbala. Recently, I tried to find out who this Prophet was, and I think he might be Prophet 'Isma'il (Sadiq al-wa'd) (عليه السلام), he was listed separate from Prophet 'Isma'il (عليه السلام) son of Prophet Ibrahim (عليه السلام) on wikishia's page on prophets. I tried to find out more through this, but I could only find this link: http://ahlulbaytportal.net/en.php/page,28246A64432.html?PHPSESSID=58ec25b69e6a9ae5178275b1184e81b1 The link cannot be accessed unfortunately. So my first question, can anyone help me in learning more about this Prophet 'Isma'il (عليه السلام)? My second question, is this prophet in fact Prophet 'Isma'il (Sadiq al-wa'd) (عليه السلام)? I would appreciate any and all help, this is a very interesting topic to me since I am fascinated by the history of Islam as well, and would like to spread knowledge to my family about this. JazakAllah Wa 'Alaikum Assalaam Wa Rahmatullah i Wa Barakaatuh

Will prevail when Imam Mahdi ((عليه السلام)) and Prophet Jesus ((عليه السلام)) returns. For the most part, the Palestinians have been brain washed by the salafi’s to the extent that a large percentage of Isis fighters when they were caught were from Palestine and then Chechnya then Tunisia and then Saudi Arabia. I think you and the other guy that I’ve heard of are the only Palestinian Shia’s that exists. The rest are either “Sunni” or “Christian” in short yous are rare gem.

As salamu alaykum I hope everyone is in the best of health Insha’Allah during these crazy times. I’m a 18 year old Palestinian and Egyptian born Muslim and a new “revert” from ahlul Sunnah to the Ahlul Bayt school of thought. I was wondering if anyone had any good book recommendations about Islamic history and good source books. Growing up Islamic history wasn’t emphasised so I’m kinda a newbie to in depth context and sources sourrounding the context of when surahs/ ayas were revealed, I.e Surah al Tawbah, or hadiths/ history surrounding the martyrdom of Hussain as. I don’t know if this is related but also if anyone has any recommendations for mosques in London and also mosques that possibly offer lessons that would be great too. Jazak’Allah everyone.

I remember reading somewhere that the slogan "ali waliullah" was used by the Sahaba during the Battle of Camel. If it is true, can anyone site a source. Thanks.

As-Salamu-Alaykum Many Sunnis look up to previous Khilafah, like the Ottoman Empire, and whilst we lament some of the actions taken near the end (e.g. Tanzimat reform), we generally appreciate these previous Muslim Empires in their general outlook. I understand that Shi'a/Iranians dislike the Pahlavi dynasty, but what do you think of the dynasty before it? In fact are there any Shi'ite empires/kingdom you guys look up to and admire as good/ok historical examples of an Islamic state - or is that not important for you guys?

have questions as I start the knowledge journey. Who were Amavides?

Hello guys, I have been a Sunni Muslim all my life (27 years) and have converted to Shia Muslim and currently looking for detailed books on 1) History of Islam (Where the split started and all the subsequent events in full detail - specifically from Shia Perspective as that's what I want to know more about) 2) Religious Practises of Shia Islam (Majalis and beliefs that are different from Sunni Islam) 3) Knowledge of Shia Islam (details about Imams and important dates and their importance) I will appreciate it if one of you brothers can help me in this journey. Thanks

Hello guys, I have been a Sunni Muslim all my life (27 years) and have converted to Shia Muslim and currently looking for detailed books on 1) History of Islam (Where the split started and all the subsequent events in full detail - specifically from Shia Perspective as that's what I want to know more about) 2) Religious Practises of Shia Islam (Majalis and beliefs that are different from Sunni Islam) 3) Knowledge of Shia Islam (details about Imams and important dates and their importance) I will appreciate it if one of you brothers can help me in this journey. Thanks

Alhamdulillah. May Allah reward Br. Asadullah Ali

Salams I’m inviting members to share brief travel stories along with select pics about the wonderful places they have visited and the things they experienced there. The reason for starting a new thread is that I’d like to focus on individual experience, personal observations, and examples of cultural exchange and shock etc as opposed to the more general to-do and to-see lists which, in the age of the internet, anyone can look up online about any place on Earth. Reports of pilgrimages or religious travel are welcome but this is by no means the main or exclusive focus of the thread. I was in transit at Oakland airport (OAK) when I saw this appear on a digital screen with a background of an unknown snow-covered mountaintop. “We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us.” It struck a chord. I’ll start with some observations from my Umrah trip. Until then here's something to think about:

Salam Are there any tried and verified ways to break mob mentality? Can an observer make individuals think for themselves when they are being swept up by a fanatical crowd? Or will they only think for themselves if they want to, and maybe not even then? Is there any hope for avoiding history repeating?

If you don't know what this theory is sit back and grab some popcorn. There was a Mongol-Turkish empire in the medieval ages in what is now Ukraine, Southern Russia, Azerbaijan, or in simpler terms the Caucasus Mountain region. At one point the ruler and a large chunk of the population converted to Judaism as the Byzantine Empire was Christian and the Abbasid Caliphate was Muslim. The empire collapsed after sometime this happened. The population dispersed and to this day the Khazar empire is a mystery as they barely left any traces. Now, the theory is when the empire collapsed the now Jewish-Mongol population moved westward to White European empires and mixed in with the European population while keeping Judaism alive in their isolated communities. Thus after generations after generations of mixing in with Whites, these Jews look European and the Mongol-Turk look was long gone after mixing exclusively with Whites. These "White" Jews are called by a more familiar name, Ashkenazis. Now, you may ask why is this a problem? Well a huge chunk of the Jewish Israeli population are Ashkenazi Jews. IF this theory is true, then a chunk of the supposed Jewish population in Israel no longer have rights to the land of Israel as they aren't descendants of the Jews that supposedly came into Europe after the Romans destroyed the 2nd Jewish temple 2000 years ago. Thus pretty much making the State of Israel void religiously. Try to research more and come back, What do you guys think of this theory?

Assalaamu `alaykum, all. Having a great love for Mawla `Ali (karramAllahu wajhahu) and swords in general, I thought I'd do some research into the famed Dhu-l Faqar; perhaps one day I might order a reproduction made to the specifications outlined below:1. Arab swords of the early Islamic era were similar in almost every way to either the Roman spatha or the Sassanid longsword, i.e. they were straight and double-edged (the saber was an innovation originating in Central Asia, not finding its way to the Persians or Arabs until much later). The highest quality were made in Yemen from imported wootz ingots (made in southern India). They were uniformly worn hung from a baldric; wearing a sword on one's hip on a belt was not customary (in fact it seems to have been looked down upon) for the Arabs.2. I have effectively ruled out its name referring to a bifurcation of the tip or serration of the edges (as we see on Shī`ī pendants and Indo-Pakistani interpretations). Bifurcation of the tip would make a sword structurally unsound (particularly with the desired impact area being roughly the upper third of the blade), and such a measure would be ludicrous to as ferocious a warrior as `Alī (`alayhi salām); such a sword would not have been one famously used by him. Serration of the edge (such as on the medieval Flamberge), while indeed effectively improving the performance of a cut-centric sword (as spathae were), was not innovated until much later in history. Thus I have determined that the name either has to do with cleaving/separating (the vertebrae, specifically), or referring to a particularly intricate fuller design it may have incorporated (fiqr is a word meaning fine engraving). As it was quite ordinary for spathae to have multiple (quite attractive) fullers, I'm leaning more toward translating its name as "Lord of Cleaving."3. By investigating Ibn al-Qayyim's "Zād ul-Ma`ād" and Imām Tirmidhī's "Shamā'il," I have determined the parts of Dhū-l Faqār's furniture which were made of silver, and they are as follows:-Bikrāh: these are the part of the scabbard which attach to the rings through which the baldric straps are fed.-Dhu'ābah: this would usually refer to the lanyard hung from the pommel (used for weapon retention and decoration), but since this is mentioned along with those features made of silver, I have to assume this refers to a ring through which the lanyard was strung.-Na`l: this is the decorative (and protective) endcap at the base of the scabbard, also called chape. Not to be confused with chappe.-Halqah: throat (chappe). As spathae featured both a chappe on the scabbard and the hilt, I shall thus apply it to both. Note that the chappe of a spatha's hilt tended to be incorporated into the larger (usually) shoulder-style rounded handguard.-Qabī`ah: pommel cap and handle accents.4. The blade will resemble in length, width, and taper, that of a typical 7th-century Roman spatha. It should have a roughly spatulate tip. I have decided on a U-shaped fuller; this would be a double-fuller which is joined at the tip (and matches a picture I found of the Fatimid iconography).5. As I mentioned, the best quality swords made by the Arabs were made in Yemen, which had considerable Persian influence at the time. So why isn't this sword being made in the Sassanid longsword style? I'm not assuming Dhū-l Faqār was a Yemeni-made sword, because there is a hadīth which mentions that one of the swords (not named, unfortunately) belonging to RasūlAllāh ﷺ (as Dhū-l Faqār originally did) was made in the style of the Bani Hanīfah. This tribe inhabited the Yamāmah region, which is part of modern-day Najd; far from Persian influence. Furthermore, all of the anatomical features mentioned above are indicative of Roman style. None of the Sassanid longswords I've seen has incorporated them as described, while every spatha has.So that's where I am now. I've still got a lot of research to do for ideas on the particular style of decoration I'm going to use for the mountings. I've seen some examples from the period that experts aren't sure are Byzantine or Arab, so it's safe to assume Byzantine and Arab weaponry incorporated similar, if not identical, motifs.So what's everyone think of my sword ijtihād so far? Input is welcome!

The saying usually goes “like father like son”. However, in the case of Abraham and Ishmael it should be “like son like father”. In the Qur’an, their names are written as ʾIsmāʿīl (إسماعيل) and ʾIbrāhīm (إبراهيم). It seems rather banal to those of us used to reading these names, it is an etymological peculiarity. In the original Hebrew, these names are Yišmaʿel (יִשְׁמָעֵאל‎), meaning “God Heard”, and ʾAbrāhām (אַבְרָהָם), meaning “Father of Nations”. While Yišmaʿel is Arabicized typically from Hebrew, ʾAbrāhām is not. The initial alef is pronounced with a kasrah in the Arabic rather than a fatḥah like in the Hebrew. More notably, the final alef becomes a yāʾ in the Arabic. This has even confused Muslim philologists who have listed such variants of the name as ʾAbrahām, ʾAbrāhum, and ʾAbraham. The philologist and orientalist, Arthur Jeffrey, in his “The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an”, records several theories as to why this might be the case concluding that the best possibility is that ʾIbrāhīm was put onto the same pattern as ʾIsmāʿīl’s name when being Arabicized – something the Qur’an has done with other names. Though it seems semantical, it is relevant to understanding the style of the Qur’an. This topic and others like it have to do with the history of Arabic, which, like the history of any language, is important in providing context to linguistic phenomena, and consequently better cementing our understanding of the Qur’anic text. While great efforts are made by Muslims to have mastery over Arabic grammar, there seems to be a gap in our collective understanding of this topic. Arabic is now a global language spoken by 290 million native speakers found from Morocco to Khuzestan and Central Asia, and it is used as a liturgical language by over a billion people. In the 9th-century BC, though, it was an obscure Semitic language spoken by an equally obscure ethnic group of nomadic herders and mercenaries from the South Syrian desert. As such, I intend on writing a series of brief blog posts, which will give an overview of the history of the Arabic language. In due course, we shall also examine interesting features of and notable oddities in the language, such as the one I mentioned at the beginning of my introduction. These posts will not necessarily be chronological so that the task of writing is easier. Since a language exists only due to people being there to speak it, I will also be writing general points about the history of the Arab people. This will not be comprehensive, rather, it will simply complement our primary discussion on the Arabic language. I hope that by reading this series you will grow to love the subject as much as I do, and by its completion, have deepened your knowledge of the Arabic language and the Qur’an.

Assalamu Aleykum Wa Rahmat Allah Wa Barakatuh I am a Muslim born agnostic, my father is Sunni and my mother Shiite. I have a lot of questions on how Shias view certain topics. My first question is on Fatima bint al rasul, I have heard a lot of claims from Sunnis that according to Shiites, Omar ibn al-Khattab broke Fatima's ribs. Is this claim true? If yes, could I please be informed of the historical text? Moreover, what is the reason behind the conflict between Shiites and Sunnis? My second question is on the Caliphate: Would Shiites live under a Sunni caliphate? The third one is on progressiveness: Would Shiite Islam ever get rid of the Jizya system, or how does Shiite Islam view LGBTs and are the punishments similar to that of Sunni Islam? (cutting the hands in case of stealing, etc.) The fourth question is on economics: How should the economy be regulated under an Islamic caliphate, that is if it should be regulated? I would be very thankful to who answers in a detailed manner stating sources. Jazakum Allah Khayran

The 17/18March TED Radio Hour was a repeat of the 23Oct16 program. In this program the early history of our Net origins is reviewed. l thought it is good because it is both history and technology. www comes from CERN and _____. (Sorry, Al Gore ) http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/449179937/open-source-world

Hi - I am new here and hoping to find some help. I am writing a fiction novel that takes place in 1880 in Tehran, the protagonist is a young theology student and I would love to chat with anyone that may have researched that era and what life would have been like for a cleric, students, etc.etc. Trying to make the characters as likeable, believable and identifiable as possible. I am Melbourne based if anyone is keen to chat face to face or happy to do the email thing. Very much appreciated.

As salamun alaikum There was a question that struck my mind while i was reading about karbala. I read that after killing the 72 people the yazidis sliced they head off their body and put it on top of a spear and took it along the caravan. While in the mean time their bodies were burried by Hazrat Jabir ibn Abdullah in karbala. My question is that when the heads were returned to the ahlulbayt just before getting free. what was done with the heads? Plz give answers with relaible hadiths. Jazakallah khair. Was salamun alaikum