The slave, Mahmud ibn al-Husayn ibn Muhammad [al-Kash-ghari] states: When I saw that Allah Most High had caused the Sun of Fortune to rise in the Zodiac of the Turks, and set their Kingdom among the spheres of Heaven; that He called them “Turk,” and gave them Rule; making them kings of the Age, and placing in their hands the reins of temporal authority; appointing them over all mankind, and directing them to the Right; that He strengthened those who are affiliated to them, and those who endeavor on their behalf; so that they attain from them the utmost of their desire, and are delivered from the ignominy of the slavish rabble; [then I saw that] every man of reason must attach himself to them, or else expose himself to their falling arrows. And there is no better way to approach them than by speaking their own tongue, thereby bending their ear, and inclining their heart. And when one of their foes comes over to their side, they keep him secure from fear of them; then others may take refuge with him, and all fear of harm be gone.I heard from one of the trustworthy informants among the Imams of Bukhara, and from another Imam of the people of Nishapur: both of them re-ported the following tradition, and both had a chain of transmission going back to the Apostle of God, may God bless him and grant him peace. When he was speaking about the signs of the Hour and the trials of the end of Time, and he mentioned the emergence of the Oghuz Turks, he said, “Learn the tongue of the Turks, for their reign will be long.” Now if this hadith is sound—and the burden of proof is on those two!—then learning it is a religious duty: and if it is not sound, still Wisdom demands it.
I have traveled throughout their cities and steppes, and have learned their dialects and their rhymes; those of the Turks, the Turkmen-Oghuz, the Chigil, the Yaghma, and the Q’irghiz. Also, I am one of the most elegant among them in language, and the most eloquent in speech; one of the best educated, the most deep-rooted in lineage, and the most penetrating in throwing the lance. Thus have I acquired perfectly the dialect of each one of their groups; and I have set it down in an encompassing book, in a well-ordered system.
Mahmud al-Kashghari – 11th Century Lexicographer – “Diwan Lughat al-Turk” (1072)
Text Translation Excerpted from “Islamic Central Asia – An Anthology of Historical Sources” – Levi, Sela (2010)
Even if the ignorant, the idiot, the tyrant, the heedless and the treacherous do not like it, still write!
Write, my brother, (about) who makes the brother enemy to his brother.
Write, my brother, (about) who makes the nation hostile to its governments.
Write, my brother, (about) how the leaders are cheating the nation.
Write, my brother, why these people have been enslaved in their own country.
Write, my brother, why our people are cowardly and timid.
Write, my brother, about what makes our people terrified.
Write, my brother, why our people are despised in their own country.
Write, my brother, why these people cannot breathe freely in their own country.
Write, my brother, who made this great nation so degenerate.
Write, my brother, who took our youth from the right path.
Write, my brother, (about) how our youth have been cheated.
Write all the insults to the nation that took place side by side with the Tanzimat ; about all of this …write!
Write about the Tanzimat Decree!
Write who the Tanzimat Decree was really for!
Write about the aim of the filthy, hidden co-operations and secret plans to bring this great nation down through accursed westernization.
Write about the corruption being done in the name of the Tanzimat and the destruction of our honorable customs and tradition.
Write so that whoever wants to wake up, wakes up!
Question “Sheik Effendi, when we behold the glory of the rising sun and the endless sky full of stars, we feel and know thereby that the Creator is and that He is very Great. But sometimes in the life of a person there occurs very sad and terrible events : people whom we love die – parents, brothers, friends. When tragedy comes into our lives, how can we keep our faith in Gods Mercy, how can we feel that He cares about what is happening to each and every one of us?”
Now our distinguished guest has asked a very important question that every single person in the world must be asking in his heart.
His eyes have been opened to the Infinite Glory of the Creator by the wonders He Almighty has created for that purpose. Therefore, he is praising the Creator and he is saying that these wondrous sings in the cosmos, and the perfection and harmony of the intricate movements of heavenly bodies, of the balance of nature etc, may cause a person to awaken to the Majesty of the Creator, Sustainer and Guide of All Creation.
He recognizes, as do all believers, that the Lords Endless Mercy pervades the Universe, for without it neither we nor any other creature could exist and take its sustenance. He sees that we are swimming in Allah’s Mercy Oceans. But he asks, as do so many people, how to reconcile our belief in Allah’s Mercy with the bitterness and horror we feel at the death of loved ones and other seemingly merciless events in the world. He is asking how we can deal with the doubts that creep into our minds in respect to that mercy, how to deal with that voice that says to us : “If Allah is so merciful, how can He allow such events to happen?”
Yesterday we spoke of the creation of Adam, and we said that, according to tradition, the descendants of Adam have been granted the most honourable station possible among creatures of this world: the rank of deputies of their Creator.
Every creature may ask to be in possession of such a high rank, but Allah Almighty cautioned them all, asking: “Who among you is prepared to pay the price and carry the burden of that most honoured rank. Who can carry that heaviest of ranks on their shoulders?” Yes, all creation was shown the nature of that rank, and its responsibilities. As Allah Almighty states in the Holy Qur’an:
“Verily, We offered that trust to the heavens, the earth and the mountains; and they refused to accept it, and they feared it, But man, he took it upon himself to bear it. Surely he was sinful, very foolish.”
And He Almighty revealed to creation all that was involved in that trust; so that no creature could plead he had been burdened beyond what he himself had accepted. The result was, that when faced with such a choice, all of creation refused to take it upon themselves, saying that that were afraid in the face of such an awesome challenge. But man said: “I can carry it. I am ready to make the necessary sacrifices, I am ready to pay the price.”
Here then, is your answer. If you lay claim to that honour, if you value the nobility of your rank as “Crown of Creation”, if you consider that which sets you apart, from dogs and monkeys to be worth preserving, worth sacrificing for, then you must be prepared to agree with your Lords decrees; that is the price you pay for that most honourable rank. You must not reject what He wills in directing the course of life in his Creation . He does as He Wills, and it is for us to be patient in matters that are beyond our sphere of influence ( like the inevitability of death ), for the sake of our Lords love, as He has given His Love to the Descendants of Adam above all creatures.
Look, our Lord asked the Prophet Abraham, Peace be upon him, to slaughter his son for the love of his Lord. In this story is a lesson for all of us. He Almighty ordered Abraham: “Slaughter your son for Me. The price of My Love is even more than the sacrifice of love that you harbour for your son. Give that love (which is now for your son) to Me also: by slaughtering him, give it to Me.”
Then Abraham made ready to obey his Lord, despite Shaitan’s repeated attempts to dissuade him. Thus ( by proving his readiness to carry out his Lords order) Abraham proved his steadfastness in obeying the divine command. But the Lord, who is not in need of the blood of our sacrifices, but accepts the sincerity with which they are offered, prevented the knife from cutting. He almighty ordered the knife: “Don’t cut!” Then Abraham tried to cut his sons throat, but the knife wouldn’t cut, would not even make a scratch, though he had sharpened it himself with the greatest care. Repeatedly he drew the knife across the delicate throat of his son, but with no result. At last Abraham threw down the knife, and in order to show Abraham the power if his Will, He Almighty made that knife cut through a big rock like a knife cuts through cheese. The an Angel appeared to the astonished Abraham, saying: “Oh Abraham, don’t think that your knife is dull! You have proved your sincerity, now take this ram and slaughter it….”
He Almighty has given His Divine Love to the descendants of Adam, and we have responded to our Lord, saying: “We are true unto You, oh our Lord.” Then He Almighty said : “I am going to try you, to examine all of you to see who is true in his claim of loving Me.” Who can withstand such a trial as Abraham? But in all of our lives there are also trials, and by being patient in the face of them we gain our Lords endless love.
One of the most famous of Islam’s saints was the King of the land of Balkh, Ibrahim bin Adham. He abandoned his kingship for his Lords sake and went away to live on what he earned by performing tasks of menial labour, and devoted his spare time, and all his heart, to his Lords worship.
When he abdicated his throne, and went away he left behind him a pregnant wife. After twelve years the boy and his wife had born began to inquire after his father. The boy set out in search of his father, and successfully traced his movements until he finally came across him in Mecca. Ibrahim bin Adham knew that the boy was his son the first time he laid eyes upon his noble face. He said : “You are my son.”
The boy said “You are my father.” Then Ibrahim prayed to his Lord: “Oh my Lord, You know best that, up until now, all of my love has been exclusively for You. Now I see that some of my love is going to this boy. Oh my Lord, all I want in this life is that my heart be purely for You: therefore I implore You to please transform this love in my heart for the boy to be love for You.”
Then Allah Almighty took the soul of that boy to his Divine Presence. The love that the boy had for his father was transformed into Divine Love so that he went to the Divine Presence totally pure.; and the love that Ibrahim bin Adham had for the boy also penetrated to the realm of Divine Love. Merged into the Divine Love Oceans of his saintly heart.
Allah Almighty is “Al-Ghayyur” or “The Jealous God”. He calls us to merge all the love we feel into His Divine Love; to take the love we feel for our loved ones and transform it into a love that will penetrate into the realm of Divine Love. This is the meaning of His requiring a “pure heart” (qalbun – salim) from His servants, for all that you love in those dear ones, is but the attraction of a ray of the attributes of your Lord which you see in them, which shines through the familiarity between you and them and reaches your heart.
Those loved ones will die, and so will you; but if that love reaches to the ultimate recipient of all Love, then the goal of human love has been attained, and it is acceptable and lovely in the Divine Presence. But if we fail to surrender to our Lords decree of mortality for all His creatures, and hate Him for putting us in a temporary existence of passing images, states and feelings, life becomes a bitter pill too bitter to swallow. In such a case life itself becomes a sorrow ocean, as He Almighty calls all of His servants, one by one, back to His Divine Presence and away from us and this world.
He is our Lord, the sole Sustainers of our existence. He has rights over us and tries us to see who will be true and hold to the love of their Lord. Therefore, all manner of events may occur: lovely people may die, young people may die, brothers, sisters, wives and husbands may die, will die, must die. Everyone you love will die. Then He looks to see what you will do: can you transform your love and make a tragedy a cause of increasing your love for your Lord? So few people understand this, and that is why they can’t see the Divine Wisdom in sorrowful events. They don’t recognise that our Lord is beckoning us to Love Him wholly and exclusively; therefore they suffer.
Everything He Almighty has given to the Descendants of Adam is temporary, not worthy of that ultimate love. You must give your love to the One who is always in existence – from pre eternity to post – eternity.
“Glorified is the ever – living (Lord), for whom there is no Death”
Therefore, you must awake to these realities and not ever think that events represent the decrees of a merciless Lord. No! For in these apparently merciless events is contained boundless mercy, as our Lord rewards us in accordance with the severity of our trials: the recompense is more and more of His Love.
At any time sorrowful and unliked events may (and will) descend upon you. Your Lord makes them a means of approach to Him that He may pour out everlasting Love Oceans on His beloved servants.
This is a very important point, and a very heavy one. We must comprehend these wisdoms and their import, but such a realization will evade us as long as we are thinking that these are just some words. That Divine Love must be tasted. As much as I may repeat the words: “Honey, honey, honey…..” or describe the characteristics and flavour of honey, you are not going to taste it, not going to be satisfied. These realities must be tasted, and unless you have reached that point you cannot understand more than these words.
- 01.07.1983
Setting the record straight.
–
Dimitri Ehrlich: I know that your music is based on the Sufi tradition, but what is your personal religious affiliation, if any? Do you meditate or pray?
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: I am not Sufi, but I spent a lot of time since my childhood with the Sufis, and I deeply studied them. Sufi music, especially, is a kind of prayer. If you sing in this manner, you will become closer to God, very close. That’s basically what I do.
What is your inner, mental experience when you are singing? What do you think about, or don’t you direct your mind in any specific way?
When I sing traditional spiritual songs, I always concentrate on who it is that I’m singing about. For instance, if I am inspired by the Holy Prophet, I concentrate on the Prophet. In my mind, there are many things, but when I sing, I sing for God, and for Holy Prophets, for Sufi saints. When I sing, their personalities are in my mind. I feel like I am in front of them. I feel their personalities, and I pray. I feel like I am in another world when I sing. I am not in the material world while I am singing these traditional Holy messages. I’m totally in another world. I am withdrawn from my materialistic senses; I am totally in my spiritual senses. And I am intoxicated by the Holy Prophet, God, and other Sufi saints.
Is there a different sort of prayer or meditative mode associated with songs concerned with Allah, Mohammed, and the Sufi saints, respectively?
When I sing for God, I feel myself in accord with God, and the house of God, Mecca, is right in front of me. And I worship. When I sing for Mohammed, peace be upon him, our Prophet, I feel like I am sitting right next to his tomb, Medina, and paying him respect and admitting to myself that I accept his message. When I sing about the Sufi saints, I feel like the saints are in front of me, and as a student, I am accepting their teachings. And I repeat again and again that I accept it, that I am really their follower.
I know that Sufism is essentially a mystical sect of Islam, but are there also strains of other religious thought involved with the liturgy or philosophy of Sufism?
Every religion has its own way of describing God. For instance, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhs-they all have their own way of following God. Sufism basically describes God and teaches how to come closer to God. So basically, I follow the Islamic form of Sufism to find my way to God.
I know that when you were sixteen you had a visionary dream in which your father, a great qawwali singer who had recently died, came to you and told you that you had been given his musical gift and should devote your life to qawwali. Since that dream, how has your understanding of your music changed?
Since the age of sixteen, when I started singing, I have had the same message to deliver to people about Sufism. But some changes have come accordingly as I grew and my experiences grew. Of course you really go to greater depths as time passes, more and more and more, and you grow and grow with the songs.
So how would you define your message?
My message is the message of humanity, love and peace. The goal of this message that I bring to people is to bring them toward brotherhood, to bring them closer to each other, without hatred, without any concern for race, religion or color. I try to bring people, through spirituality, to a position in which they’ll be more honest with each other, and live a truer life, less concerned with the materialistic world where they cannot find themselves. I try to bring them to a place where they can at least recognize themselves.
Other than your musical practice, which clearly has a very powerful spiritual dimension, do you have any formal religious practice?
I pray five times a day. And I pray before I eat, giving thanks to my God for the opportunity to eat this food. And after eating, I pray and give thanks again. And after all of my practices of my music, I always pray and give thanks to my God and say, God, I am your slave, and thanks to you I have this opportunity to give my message to the world.
For many performers, the gulf between the ecstatic experience of being in the spotlight and the “coming down” that inevitably accompanies going offstage draws them into drug addiction and other self-destructive behavior. Obviously you’ve avoided that pitfall, but do you ever feel any kind of emotional depression from coming down from the high of being on stage?
During the time I am singing traditional qawwali songs, I feel that I am in a prayer position in front of God. When I finish my prayers, whether is it my singing or the formal prayers I do, I feel deeply peaceful. I feel that I have had some success in accomplishing the mission that God has given to me. I have no difficulty making a transition from that frame of mind to my normal daily activities because prayer is a routine part of my life and I do it all the time.
In Buddhist psychology, there is a vast pharmacopia of different meditative antidotes that can be applied to various mental afflictions. So, for example, there are certain practices you can do if you are very angry, and different meditations if you are greedy, or jealous, or hateful or whatever. Do you have any kinds of specific prayers that are designed to deal with specific problems, such as anger, jealousy and greed?
Because of this music and because of this message which we have in our hearts and our minds all the time, it is extremely rare to feel anger toward anybody. This is the basic medication that controls us, preventing us from getting angry and keeps us happy.
What did you learn from your father, other than the specific musical training that you got as a singer of qawwali?
From my parents I learned my religion, how to live and follow Islamic rules. When I was young I went to the mosque and read the Koran and learned all the Islamic rules. From my teachers I got a basic education in science, mathematics, geography, English, Urdu, all the common subjects. And from Sufis I learned about Sufism. I try to learn and integrate the teachings from these three sources-from the saints, from school, and from my father. Of course when I was a child, before I turned sixteen, I was just a regular young person. I got angry, I argued, I lived like a boy. But since I saw the dream and became a follower of Sufism, and began singing the traditional qawwali, it really gave me peace in my heart. Since then my life has been totally changed. Since then I control everything that comes to my brain and to my heart.
Let’s talk a little about motivation. For some pop musicians, there is a desire for success that is equal to or even greater than the desire for excellence. Your music is so transcendentally spiritual, I wonder whether you ever think about making money and being a star as a motive behind what you do.
When I started singing, of course, I had in my mind the desire for success. I was always thinking that the people should listen to me, that the crowd should pay me respect as the artist. Of course, I wanted applause and felt that the singer should get some reward in the shape of appreciation from the public. But as time went by, I found myself in a situation where all I wanted was to give a lesson, the purpose of which was to give more happiness to people. My sleeping, my waking, my talking, my eating, everything in my life, the music is always with me in my mind. I’m always thinking about new tunes, new discoveries, and new music.
Dimitri Ehrlich writes for Interview, The New York Times, and other publications. His band, Dimitri and the Supreme 5000, released its debut album last year. He is currently writing a book about music and spirituality.
Suburban Capitalist girls love to shop at fancy malls with designer labels, don’t exclude Muslims from that!
For them, and the discerning Suburban Capitalist Muslim man, there are new designer fashions and catwalks to watch. Give them press, coverage, and a spot on the Today Show. American as apple pie.
““Sexy Rediscovered”: Meet the team behind Muslim fashion line, Eva Khurshid”
Tackling yet another field in which Muslims have not – yet – dominated are Nyla Hashmi and Fatima Monkush, the creative forces behind the most buzzed-about fashion line for Muslims, Eva Khurshid…Q: How did your backgrounds prepare you for your career and hands-on involvement (with both the Muslim and American communities)?
A: Because of our mixed heritages, we grew up in non-traditional yet conservative homes. Having American mothers has definitely shaped both of us and helped us take ownership in our American identity. Our Muslim upbringing is a huge part of our lives where it has served us with a strong foundation on how we live our day-to-day lives and conduct our business.Q: Do you think fashion is an area Muslims need to explore and work in?
A: We really encourage Muslims going into the arts; there are not enough of us in this field. If we don’t represent ourselves, who will? It’s so important for Muslims to branch out into non-traditional fields like fashion, even working with other Muslim artists in collaboration to help one another and giving support.”
Soon to appear on your Shop Rite checkout counter
For Muslim fashion designers, the market potential is enormous
Ausma Khan, chief editor for Muslim Girl, a young women’s lifestyle magazine that was started last year in the United States, believes that dedicated brands would have added appeal for many Muslim consumers. “The potential to design Muslim fashion for women and girls and to market to this audience is enormous,” Khan said. “Imagine the clothes you see in most contemporary and popular fashion outlets – Muslim girls and women are buying them and then creatively filling in the gaps. But they would absolutely buy the same clothes with higher necklines, longer hemlines, a more voluminous fit and so on,” she said.
Even in fashion sportswear and activewear, start-up companies like Hasema from Turkey and Ahiida from Australia have tickled market observers with the advent of functional Islamic swimwear. Aheda Zanetti, Ahiida’s founder, trademarked her designs as the “Burqini,” playing off the words bikini and burqa to describe her two-piece loose-fitting tracksuit.
“I think the Islamic fashion market is going to explode in the coming years. There are signs of it already,” said Gulsen Aydemir, editor of Modest Flair, a U.S.-based Web site that sources style trends and news for its Muslim readers.
America.gov shares this video about “American Islam” – Brooke Samad – . A graduate of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Brooke and her business, Marabo Fashion, were featured in Muslim Girl Magazine in April 2008.
While fashion shows etc are all Western inventions, they aren’t limited to the Americas. Cultural Hegemony predicts we’d find them all across the globe:
yursil on 
Andrew Hasin on 
Aaminah on 