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By Safi Kaskas HOW do you maintain a sense of faith in a God who claims to be merciful and compassionate, amid the myriad kinds of afflictions, pain, difficulties, setbacks, abuses, losses, and traumas that occur at the individual and collective scales? This question actually assumes that if God’s claims to be merciful and compassionate are true, suffering and disasters should not happen. This assumption actually hides another; that life on earth is an end in itself.

By Mawlānā Muhammad Saleem Dhorat hafizahullāh Once again, the best of all months, Ramadhān, is upon the horizon. It is a month in which at least one du'ā is accepted daily from every Muslim, one sunnah/nafl act is equivalent to the reward of one farḍ act, and one fardh act is rewarded seventy times over. From morning to evening and evening to morning, each and every second, Allāh ta'ālā showers His choicest blessings and barakah upon His servants.

Syed Jawed Anwar Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) USA and Muslim American Society (MAS) organized its 42nd convention on Easter weekend (14-16 April) in Baltimore, Maryland. I attended after more than decade when it was in Hartford, Connecticut. At that time, the convention attracted under 10,000. After a few years the numbers crossed 10,000, and the convention organizers changed its venue to the Convention Center, Baltimore. Now the numbers are over 20,000.

By Sheikh Mikaeel Olivieri (Abdur Rahman) Almighty Allah has put us in this world for a short amount of time. In our time here, we must quickly assess and examine our situation. By the grace of Almighty Allah, he has guided us to the religion of Islam. Islam has left no stone unturned in showing us, in a very beautiful and simple way, how to live. The biggest test, of course, is dealing with trials and tribulations. Allah, outlining this, says in the Quran:

“The hour will come until people vie (strive in competition or rivalry) with one another regarding Masjids” [Hadith: Abu Dawud (449), An-Nasai (2/32), Ibn Majah (739), Ibn Hibban (308-Al-Mawarid), and Al-Baghawai in Sharh us Sunnah (464)-Smaller Signs of the Day (closer to Qiyamah, the Doomsday)]. Competition and rivalry in Masjids are so rampant, so fierce and widespread that is obvious everywhere. But will they go to the limit that they will start acquiring money from the banks and Credit Unions with

Shamim A. Siddiqi 1. What is our position today: Our life is far away from the Qur’an. Reasons * Ignorance of the language of the Qur’an * Non-availability of the Islamic society or environment; * Limited concept of Deen –just limited to some worships, traditions, name and nomenclature and observing some festivals;

Shamim A. Siddiqi Different brothers define in their way that who is an ideal Muslim. Those are the qualifications of a "routine" or a "traditional" Muslim whereas the need is that of an Ideal Muslim and for that we need extra efforts to find out who are they, where they are found, what they constitute, how they can be built, how they live, act and behave, and how they would look like as living human beings in the context of the modern world.

Islam is to be understood in the true perspective of the Qur’an and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (S). The condition of the existing Muslims is also to be judged on the same criterion. At present, there are about 1.2 billion Muslims on this earth, but nowhere in the world the Deen of Allah is in a dominant position. This is the greatest tragedy of human history. The Deen that could deliver justice, peace and security to mankind is nowhere visible as a political entity.

The month of Ramadan is observed by Muslims throughout the world with all sanctity and reverence that it demands. It is a universal training program prescribed by Allah (SWT) to keep the Muslim intact with their Deen and akin to their Creator and Sustainer on person to person basis. It is a refreshing training course of a month [about 720 hours] that comes every year recurringly, reminding the Muslim men and women that they are the slaves to their Lord everywhere and under all the circumstances in which th