Abu Ayyub al-Ansari's tomb to reopen in September
Eyüp Sultan Türbesi, the historic tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, is set to reopen to the public in September following a year of restoration. If the restoration goes according to plan, the tomb, which received hundreds of visitors every day prior to closure, will be open in time for Eid-ul Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Khalid bin Zayd Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, one of the Pro...

Journey of Faith
IN JUNE 2009 Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum (BM), flew to Saudi Arabia, his first visit to the heart of the Islamic world. He wanted the blessing of the Saudi royal family. Mr MacGregor and Venetia Porter, the BM’s keeper of Islamic art, spoke to the chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, Prince Sultan bin Salman (known locally as the “astro...

Rare copy of Qur'an on display at British Museum
LONDON: The British Museum witnessed the installation of one of the oldest known copies of the Holy Qur’an from the 8th century as an exhibit for a major Islamic exhibition. The British Library has lent the copy of the Holy Qur’an to the British Museum for the exhibition: Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam, which is set to open to the public on Jan. 26. The Ma’il Qur&rsquo...

When love for the Prophet becomes art
A thriving hub of cultural enrichment, Ottoman İstanbul was renowned for its glorification of the beauty of Islam through art.   A glossy soft-cover volume produced by the Association of International Art and Culture (UKSD), “When Love for the Prophet Becomes Art” sheds light upon the spiritual significance of two manifestations of this great tradition: Hilye-i Şerif (The Nobl...

Quicunque Vult: or, My Journey to Islam - IV
PART IV: “Christians, too, Can Recognize the Quran as the Word of God” As the Muslim years pass, one's sense of gratitude and humility increases, usually with the realisation that one still knows little. Theory becomes (attempted) practice. There are meetings with remarkable men: the beauty and compassion of Sufism; and the lessons learned the tragic superficiality of Wahhabism. There is the fell...

Quicunque Vult: or, My Journey to Islam - III
PART III: "Taking Shahada Was Indeed Wittnessing to God" Stubbe himself had been part of a pro-Unitarian trend; (1) and the greatest English poet, Milton, is now known to have been a closet Unitarian. (2) John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Charles Dickens, were further examples of men who publicly rejected Trinitarian theology. In Nonconformist England, more than in any other European context, the do...

Quicunque Vult: or, My Journey to Islam - II
PART II: My journey to Islam When, in 1976, a Hayward Gallery exhibition unveiled the arts of Islam, I looked for an equivalent to the penitential moods of Christianity. Not one religious painting in the National Gallery offers a smile (unlike the pagan gods, who reappear, apparently amid much relief, at the Renaissance). But in Ottoman miniatures, of religious or profane subjects, everyone smil...

Quicunque Vult: or, My Journey to Islam - I
PART I In a former church, my heart is a mihrâb, Urging me to repent, the erasure of old but remembered sins. (Sünbülzâde Vehbî) Wild talk of a new Islamic hermeneutic hatching in the Muslim communities of the West has been with us for some years, with sadly insufficient justification. This memoir is offered, at the persistent request of some Turkish friends, by a monotheist whose fo...

On 'Planting a Seedling'
"Even if the end of time is upon you and you have a seedling in your hand, plant it!" I first encountered this Prophetic Tradition years ago in a Friday sermon “on the occasion of Forest Week.” In the following years, I came to understand that these words are constantly cited via this unfitting correlation. Those who vociferously repeat these words in order to encourage the...

The Prophet of Islam and his Western Admirers
Book Review, Prophet of Islam and his Western Admirers - By Muhammad Mojlum Khan About Muhammad: The Other Western Perspective on the Prophet of Islam, edited with an Introduction by Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Surrey: Legacy Publishing, pp107, 2010, HB, £12.99 The rise of Islam in the seventh century Arabia changed the course of human history – politically, economically and culturally. Inspired by th...

British Teenager Wins Faith Short Award for Prophet Film
Fourteen-year-old British student Amna Aslam won the action category for her film “Muhammad in Accrington…Inspiring Me” at the 2nd Annual Film Shorts Film Awards at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in London. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation held the awards ceremony for their global film competition, Faith Shorts, on Dec. 06. with more than 200 guests including British actr...

Prophet Muhammad: the Founder of Muslim PR
Prophet Muhammad the Founder of Muslim PR, says Int'l Muslim PR Body Prophet Muhammad was recognized as the founder of Muslim public relations at the 1st Global Congress for Muslim Public Relations Practitioners held in Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 05. Jointly organized by the International Islamic University Malaysia and the Kargozer PR Institute, the inaugural Congress, under the theme ‘The ...