The month of Rabi’-Ul-Awwal is considered to be amongst the most special and significant months, because mankind was blessed with the birth of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw). Regarding this special event Allah (swt) has stated in the Holy Quran “We have sent him (Muhammad saw) as a source of mercy for the A’alimeen (humans, jinns and all else that exists),” (Surah 21.Al- Anbiya: Verse 107).

Muhammad (saw), the master of the prophets was born in the holy city of Mecca on Monday morning, the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th of Rabi’-Ul-Awwal. Ibn Sa’d reports that Muhammad’s (saw) mother, Aamina, stated regarding the birth of her son “When He (saw) was born, there was a light that issued out of my pudendum and lit the palaces of Syria.” (Mukhtasar Seerat-ul-Rasool)

As is mentioned above Allah (swt) has stated in the Glorious Qur’an: “We have sent him (Muhammad saw) as a source of mercy for the A’alimeen.” Not only was Rasulullah (saw) a source of numerous blessings after receiving the task of prophethood, but from his birth up to his death and until the day of judgment billions of people have and will continue to benefit from his blessings. A clear example of this is when Halimah, the daughter of Abu Dhu’ayb who was accompanied by her husband Harith and a new born son of their own, decided to undertake a journey from a small village situated south east of Mecca to the actual city of Meccah Mukarramah. This was in order to acquire a nursling. She narrates: “It was a year of drought, and we had nothing left. I set forth on a gray she camel of mine, and we had an old she camel with us which could not even yield one drop of milk. We were kept awake all night by our son who was crying due to hunger, for I didn’t have enough in my breast to feed him; and that she camel of mine was so weak and emaciated I often keep the others (Tribe of Bani Sa’d Ibn Bakr) waiting.”

Once everyone began looking for nurslings, Rasulullah’s (saw) mother Aamina offered her son first to one and then to another until finally she had tried them all and they had all refused. “That” said Halimah, “was because we hoped for some compensation from the child’s father.” “An orphan” we said, “what will his mother and grandfather be able to do for us?” Not that they would have wanted direct payment for their service, since it was considered dishonorable for a woman to take a fee for suckling a child. The recompense they hoped for, though less direct was of a far wider scope. For example, creation connections and links with people from the city.

On the other side, though the foster-parents were not expected to be rich, they must not be too poverty-stricken, and it was evident that Halimah and her husband were poorer then any other of their companions. Whenever the choice lay between her and another, the other was preferred and chosen; and it was not long before everyone of the Bani Sa’d women except Halimah had been entrusted with a baby. Only the poorest nurse was without a nursling; and only the poorest nursling was without a nurse.

“When we decided to leave Mecca,” said Halimah, “I told my husband: ‘I hate to return in the company of my friends without having taken a baby to suckle. I shall go to that orphan and take him.’ ‘As you wish’ he said. ‘it may be, that God will bless us through him.’ So I went back and took him, for no reason except that I could find no baby but him. I carried him back to where our mounts were stationed, and no sooner did I put him in my bosom, my breasts overflowed with milk. He drank his fill, and with him his foster-brother drank likewise, his fill. Then they both slept; and my husband went to that old she camel of ours, and amazingly her udders were full. He milked her and drank of her milk and I drank with him until we could drink no more and our hunger was satisfied.

We spent the best of nights, and in the morning my husband said to me: ‘by God, Halimah, it is a blessed creature that you have taken.’ ‘That is indeed my hope,’ I said. Then we set out, and I rode my camel and carried him with me on her back. She outraced the whole troop, nor could any of their camels keep pace with her. ‘Wow!’ They said to me, ‘Wait for us! Isn’t that the same camel you came on?’ ‘Yes by God,’ I said, ‘She is the very same.’ ‘Some amazing thing has happened to her,’ they said.

We reached our tents in the Bani Sa’d, and I know of no place on God’s Earth more barren than that. But after we brought him to live with us, my flock would come home to me and would be full of milk. We milked them and drank and when others had no milk; our neighbors would say to their shepherds. ‘Go graze your flocks where he has grazed his’, meaning my shepherd. But still their flocks came home hungry, yielding no milk, while mine came well fed, with plenty of milk; and we ceased not to enjoy this increase and this bounty from God until the baby’s two years passed.”

During the pre-Islamic days of Arabia, everyone including the Romans and Persians were in the midst of ignorance and darkness. They were amongst the most uncivilized people the world had seen. Not only were they indulged in evils and vices such as adultery, fornication, incest, rape, stealing and murder they went to the extent of burying their baby daughters alive! Allah (swt) has stated in the Holy Quran “And when the news of the birth of a female child is brought to any of them, his face becomes dark, and he is filled with inward grief! He hides himself from the people because of the evil of that whereof he has been informed. Shall he keep her with dishonor or bury her in the Earth? Certainly their decisions are evil.” (Surah 16. An-Nahl: verse 58-59)

Nevertheless the Holy Prophet (saw) was sent to this world with the light of monotheism, eradicating all ignorant and uncivilized customs, rituals, practices and beliefs. Allah (swt) has stated in the glorious Quran “Indeed Allah conferred a great favor on the believers when he sent among them a Messenger (Muhammad saw) from among themselves, reciting unto them His verses, (The Quran) and purifying them, (from sins by their following him) and instructing them (in) the Book (Quran) and Al-Hikmah, (the wisdom and the Sunnah of the Prophet saw) before that they had been in manifest error,” (Surah 3. Al-Imran: Verse 164).

Source:Madania.org

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Hague: Muslim party denies dog ban proposal

Via AD (Dutch):

Hasan Küçük, fraction head of the Islam Democrats in the Hague, denies the party wants to ban dog ownership in the city. He says his words were taken out of context.

During a debate last week about the municipal policy regarding animals, Küçük said that he thinks it’s pitiful that dogs are sometimes shut in an apartment for 23 hours a day.

Küçük says that the party is not proposing to ban ownership of dogs. Küçük was not available for comment over the weekend.

Malmö: Funeral march against growing violence

Via the Local:

The arresting image of the grieving father of 15-year-old Ardiwan Diaa Samir, attempting to climb down into his dead son’s grave at the funeral on Wednesday, was a sombre reminder of the consequences of the escalating violence in southern Sweden.

Thirty shootings in 2011 and five gun related murders in less than six weeks have shaken Malmö to its very core. But the gunning down of 15-year-old Ardiwan was the last straw for many of the locals, making them take to the streets to demand a change and to keep their children safe.

“We don’t have a clue why this happened. I know my son and he was only 15 years old. He was not involved with any criminals so it was not a revenge killing to do with drugs or something else,” Ardiwan’s father Diaa Noman tells The Local just hours after burying his eldest child.

(…)

“We cannot find any answers. Even the police ruled out the issues of criminality because of his age. Our family came to Sweden for the safety here but for more than a year I have felt there has not been enough security in the city,” Noman says.

(source)

Copenhagen: Muslims clean up after New Year’s celebrations

The article doesn’t say, but these are Ahmadiyya Muslims. Ahmadiyya Muslims have held similar cleaning operations in Oslo and Amsterdam.

Via Fyens Stiftstidende (Danish):

A group of Muslim youth from the Nusrat Djahan mosque in Hvidovre (Copenhagen) volunteered on New Year’s Day to help clean up the night’s celebrations in the city’s central square.

“Our religion teachers us that we should love our country. And if we love our country, we should keep it clean,” says Muhammad Zakaria Khan, chairman of the mosque.

“Additionally, cleanliness if part of our faith. Various texts say that half of our faith is cleanliness. Therefore I sent 35 members of our community to the city to clean up,” he says.

The mosque’s chairman agreed with the municipality to help clean up around the main square, but the youth also managed to reach other places in the city.

“Our faith and religion Islam teaches us that we should respect and be loyal to the country where we live. Therefore in our mosque we do our best to be loyal to the Danish government and to Denmark,” says Muhammad Zakaria Khan. “Therefore we decided to help our city and save some tax money.”

He says it’s not the last time the mosque members will help with cleaning up, and says if the city will be satisfied and ask them to do it again, they’ll do so every year.

Antwerp: Police detain Islamists over harassment

Via AFP:

Belgian police on Wednesday detained 15 members of a radical Islamic group after they harassed passers-by in the city of Antwerp and shouted anti-Western slogans, police said.

The Sharia4Belgium militants distributed leaflets glorifying Islam and criticizing the Western way of life in a central street of the northern port city, Belga news agency quoted a police spokeswoman as saying.

(source)

Gothenburg: Mosque starts ‘halal’ dating site

Via the Local:

There are not enough places in Sweden for young Muslims to find a partner, according to the Gothenburg Mosque, which has started a net dating site for ”halal” dating.

”The mosque is not just a place for prayer, it is also a social place and the mosque is here for dealing with problems in society. One of these is that it is hard to find a partner,” Abu Mahmoud, the man behind the dating site, told Sveriges Radio (SR).

The service isn’t new per se, as young Muslim Stockholmers in need of a partner could previously browse a folder, located in the entrance to the mosque on Södermalm, in the south of the city.

(source)

Florence: Gunman shoots Senegalese street vendors dead

This story got less attention yesterday than the Liege attack. This attack was anti-immigrant, but the victims are apparently Muslim, and a Senegalese imam will participate in today’s memorial ceremony.

Via the Guardian:

A lone gunman with extreme rightwing sympathies has gone on a shooting spree in Florence, killing two Senegalese street vendors and wounding three others before killing himself.

Gianluca Casseri, 50, an accountant, first shot dead two vendors and wounded a third with a .357 Magnum at the crowded Piazza Dalmazia street market on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday morning.

He then fled in a car after threatening to shoot a stall holder who attempted to stop him, reappearing later in the day at the central San Lorenzo market where he fired at two African vendors, wounding both.

Police officers found Casseri back in his car in the car park of the market, where they fired warning shots before he reportedly shot himself dead.

(source)

Switzerland: Anti-Islam groups fights Fribourg ban

Via the Local:

The Swiss Movement against Islamisation (MOSC) has said it will appeal a Fribourg district court decision blocking it from setting up a stand in the western town.

In October 2009, a few weeks before Switzerland’s controversial vote on the banning of minarets, MOSCI asked the city of Fribourg for permission to erect a stand. The group said it wanted to present its ideas and ask citizens to vote against the Islamic spires.

After conferring with cantonal police and the prefecture of Gruyère, Fribrourg decided not to grant permission. The town said it wanted to avoid incidents like those in Lausanne several weeks earlier when clashes broke out around a similar stand.

(source)

Thessaloniki: Mayor Launches Initiative to Build a Mosque

Thessaloniki mayor Yiannis Boutaris said that his city launched initiatives to build a mosque. Nearly 5,000 Muslims are living in Thessaloniki. (photo).

Belgium: Four family members convicted of ‘honor’ murder

Via Knack (Dutch):

On Friday the Court of Assize of Henegouwen convicted the four members of the Pakistani Sheikh family of the murder of Sadia Sheikh (22).

Tariq Sheikh, Sadia’s father, and her brother Mudusar were convicted by the jury,with aggravating circumstances since it was an honor murder and an attempted forced marriage. Parveen, Sadia’s mother, and her sister Sariya, were also convicted of murder, with aggravating circumstances of honor murder, but were acquitted of the charges of attempted forced marriage.

The jury convicted the four family members after three weeks of debates in court. Sadia was a senior of law at the Charleroi university college. She was murdered on October 22, 2007 in the Lodelinsart section of the city.

Mudusar’s conviction was based on his confession, and due to the fact that he committed the murder in order to restore the family’s honor, which had been violated by his sister who, as a woman, refused to submit.

Regarding father Tariq Sheikh there were various issues to his detriment, including the speedy conclusion of the forced marriage with a cousin in Pakistan via webcam and the administrative steps he took to officialize the marriage.

Sariya was convicted due to ballistic analysis which linked her to the incident. The mother stated in her testimony that she preferred her daughter die rather than marry a non-Muslim.

During the court case the prosecution and civil parties who had joined the suit, the Institute for Equality of Men and Women and the Union of Independent Health Services, tried to show that every member of the family played a significant role in Sadia’s murder.

The defense claimed that the investigation was blemished by the media attention to the crime. The family’s lawyers also claimed that, except for Mudusar, there was enough doubt against conviction.