Shabbir’s Blog

In His Name, the Most High

So I’ve finally done it, I’ve created a blog - I’ve succumbed to the temptation that has had millions of people going nuts. So now that I’ve created the blog, what do I do with it? Now there’s an interesting question Let’s see how it transpires.

For now, it is enough to say who I am, I am Shabbir R Hassanally, son of Nurbanu and Rahmatullah Hassanally, born in Kampala, Uganda, brought up in England, studied in London, and then went to the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lebanon for Islamic Studies, got married to my lovely wife, Fatema, and then moved back to England via Dubai, and was there until recently when I got sick of working working working, and having no life - oh yeah - I am an IT person, a Software Engineer/Developer, but recently more of a consultant and Internet security person.

Having studied in the Islamic Republic of Iran, I am not just a Software Engineer, I am also a Cleric, but I am not a traditional Islamic Cleric, in that I walk around with my head in the sky, and acting like an arrogant son of a bitch - I try to look at the reality of the situation and how we can be true to Humanity, since in my understanding, Islam, which is completely in sync with Humanity, and Allah (God, Jehovah, Rama, Christ, whatever you want to call Him), is the most perfect Justice, and hence He will not give humanity, his best creation, a raw deal.

I have found through my experience, that a lot of the so-called Clerics within the Muslim Community, mainly those clerics from the Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan, who are hired by the Khoja community world wide, are a complete waste of time (note, I do believe there are a exceptions and some excellent Ulema have come from the Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan), but by far the majority of them are a complete waste of time, who do nothing to help the community elevate itself and move towards the Ultimate Perfection, but instead, just prefer to sit around, lead the prayers, perform Nikkahs (Marriage Ceremonies), Talaqs (Divorces), and other menial tasks, and they don’t help the community deal with the complex social problems that plague them.

This is a failing on the part of resident Ulema, and one for which I am certain they will be asked by Allah on the Final day.

The only Ulema that I feel are worthy of the title Ulema (Men of Knowledge in Arabic), are those in Lebanon, and some of the Righteous Ulema in Islamic Iran - people such as the Leader of the Muslim Ummah, the Wali Amr al-Muslimeen, Imam Khamenei(HA) (HA == May Allah protect him), Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah(HA), the Secretary General of Hizbullah, Ayatullah al-Udhma Behjat(HA), Ayatullah al-Udhma Sayyed Muhammad Husayn Fadhlullah(HA), Ayatullah Jawadi Amoli(HA), Ayatullah Misbah Yazdi(HA), etc and those akin to them, they are the true examples of the true Leaders of the Muslim Community, and the local resident “Mullahs” (Mullah == Another term for a cleric sometimes used in a derogatory fashion (though that is not my intent here)), would do well to learn from them.

The sort of clerics that we don’t want are the type that I will describe here:

1/ The Unlearned Robe Wearing Moron
I remember when I started in the Islamic Seminary in Islamic Iran, that in my class was a young man from Pakistan, he claimed to trace his lineage from the Prophet Muhammad(S) - whether that’s true or not is another subject, which no doubt we’ll come to at sometime but for now let’s take that as a given - anyways, this guy comes to me and says:

“Brother Shabbir, you’re from London right?”

So I reply:

“Yes, I am”

He continues:

“I was wondering, how much would I get for reciting lectures in Muharram in London?”

Now remember, this guy has been at the Islamic Seminary for about a week(!!), and wants to start preaching to the masses in London, England - without really knowing very much(!!).

My wicked streak kicked in and I thought, let me have some fun with this guy, and let’s see how he reacts, let’s see if he’s here at the Seminary purely for the sake of God, or whether he’s here for money.

I replied:

“Well, for someone like you (sarcastically) I would assume that you’d get at least £1,000 pounds per session, and in Muharram, you’d have at least 10 sessions possibly 12 - so that’d come to about £12,000, plus your transportation and accommodation, which would naturally be at least business class air fare, and a decent hotel, so add another 3-4 thousand pounds to that”

The look on this guys face, you could see the dollar signs come up in his eyes- and I forgot to say that he was donned in the garb of the Prophet(S). Traditionally when someone completes their studies at the Islamic Seminary, they start to don the garb of the Prophet(S), the Abaya (a long flowing cloak), the Qaba (a long coat worn over their normal clothes and under the Abaya, and an Amamah (a turban - if the cleric is a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad(S) he wears as a black turban, otherwise a white turban), anyways this guy was full geared out after a week of Islamic Studies, he can’t even speak Farsi or Arabic, and knows very little about Islamic Concepts except the basics which all Muslim children are taught at the equivalent of Sunday Schools, and he wants to act like an Ayatullah!! Astaghfirullah may Allah protect the Muslim Ummah from such corrupters.

He immediately took hold of my hand, and asked me to organize it for him to go to London in Muharram the following year. I told him that I was not the person to do that, but that he should contact the relevant communities in London.

Whether he did or not, is something I don’t know, since I avoided this fool from that time. I developed a sadness that still stays with me, a sadness that the Prophet(S) is insulted so openly by those who claim to follow his line and some who claim to trace their lineage from him. Oh Allah, protect the Muslim Ummah from such fools, Amen, O Lord Sustainer of the Universes.

2/ “These people are beyond help”
The second example of the kind of clerics that we don’t want within the community are those who are parasitic, they take a salary from a community but do very little to raise the level of the community and do nothing to help their situation and bring them out of the darkness and into the light, and when questioned as to why they are so lethargic, they reply by saying that “these people are beyond help”.

In 2003 when I came to Dar es-Salaam, as a precursor to moving here, we came to look around at properties , and other things that we would need when we moved here, I went to visit a cleric, I won’t say his name or too much about where or who he works for since there is no purpose in that, but the anecdote is like this.

I was with an English brother, a revert to Islam, Jondab Ali, and apparently I don’t look like a regular Khoja person, we went to visit this cleric, he’s a whitetop (i.e. he wears a white turban, meaning that he’s not a descendent of the Prophet(S)), we wanted to ask him what he was doing in Tanzania, since he has been here for over 5 years, apparently he’d studied for 10 years at the Islamic Seminary in Qum, Islamic Republic of Iran, and so I figured that he would be a wise man, and would be doing a lot to change the situation of the community, but I was to learn otherwise, and it breaks my heart that such people are floating around - but God is Great, and our beloved Imam al-Hujjah(May our souls be His ransom) (Imam al-Hujjah(AJ), is the 9th descendent of Imam Husayn(A) the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad(S), and the Muslims believe that he is in occultation, and will re-appear at the end of the to establish the true Justice of Allah will return soon insha Allah).

Anyways, we went to visit this guy, and since I was speaking to him in Farsi, and had an English person with me who was blond haired and blue eyed, he must have figured that I was Iranian, suffice it to say that I asked him what are you doing with the local community here in Tanzania - the Khoja’s, the Africans, etc, do you know the local language yet, Swahili.

His answer made me both angry and extremely sad, he said that he didn’t know Swahili - I mean come on - you’ve been here 5 years - for God’s sake man - it doesn’t take 5 years to learn a language - or that all you did in Islamic Iran, spend you time learning Farsi (which incidentally he spoke very badly :(), and he went onto say that the Khoja’s don’t listen to him, I asked him if he knew English so that he could communicate with the youth, he replied in the negative, he said he knew a little, but not a great deal, and besides according to him, he said:

“these Khoja’s are beyond help, they won’t listen to anything anyone says to them”.

I asked him if the Prophet Muhammad(S)’s task when he brought Islam to the ignorant desert Arabs of Arabia had a harder job or whether he had a harder task in working with the already Muslim Khoja people of Dar es-Salaam?

He went silent.

I told him, that the second he decided he wanted to become an Alem Rabbani (and Islamic Cleric), he should have realised that everything he does is a challenge and that it is his responsibility to reform the people and bring them towards Islam towards the truth, and help them attain perfection, this is a responsibility, and not something that you can just shirk simply because you feel that “these people are beyond help, or they won’t listen, etc” - you have be imaginative, and try different ways, be a true revolutionary.

He hadn’t realised that I was a Khoja, and when I told him - he was shocked. I told him, that I know these people have problems, without a doubt they have problems and they are stubborn, but it is definitely possible to reform them, no doubt. I told him that if the Prophet(S) could reform the desert Arabs, anyone could be reformed. Fact. Otherwise there is a fundamental problem with the Justice of Allah, since Allah would have then logically created a people who it is impossible to reform and bring towards the truth, this goes against Justice. So it could be argued that this whitetop, doesn’t understand the Justice of Allah fundamentally, which leads to a question, does he understand monotheism properly? What was he doing for 10 years in the Islamic Seminary? Learning how to tie a turban?

May Allah protect the Muslim Ummah from such morons.

For now this is enough, there is going to be more, and no doubt some people will be most upset with what I write, but I don’t care, I am doing this as an obligation to Allah, to my beloved Imam al-Hujjah(AJ), and to the Muslims. We must start to reform ourselves.

The world is moving towards Islam at an amazing pace, and we the Muslims are still stuck in our ever decreasing circles, it is high time we started reforming ourselves, educating ourselves, and moving forwards, moving towards perfection, towards Allah.

With Salaams and Dua’s for now

Shabbir