Hadji Bayram Wali : An Awliya from Ankara
Bayram is his nickname, his real name is Nûmân bin Ahmed bin Mahmood. He was born in Ankara in 1352 and passed away in the same city in 1429. His tomb is a popular destination today just near the Hadji Bayram mosque in Ulus district of Ankara. He started studying Islamic disciplines as well as […]
Asr-i Saadath : Age of peace, prosperity and happiness
Asr means era and saadath means happiness. This phrase is a term of Islamic history, used to describe the period of Prophet Muhammad (saw). After him, there were many different periods in Islamic history like the periods of Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Seljuks and Ottomans. Before any of these eras, it was the time and age […]
Bathi Badal Mawt : Belief in resurrection according to Islamic thought
This term is one of pillars of Islamic faith. Every Muslims believes in resurrection, the concept of returning to life after death on the day of judgement. It is also called “hasree ajsad” which means gathering and union of the corpses. Or, alternatively, it is named as nashae uhra, the second creation. Quran warns; The […]
Shaban-i Wali : An Awliya from Kastamonu
He was an important figure of during the 16th century Ottomans and was born in the city of Kastamonu. His birth year is unknown and he passed away in 1568. At an early age, he went to Istanbul to study Islamic disciplines like tafsir, hadith and fiqh. On his way back to Kastamonu after he […]
Muhaddith : The abutments of sunnah
The muhaddith is like the person who helps to strengthen the bridge between Rasulullah(saw) and the rest of the humanity. The dictionary defines the word muhaddith as the kind of Islamic scholar who is study “hadith”. That definition is correct in the “dictionary” sense of the word but we are talking about Rasulullah(saw), the last prophet […]
Culture of Bay’ah : Pitfalls of Orientalism in understanding history of Islam
Bay’ah is such a culture that holds a special place in the history of Islam which describe the relationship between Prophet Muhammad(saw) and his companions & friends whom we usually refer to as “The Sahaba” Bay’ah means acceptance, affirmation and giving a promise to remain loyal on certain accounts. Some sources try to explain the […]
Not just worship : Semantic layers of the word ibadah.
The word ibadah corresponds to such a life style and state of being, which is one of the fundamental structures of Islam. If Islam is a like ship, ibadah is the mast. However, this important notion’s meaning is not underscored properly if it is translated into English just as “worship” Language is a living organism. […]
Ahl-i Qible : Beyond the Madhabz, Beyond the locational differences.
Ahl-i Qible is term to describe a Muslim to orients himself to the Qabe in Mecca and performs salat, which is considered as the main pillar of Islamic faith. The term qible explains the direction that every Muslim must turn to while performing salat, which the Qabe in Mecca. There is also spiritual and abstract […]
Sura At-Takathur : Bragging about plenitude and what is wrong about it
Takathur is a short, Meccan sura that warns mankind about the perils of showing off and bragging about worldly possessions and the consequences of such actions if one pursuit them until it becomes a life-style. Everyone in contemporary world, except a tiny fraction, would criticize “the system of capitalism” at every possible chance. In other […]
Amir Sultan : An Awliya from city of Bursa
Bursa is such a city in Turkey that every “sufi-traveller” must visit if they are interested in history of “tasawwuf” in the Anatolian peninsula. Since the city served as the earlier capital city of Ottoman empire, the spiritual magnetism that emitted from this city and dispersed through the neighboring areas helped to shape the authentic […]