Al Hamdulillah rabbil Aalameen wa sallallahu wa sallim 'alaa imam-il-mursaleen.

To be quite honest it was a case of straightforward proscratination. Please do forgive
me for having missed last weeks post. Better late then never?

Paki workaround for getting to blogspot sites

I guess any intelligent person would have advised it in the first place but given my "priorities" it was only last week that I even thought of it. Went onto google and found the site: http://help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/. They give a neat workaround if you're somebody like me who wants to read blogs on blogspot.com domains. Just add http://www.pkblogs.com before your favourite blog site (e.g. http://www.pkblogs.com/islamiblog) and you will be back in touch with friends in the outside world.

Manchester is happenin'!?

You stay out of touch with a blog site and you fall into the false belief that nothing must be happening anyway. Click on AE(!?)'s blog and you find scholar's showering down. I can just envision AE going all goo-goo on seeing the Mauritanian wonder right now in my mind's eye. BTW, I don't know whether the 2 Sh. have a diff. opinion on pictures now? And bros, indeed don't be an aaloo parathaa... even worse than aataa, you may just be left an aaloo! Don't miss out indeed on that PG event on 18th June.

Words with the Shaykh

Speaking of whom, al hamdulillah, I was quite glad to be talking to Sh. K. From my side, I'm trying to woo him to LUMS as well... you know their starting a new School of Sci. & Engineering and looking for fresh PhD's who are tenure-track material. I'm sure when he brandishes the CCC label, they will be dazed. And quite glad to hear that the Sat. Morn. classes are picking up in attendance.

ibn Taymiyan classic

For my part, bi fadlillah, my old Arabic teacher showed up this weekend and we kicked off our reading of Majmoo-ul-Fatawa, the first book being kitab-ul-uluhiyya. I pray we can continue. Al hamdulillah, the Arabic is of an easy level, but the gems this guy keeps coming out with is astonishing - subhaanallah. Here is a sample (will appreciate corrections to the translation):

And so it is the duty of every single one to expend all his energies and capabilities in acquiring knowledge of what he [Muhammad - sallalllahu alaihi wasallam] came with and in obeying him. As this is the way of escape from the painful torment, and the [source of] honour in the home of blessings [i.e. Paradise]. And the way to that is the narration and the text [i.e. the Sunnah and Qur'an - or - the chain and the contents of a hadith]. [This is so] as the bare use of intellect will not suffice in [attaining] that. Nay, just as the light of the eye can not see except with the appearance of light before it, then similarly the light of the intellect can not guide until the Sun of the [Prophetic] Message does not rise upon it. And so spreading the [message of this] religion has been from amongst the greatest of obligations in Islam.

[ibn Taymiyah d. 728 AH, Majmu'-ul-Fatawa, Vol. I, p.44, Dar-ul-Kutb-al-Ilmiyah, Beirut Lebanon]

To be quite honest, i think that made my fortnight, and I hope it makes your week.

Abdullah