You are right. The lack of a search function is an oversight, which we will rectify insha’Allah.

I could only find one khutbah whose title indicated that it is about the Decree: http://www.muslimsofnorwich.org.uk/?p=100

At the bottom of the front page there are links to all the khutbahs, arranged by year, from 2006 up until today.

Salams,

Abdassamad

I can’t seem to find a search function on this site….maybe there is one but I’m blind to it?

But are there any articles/Khutbahs on Qadr? I used be under the impression that pre-destination or Allaah’s will was a 50/50 balance with my own free will. Yet as I go through life I’m more inclined to think that Allaah plays a greater part than I first imagined. Even to the extent of 99% Him and 1% of little ‘ol me. (The numbers do not really exist I suppose – they just help to illustrate my point)

From the most trivial decisions of what to eat for breakfast (toast or cereal seems easy enough – until discovering there’s no milk and the corner shop’s shut – surely He is trying to tell you something???) and then life’s greater decisions – worshipping Him, repenting to Him when we fail to do so (more often than not for a lot of us) and all the rest of life’s odd trials…. When I sin its Him allowing me to do so – when I do a good deed, surely by God I’m able to do so…..only He has the ability to say Kun fayakun – Be and it is – so what part do I play? Do I just carry out the actions that He’s decreed as its “Written”.

So yes enough rambling on my part – are there any articles/Khutbahs on this topic – please share…

JazakAllaahu khair.

Writing the email in that way is to defeat spammers.

Abdassamad

JazakAllaahu khair Abdassamad, – and I thank Him for letting me find this site. Unfortunately I need to turn the net off when I’m revising now – too distracting!!! Apologies – will respond soon iA when I come out of hibernation/hermit mode!!! iA by then I would have read at least some of The Time of the Bedouin and thought about the rest iA.

Sounding like a broken record – but please duas, duas, duas for me please – may Allaah guide me and all. Ameen.

Uhm – poetry for the Poem of the Week – how to submit? Or is that exclusive to Norwich people?

Shu.

As to institutions of learning, they are vastly over-rated because in both cases – our UK ones and those such as al-Azhar – they have been subverted. Our universities are now little more than glorified training centres for professions and careers, and unfortunately the Azhar has its own checkered history. The truth is that it is not the institution of learning that matters but the teacher and the student. Sometimes that has to take place outside the institution. However, that often has to take place in parallel with study at an institution.

You are probably fortunate not to have studied poetry since your studies might well have robbed you of your love of poetry just as your study of law renders law heavy and boring for you. You need to find the key that will make your studies interesting. Do you know Makdisi’s study showing that Common Law derives from Maliki fiqh for example? I can think of few subjects that are potentially more exciting and interesting than law or more useful to the Muslim community.

As to being an MP, you need to have an objective beyond that and then think what is the best way to reach that objective. Parliament is a talking shop where people quickly get used to futility, and then cynicism sets in.

What I would suggest is to read Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi’s masterwork “The Time of the Bedouin” in which a really important theme is the rise to prominence of the lawyer class after the French Revolution all over the world. It would locate your studies in a wider historical context that might make a lot of sense of what you are doing and hope to do.

Salams,

Abdassamad

….I must sound super DUMB in obsessing with degrees and all but I’m in my first year of Law LLB and BORED to death – apart from the Legal Systems of Asia and Africa module which encompasses basic Islamic law, Hindu law and all the other African, Thai and Turkish laws thrown into the mix – only offered at SOAS…..

……I’d LOVE to have pursued poetry or to have taken that further….but never knew how – apart from odd poetry competition here and there which I’ve managed to win alhamdulillaah – the other section of this website – “Poem of the Week” – thoroughly enjoyed that – reminded me that maybe I SHOULD take it further….Oh and how could I submit poems to that section?

One other question – I REALLY want to be an MP – first hijaabi fighting for the rights of the constituent – engaged in Parliamentary debate but NOT claiming expenses’ for a second home being a Londoner and all…. however, would that be deemed Islamically wrong? Haraam even – I see you are not a big fan of “democracy” or are you just against the despots? I appreciate it’d involve me being in the public eye – but I just want to be a backbencher rebel and most jobs are “dunyafied”. Perhaps the best place for a Muslim woman is the home…..

PS. Opa Calypso’s little dissertation on loving God – His existence – dated 26th March 09 – 01.28 SPLENDID read – loved it….

PER-LEASE I ask myself once more – WHY am I reading Law when all this stuff is SO MUCH MORE FASCINATING – Greek mythology, Philosophy, Theology, Politics, Economics, poetry and the like…….

I ought to go to sleep now – my mother would throw a fit if she saw me laptopping at such an hour….but I’m intrigued and want to indulge in more yet the fear of surfeiting gags me from asking…..

Perhaps I too love being within the kaleidoscope of my own thoughts or perhaps I enjoy too greatly the pleasure of conversing with God (with a CAPITAL G) of which I could NEVER become BORED!!! May He SWT give me the Tawfeeq to be as knowledgable as some of the bloggers on here. Ameen.

Please make dua – I manage to get good grades this year at university…maybe I crave the adrenalin rush of studying that which I do not enjoy or maybe I do not understand it or maybe the sheer lack of want in studying it impedes all effort. Whichever excuse I paint if I do not do well this year – does not matter – I tend to be caught on the Catch-22 segment of my kaleidoscope…may Allaah help me untangle…ameen.