The Thinking Muslim

This Ramadan, support an alternative Muslim media platform rooted in faith, thought, and enlightened activism. Your donation is an investment in Sadaqah Jariyah, bringing you rewards that will last long after this life. Become a monthly member today and be part of The Thinking Muslim’s sacred mission. Become a member here: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/membership Or give your one-off donation: ht...

The current crop of rulers that litter the Muslim world are amongst the most detestable of people. They sit silent, often proactive only in the degree to which they collude with the joint enterprise of genocide. Many of the Gulf rulers live in hedonistic metropolises, their empty lives and cities punctuated occasionally by inane regional summits – to bury their ineptitude in the pomp of ceremony....

This Ramadan, support an alternative Muslim media platform rooted in faith, thought, and enlightened activism. Your donation is an investment in Sadaqah Jariyah, bringing you rewards that will last long after this life. Become a monthly member today and be part of The Thinking Muslim’s sacred mission. Become a member here: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/membership Or give your one-off donation: ht...

This Ramadan, support an alternative Muslim media platform rooted in faith, thought, and enlightened activism. Your donation is an investment in Sadaqah Jariyah, bringing you rewards that will last long after this life. Become a monthly member today and be part of The Thinking Muslim’s sacred mission. Become a member here: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/membership Or give your one-off donation: ht...

Pakistan is an enchanting country, fertile and vast, with a talented young population and, at least on paper, all of the ingredients of a regional powerhouse. But the country is experiencing a tumultuous time. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan languishes in prison while the country’s military leaders use every greater coercion to maintain the status quo. Pakistan’s economy is faltering, and the bra...

The Seerah (biography) of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) is a key reading for all Muslims. However, many view it through a lens that misses its essence. Sami Hamdi explains how we need to rethink how we view Seerah so that we can internalise it in our lives. This Ramadan, support an alternative Muslim media platform rooted in faith, thought, and enlightened activism. Your donation is an investment in...

This Ramadan, support an alternative Muslim media platform rooted in faith, thought, and enlightened activism. Your donation is an investment in Sadaqah Jariyah, bringing you rewards that will last long after this life. Become a monthly member today and be part of The Thinking Muslim’s sacred mission. Become a member here: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/membership Or give your one-off donation htt...

We often associate Ramadan with seeking closeness to God, which is its aim. A believer abstains from food and drink in the daylight hours to commit themselves to Allah. We draw closer to him through worships and good deeds and this is a month of charity. Muslims give more in this month than any other time in the year, hoping that our sincerity reaches Allah and in the process he overlooks our fail...

Bait ul Maqdis – the sacred precinct in Palestine - is a blessed place in Islam – but today, we have downplayed maybe its centrality to what it means to a believer. From my last conversation with Dr Khalid El-Awaisi – where he controversially said that al Aqsa and these blessed lands have to be more clearly central to our faith and worldview – we want to explore how we practically manifest this ne...

Donate to the critical aid campaign at http://btml.us/thinkingmuslim At the time of recording, the German election results have just been announced, revealing an extraordinary outcome for the far-right AFD party, which came second in the Bundestag (parliamentary) elections with 20% of the popular vote, primarily from the country's East but also among some younger voters in the West. The opposition...

Donate to the critical aid campaign at http://btml.us/thinkingmuslim Islam is about justice and Gaza has mobilised the community to confront the settler colonial enterprise. On this journey we have met many non-Muslims who share our sense of mission and have embraced this collaboration to carve out a better world. I have experienced as a result of these past 15 months that we have a huge following...

Donate to the critical aid campaign at http://btml.us/thinkingmuslim Africa is a resource-rich continent with immense potential. When countries within the continent demonstrate good governance and sound economic judgment, they thrive. It is, of course, overly simplistic to discuss Africa as a monolith. Yet some regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, continue to grapple with debt, poverty, and c...

Profound words on the liberation of Palestine. Dr. Khalid El-Awaisi is from Hebron, Al Khalil in Palestine. He is a lecturer of the pioneering field of Islamic Jerusalem Studies. His main speciality is in the historical-geography of Islamic Jerusalem. He is currently the Associate Professor of Islamic History at the Social Sciences University of Ankara and Executive Director of Islamic Jerusalem A...

Donate to the critical aid campaign at http://btml.us/thinkingmuslim The struggle for Gaza is not over. For over fifteen months, Israel's Western backers told us that there was no genocide taking place. Now, President Trump confirms that the Israelis have turned it into rubble. His plan, ludicrous as it sounds, is to displace Gaza’s population to surrounding countries and colonize it for America,...

The announcement of Donald Trump at the press conference with Netanyahu had all the shock value we expect from the rogue president. How do we understand his intention to ‘clean out’ Gaza and turn it into a riviera, and how do Palestinians view this brazen ethnic cleansing? To help us understand the we have back on the show Dr Azzam Tamimi, who is one of the leading Palestinian commentators and aut...

Despite the recent incendiary declaration by Trump to occupy Gaza and clean the land of Palestinians, there remains fervent talk that normalisation with Saudi is on the cards. The de facto leader Mohammed Bin Salman has made it clear that he wants to make public what is very much the reality: his embrace of Israel and probably the most significant political prize to the genocidal state. The kingdo...

Trump’s Gaza Riviera, in the impossible event it was realised, would be built on the corpses of hundreds of thousands of dead Palestinians, half of them children. The idea is a grotesque display of American profligacy. A hegemon that knows no bounds. It would be wrong to blame it on President Trump's excesses. Trump is no more than another vile iteration of this crumbling colossus. The Biden admin...

The Gaza genocide has come to a pause, with the hope that a ceasefire will remain in place. The details of the deal has allowed many to return to their homes, shattered by a deliberate attempt to destroy all infrastructure. The West remains accomplices and its media have shamefully misrepresented what has happened. Last year we spoke with Amr Abdul Latif, from Gaza who told us about his life growi...

Al Aqsa is the first Qibla, prayer direction, of Islam. It is regarded by Muslims as one of the three sacred Mosques, and its surroundings Bayt al Maqdis has been blessed by Allah in the Quran. The hadith talk of the blessed one who prays in all three of the Masjids, something alhamdulillah I have managed to do. But this mosque, its precincts and the entirety of Palestine is today under threat by...

When commentators talk about the relationship, often fraught, between Islam and the west, most start with the mass migration from the Indian subcontinent, North Africa and Middle East to western countries. A few years back, the British foreign secretary announced the greatest culinary delight of the brits was the chicken tikka masala. But many do not recognise the deep, often interconnected relati...

Islamophobia across the Western world is on the rise. It is a pernicious prejudice that seems to have seeped into public acceptance. It is not just the prize of the ultra right, across the West, even liberal minded governments have sought to malign Muslims unjustly. Consider President Macron’s separatism Act, that maligns in effect any believer that follows the shariah. Or consider at home, the La...

Never in human history has the role and position of men and women been subject to so much dispute. The advent of liberalism has ushered in an era of free thought and individualism that has removed previously accepted notions of roles and obligations. Liberal feminism has explicitly sought to forward a hollow version of equality that has on the whole, harmed women and men. And sadly, the backlash h...

In a world of alternative facts, Elon Musk acts as the high priest of disinformation. The world’s richest man has exploited his platform, X, to embark on a vitriolic anti-Islam tirade with real-world consequences. It is unfathomable that he believes his incendiary messages are based on reasoned evidence and intellectual rigour. But truth and integrity are expendable commodities in this new world o...

When we talk about Gaza, we often speak of it in isolation from the broader Muslim world. When the Muslim countries are mentioned, it’s normal to suggest that they have given up on the Palestinian cause. The Abraham Accords are oft-cited as an example of the Muslim world turning its back on a beleaguered member. But is that really the case? Is the future fortunes of the Palestinians linked to the...

The Waqf, or endowments, is an age-old Islamic method of supplying public services. Throughout Islamic history, this third space enabled entrepreneurs and the monied to donate to causes that would multiply their reward. Many of the key services from health to education in history were funded by this method and it became a model of giving, emulated by many Westerners. Oxford University, it is said,...