People say to you, 'you've changed', or something like that. Well, I hope, for the sake of God, that I have changed, because I don't want to be the same person all my life. I want to be growing, I want to be expanding. I want to be changing. Because animate things change, inanimate things don't change. Dead things don't change. And the heart should be alive, it should be changing, it should be moving, it should be growing and its knowledge should be expanding.

It is of the extraordinary insights of Imam Malik that the first section of his Muwatta', which precedes even the section on ritual purity, is on the times of the prayer. It is the times of prayer that obligate purity. Observing the times of prayer is the first thing we do when we wake and the last thing we do before retiring to bed; it is done in the middle of the day and in its decline. It is an unrelenting reminder of to whom we belong, why we are here, and where we are going.

Iqbal, in seinem Poem "Die Moschee von Cordoba"- ein paar Verse daraus: Stein sei es, Farbe, sei's Ton:Wort sei es, Stimme, sei's Ton - Jegliches Wunder der Kunstwächst nur aus Herzensblut - seht!Ja, durch den Tropfen von Blutwird selbst der Felsen zum Herz;Ja, aus dem Herzblut, dem Leid,Lied, Sang und Klang erst entsteht.[aus "Nimm eine Rose und nenne sie Lieder" übersetzte Poesie der islamischen Völker von Annemarie Schimmel, insel Taschenbuch Ausgabe, S. 168]

It is of the extraordinary insights of Imam Malik that the first section of his Muwatta'*, which precedes even the section on ritual purity, is on the times of the prayer. It is the times of prayer that obligate purity. Observing the times of prayer is the first thing we do when we wake and the last thing we do before retiring to bed; it is done in the middle of the day and in its decline. It is an unrelenting reminder of to whom we belong, why we are here, and where we are going.

Islam’s all about knowledge, right? Muslims know everything. We seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. We seek knowledge even if it be in China, Yusef, EVEN IN CHINA! And we’ve reduced our religion to fuckin’ academics. The guy who knows Islam best is the one who really hits the books hard, learns his shit. Muslims brag about having no priests but we’re getting molested by scholars. Yusef Ali, books are not Allah. Even a book by or from Allah is not Allah.

Religion is the most powerful entity on earth. A phenomenon that has conscripted millions to give or sacrifice their lives without so much as a minuscule query about their chosen beliefs or particular ideology. And today thousands of years on despite the huge advent, discovery and the advance of science forensic or otherwise, millions are still prepared and equipped to fall or kill in the name of their God, their Holy Scriptures, their messengers, their prophets and their faith’.

Consider the Koran, for example; this wretched book was sufficient to start a world-religion, to satisfy the metaphysical need for countless millions for twelve hundred years, to become the basis of their morality and of a remarkable contempt for death, and also to inspire them to bloody wars and the most extensive conquests. In this book we find the saddest and poorest form of theism. Much may be lost in translation, but I have not been able to discover in it one single idea of value.

Ich hörte von Nafi' [der hörte] von Ibn Umar, dass Umar b. al-Khattab -möge Allah mit ihm zufrieden sein- folgendes an all seine Statthalter schrieb: "Meiner Meinung nach ist das Wichtigste in euren Angelegenheiten das Gebet. Wer auch immer es (das Gebet) beschützt und sorgfältig befolgt, der beschützt seine Religion. Während derjenige, der mit dem Gebet nachlässig umgeht, sogar zunehmend im Umgang mit anderen Dingen nachlässig sein wird.

Infuriatingly stupid analysts - especially people who called themselves Arabists, yet who seemed to know next to nothing about the reality of the Islamic world - wrote reams of commentary [after 9/11]. Their articles were all about Islam saving Aristotle and the zero, which medieval Muslim scholars had done more than eight hundred years ago; about Islam being a religion of peace and tolerance, not the slightest bit violent. These were fairy tales, nothing to do with the real world I knew.

The Islamic State or The State of Islam are the titles under which ISIS and the like are committing their evil deeds and legalizing their crimes. Oddly, there are no such titles through the history of political Islam; we have heard of an Omayyad Empire, an Abbasside Empire, an Ottoman Empire, the Ayyubid State, and other states which made use of religion to expand their territories and control peoples’ minds and lives. These states held the names of the ruling dynasties but never Islam.

By declaring our Prophet infallible and not permitting ourselves to question him, we Muslims had set up a static tyranny. The Prophet Muhammad attempted to legislate every aspect of life. By adhering to his rules of what is permitted and what is forbidden, we Muslims supressed the freedom to think for ourselves and to act as we chose. We froze the moral outlook of billions of people into the mind-set of the Arab desert in the seventh century. We were not just servants of Allah, we were slaves.

Imam 'Ali Zayn al-'Abidin (Sohn von Imam Husayn; möge Allah mit ihnen zufrieden sein), wurde beim Eintreten ins Gebet blass und begann zu zittern. Als er nach dem Grund gefragt wurde, antwortete er: "Wisst ihr denn nicht, Wem ich gleich gegenüber stehen werde?"Wie sein Name "Zayn al-'Abidin" bereits verkündet, ist er die "Zierde (oder der Schmuck) der Anbeter".Ihm gebührt noch ein anderer Titel, nämlich "as-Sajjad", weil er jede Nacht 1000 Rak'as betete.

Imam 'Ali Zayn al-'Abidin (Sohn von Imam Husayn; möge Allah mit ihnen zufrieden sein), wurde beim Eintreten ins Gebet blass und begann zu zittern. Als er nach dem Grund gefragt wurde, antwortete er: "Wisst ihr denn nicht, Wem ich gleich gegenüber stehen werde?"Wie sein Name "Zayn al-'Abidin" bereits verkündet, ist er die "Zierde (oder der Schmuck) der Anbeter".Ihm gebührt noch ein anderer Titel, nämlich "as-Sajjad", weil er jede Nacht 1000 Rak'as betete.

Die Grenze verläuft nicht nach Religionszugehörigkeit, sie trennt vielmehr Extremisten und friedliebende Menschen. Deshalb bin ich optimistisch: Es wird nun ein humanistischer Islam wachgerüttelt. Der moderate Islam muss endlich aus der Deckung treten und erklären, wie mit den gewaltverherrlichenden Stellen im Koran umzugehen ist. Die Verdrängung, das habe nichts mit unserem Glauben zu tun, funktioniert nicht länger. Wir müssen uns dieser Herausforderung stellen.

the bombers of Manhattan represent fascism with an Islamic face. . . . What they abominate about ‘the West,’ to put it in a phrase, is not what Western liberals don’t like and can’t defend about their own system, but what they do like about it and must defend: its emancipated women, its scientific inquiry, its separation of religion from the state. Loose talk about chickens coming home to roost is the moral equivalent of the hateful garbage emitted by Falwell and Robertson.