Before September 11th ever happened, Imam Quick gave this khutbah at a masjid near downtown Miami in an effort to prepare the Muslim community for the fallout of such a momentous and tragic day. He looks at the concept of "furqan" (criterion) with the hopes of offering a way of strengthening the hearts to help the believer with the inevitable crisis of stereotyping, profiling, negative publicity, etc. But this criterion is not for everyone because it has certain pre-requisites that must be met in order for it to be effective. So what must we do or not do to make ourselves worthy of Allah's help which has been provided for us in the glorious Qur'an?
Other topics discussed: Kosovo, Sudan, Algeria, pre-Columbus Muslim presence in America, lack of shame, the movie "The Siege", leadership, and relevant institutions.
Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick Ph.D. has travelled to more than 34 countries on lecture and educational tours. He embraced Islam in 1970 and thereafter pursued his studies at the Islamic University of Madinah, where he completed a BA from the College of Da'wah and Usul al-Din. He later read for his Masters degree and completed his PhD on the History of Islam in Africa at the University of Toronto, Canada. The focus of his thesis was the life of the great mujaddid of the 18th century, Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fudi (Usman dan Fodio), the Amir of the Sokoto Caliphate. Shaykh Ibn Fudi succeeded in combining the best of fiqh, theology and spirituality, and successfully developed an Islamic State.
Shaykh Abdullah Hakim has served as Imam, teacher and counselor in the USA, Canada and the West Indies. For three years he contributed to the religious page of Canada's leading newspaper. He is presently a Senior Lecturer at the Dar-ul-Arqam Islamic Institute and Director of the Da'wah Department of the Muslim Judicial Council, Cape Town, South Africa.
As the new millennium dawns, Islam is in need of innovative rethinking based on original, authentic Islamic sources. Shaykh Abdullah Hakim provides an example of this new, progressive Islamic thinking.