Contentions 10 - Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad

Some of my favourite contentions from Sh. Murad's latest set:

• The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is not to be changed by it.
• If you cannot be of the poor, then be with the poor. If you cannot be with the poor, then pray with the poor. If you cannot pray with the poor, then pray for the poor. Beyond this there remains not an atom’s weight of faith.
• ‘Blessing’ is a large word, but do not be slow to use it.
• To switch on a television is to acknowledge one’s own lack of refinement.
• Use silence to suffocate falsehood, not truth.
• Feminism? First empower femininity.
• Dress in that which you would not see dishonoured.
• The Qutb has been replaced by the kutub.
• Blame yourself, not the age. Blame the age, not others.
• Knowledge is to see the door. Penitence is to approach it. Prayer is to knock upon it. But to open it is not within your power.
• Our condition is ignorance of our condition.
• Only in the din al-fitra are women adequately acknowledged.
• Do not doubt another’s salvation until you are certain of your own.
• There is no knowledge of Him without love of beauty. We have been created to love beauty.
• Despair not of those who are drawn to ugliness, for they too are probing the mysteries.
• Others are our fellow-travellers, even if they have lost the road.
• He that struggles to progress, though he has not been shown the road, is better than he that stands upon the road, pridefully mocking.
• He who does not love fiqh has no body.
• ‘I never think back. Since I cannot change the past, why should I deal with it?’ (Shimon Perez.)
• Contingent being has no power. (‘No fear is upon them, neither do they grieve.’)
• Religion begins where empathy tends.
• A tariqa carries fare-paying passengers. If they will not pay, it should not continue as a railway preservation society.
• You may show a man a thousand miracles, but if you show him no compassion, he will not believe.
• I am my weakness; You are my strength.
• A good prayer is from Him; a bad prayer is from us.
• A pious young cricketing fan,
  Cheered Middlesex and Pakistan;
  For with contemplation
  On God’s revelation
  He found neither team in the Koran.
• Which is it, of the blessings of your Lord, that you deserve?