The Seven Dragons

Jum'ah khutba - Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - 12 Feb 2016 - 24 mins 15 secs

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'And those who strive for Us - We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good. ' 

(Surah Al-'Ankabut, Verse 69)

The Shaykh describes the seven deadly vices that can destroy the inner soul and which inhibit happiness. He describes the the importance of the inward struggle that is paramount to overcome these vices. Taking lessons from the great story of Surah Yusuf which lays out the method that one must embrace to earn the help of the Almighty against all the vices.  

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The Ethics of the Prophet

Circle - Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - February 2012 - 1hour 14mins 48secs

In this circle the Sheikh tackles the topic of ethics and what it means within the context of Islam. He begins with a fundamental point; that in the foundation of Islam as with other great faiths the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was no mere theoriser; he laid down no well outlined manifestos or texts titled 'ethics'. Instead he, foremost amongst the greats of the religion, took history by the horns and changed it for the better in a natural way. It was up to those who followed, up to our day, to discover the spirit of how the Prophet was able to take his people and turn them around in an unprecedented time and manner. Many who followed him tried to find that subtle thing, that charisma, that made people hand over the keys to their hearts to him in a way that unified a land that had never been brought together before. It is revealing to note what his wife A'isha - may Allah be pleased with her - said about him: kana khuluquhu al-Quran, his character was that of the Qur'an. The message of Islam is thus intertextual, in a way the Book and the messenger are two facets of the same thing. Thus the Sheikh notes that Akhlaq, 'character traits', is the Islamic term for ethics.

The Sheikh outlines the current polarities of the age, where a post-Enlightenment West claiming to have found a Universal basis for ethics that apply to all human beings clashes with an often Muslim world that is seen as puritanical and backward. Sheikh Abdal Hakim goes on to see whether the virtues of the the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, can go some way to bridging this divide that is felt so keenly in contemporary society. 

Picture taken in the Eski Camii (Old Mosque) In Edirne, Turkey. Taken by the CKETC team.

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Gender & Gentility

Friday sermon (khutba) by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - May 2008 - 24 mins 54 secs

Continuing the theme of the previous post from another aspect, the sheikh in this sermon encourages us to consider the importance of decorous and respectful relations between the sexes, and to reflect on the characteristic modesty (haya') of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Influenced by the relentlessly immodest and hyper-sexualised world of mass entertainment and advertising, it can often seem to us today that the limits of the shari'a (Islamic law) on this issue are too rigid and that 'a good intention' will be sufficient to guard us in all situations. However, the sheikh warns us that this issue is far from the marginal, even faintly risible, question we sometimes risk making it. He points to the impact in British society - the home in earlier times of the quintessential gentleman - when respectability was abandoned as a serious concern, and how this relates to declining religious observance. To illustrate this point, he recites some of the poetry of John Betjeman - not something, it must be admitted, you will hear at the mosque every Friday.


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