ISLAM

St Petersburg Cathedral Mosque

Meeting place for Central Asian Muslims:

St Petersburg Cathedral Mosque is one of the northernmost mosques in the world and, until the 1990s, the largest in Europe (it’s now number four, with the top three also in Russia), serves as a hub for Muslims in St. Petersburg, who are estimated to number between 500,000 and one million in a metropolitan population of some five million.

Closest is the Peter and Paul Fortress, the kernel from which this imperial city grew, and, within it, the golden-spired Peter and Paul Cathedral, which holds the tombs of the Romanov czars. Farther along is the berthed battle cruiser Aurora, which fired the first shot of the 1917 October Revolution. In between rise the mosaic-topped minarets of the Central Asian-style St Petersburg Cathedral Mosque.

Its 49-metre minarets and its tiled azure dome appear to nestle next to the spires of the fortress. It has been 100 years since the mosque’s cornerstone was laid - but what a century it has been.

“Russia is a Russian Orthodox country. It is an Islamic country,” says Mikhail Piotrovsky. “Islam is part of our history, and the Islamic population is part of our population.”My profession is an Arabist,” Piotrovsky says. “Being director of the Hermitage [State Museum] is a hobby.”

“Understanding itself as an empire, Russia had two very important things built in St Petersburg in the beginning of the 20th century,” Piotrovsky continues. “A Buddhist temple and the mosque. So it was, let us say, a historical presence and an imperial understanding of what the capital of an empire is.”The cupola of the St Petersburg Mosque is a near-replica of the Gur-e Amir-Tamerlane’s tomb-in Samarkand, says Piotrovsky, but the main body of the mosque is built in Northern Art Nouveau, the style popular in St. Petersburg and the Baltic states from the late 1890s to the early years of the 20th century.

“There is no panorama of St Petersburg that does not show two minarets. This reflects the country itself”. “So that’s how it comes together: It was a cultural event. It’s not just a present or a [public] relations [gesture] to Muslims. It’s a cultural situation of Islam being part of Russian culture, traditionally, for many, many years.”

“We have a proverb: ‘Scratch a Russian, find a Tatar,’” says Efim Rezvan, deputy director of the museum, now called the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. Rezvan’s finds on the historic ‘Uthman Qur’an are celebrated, and he’s busy with preparations for a new expedition to Kazakhstan. “Tatar” was the term the Russians coined for all the ethnicities, principally Muslim ones, that descended from the Golden Horde and the Turkic peoples.

From the 1917 revolution to the mid 1950s, the mosque was variously closed, rented out for storage and used by the hermitage or bombed. When the Cathedral Mosque was opened on April 30, 1920 it was just as State Atheism was being officially invoked calling for all things religious to be dismantled. To be godless person was amongst the highest values of revolution that saw religion as “the opiate of the people.”

At that time the imam, the prayer leader of the new mosque ,was Musa Bigi who, at first, supported the Bolshevik revolution, but then one of its leaders wrote a book called The ABC of Communism. Musa Big replied with his own book The ABC of Islam and jailed for it. The intervention of Turkey’s Mustafa Kemal Ataturk saved him and he later escaped to exile.

The mosque was still open in 1924, when Lenin died .but the congregation had dwindled and the government rented out storage space in the building for potatoes, fruits and vegetables and even tombstones. Tatiana Stetzkevich, now 83, remembered that “through the entire Soviet period Muslims, more than followers of other religions, retained their religious traditions. In the practice of Islam, the only public ritual is to come to mosque and everything else was practised at home. The person who was Communist in public could practise Islam at home and nobody would know about it.

The war and its toll of more than 20 million dead somewhat moderated the Soviet repression of religion.

In 1955 Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited Russia and spent two days in Leningrad. Having seen the blue cupola of the mosque from his motorcade and recognizing its similarity to the one he had seen in Samarkand, he asked to visit it, but was told it was closed.

The following March the government renovated and the near-dormant Muslim community too was re-integrated and re-entered on the mosque. Indonesian President Sukarno was invited to visit the city in October 1956 and the just reopened mosque was added to his itinerary. Since then Mosque was used to show that there was Islam in Russia.

After 1975, during Leonid Brezhnev’s time control was eased although by 1980s much of the tile from the dome had fallen onto the roof, damaging both it and the ceiling below. The mosque was once again renovated and restored in 2003.

Today the Friday prayers fulfill the mosque’s original promise as a centre for the religious life of the city. The blue mosaic “ mihrab” or prayer niche, is bathed in blue light. Blue on blue, it is glorious. The lofty interior. The columns of green marble, the large dome, are daily lit now filled with a chandelier inscribed with verses from the Holy Quran.

Today twenty three nationalities from the length and breadth of Russia and abroad, who have come to St Petersburg, many in the last 20 years as immigrants from the former Soviet republics, all pray here .

The spoken words are in Arabic, Russian and Tatar. The hats are traditional Tatar square sided ones and the white skullcaps worn by those who have been to Makka on the Hajj. However there are Uzbek, Afghan, Ingushetian, Asian, from the Pacific, Europe, the Arctic, the Black Sea, Russian faces, African faces. Pakistani faces and even Arab faces.

In those faces it seems that Akhun Bayazitov’s prayer at the mosque’s founding century ago is being answered “Our mosque is.... Beautiful on the outside,...We should pray to Allah that all of us here will achieve beauty on the inside.;

Courtesy- Saudi Aramco World.

Rights of children in Islam

They exert every possible effort to lead a very successful life in terms of materialistic gains, although all this wealth is not actually theirs. No one will take wealth to the grave.

Children are not only to be well-fed, well-groomed, properly dressed for seasons and appearance, well-taken care in terms of housing and utilities. It is more important to offer the child comparable care in terms of educational, religious training and spiritual guidance.

The heart of a child must be filled with faith. A child’s mind must be entertained with proper guidance, knowledge, and wisdom. Clothes, food, housing, education are not, by any means, an indication of proper care of the child. Proper education and guidance is far more important to a child than his food, grooming, and appearance.

One of the due rights of children upon parents is to spend for their welfare and well-being moderately. Overspending or negligence is not condoned, accepted or even tolerated in Islam. Such ways will have a negative effect on the child regardless of the social status. Men are urged not to be miserly to his children and household, who are their natural heirs in every religion and society.

Why would one be miserly to those who are going to inherit his wealth? Children are entitled to such an important right. They are even permitted to take moderately from their parent wealth to sustain themselves if the parent declined to give them proper funds for their living. Children also have the right to be treated equally in terms of financial gifts. None should be preferred over the others. All must be treated fairly and equally. None should be deprived of his gift from the parents. Depriving, or banning the right of inheritance, or other financial gifts during the lifetime of the parents or preference of a parent for a child over the other will be considered in accordance to Islam an act of injustice.

Injustice will definitely lead to an atmosphere of hatred, anger, and dismay amongst the children in one household. In fact, such an act of injustice may, most likely, lead to animosity amongst the children, and consequently, this will affect the entire family environment. In certain cases when a special child may show a tender a care to his ageing parent, for instance, causing the parent to grant such a child a special gift, or issue him an ownership of a house, a factory, a land, a farm, a car, or any other valuable items. Islam, however considers such a financial reward to such a caring, loving and maybe obedient child, a wrong act.

A caring child is entitled only for a reward from Allah, the Almighty. Although it is nice grant such a child something in appreciation for his dedication and special efforts, but this must not lead to an act of disobedience to Allah, the Almighty. Children also have the right to be treated equally in terms, financial gifts. None should be preferred over the others. All must be treated fairly and equally.

None should be deprived of his gift from the parents. Depriving, or banning the right of inheritance, or other financial gifts during the lifetime of the parents or preference of a parent for a child over the other will be considered in accordance to Islam an act of injustice. Injustice will definitely lead to an atmosphere of hatred, anger, and dismay amongst the children in one household. In fact, such an act of injustice may, most likely, lead to animosity amongst the children, and consequently, this will affect the entire family environment.

In certain cases when a special child may show a tender a care to his ageing parent, for instance, causing the parent to grant such a child a special gift, or issue him an ownership of a house, a factory, a land, a farm, a car, or any other valuable items. Islam, however considers such a financial reward to such a caring, loving and maybe obedient child, a wrong act.

A caring child is entitled only for a reward from Allah, the Almighty. Although it is nice grant such a child something in appreciation for his dedication and special efforts, but this must not lead to an act of disobedience to Allah, the Almighty.

It may be that the heart and feelings of such a loving and caring child may change, at one point in time, causing him to become a nasty and harmful child.

By the same token, a nasty child may change, at any given time, as well, to become a very caring and kind child to the same parent.

The hearts and feelings are, as we all know, in the hands of Allah, the Almighty, and can be turned in any direction at any given time and without any previous notice. This, indeed, is one of the reasons to prevent an act of financial preference of a child over another. On the other hand, there is no assurance or guarantee that a caring child can handle the financial gift of his parent wisely.

It is narrated by Abu Bakr, RAA, who said that Allah’s Apostle, PBUH was informed by one of his companions, al-N’uman bin Basheer, who said: “O Prophet of Allah! I have granted a servant to one of my children (asking him to testify for that gift).” But Allah’s Apostle PBUH asked him: “Did you grant the same to each and every child of yours?” When Allah’s Apostle, PBUH was informed negatively about that, he said: “Fear Allah, the Almighty, and be fair and just to all your children. Seek the testimony of another person, other than me. I will not testify to an act of injustice.” This Hadith is reported by both Bukhari and Muslim. Thus, Allah’s Apostle, PBUH called such an act of preference of one child over the others an act of “injustice”. Injustice is prohibited and forbidden in Islam.

But, if a parent granted one of his children financial remuneration to fulfil a necessity, such as a medical treatment coverage, the cost of a marriage, the cost of initializing a business, etc., then such a grant would not be categorized as an act of injustice and unfairness.

Such a gift will fall under the right to spend in the essential needs of the children, which is a requirement that a parent must fulfil.

Compiled by Latheef Farook

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Happy married life

Important tips:

Dr Aisha Hamdan

** Express feelings often

This seems like a very “Western” concept and one that some people may struggle with, but it is important to be open and honest about one’s feelings, both positive and negative. The lines of communication should always be open and any concerns should be brought to the attention of the other spouse as soon as they arise. The rationale of this is that, what begins as a simple concern may grow into a major problem if it is not addressed quickly and properly. The “silent treatment” never fixes anything in the long-term.

** Admit to mistakes and ask for forgiveness

Just as we ask Allah to forgive us when we make mistakes, we should also ask our spouses to forgive us when we make mistakes. The stronger person is the one who can admit when he or she is wrong, request pardon from the other, and work hard to improve his/her aspects that are in need of change. When a person is unwilling to do this, there will be little growth and development in the marriage.

** Never bring up past mistakes

It can be very hurting for another person to be reminded of past mistakes. In Islam, it is generally not recommended to dwell on the past. One may remember errors that were made so that they are not repeated, but this should not be done excessively. Certainly, as humans, we are not in the position to judge another person. Advice may be given, but in the proper manner and with the best of intentions and etiquettes.

** Surprise each other at times

This may entail bringing home a small gift or flowers, preparing a special meal, dressing up and beautifying oneself (this is not only for women), or sending a secret note in a lunch-box. A little imagination goes a long way here. The idea is to spice up the marriage and avoid getting into a dull routine that may negatively impact the marriage.

** Cultivate a sense of humour

Joke with your spouse. This particular aspect goes a long way in preventing arguments and brightening the atmosphere of the home. Life is a constant stream of challenges and tests, and to approach it in a light-hearted manner helps make the journey smoother and more enjoyable. You may also find that your spouse enjoys this characteristic, and looks forward to spending time with you because of it.

In fact, the Prophet (PBUH) himself joked with his wives, as well as with companions (though without lying), and tolerated some companions who were known for being light-hearted and prankish.

** Quick tips for discussions and disagreements

*- Begin with the intention to resolve the issue. If both spouses have this intention and plan to consult together, it is more likely that there will be a successful resolution.

*- Remember that it takes two to quarrel. If only one person chooses not to argue, there will be no argument. Generally, the one who is wrong does most of the talking.

*- Both spouses should not be angry at the same time. If one of the spouses becomes upset, it is best if the other tries to remain calm and collected.

*- Never yell at each other unless the house is on fire. Of course, house fires do not occur very frequently; yelling should occur at about the same rate.

*- Never go to sleep with an argument unsettled. This is one of the worst things that can happen in a marriage and should be avoided as much as possible. This allows hurt feelings and thoughts to linger and generally exacerbates the problem.

*- If one spouse needs to win, let it be your mate. Do not focus on winning yourself; this is the main reason that discussions tend to become heated.

*- Remember your house in Paradise! The Prophet (PBUH) said: I guarantee a house in the surroundings [suburbs] of Paradise for a man who avoids quarrelling even if he were in the right, a house in the middle of Paradise for a man who avoids lying even if he were joking, and a house in the upper part of Paradise for a man who made his character good.[Abu Dawud, 41/4782]

Paris Hilton embraces Islam

Spread the word of Islam to the world:

Johnny Wilko

Jeddah - Saudi Arabia - Former American socialite, Paris Hilton has converted to Islam, her spokesman, Ian Brinkham, has revealed to CBS news.

“She has been toying with the idea for quite a while now and when she was imprisoned at Century Regional Detention Facility in 2007, she encountered a few people who had already converted,” Brinkham said. By converting to the Muslim faith, Paris Hilton has decided to shun her old life as a celebrity skank.

Speaking from an Islamic study retreat in Jeddah, she said: “I have now found total peace in my life. Before, I used to be known as an STD-ridden streetwalker, a ‘hoe’ and a person of loose morals, but now, things have changed. Allah be praised.”

Hilton plans to return to Los Angeles next week to start her own Islamic school in the middle of Beverly Hills.

“Forget Scientology or Kaballah. This is the religion to be in now. I’m not going to be wearing a piece of red string on my wrist or walk around like a robot talking to Xenu. Islam is the new must-have religion. and I’m going to spread the word of the Koran to everyone,” an excited Paris Hilton said.

Paris Hilton also plans to change her name to ‘Tahirah’ which means ‘Pure, chaste’ in Arabic. Her Islamic school will open in July and is set to become a popular Hollywood spiritual haunt for many celebrities.