Shawwāl (شوّال) is the tenth month of the lunar Islamic calendar. Shawwāl means to ‘lift or carry’; so named because she-camels normally would be carrying a fetus at this time of year.

Fasting during Shawwāl[link]

The first day of Shawwāl is Eid ul-Fitr. Some Muslims observe six days of fasting during Shawwāl beginning the day after Eid ul-Fitr since fasting is prohibited on this day. These six days of fasting together with the Ramadan fasts, are equivalent to fasting "perpetually", according to Sahih Muslim. The reasoning behind this tradition is that a good deed in Islam is rewarded 10 times, hence fasting 30 days during Ramadan and 6 days during Shawwāl is equivalent to fasting the whole year in terms of reward.^[1] It is a common misconception that the six days of fasting must be undertaken on consecutive days, but there is no hadith that support or stipulate this.

Timing[link]

The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, and months begin when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. Since the Islamic lunar calendar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year, Shawwāl migrates throughout the seasons. The actual and estimated start and end dates for Shawwāl are as follows:

Islāmic Events[link]

• 01 Shawwāl, Eid ul-Fitr is celebrated throughout the Muslim World.
• 08 shawwal, Bulldozing of Jannatul Mualla and Jannatul Baqee on 8th Shawwal Al-Mukarram 1926 is desecration of Holy Quran and Sunnah.^{[citation needed]}
• 13 Shawwāl, primary traditionist of the Sunni Muslims, Muhammad al-Bukhari, was born in 194 AH.^{[citation needed]}
• 17 Shawwāl, early Muslims took part in the Battle of Uhud
• 22 Shawwāl 1284 AH, death of Haji Dost Muhammad Qandhari, an Afghan Sufi master of Naqshbandi tradition
• 25 Shawwāl, death of Shī‘ah Imām, Ja‘far as-Sādiq
• 29 Shawwāl, Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib was born.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Islamic-Western Calendar Converter (Based on the Arithmetical or Tabular Calendar)
• Islamic Calendar / Hijri Calendar for Makkah
• Sahih Muslim
• Fasting Six Days of Shawwal: Necessary?

Zaid Salim Shakir is an American Islamic scholar and writer who is a co-founder (with Hamza Yusuf and Hatem Bazian), and faculty member, of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States, where he teaches courses on Arabic, Law, History, and Islamic Spirituality. He is one of the signatories^[1] of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders.^[2] It has become an important interfaith dialogue initiative between Christians and Muslims.^[3]

Early life[link]

Born in Berkeley, California and with his formative years in Connecticut, he accepted Islam in 1977 while serving in the United States Air Force and shortly after changed his name to Zaid Salim Shakir.^[4] A summa cum laude graduate, he obtained a BA in International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C. and later earned his MA in Political Science at Rutgers University.^[4] While at Rutgers, he led a successful campaign for disinvestment from South Africa, and co-founded a local Islamic center, Masjid al-Huda.^[5] After a year of studying Arabic in Cairo, Egypt, he settled in New Haven, Connecticut and continued his community activism, co-founding Masjid al-Islam, the Tri-State Muslim Education Initiative, and the Connecticut Muslim Coordinating Committee.^[4] As Imam of Masjid al-Islam from 1988 to 1994 he spearheaded a community renewal and grassroots anti-drug effort, also accepted the position as Professor and taught political science and Arabic at Southern Connecticut State University.^[4] He served as an interfaith council Chaplain at Yale University and developed the Chaplaincy Sensitivity Training for physicians at Yale New Haven Hospital. Zaid Shakir participates as a speaker at Islamic Society of North America annual conferences.^[6]

Years Abroad[link]

Zaid Shakir then left for Syria to pursue his studies in the traditional Islamic Sciences.^[4] For seven years in Syria, and briefly in Morocco, he immersed himself in an intense study of Arabic, Islamic law, Quranic studies, and spirituality. In 2001, he was the first American graduate from Syria's Abu Nour University^[7] and returned to Connecticut, serving again as the Imam of Masjid al-Islam, and writing and speaking frequently on a host of issues.^[8]

Recent work in the United States[link]

In 2003, as a scholar-in-residence at Zaytuna Institute located in California, Zaid Shakir began to teach Arabic, Law, and Islamic Spirituality. And, in 2008, he co-founded the Berkeley, California based Zaytuna College dedicated to the revival of Islamic Sciences and the preservation of traditional teaching methods.

He has traveled all over the world lecturing about Islam and contemporary issues. Zaid Shakir has translated several classical texts from Arabic.^[9] He has been a special guest and interviewed twice on Bill Moyers on January 18, 2002 and June 22, 2007, a prime time TV station network PBS. In 2007, Zaid Shakir participated in a lively conversation entitled, Can We Talk About God? Devotion and Extremism in the Modern Age with the foremost conservative thinker in Britain, writer and philosopher Roger Scruton. These two thinkers with some common ground and some sharply differing perspectives, the discussion was moderated by award-winning journalist, documentary-maker, Sandy Tolan of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.^[10][11] Also in 2007, Shakir was a contributing scholar in the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Prince Among Slaves, produced by Unity Productions Foundation.^[12]

He is the first Islamic Scholar to spearhead a nationwide initiative "Bite The Bug" a project of the ONE Campaign, along with many partners who are passionately concerned about matters plaguing Muslims regardless of culture, geography, language or race. This mission is to raise national awareness and demonstrate that the American Muslim community is compassionate, empathetic and action-oriented about basic maladies within the world.

He has brought both sensitivity about race and poverty issues and scholarly discipline to his faith-based work. In the spirit of the great scholars of the past, Zaid Shakir embodies the rationality, spirituality and breadth of traditional knowledge, as well as cutting-edge academic intellect. He leaves a lasting impression; his ability to move hearts and minds enlightens all walks of life. He is married and has one adopted son.^[13]

Zaid Shakir was a participant at the 9th annual 2010 seminar with The Archbishop of Canterbury,^[14] Dr Rowan Williams who chaired the Building Bridges Christian-Muslim Seminar on Tradition and Modernity, which brought together leading Muslim and Christian scholars from around the world to explore issues at the heart of the two traditions. Shakir has also been featured on the Washingtonpost.com and Newsweek blog, On Faith. He is a frequent speaker at local and national Muslim events and has emerged as one of the nation’s top Islamic Scholars and a voice of conscience for American Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Zaid Shakir stated in a 2009 interview with USA Today, "as a faith community our needs aren't any different than the needs of any other faith community. As Muslims, we need to develop institutions to allow us to perpetuate our values."^[15]

Zaid Shakir has expressed a hope that the people of the United States convert to Islam, "Every Muslim who is honest would say, I would like to see America become a Muslim country. I think it would help people, and if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be a Muslim. Because Islam helped me as a person, and it's helped a lot of people in my community."^[16]

According to CNN blog This Just In, an article entitled "Today's Intriguing People" states, The New York Times has reported that Zaid Shakir is one of nine influential Muslim scholars who has appeared in a YouTube video denouncing militant Islam."^[17][18]

A September 8, 2010 NPR.org report, titled "Listen to The Story: New College Teaches Young American Muslims", revealed that Zaid Shakir informed the inaugural class that they are "pioneers, charting the future course of American Islam – which is not for the faint of heart. Literally, the whole world is looking at you. The whole world is listening to you. You will be put under a microscope by a lot of people, and you will have to perform."^[18]

In The Chronicle of Higher Education March 18, 2012 article entitled "American Islam", Zaid Shakir states "We have to raise our voices, we have to present our example, and we have to institutionalize our example. We have to develop institutions that reflect our diversity. We have to develop institutions that bring all of this potential power ... of these people, coming with all of their collective experience, all of their collective spiritual and emotional energy, all of their collective histories ... and say, this is how we can live in this country."^[19]

Criticism[link]

While many have cited Zaid Shakir as example of Islamic moderation,^[20] his critics have questioned his moderate credentials. In his book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn challenges the characterization of Shakir as a moderate Muslim, citing Shakir's expressed hope for the conversion of America to Islam and adoption of Islamic law in America.^[21]

On November 13, 2009 Zaid Shakir issued a lengthy statement regarding the Fort Hood shooting with this introduction:

I begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the families of all of the dead and wounded. There is no legitimate reason for their deaths, just as I firmly believe there is no legitimate reason for the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani civilians who have perished as a result of those two conflicts. Even though I disagree with the continued prosecution of those wars, and even though I believe that the US war machine is the single greatest threat to world peace, I must commend the top military brass at Fort Hood, and President Obama for encouraging restraint and for refusing to attribute the crime allegedly perpetrated by Major Nidal Malik Hasan to Islam. We pray that God bless us to see peace and sanity prevail during these tense times.^[22]

This statement was praised by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) but criticized by Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy and a former lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. Jasser said that "as an American Muslim," he was offended by these comments which he believes reflect Shakir's "disdain for our military."^[23] However, Ingrid Mattson, the President of the Islamic Society of North America supported Zaid Shakir's response to the Fort Hood tragedy as "solidly grounded in the Islamic legal, ethical and intellectual tradition."^[24]

Commendation[link]

A 200 page report entitled, “The 500 Most Influential Muslims” edited by noted professors John Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin was published November 20, 2009 by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (Jordan) and the Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (Georgetown University) describes Shakir as “an influential Islamic scholar".^[25][26] The New York Times describes him as "a leading intellectual light" whilst adding that he has "a history of anti-American rhetoric" that has mellowed over the years.^[27] Tikkun Daily states that he is "one of the most thoughtful and dynamic teachers about the true nature of Islam in America today".^[28] In The Chronicle of Higher Learning, "embodying an American story if ever there was one—including proverbial bootstraps, military service, political activism, and deep religious commitment—Zaid Shakir's message of social justice in the face of poverty and racism he has known first hand makes him endlessly and, it often seems, effortlessly relevant. He is as approachable a man as I've ever met."^[19]

Publications[link]

Books authored[link]

• Where I'm Coming From: A Year In Review, 2010
• Agenda To Change Our Condition, (Co-authored with Hamza Yusuf), 2007
• Scattered Pictures: A Reflection of An American Muslim, 2005

Books translated with additions[link]

• Treatise For The Seekers of Guidance, (translation and commentary of Al-Muhasibi's Risala Al-Mustarshidin), 2008
• Heirs of the Prophets, 2000

Books which include his foreword or note[link]

• Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet, (editorial review), 2010
• Ascent to Felicity, (editorial review), 2010
• The War within Our Hearts: Struggles of the Muslim Youth, (wrote introduction), 2010
• Living With Blindness: Lessons from the Life of Imran Sabir, (wrote introduction), 2009
• Submission Faith and Beauty, The Religion of Islam (Co-edited with Hamza Yusef), 2008
• A Gathering of Voices on Caring For Creation, (contrib. article)The Zaytuna Ruku Tree, 2008
• Dear Self: A Year In The Life of A Welfare Mother, (wrote foreword), 2006
• The Empire and The Crescent, (contributed article Jehad as Perpetual War), 2004

Papers[link]

• Crescentwatch Position Change
• An Examination of The Issue of Female Prayer Worship

External links and further reading[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zaid Shakir

Websites[link]

• Zaytuna.org – Imam Zaid Shakir co-founder and faculty member of College
• New Islamic Directions – Official Website
• Lectures of Imam Zaid Shakir

Articles and Interviews[link]

• Media Articles Profile

See also[link]

• Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri
• Hamza Yusuf

References[link]

Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi (ياسر قاضي), formerly known as Yasir Kazi, is an American Muslim writer and Islamic instructor for the Al-Maghrib Institute. He has written a number of books and has lectured on Islam and contemporary Muslim issues.^[2][3]

Biography[link]

Qadhi was born in Houston, Texas, to parents of Pakistani origin,^[2][4] but Qadhi has also stated that he hails from Lucknow, India.^{[citation needed]} He completed his primary and secondary education in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, graduating as valedictorian of his class. He returned to Houston to complete a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Houston. When asked why he chose a secular degree instead of an Islamic one first, he remarked:

"As a Muslim child growing up in America, you are expected to become an engineer or a doctor. It is just understood."^[4]

After a short stint at Dow Chemical, he went to the Islamic University of Madinah in Madinah, Saudi Arabia to attain a bachelor's degree in Arabic from the university's College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences and a master's degree in Islamic Theology from the College of Dawah.^[4][3][2]

He returned to the United States in 2005 after nearly ten years in Saudi Arabia.^[4] As of April 2012, he teaches in the Religious Studies Department of Rhodes College, in Memphis, TN. Additionally, he is completing a doctoral in theology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.^[2][3]

Qadhi describes himself as a "revivalist" in the Islamic sense, and likens some of the practices he endorses similar to those practiced by conservative Christian groups and Orthodox Jews in America, particularly with regard to dietary laws, family values, and modest dress for women.^[4]

Activities[link]

Qadhi was recently featured in a front-page NY Times Magazine article by Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott^[5] shedding light on Qadhi's activities and biography.

He is the Dean of Academic Affairs and an instructor for the AlMaghrib Institute,^[3] a double weekend-based seminar that he and other American Muslims instructors run. The instructors travel to designated locations in the US, UK and Canada (and more recently, Malaysia) to teach Islamic studies in English.^[4] He gives regular sermons and lectures, and also appears on a number of Islamic satellite channels: (Islam Channel in England; Huda TV in Egypt; Al-Fajr Channel in Egypt; and Peace TV in India, the UK, and the U.S), where he teaches theology, Seerah, Tajweed and other topics. He is also one of the founding members and Islamic specialists at MuslimMatters.org, a blogzine for American Muslims. Qadhi appeared on PBS' TV series "Finding Your Roots" in an episode that premiered on April 15, 2012. The episode highlighted his family's migration to America, his geneological history, and the presence of Muslims in America. During the episode, it was revealed to Qadhi that he shares a common ancestor with Barbara Walters and that he is related to Ashkenazi Jews.^[1]

Holocaust remarks and subsequent revisionism[link]

The Daily Telegraph reported that, in 2001, Qadhi (whom the newspaper characterized as a "hard-line conservative preacher") described the Holocaust as a hoax, and claimed that "Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews", and "All this [the Holocaust] is false propaganda".^[6] The telegraph also reported that Qadhi later retracted his statements, stating that he had been misled.^[6] Faced with the charges, Qadhi, acknowledging that he had briefly held mistaken beliefs about the Holocaust, wrote that even in the 2001 lecture he did not deny "the actual occurrence of the Holocaust, or express any support or admiration for Hitler, or claim that all Jews were worthy of being despised or hated". He called it a "one-time mistake", stating that "I firmly believe that the Holocaust was one of the worst crimes against humanity that the 20th century has witnessed."^[7]

In July 2010, he was selected to participate in an official delegation of US imams and religious leaders to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. The Imams subsequently released a joint statement condemning anti-Semitism and labelling Holocaust denial as against the ethics of Islam.^[8]

Controversy[link]

Qadhi attempted to unite various Muslim groups in North America via a document entitled Pledge of Mutual Respect and Cooperation. This was met with censure by erstwhile professors at the Islamic University of Madinah, who criticized his methodology.^[9] He faced criticism for collaborating with the members of mystical sufi sects, though Qadhi considered the collaboration to be for the greater good of Muslims in North America. Qadhi has promulgated the notion of re-interpreting aspects of Islamic law to fit the current times.^[10] Qadhi has been criticized by conservative Muslim scholars such as Muhammad al Madkhalee for taking a pluralistic and accommodating stance.^[11] In an apparent nod to liberal Islam, Qadhi has allegedly shaken CNN journalist Mona Eltahawy's hand.^[12]

Views on Jihad[link]

Yasir Qadhi has presented papers on jihad movements. In 2006, at a conference at Harvard Law School, Qadhi presented a 15-minute analysis of the theological underpinnings of an early militant movement in modern Saudi Arabia headed by Juhayman al-Otaibi. The movement had gained international attention when it held the Grand Mosque of Mecca hostage in 1979.^[13] In another paper, presented in September 2009 at an international conference at University of Edinburgh on understanding jihad in the modern world, he discussed how a specific legal ruling (fatwā) of the medieval theologian Ibn Taymiyya was used both by jihadist and pacifist groups to justify their positions.^[14] The paper has been critiqued, however, by Salafi commentators.^[15] Qadhi has been involved in de-radicalization efforts in the US, and was a participant in the U.S. Counter-Radicalization Strategy conference organized by the National Counterterrorism Center in the summer of 2008.^[16]

Umar Abdulmutallab, the al-Qaeda member who attempted to bomb Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009, was a student at "Ilm Summit", a 16-day AlMaghrib Institute Islamic education conference in August 2008 at which Qadhi was an instructor.^[17] Qadhi said of Abdulmutallab, who attended some of the classes that he taught, "He was a very quiet individual, tight-lipped and shy, and he did not ask a single question during the discussions. He barely interacted with the other students at the conference.".^[16] Qadhi recalled speaking to Abdulmutallab, and remembered that he was "very reserved in his responses."^[16] Abdulmutallab also attended two seminars organized by the AlMaghrib Institute in London in the months before the event in Houston. After the Houston event, Qadhi added, Abdulmutallab did not sign up for further AlMaghrib events, perhaps an indication that extremist ideas were beginning to influence him.^[16]

In 2006, Qadhi, noting that Muslims are routinely detained and questioned at airports and other ports of entry, said that the main problem the Muslim community has "is the presumption of guilt. It is the singling out of people just because of their looks or their identity." Qadhi said he himself was on a secret watch list, but had no idea how he got on the list.^[18] His name has since been cleared from that list.

Works[link]

Books authored or co-authored[link]

• Riyaa: Hidden Shirk, 103 pages, Abu Ammaar Yasir Al-Qathi, Dar-al-Fatah, 1996, ISBN 8172317530
• An introduction to the sciences of the Qura̓an, Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, Al-Hidaayah Pub., 1999, ISBN 1-898649-32-4
• An Explanation of the Four Principles of Shirk, 60 pages, Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb, Yasir Qadhi, Al-Hidaayah, 2000, ISBN 1-898649-52-9
• Du’a : The Weapon of the Believer, Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, Al Hidaayah Publishing & Distribution, 2001, ISBN 1-898649-51-0
• 15 Ways to Increase Your Earnings from the Quran and Sunnah, Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, Al Hidaayah Publishing & Distribution, 2002, ISBN 1-898649-56-1
• An explanation of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's Kashf al-Shubuhat: a critical analysis of shirk, Abū Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb, Al-Hidaayah, 2003, ISBN 1-898649-62-6

See also[link]

• Islam in the United States
• List of Da'ees
• Dawah

References[link]

External links[link]

• MuslimMatters bio (where Qadhi blogs)
• Qadhi Audio and Books
• Qadhi Video and Audio Lectures from Halal Tube
• Qadhi on the Deen Show
• Qadhi on the Doha Debates
• Doha Debates participant
• Video of Qadhi's talk "Perfect Justice: Debunking the Male Bias Myth", April 22, 2006
• Video of Qadhi's talk at Global Peace and Unity Conference, 2006
• Video of Qadhi's talk at Global Peace and Unity Conference, 2008
• Kilday, Anne Marie, "'For the benefit of all mankind'; Local conference highlights Quran's teachings about the importance of honoring animals", Houston Chronicle, December 23, 2006

Ali Ghulam Murtaza ( born January 1, 1990) is an Indian First Class cricketer.^[1] He was a member of Indian World Team in the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 competition. He bowled wonderfully in ICL games and earned a reputation of a very good left-arm spinner. In IPL 2010, he was a part of the Mumbai Indians squad which lost to Chennai Super Kings in the final. Since he played in ICL he has a one year amnesty period during which he can't represent the Indian cricket team.He is currently looking for a spot in the Indian cricket team. In the 5th edition of IPL, he moves to Pune Warriors India. His father is a cricket coach in Bishop Johnson School & College, Allahabad

References[link]

This biographical article related to Indian cricket is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Mullá Abu'l-Hasan-i-Ardikání (Persian: ملا أبو الحسن أرديكاني‎), surnamed Amín-i-Iláhí, better known as Hájí Amín (1831-1928) was an eminent follower of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, a global religion of Persian origin. Amín served as the trustee of Huqúqu'lláh, was posthumously appointed a Hand of the Cause of God by Shoghi Effendi, and identified as one of the nineteen Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh.

Background[link]

Mullá Abu'l-Hasan-i-Ardikání

At seventeen he married into a family of Bábís of the town of Ardikán, near Yazd, Iran. When news of the declaration of Bahá'u'lláh came, he accepted immediately and travelled throughout the Persian Empire teaching the new message.

He was a literate man, and earned his living by trading and writing for the illiterate as he travelled. He was known to collect letters that people wished to forward to Bahá'u'lláh, and also distributed tablets of Bahá'u'lláh where people received them.

He made his way to 'Akká, and became the first Bahá'í from outside of the city to see Bahá'u'lláh, returning on several occasions. When Haji Shah-Muhammad Manshadi was killed in 1880, Amín became the trustee of the Huqúqu'lláh.

Hájí Amín, lived a long life and was Trustee of the Huqúqu'lláh [“Right of God”--a certain Bahá'í fund] during the ministries of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá and during part of the ministry of Shoghi Effendi. During his long and turbulent life he was a source of inspiration and loving guidance for all the believers. He often visited their homes and urged them to become detached from the things of the world and to follow the path of modesty in all aspects of life.

In 1891 he was imprisoned for three years in Tihran and Qazvin, and during the time of `Abdu'l-Bahá he continued his travels, visiting 'Akká and Haifa on many occasions. In old age he settled down in Tihran.

References[link]

• Balyuzi, H.M. (1985). Eminent Bahá'ís in the time of Bahá'u'lláh. The Camelot Press Ltd, Southampton. ISBN 0-85398-152-3. 

• Harper, Barron (1997). Lights of Fortitude (Paperback ed.). Oxford, UK: George Ronald. ISBN 0-85398-413-1. 

External links[link]

• Biography, by Moojan Momen

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