The rights of an orphan   Allah )جل جلاله( stresses the rights of the orphans in many places in the Quran, for example :    فأما اليتيم فلا تقهر Therefore, treat not the orphan with harshness. [93:9] و أن تقوموا لليتامي بالقسط … that you stand firm for justice to orphans. [4:127] And one of the Prophet's Hadith states: أنا و كافل اليتيم في الجنة هكذا و أشار بالسبابة و الوسطي و فرج بينهما (مشكوة- ص 422- البخاري) "The guardian of an orphan and I will be in the Paradise like this"; and he (صلى الله عليه وسلم) brought his…

Islam envisages for man a discipline for his life as a whole, material as well as spiritual. But there is no denying the fact that owing to differences of individual temperaments, certain people would specialize in certain specialties and not in others. Even if one were to concentrate on the spiritual side of one’s existence, he would still remain more or less attached to the other occupations of life for his nourishment, for the sake of society of which he is a member, and so on. In his celebrated expose of his teaching on faith and submission and the best…

Plans for a cemetery for Muslims on the outskirts of a small North Texas town have sparked a backlash among some local residents who said they fear it will bring radical Islam and terrorism to their doorsteps. The Islamic Association of Collin County purchased 34 acres to develop a cemetery in the sleepy burg of Farmersville because the closest Muslim burial ground is rapidly running out of space. The Dallas-Fort Worth area already has three Muslim cemeteries, all developed and run for years without incident. Residents in this town of 3,400 about 45 miles northeast of Dallas packed a community…

Jakarta - Violence against Christians in Indonesia frequently makes news headlines. However, acts of violence targeting Christians should not obscure the fact that the vast majority of Indonesia's Christian communities live and worship free from fear and interference in a Muslim majority country, and that religious conversion has never been prohibited. In the past few years, however, the level of religious freedom has declined. The government must have the courage to stop this trend and protect Indonesia's religious minorities to continue to uphold religious freedom. During the first nine months of 2011 alone the Jakarta Forum for Christian Communications counted 31…

A hundred years ago, it would have been unimaginable to have a pair of Muslim men enter a cafe or a public transportation vehicle, and then blow themselves up, killing dozens. Or to massacre the staff of a satirical magazine in Paris! Things like that were simply not done. When you read the memoirs of Edward Said, or talk to old men and women in East Jerusalem, it becomes clear that the great part of Palestinian society used to be absolutely secular and moderate. It cared about life, culture, and even fashion, more than about religious dogmas. The same could…