Shaykh Muhammad bin Yahya al-Ninowy

london786 wrote:

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Assalamualaikum ya akhi.

It was my first opportunity to listen to a person who has got some attention in the western lands and hence I too was curious about his thoughts.

Three times the anouncer told us that the Shaikh is a direct decendent of beloved Prophet (PBUH). This kind of emphasis, in my view, must be detrimental from Dawah point of view. A non-Muslim, and there are plenty in AMU, wis sure to get the impression that like Judaism even Islam is some sort of a family religion. Now a family religion Islam is not for there is enough content that makes Islam universal. May be Shaikh himself emphasises this aspect or the Barelwi leanings of the anouncer might have got better of him. My beloved Shaikh happens to be a Syed yet he strives to not assert this aspect. There is our love for the family of our beloved Prophet (SAW) and there is the demand of Dawah where we must not send a wrong signal. Yet there are people who will leave no stone unturned to malign us as well as the GM crowd using emotional arguments.

But I digress.

There was a high enough US embassy official with the Shaikh - some sort of cultural attachee for north India. The cultural dialogue with Islam thing.

The lecture by the Shaikh was about Unconditional Compassion of God in Islam. It was a spiritual talk rather than an academic one and the Shaikh made first few Verses of Surah rahman as the basis of the Sermon.

Our university crowd turned in strength for the event and there were many questions after the Bayan most of which were very cliche.

From the push of the Shaikh I found a sound consonance with what our Elders interpret.
Except for the title itself.

I do not think Allah swt's compassion is unconditional.
If His compassion is unconditional then there is no test in this life.
After that in whatever way you try to argue the case in favour of the Shaikh it does not work.

Allah swt is Most Merciful and Most Compassionate and that is it.

*****

Another observation : By now I have come to the conclusion that we have been all the time a bit timid in proclaiming the message conveyed to us by our Elders - the message of Islam.

In Shaikh I saw a tendency to be amicable with the official US policy. It is impossible to do otherwise when you use their facilities.

One doesn not have to be anti-west to be completely faithful to the principles of islam.
It is true that the full Islamic stand is very difficult to adopt in the US but the same is true for UK, India, the Gulf and even Pakistan. In view of that a respectable distance from the official machinary is a must anywhere on the globe. The reasons behind the communication gap are different at different places. For example if you say the word G!h@d then a native US, American or Indian citizen from majority community will perspire. Nothing will happen to an Iranian, Arab or pakistani or an Indian Muslim. It is just another word in the dictionary.

But it is another point that I am emphasizing here.

We know enough about Islam to go to the town and propagate the version developed by our Elders and Ulama. The speakers on the world stage are much more assertive aabout their version as compared to us.

I suppose this much is sufficient for the time being.

Shaykh Muhammad bin Yahya al-Ninowy

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