revolution much has changed.

Historically, Islam was invisible from our educational system, training of diplomats, and in the media. The interest in Islam started with the Iranian revolution. This interest was triggered by a negative factor of trying to understand “the enemy.” Many people choose to see Islam through the lens of terrorist actions, despite the fact that this is a very small percentage of the 1.4 billion Muslims across the globe. People also try to understand Islam through the actions of Muslim majority countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, or Iran. People tend to equate Islam with the Arab world or the Middle East, even though the majority of Muslims are not Middle Eastern (For more on equating Muslims with Islam see here). Since the Iranian revolution much has changed. Islam is now found in many educational institutions and in the media. Nevertheless, media is driven by headlines which focus on negative aspects such as crimes and conflicts.

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What is the proper lens through which Islam should be understood? The fact of the matter is that there are many lenses and perspectives in all religions and cultures. However, there are certain lenses that the vast majority of people would agree are wrong. For instance, the vast majority of Christians throughout the world would concur that the KKK is not representative of Christianity. Christianity should not be judged or understood through the lens, actions, or hate speech of the KKK. Similarly, Islam should not be understood through the actions of terrorist organizations or individuals. Islam has no pope figure. Therefore, one will find a plethora of opinions and interpretations about what constitutes authentic Islam. This does not mean that truth does not exist and that all opinions and interpretations are valid. One can easily sift out the incorrect interpretations by looking at the majority of Muslims. Like the majority of Christians, most Muslims despise terrorist groups. Islam must be understood through the lens of Muslim scholarship.

The following speakers will be attending:

The following speakers will be attending:

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• Zahra Billoo currently serves as the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR-SFBA) office. During her tenure, Zahra led the office to six-fold growth, and currently manages one of the largest CAIR offices in the country with a team of social justice and civil rights advocates dedicated to the empowerment of American Muslims through legal services, legislative advocacy, and community organizing.  Her office has filed lawsuits against the United States Department of Justice, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Southwest Airlines, representing American Muslims facing discriminatory treatment.
• Dr. Bazian is a Teaching Professor in the Departments of Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Bazian is an adviser to the Religion, Politics, and Globalization Center at UC Berkeley. In 2009, he founded the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at UC Berkeley, Editor-in-Chief of the Islamophobia Studies Journal and Founder and Director of the International Islamophobia Studies Consortium. Dr. Bazian is on the board of several organizations, including the Islamic Scholarship Fund, Muslim Legal Fund of America and Muslim Americans for Palestine, for which he is also the founding president.
• Khalil Demir founded Zakat Foundation of America with a group of Muslims driven to improve the lives of the poor worldwide. Since then, he has overseen the establishment of schools, orphanages, vocational training programs, and health clinics around the world; the construction of water wells, mosques and community centers in Africa, USA, and the Navajo reservation; the delivery of millions of dollars in emergency humanitarian aid to survivors of wars, natural disasters and other catastrophes, including the Syrian conflict, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti among others.

On Saturday, 3/7

On Saturday, 3/7, Zahra Billoo, Dr. Hatem Bazian and Khalil Demir will be speaking on a panel on the topic, “Islamophobia and It’s Impact on Muslim Philanthropy”.  The conference aims to address a dilemma faced by American Muslims today: Their donations to Muslim charities is met with fear and mistrust by the larger American society. Additionally, Muslim nonprofits face more scrutiny from the government and potential donors than non-Muslim charities.

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Studies have proven that the ever-increasing pressures of Islamophobia has had a profound effect on the American Muslim population and their willingness to stand up to those who attack their faith and their community. In an article entitled “Muslims Profess More Private Religious Devotion, Less Public Religious Assertiveness” by Dalia Mogahed, Executive Director of ISPU states, “Muslims are as likely as white Evangelicals to say their faith helped them forgive someone who hurt them deeply, illustrating not just mechanical devotion but the kind that overcomes the ego. And yet, they are as likely as the less personally devoted Catholics, and less likely than the more secular Jews to say they would stand up to defend their faith if the issue were unpopular.”

Another think tank, the Yaqeen Institute led by Omar Suleiman stated in an infographic that “Insecurity often begets idleness. If young people are not confident in their faith and identity, their sense of contribution is either abolished, or motivated through other frameworks. The feeling is that the pursuit of greatness comes through breaking the shackles of Islam and the Muslim identity rather than embracing it.” Additional podcasts by Omar Suleiman on this subject and more can be found online at Muslim Central.

Plagues and Infectious Diseases

Plagues and Infectious Diseases

Visiting the sick is one of the greatest good deeds a Muslim can perform. However, in cases of infectious diseases, the Prophet, peace be upon him, restricted travel and instructed people to quarantine themselves in order that the disease not spread. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: If you hear that there is a plague in a land, do not enter it; and if it (plague) visits a land while you are therein, do not go out of it (Sahih Bukhari). The Prophet, peace be upon him, was essentially instituting strategies that are implemented in modern times by public health organizations such as the center for disease control. Quarantine is essential for the comfort of the sick individual as well as the protection of the larger public. In Islamic history, several hospitals were built to prevent the spread of sicknesses. For example, in 706 the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid built the first hospital in Damascus and issued an order to isolate those infected with leprosy from other patients in the hospital. This practice continued until the Ottoman Empire until 1838.

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The teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, concerning infectious diseases, cleanliness, and hygiene were well ahead of his time. They were ultimately inspired by God to benefit and protect humans from illnesses and promote healthy lifestyles. Infection control is an inherent part of Islam’s teachings concerning hygiene. The guidelines that are practiced today by major health organizations are almost entirely inline and inspired by the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.

In addition to taking the necessary precautions, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, taught that both blessings and trials are from God, and they are an opportunity to become closer to Him. He advised to seek God’s protection in all matters, and then to accept His decree. One of the supplications he would say was, “In the name of God with Whose name nothing is harmed on the earth or in the heavens, and He is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing”

1. Washing hands before eating

The Prophet, peace be upon him, taught that blessings are found when one washes their hands before eating. He said: Blessing in food lies in washing the hand before and after eating (Tirmidhi).

2. Cleaning oneself after using the bathroom

When relieving oneself, the Prophet, peace be upon him, instructed his followers to use no less than three stones. Obviously, at the time, they did not have toilet paper, but this implies that one should ensure they are clean. Furthermore, the Prophet, peace be upon him, also encouraged Muslims to clean their private parts with water after using stones.

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3. Washing before prayer

Muslims perform five daily prayers. In order to conduct these prayers, Muslims must be in a state of physical purity known as ablution (wudu in Arabic). This consists of washing the hands, mouth, nose, face, wiping the head, ears, and washing the feet three times. When an entire community of people do this several times a day it builds a culture of cleanliness and decreases the risk of infectious diseases.

4. Covering the Face When Sneezing

The Prophet, peace be upon him, instructed Muslims to cover their faces when sneezing. Although it may seem obvious to us today, but he taught Muslims to do this before there was an understanding of how airborne diseases spread.

Hygiene in Islam

With the rise of the coronavirus, many people are understandably concerned about protecting themselves. Diseases and viruses have always been part of human history. This article seeks to shed light on some of Islam’s teachings regarding hygiene, infection control, and illnesses. In recent years there have been several breakouts of infectious diseases such as the swine flu, SARS, and now the coronavirus. Globalization and international travel make these infectious diseases more complicated to deal with. Air travel allows diseases to spread throughout countries and makes it difficult to contain. For instance, the coronavirus started in China but has since spread throughout most of the world. Islam is a comprehensive religion that takes every aspect of life into account, including the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspects of human life. It is important to care for individuals, but ultimately safeguarding larger communities and the most helpless is of great importance. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, introduced and emphasized hygienic practices more than 1400 years ago, at a time when there was little understanding of how infectious diseases spread.

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Hygiene in Islam

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, referred to purity as half of faith. Purity is half of faith, and the praise of Allah fills the scale (Sahih Muslim). Similarly, the Quran states: Truly, God loves those who turn unto Him in repentance and loves those who purify themselves (Quran 2:222). While this purity involves a spiritual aspect, it also includes physical cleanliness.

The first reason is

The first reason is that as a result of the passage of time, and due to the fact that previous religions were not under the Divine protection of God, they underwent much change and variation.  As a result, we see that the fundamental truths which were brought by all messengers now differ from one religion to another, the most apparent being the strict tenet of the belief and worship of God and God alone.

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The second reason for this variation is that God, in His infinite Wisdom and eternal Will, decreed that all the divine missions prior to the final message of Islam brought by Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, be limited to a specific time frame.  As a result, their laws and methodologies dealt with the specific conditions of the people whom they had been sent to address.

Humanity has passed through numerous periods of guidance, misguidance, integrity, and deviation, from the most primitive age to the heights of civilization.  Divine guidance accompanied humanity through all of this, always providing the appropriate solutions and remedies.

This was the essence of the disparity that existed between the different religions.  This disagreement never went beyond the particulars of the Divine Law.  Each manifestation of the Law addressed the particular problems of the people it was meant for.  However, the areas of agreement were significant and many, such as fundamentals of faith; the basic principles and objectives of the Divine Law, such as protecting faith, life, reason, wealth, and lineage and establishing justice in the land; and certain fundamental prohibitions, some of the most important of these being idolatry, fornication, murder, theft, and giving false witness.  Moreover, they also agreed upon moral virtues like honesty, justice, charity, kindness, chastity, righteousness, and mercy.  These principles as well as others are permanent and lasting; they are the essence of all the Divine Messages and bind them all together.