Allah Bless this Shaykh and extend his noble life…

This is a monumental post and you to be much commended for digging this up from the archives of islamonline. This post or rather its contents outlines a cultural strategy for transcending the “clash of civilization thesis” and intellectually empowers the Muslim to take hold of the life affirming ethic of Islam which maybe said to be rooted in two principles established in the Holy Qur’an:

1.] There is no compulsion in religion
2.] Human Diversity is to be approached in the spirit of openness and as an opportunity to learn about others.

The need to find common ground with others who are different in the age of globalization and to likewise preserve one’s values and commitments without compromise of self-integrity has become a major preoccupation of many a person driven by a concern for the future of humanity. The question of multiculturalism only becomes relevant for the Muslim when looked at from the angle of shared values, shared values is the starting point for da’wah and co-existence and a dignified co-existence at that wherein we give recognition and are recognized. Considering the role of dialogue today in a world ripped apart by ethnic conflict and various forms of alienating hegemony, dialogue and its link to recognition of the other as a “person” worthy of engagement and one deserving of an ear and of dialogue of a voice only makes sense when differing parties come to acknowledge shared values. In most cases conflict today whether political or ethnic differences are exaggerated to such an extent that those factions embroiled in conflict fail to recognize each other and they do so because they fail to determine and be conscious of those values held in common.

Any real call to humanism starts here —”shared values” and any real program of da’wah and dialogue of civilization is only civil when recognition of shared values is realized. It is a great pleasure to live in an age where Islamic scholarship in the person of Dr. Abdullah Bin Bayyah has stood the moral high ground by calling to recognition of shared values rather than fueling the clash of civilization thesis which is seems to have dominated to discourses of the day in its various shades, tones and natures.

The article shared values shows the refined ethic of Islam which is blurred in a world which increasing conceptualizes the Muslim world as the abode of perpetual war and the Muslim and contemporary barbarian and a terrorist war monger who is calling for the destruction of and is working to destroy the stability and artifacts of “Western Civilization.” The article breaks the myth of that Islam promotes totalitarian and fascist values.

AS

Abul-Hussein

wa salaam
Abdul Sattar

Imam, please tell us, how is Madinah?
I think we’d love to hear stories on anecdotes from the trip as they happen!

wa alaikum assalam
Abdul Sattar