Essays

You may request a copy of these essays by sending an email to aymenahmed@gmail.com
I would send them to you by email, most likely within 24 hours inshaAllah. If you need any urgently for da’wa or research, you may contact me on my cell: +971507732013 (U.A.E) or +15199910321 (Windsor, Ontario)

All rights reserved. Material must not be used for monetary gain. May be freely reproduced and distributed for personal and da’wa purposes.


Title: The Way of Life called Islam

"… strange how the 'dormant seedlings of fear and dislike' sprout in the hearts of people when they meet someone belonging to the Islamic faith. Undoubtedly, these have been sown by the actions of some "Muslims" who do not follow the true fundamentals of Islam. Ironically, they are referred to as "fundamentalists" by the western media. The other culprit is, of course, the mass media itself. As if a scandal out of a tabloid magazine, excessive propaganda against a Faith even makes those who do not follow question the credibility of the media."

This essay also covers the five pillars, the core of the Islamic way of life.


Length: 1459 words, 4 pages (single-spaced)

Written: 22nd February 2005

Works Cited:
The Holy Qur’an

Title: Islam: On Common Terms with “The People of the Book”

The essay explores the Islamic faith with the objective of building lasting bonds,with the People of the Book (Jews and Christians), inviting them back to the Unity of Allah.
All three texts (the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Quran) have been cited and misconceptions cleared leaving little or no room for the message to be rejected due to personal biases.

Length: 2984 words, 10 pages (double-spaced)

Written: 14th April 2005

Works Cited:
Badawi, Jamal. “The Status of Woman in Islam." Al-lttihad Sep. 1971: 1
Deedat, Ahmed. The Choice - Islam and Christianity Vol 1. IPCI 1993.
Deif, Ahmed. Personal Interview. 22 February 2005
Hamid, Ayub A. Islam, Does it Make Sense? 1st ed. Waterloo: Niche Noor, 2003
Tayebi, AbdulKader. Personal Interview. 21 March 2005

Title: A Brief History of Women deprived of the Justice of Islam

"Now under this universal imperialist control .... she too has become one of the many sources of exploitation, of disempowerment and of paralysis, of stealing and hoarding from all ... she and the very essence of her life are sucked out.
How?
From her, now with the help of sociologists and psychologists, they have built a scented, arousing, undulating naked doll who wriggles through beauty and fashion journals to make herself ever prettier.
But why?
To better sell their useless surplus products...
.... The values and standards of dependence on imperialism and capitalism, make of women the object of lust, a most desirable object that must beautify and expose herself." (Rahnavard, nd, pp 11-12, 27)

"Many Muslim women the world over have, in the course of the second half of the twentieth century, chosen to abandon the West and its values for a stricter adherence to Islam: a return to the roots of the faith that has been dubbed 'fundamentalism' by the West and revivalism by the Muslims." (Afshar 1)

This essay covers the following subtopics: Women Today, Women in Pre-Islam Arabia, Women in Other Civilizations, and Women in Other Religions

Length: 2973 words, 7 pages (single-spaced)

Written: 22nd February 2005

Works Cited:
The Holy Qur’an
Afshar, Haleh "Why Fundamentalism? Iranian Women and their Support for Islam"
Skaine, Rosemarie: "The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban"
Al-Mubarakpuri, Saifur-Rahman: "The Sealed Nectar"
Badawi, Jamal "The Status of Women in Islam," originally published in the quarterly journal, Al-lttihad, Vol. 8, No. 2, September 1971.

Title: Women in Islam

After carrying out a detailed study of Islamic literature, current issues, and practical examples, I, like numerous others, have reached the following conclusion: Islam is a way of life that liberates the female soul from the bondage of current norms which cause her to live a cattle-like existence. These norms are very much indicative of male dominance. So, what status does Islam give to women, which they are deprived of when following other ways of life?

Length: 3931 words, 13 pages (double-spaced)

Written: 14th April 2005

Works Cited:
The Holy Qur’an
Al-Hashmi, Muhammad Ali. “The Ideal Muslimah.” 2nd ed. Riyadh: IIPH, 2003.
Badawi, Jamal. “The Status of Woman in Islam." Al-lttihad Sep. 1971: 1
Deedat, Ahmed. The Choice - Islam and Christianity Vol 1. IPCI 1993.
Hamid, Ayub A. Islam, Does it Make Sense? 1st ed. Waterloo: Niche Noor, 2003
Hasan, Shuaib. The Rights and Duties of Women in Islam. 1 Feb. 2005
www.sultan.org/books/womright.pdf

Naik, Zakir. Ten Most Common Misconceptions about Islam. 5 Sept. 2004.

www.irf.net/books

Skaine, Rosemarie. The Women of Afghanistan under the Taliban. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland, 2002.
Tayebi, AbdulKader. Personal Interview. 21 March 2005

Title: Zakah Vs. Taxes

The case of Muslims in countries where high taxation forces citizens to look for avenues to save more money. Are taxes other than Zakah permissible in Islam, even under a non-Islamic state? Do Muslims have to pay their Zakah on top of taxes, or can one be exempted from either one of them? What about an unjust tax policy?

A discourse which answers these questions in the light of the Qur’an, Islamic history, and a fatwa (religious edict) issued by Dr.Monzer Kahf, a well-known Islamic economist of our time.

Length: 1330 words, 3 pages (single-spaced)
Written: June 2006

Works Cited:
The Holy Qur’an
Azmi, Sabahuddin “Islamic Economics”
IslamOnline Fatwa Bank (http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503546956)



Title: A Brief Historical Sketch of Islam in America

Length: 2131 words, 4 pages (Illustrated, single-spaced)

Composed for distribution during the Black History Month. The citations are many and therefore form an intensive yet coherent package of information.

Works Cited:
[1] Sulayman Nyang, Islam in the United States of America (Chicago: ABC International Group, Inc., 1999), pp. 12-13. Nyang is referring to Harvard University professor Leo Wiener_s Africa and the Discovery of the Americas (Philadelphia, 1922).
[2] Youssef Mroueh, Precolumbian Muslims in the Americas. This article is widely available on the internet, an example can be found at http://www.jannah.org/articles/precolumbus.html. To view an image of al-Idrisi_s map, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery.
[3] Gavin Menzies, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World (London: Bantum Press, 2003). The author has a website as well, see http://www.1421.tv/index.asp.
[4] Michael Gomez, Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005), p. ix.
[5] Emma Powers, _Selim: a biographical sketch, in Colonial Williamsburg, see http://research.history.org/Historical_Research/Research_Themes/ThemeReligion/Selim.cfm.
[6] Sylviane Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (New York: New York UP, 1998), p. 48.
[7] The findings of Allan Austin, cited in ibid., p. 46.
[8] Aside from Diouf_s work, the ground-breaking work on this subject was done by Allan Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America: a sourcebook (New York: Garland, 1984).
[9] Gomez, Black Crescent, pp. 198-199.
[10] Carson, Lapsansky-Werner, Nash, “African American Lives – Volume I” p. 94-95
[11] Carson, Lapsansky-Werner, Nash, “African American Lives – Volume I” p. 94-95
[12] First printed as Some Memoirs of the Life of Job, the Son of Solomon the High Priest of Boonda in Africa by Thomas Bluett; printed for Richard Ford, 1734.
[13] http://www.islam101.com/history/roBHistmnth.htm