Mecca and Medina through the Lens of Aerial Photographer Orhan D
Orhan Durgut was affected mostly by the shots which enabled him to witness the prayers of 5 million Muslims on the day of Arafa, from the sky. Aerial photographer Orhan Durgut, who has photographed many different places around the world and who has become prominent with his works on the cities of Mecca and Medina in recent years, shared his impressions about the Holy Lands. In the a...

Islam's Stance On Homosexuality
  The persecuted homosexual has emerged as Islam’s essential difference, and has become a key figure in the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ rhetoric of those who believe in a clashed civilization of cultures.   Lately, there has been a lot of coverage on the degradation and punishment of homosexuals in Muslim communities. Although in many countries in the M...

Fear of Poverty
  Excerpt from Hamza Yusuf’s Purification of the Heart  Translation and Commentary of Imam Mawlud’s Matharat al Qulub   Fear of poverty is counted as one of the diseases of the heart.   Fear of Poverty P O E M  V E R S E S 7 5 - 7 7 Fear of poverty originates in having a bad opinion of [God] the Exalted, and its cure is in having a good opinion and knowing that what God possesses is ...

Get Your Voice Heard
Lastprophet.info invites postgraduate students to submit articles on Islamic topics related to Hadith and/or Sirah, Islamophobia, perceptions of Islam and/or Prophet Muhammad in the media. Articles could be about misrepresentations and misconceptions of Islam and Prophet Muhammad in the post 9/11 world, or they could refer back to as early as 14th century perceptions.    Potential topic...

Renewal
  Was it not that I were married on New Year’s Day, January 1st would bear no significance for observation.  Just as the American Thanksgiving is rife with historical baggage I care not to honor in celebration, the particularly Christian and Pagan origins of New Year’s Day leave me absent a compelling reason to hang a streamer.  However, the Christian New Year will be ...

Seeing the Prophet through the details: Tariq Ramadan
Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss intellectual, philosopher, theologian, academic and writer of Egyptian descent. He is a Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University.   The very essence of Islam is about freeing oneself from the ego, yet when it comes to the contemporary world, be it Turkey or the West, or any Muslim-majority country for ...

Is Mecca becoming New York?
    The Ka’ba, which has maintained its firm spot as the center of tawhid – belief in the the oneness of Allah – since it’s initial construction by Prophet Ibrahim (p.b.u.h.) and his declaration of the hajj (pilgrimage), is shrinking before our very eyes. Is the Ka’ba, which has held its ground against natural disaster...

"A Narrative of Justice for All": Editor of Muslim Lifestyle Mag
  Daughter of the successful modeling agency owner who introduced models like Naomi Campbell to the world of fame, Sarah Joseph (OBE) is the CEO and Editor of the UK’s Emel - the first ever Muslim lifestyle magazine – which stands for “hope” in Arabic. She is also a writer and broadcaster on Islam and is recognized as the world’s 500 most influential Muslims by ...

Hijri New Year - 1432
December 6 & 7, 2010/1432 A.H. (anno hegirae)marks the beginning of the first month in the Islamic (lunar) Calendar called Muharram, and the Islamic New Year, or Hijri New Year. This day is significant for Muslims because it is the day that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) reached Yathrib in the year 622 C.E., after fleeing from his own people in Mecca who had set out to kill him, in fear that his mes...

International Seminar on Modern Trends in Sirah Writing
An international seminar on Sirah is being organised under the joint auspices of the National Sirah Study Centre, Islamic Research Institute and Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue, International Islamic University, Islamabad (26-28 March, 2011) to take stock of the different approaches to the subject, and to attempt critical surveys of the major studies on Sirah along with th...

Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem - A Review
  In Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem, Professor Zain Abdullah shows how Harlem is undergoing a new cultural transformation fueled by very different yet similar circumstances. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, Harlem, New York, became the center of black intellectual thought, art, music and literature. Due to the concentration of middle and upper-middle class bl...

"Let's talk sweeter than candy": Reflections of a Local Culture
Modern times have turned our daily life into a ball of confusion. Although we pride ourselves on living more comfortably, we are not even aware that we have actually lost many values. For many of us in Turkey, the joyous voices of children going from door-to-door collecting candy on holy holidays in the recent past are almost perceived today as scenes from fairy tales. We are sharing with you an ...