ISNA to Hold 50th Annual Convention
The rubric for the convention this year is "Envisioning a More Perfect Union: Building the Beloved Community" The convention, an annual Islamic event held at the end of the summer and regularly hosting dozens of (this year, 200) invited speakers, as well as musical entertainment, art and photography exhibitions as well as 'meet the author' events - and concentrated around a bazaar of artists, bus...

Leadership of Muhammad: by John Adair, a book review
John Adair is a teacher and writer on leadership who works at the United Nations System Staff College, and whose experience includes a youthful stint in the Arab Legion. His interest in the leadership qualities of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, stem from embracing Islam and knowledge of bedouin culture due to his own experiences. The book is composed of several narratives about leadersh...

Ramadan in Istanbul
The fasting month, in spite of its private nature (‘Fasting is Mine’, as the hadith insists), is more of a public affair than any of the other rites of religion, perhaps because of its elemental quality; and in this city it forces each citizen to decide how he stands with God. Ramadan brings to the surface some of Istanbul’s deepest human secrets. The great City resembles the  improbable arm of ...

From Hamza Yusuf’s Viewpoint: What can the West learn from Islam
Hamza Yusuf calls attention to the prejudices of the Western world against Islam, as well as the attitude of Muslims towards the West, which is apparently biased. According to Yusuf, both the Westerners and the Muslims have to make themselves known to each other in order to eliminate the negative prejudices that accompany abstract concepts that are based on the "fallacy of personification". What ...

Forty Prophetic Sayings in Forty Cartoons: Islam and Humor
This week our guest is a skilled artist, whose drawings not only make us laugh, but also cause us to stop and think. He has managed to go beyond the boundaries of the drawing, showing us the gravity of the Day of Judgment. With the weight of the world on his soldiers, he is hardworking, a veteran traveler on the road to the cities of Heaven. On this journey he carries drawings of 40 hadith in his...

Attitudes and Behavior of the Prophet towards Non-Muslims
That the Prophet was trustworthy, defended justice, sided with the poor and weak, gave importance to familial relations, emphasized the rights of parents, and had many similar characteristics are all matters of historical record. Religious Tradition in the Hejaz The Hejaz Peninsula has come into contact with different cultural elements and religious traditions throughout history. This region stre...

Rihla 2013 Set To Begin In Konya
The 2013 Rihla Program, which will begin on Thursday this week, will continue its tradition of providing participants enrichment through a unique multidimensional summer intensive. Combining dependable, relevant education and dedicated devotional time in a spiritually inspiring historic setting, the Rihla program will provide a holistic experience to those seriously striving to learn their religi...

Arabia in the Pre-Islamic Period
To understand the religion that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) conveyed and the effects that this religion had on society it is necessary to understand in part the ethnic, geographic, social, cultural, economic and religious features of the environment in which Prophet Muhammad lived. Revealing this process, which directly affected the existence of Islamic society, will not only help us to understand t...

The Prophet in God's Own Words
Prophet Muhammad in the Qur'an An exclusive project of Lastprophet.info marking the occasion of the Mawlid –Prophet Muhammad’s birth – three Qaris, or reciters of the Qur’an, Hüseyin Orhan, Halil Necipoğlu, and Ibrahim Helalşah respectively recite in Arabic the Qur’anic verses describing Prophet Muhammad. The English translation of these verses is read by Andy Boyns. The three different reciters...

Shaykh Abdulqadir al-Jilani on the Month of Shaban
On the Special Merit of the Month of Sha’ban ‘A’isha, the wife of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace, and may He be well pleased with her), is reported as having said: Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to fast until we would say he was never going to stop fasting, and he would go so long without fasting that we would say he was never going to fast, but I nev...

Night of Ascension: The Basics
Lailat al Miraj, or the Night of Ascension, is a Muslim holiday that commemorates the Prophet Muhammad's nighttime journey from Mecca to the 'Farthest Mosque' in Jerusalem where he ascended to heaven, was purified, and given the instruction for Muslims to pray five times daily. This is also the anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad's ascension to heaven; he was taken from Mecca, in his time of dee...

Omid Safi visits Meridyen Association in Uskudar
Professor Omid Safi spoke yesterday, June 3rd 2013, at Sehir University. His talk was entitled “Beyond the Clash of Civilizations: The Struggle for a Global and Holistic Justice” and discussed the ideas of Justice in the light of the Qur’an and human thought. Attendees included Sehir University students, Marmara University theology students, members of his tour group who have been touring Turkey ...