One famous prayer of repentance, or dua taubat, could be roughly transliterated as follow:
Ilahi lestu lil-firdawsi a’la
wa la akhwa ala nar il-jaheemi
Allah fa habli tawbata wa-ghfir dhunubi
fa innaka ghaafiru dhanb il-adzimi
This doa has been put to song, together with a lovely malay translation, by Junied, a nasheed group from Singapore associated with the Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah. Madrasah Aljunied is a famous madrasah, having produced many notable scholars over the course of its nearly one hundred years, including the present Mufti of Sarawak, if I’m not wrong. It is …

Every year, all over the world, muslims in the spiritual lineage of the great saint Imam Abdullah al-Haddad gather together to celebrate his life and remember his great wisdom. He is most fondly remembered in the parts of the world that have benefited from the dawah of the scholars and saints of Hadhramaut: Yemen, the Swahili Coast, the muslim parts of the Indian coast and the Malay Archipelago, the Nusantara. In the Nusantara, as elsewhere, the hadhrami da’is did not only preach, but stayed, intermarried and naturalized. …

Umar Lee, whose website is frequently enraging but always engaging, is presenting a series of ideas about what it means to be white and muslim, and they are at such odds with each other I don’t know how they stay on the same page.
First of all,
one thing you cannot be and be white in my mind is Muslim.
which he believes to be true across the board.
Second, about himself,

African-American brothers … are the Muslims I have always been the closest to and have been able to identity with …

Selamat Hari Raya, Eid Mubarak to all! May Allah accept our worship over the Holy Month of Ramadan and bless us to make it to the next one. Maaf Zahir dan Batin. If Bin Gregory Productions or its author has done you wrong over the past year, knowingly or unknowingly, I humbly request your forgiveness.

The American Scientist has an interesting article titled Modern Cosmology: Science or Folktale that got me up to speed with current theories for the cosmos as we see it. The books I remember reading about the universe as a kid, which talked about black holes and dwarf stars and so on, didn’t have all this stuff about “dark matter” and “dark energy”, and I never went back to read up on it.
Imagine my surprise when the author concludes by saying
Alas, [the Big Bang model] has since run …

A window into the intellectual evolution of Islamic higher education in Indonesia: an interview with the rector of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Prof. Amin Abdullah by Prof. Farish Noor of The Other Malaysia.

…what is happening in places like UIN SUKA: You have pious Muslim students who are practicing Muslims who nonetheless can actually read the Quran and Hadith using the methodology of discourse analysis; who can write papers about inter-textual interpretations

12 Rabi’ul Awwal has come and gone again. In the past, I’ve written about a famous book of poetry about the birth of Prophet Muhammad (s) called Mawlid Daiba’i. Actually the Mawlid poetry more widely read in Malaysia is Mawlid Barzanji, named after its composer, Imam Zayn al-`Abidin Ja`far ibn Hasan al-Barzanji (d. 1177) (r). Imam Barzanji was an Iraqi Kurd, a people with a rather surprising connection to Islam in the Nusantara. It is worth remembering that the author was no mere poet or …

Is It Really Kosher?
is an interesting article by Aaron MacLean on the rise of Islamic Financing around the world. Some of the article’s better points:
…“money always looks for the best deal.” if Islamic finance couldn’t provide results close to those of secular institutions, it wouldn’t exist. … The rational profit motive never lost its place as the key factor in investor behavior.
Malaysia has the largest Islamic Financing sector outside of Dubai, if I’m not mistaken. My bank accounts are all structured Islamically, as are my …

By Abu Muhammad
English Translation and Photography by Bin Gregory Productions
Datuk Hakim Keramat, or the Miraculous Judge, was the title given to a religous scholar of Sarawak well known for his miracles and mystic knowledge. His real name was Abang Haji Abdul Rahman bin Abang Haji Brahim. He was born in Kuching, Sarawak and returned unto the Mercy of the Lord on the 9th of Ramadan 1309 AH (1890 CE). He was buried in the cemetery on the grounds of the Kuching District Mosque.
Datuk Hakim Keramat began his …

Kota Samarahan, Sarawak
Large government institutions will often have suraus or masjids built on their grounds, particularly if the institution has a resident population. The mosque where I most often make my Friday prayers is one such mosque, built on the grounds of a nearby maktab perguruan. It’s a lovely building, a modern rendition of the classic Malay mosque, which is square and tiered, with no dome. Unline the classic version, this one is built of rebar and concrete instead of wood, although the ceiling is treated with …

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My Bagan Datoh Vacation, Final Installment
My five children weren’t the only ones sick over the vacation. The wife was busy vomiting all over the place too. The problem: Penyakit buatan orang. That literally means a man-made illness but refers to a hex or voodoo curse placed on someone. Black magic is alive and well in Malaysia, at least in people’s minds. It is not uncommon to hear people complain of illness, change of a spouse’s affections or other problems as being caused by witchcraft and …

In the heart of our kampung in Bagan Datoh lies the Masjid Jamek Jawiyyah, a beautiful mosque built entirely from wood over one hundred years ago. There have been a few expansions since then, but the original timbers of the structure are still intact and unchanged. Since it was built before running water, the ablution pools are fed by gutters that channel rainwater from the roof. The main roof is square and built in two tiers. The red metal dome may not be original …