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Showing posts from May, 2008

Q&A: The dollar crisis, rising oil & commodity prices

The following is a translation from an Arabic Q&A. بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Question: The dollar crisis continues to persist and it its slide down is markedly visible. This has been followed by a surge in crude oil, gold and other minerals & metals prices thereby resulting in steep rise in foodstuff prices. This multi-faceted crisis is unprecedented both in terms of its intensity as well as persistence… Is this crisis really a result of economic problems, or is it the US policies that are spurring & aggravating it? I request you to please clarify this, may Allah reward you for it. Answer: Indeed this crisis has a genuine economic aspect as well, but the interference of political hands has compounded & aggravated the problem to such proportions that we see. To fully clarify the picture, we shall explain how the crisis developed, how the political hands interfered with it and how the rise in the prices of crude oil, gold and metals affected the crisi

Film Review: "Khuda Kae Liyai"

Taken from: http://callforrevival.blogspot.com/2007/09/film-review-khuda-kae-liyai.html It’s on the screens, papers and magazines, and chit chats, of a common man. It’s not about, the crises in middle east, or the carnage in Iraq, the thing everyone has been talking about is, the movie "Khuda Kae liya". As a layman, with sufficient schooling background in English. The appropriate translation of this phrase would have either been "For God's Sake" or "For the Sake of God", the former may imply a strong definitive remark with an exclamation mark, and the latter may be taken on a slightly softer tone, for giving a significant recommendation. Perhaps the makers of the film knew well, and the official English name stand as, ‘In the name of God’. Translate in to Arabic - you don’t need to be an Imam of a mufti for that - "Bismillah". But this time, it’s not about a recitation from the Quran, or the ‘dua’ before having meal. It’s about the movie, bei

Big oil speculators ensure that a barrel of oil crosses the $135 mark

On 22/5/2008 a barrel of oil briefly broke the $135 mark and prompted many analysts to forecast $200 for a barrel of crude by the end of the year. The high price of oil is despite the fact that more and more oil reserves are either being discovered or being improved to boost productivity. For instance during 2007, 250 million barrels of oil were found in Uganda, 8 billion barrels discovered in Brazil and technology improvement has meant that extraction of oil from Canada’s tar sands — deposits that could rival the Middle East—is commercially lucrative. Furthermore, many respectable institutions are predicting that the recession in the US and the high price of oil will dampen overall world demand for crude in 2008. These tell tale signs indicate that speculation is the main factor behind the price of crude. Big oil speculators are intentionally inflating the price of oil to strengthen the sagging value of the dollar. The fact that oil is traded in dollars is assisting the US to keep i

New Books from Revival Publications

The following books have been recently published by Revival Publications and are now available to purchase: The Islamic Way of Thinking [English] By Hasan Abdullah Islam is a unique ideology based upon a unique Aqeedah (belief), which serves as the foundation for a unique system of rules. The distinct nature of Islam would lead someone to ask whether or not Islam came to also shape the thinking process, which is a process common to all human beings. Thinking is universal, like the processes of eating and walking. However, because human beings adopt different Aqaid (beliefs) and the adoption of any Aqeedah builds a person intellectually in a specific format. Then the Aqeedah serves as the intellectual framework that defines the outlook towards life as well as the reference and foundation upon which the person builds all other thoughts. Thus, the Aqeedah by its nature mandates a distinct way of thinking. Once the Islamic Aqeedah is adopted in a correct intellectual manner based upon soun

The Quran and the basic rights of humanity

The following is the transcript of a talk delivered recently to a group of lawyers and intellectuals. وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا “We have made you an Ummah in equilibrium that you may be witness over the affairs of mankind, and the Messenger is a witness over you.” [Qur’an, 2:143] Allah (swt) in this verse emphasizes to us our role as witnesses over mankind, the meaning of witness here is not just to witness the problems that face humanity as onlookers without doing anything – rather being witnesses here means being responsible for humanity When we survey the problems that humanity is facing today, we see: · The current food crisis where according to the President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick: "In Bangladesh a two-kilogramme bag of rice...now consumes about half the daily income of a poor family". · The economic situation where the rich get richer and the poor get p

Q&A: Ayah 3:104 relating to a distinct group?

The following is the translation of a Q&A by Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta (May Allah protect him). Please note that most of it relates to Arabic linguistics which is difficult to translate, some of the points may also be difficult to understand without knowledge of the Arabic language. بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Question: While studying the tafseer of the following ayah, I fail to understand that this points to a distinct group? } ولتكن منكم أمة يدعون إلى الخير ويأمرون بالمعروف وينهون عن المنكر وأولئك هم المفلحون { “Let there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good (Islâm), enjoining Al-Ma'rûf (i.e. Islâmic Monotheism and all that Islâm orders one to do) and forbidding Al-Munkar (polytheism and disbelief and all that Islâm has forbidden). And it is they who are the successful.” [TMQ 003:104] I considered the above ayah with this saying of Allah (swt): } ويأمرون بالمعروف وينهون عن المنكر{ Indeed this work of enjoining the ma’roof and forbidding the munkar is requir

The Crude facts

In May 2008 the price of oil reached an unprecedented $125 a barrel, Oil has continued to hit record levels since January 2008 as the price of Oil passed the $100 mark when a single trader in search of market fame pushed through a small trade. It has risen by 25% in the last four months and by nearly 400% in the last seven years. The importance the black stuff plays in the modern economy is so crucial that slight changes in prices can affect economies. Oil past and present It was British naval power that brought Oil to the international scene. In 1882, Oil had little commercial interest. The development of the internal combustion engine had not yet revolutionised world industry. It was Britain's Admiral Lord Fisher, who argued that Britain must convert its naval fleet from bulky coal-fired propulsion to the new oil fuel. With Germany on the verge of shifting the global balance of power by developing its own oil propelled ship from that point, oil conversion of the British fleet dic