Culture & Heritage

Two weeks ago when our dear friend Hamid Abdul Kareem came home in the night to tell me that he  had decided to go on  the Hajj pilgrimage together with his wife, I was pleased that he  has planned to  get closer to the Almighty Creator Allah. However seldom neither Hamid nor I realized that Allah was waiting to take …

Yearly, monthly, daily, hourly, worshippers from around the world meet at the heart of Islam, the Kaaba. Positioned inside ­Mecca’s Grand Mosque, the ­Kaaba is Bait Allah, or the House of God, and represents the qiblah, the direction that Muslims face to perform their five-times-daily prayers. One of the greatest venerations for the Kaaba is the amount of care, respect, …

The sun is slowly slipping down behind the majestic mountains. In just a few minutes it will set. While the city is slowly coming to the evening stand still, you see children wearing scarfs and koufiyyahs (Muslim headdress for males) and dressed in thoabs (long garments) scurrying across the streets of suburbia delivering plates of treats to their neighbours; a …

Upon declaration of our independence on July 4, 1776, two of the first three heads of states who recognized the sovereignty of the United States were Muslims and one of them was a Muslim from India. Americans, Indians and Muslims have a connection since the very beginning of our independence. We were all opposed to colonial rule, and fought them …

While Muslims in the US enthusiastically pull out their stored Rubbermaid tubs marked “Ramadan/Eid,” packed with strings of paper lanterns, electric lights and glass ornaments bought, others find this “new” tradition to be a questionable innovation or another capitalist trapping. It may seem that converted Muslims have simply transferred their old traditions and newly immigrated Muslims have copied their neighbors’ …