The Holy Prophet (sws) said, “On the night of Miraj Allah Almighty
complained to me about my nation. One of His objections was this: ‘I
do not ask of them to perform anything ahead of time, all I ask is for
them to do what they should in its own time. But, by contrast, they
ask of Me to provide them ahead of time. While I have provided them
perfectly for so many years, they are not satisfied, even though they
do not know whether their lives will last long enough to use up what
they have been given. Even so, their greed for the things of this
world is ever increasing, and they complain of not having the
wherewithal of a livelihood, always asking for more.’

‘Do they not regard the birds in the skyways? Every morning the birds
of the fields leave their nests with empty crops to return in the
evenings having eaten their fill, though the whole world be covered in
snow. Does not your nation take a lesson from this? While the whole
world is covered in snow and not a speck of earth is to be seen, He
who provides the birds with their shares, will He not provide them
also with their own portions? Why does your nation not place their
reliance on Him who has forever guaranteed their subsistence?’

“The second complaint is this: ‘I do not give their provisions to any
other than them; in spite of this, they perform actions for the sake
of other than Me.’

“My third complaint is this: ‘While they are consuming the portions
that I have provided for them, their gratitude goes out to someone
else. They will say, for instance, ‘In my vineyard I had a harvest
such an amount and from my fields such an amount, from my trade so
much.’ But was it not I who caused the vines to grow in his vineyard
and the crops in his field, and who gave him success in this commerce?
Why do they remember Me not and mention not My Name when they speak of
the yields of their vineyards and fields, and the profits of their
trade? Wherefrom is this heedlessness; do they feel no shame?’

[Source: Muhammad - The Messenger of Islam, by Hajja Amina Anna]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-limosq245775306jul24,0,2529587.story
http://www.1010wins.com/L-I–Imam-Charged-with-Sexually-Abusing-Teen/2659889

“A 53-year-old Imam has been arrested in connection with the sexual abuse of a teenage boy in Long Island. Niamatullah Ibrahim works at the Selden Mosque of the Islamic Association of Long Island. The 13-year-old boy he is accused of assaulting was a student there, police said.”
-
The 13-year-old was at the mosque “as a member of a religious study group for youth,” Fitzharris said. “He was forcibly placed into a room, and sexual contact was made.”
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“The boy’s mother, who asked that her and her son’s names not be used, said she is concerned that Ibrahim, who was born in Afghanistan, will make his $100,000 bail and flee the country.

“He could go anywhere,” she said. “I don’t want him to go away from whatever he did.”"

*Note: The man is the Muezzin, teacher, custodian and lives on site at the Masjid, although there is an off-site Imam
–

My comments:

Over two years ago the New York Times attempted an ‘attack’ our Shaykh Abdul Kerim Effendi, but as we know the article showed the true colors of the evil ones. Now one of the people the NY Times decided to quote was Nayyer Imam. He gave the following incorrect statement:

“They do not belong to any Naqshbandi order,” said Nayyar Imam, the president of the Islamic Association of Long Island, whose Selden mosque is attended by many Stony Brook students. “They have created their own thing.”

Back then I pointed out that Shaykh Maulana Nazim, the worldwide leader of the Naqshbandi Hakkani way, has given authority to Shaykh Abdul Kerim, and Nayyar Imam has nothing to do with the Naqshbandi order in anyway to be speaking on our behalf.

The Imam of the Selden Mosque, which Nayyar Imam is president of, was recently arrested for sexual abuse charges on a 13 year old boy.

This occurred under his watch. Mr Imam has shown once again shown that he is a poor judge of character.

He was a poor judge on who he decides to attack, and he is a poor judge on who he decides to promote into positions of authority.

What occurred to this Muslim boy looking for knowledge is a terrible tragedy, and calls to the police have confirmed that the mans bodily fluids were found and taken from the boy. This was a two month investigation for which we will inshaAllah see all the culprits and cover-ups exposed which surely go to the highest levels.

Mr Imam is now quoted in the above article:

The mosque leaders “take these allegations very seriously,” said Nayyar Imam, president of the Islamic Association of Long Island.

Tabarani said in his Mu`jam al-awsat:

Anas said that the Prophet said: “The earth will never lack forty men similar to the Friend of the Merciful [Prophet Ibrahim], and through them people receive rain and are given help. None of them dies
except Allah substitutes another in his place.”

Qatada said: “We do not doubt that al-Hasan [al-Basri] is one of them.”

You have memorized the name of Allah, yet these veils and curtains
still remain.

You have studied and studied, yet your scholarship has only sharpened
your greed.

You have read hundreds of thousands of books, yet you have not
killed your cunning ego.

None but the Shaykhs can kill the inner thief, for it ravages the very
house in which it lives!

-Sultan Bahu

When we hear the Saudis have demolished holy sites and made them into toilets and parking lots, its usually difficult for some people to truly understand or feel emotion. The connection that wahabi-influenced Western Muslims have to, say, the Hazrati Khadijas (R) old house and the Prophet’s (S) birthplace is shaky at best.

However, few places are mentioned as often in childrens tales as the Cave of Hira at Jabl al-Nur (Mountain of Light). Even these people with confused ideologies find their hearts drawn to the stories of the cave. What would it be like to see that cave, pray where the Prophet (S) first received Quran?

Recently family members have come back from Umrah and took some pictures of the situation of the cave.

First we see the standard Bidaa/Innovation disclaimer one would expect from the Wahabi’s who control and are ‘guardians’ of the holy places. Not many people make the trip up the mountain, especially after reading this warning. Only two men traveled up alone to see these sights, they encountered no rush of littering people. Much of this seems to have been sitting there for months or years.

Of course, this means they will give little care to maintaining this place, its all “Bidaa” to them.

Once you are finally up the mountain, the path immediately before the seating place of the Prophet (S):

Its difficult to compare this to times in the past when entire contingents were paid by the government/people to keep places such as this in spectacular condition.

Climb up through these boulders to see where the Prophet (S) would sit and meditate:

This is the view of the area, the large rock in the center may have served as the Prophet’s (S) chair:

Supposedly before construction one could look outwards to see the Kabaah from here, yet its difficult to get past the view of the garbage:

The entire area is littered with not only actual garbage but also graffiti, visitors will often pray here:

The mountain side

Interesting snippet of an article about the Wahabis work on Islamic sacred sites:

Dr Irfan al-Alawi, historian, founder and former executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, who is one of the most vocal opponents of the destruction of the Haramayn and their environs, says that last year the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs distributed a pamphlet in the Masjid-e Nabawi calling for the demolition of the green dome. Endorsed by Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s current grand mufti, the pamphlet brazenly declared: “The green dome shall be demolished and the three graves [where the Prophet, Abu Bakr and Umar are laid to rest] flattened in the Prophet’s Mosque.” The groundwork for such sacrilegious statements was prepared by another prominent Saudi scholar, the late Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymeen, who for 35 years delivered khutbas in the Masjid al-Haram. “We hope one day we’ll be able to destroy the green dome of the Prophet Muhammed [saws],” he said, in a recording provided by Dr Alawi.

Dr Alawi estimates that 300 historic sites have been destroyed or are scheduled for destruction. An old house that had belonged to Umm al-Mu’mineen Khadijah al-Kubra (ra) was recently razed to make room for a public toilet facility, among other things. The birthplace of the Messenger (saw) in Makkah was first turned into a library and named “Maktabat Makka al-Mukarrama”, and is now being turned into a parking lot. While libraries are important, the plan was not based on the Wahhabis’ desire for learning but on their determination to destroy all vestiges of Islam’s heritage. The few remaining historical sites in Makkah can be counted on one hand and will probably not survive much past the next Hajj, according to Dr Alawi. “It is incredible how little respect is paid to the House of Allah [in Makkah].”

An ATM (cash-dispensing machine) has opened on the site where the ancient mosque named after the first khalifah, Abu-Bakr Siddiq (ra), once stood. The sites of the historic battles at Uhud and Badr have become parking lots. The graves of Amir Hamza (ra) and the other shuhada of Uhud have suffered even greater indignity: garbage litters the site and the Wahhabis expressly forbid any identification-markers on them, again under the spurious excuse that this would lead to shirk. The 1,200-year-old mosque and tomb of Sayyid Imam al-Uraidhi ibn Ja‘far al-Sadiq, four miles from Masjid-e Nabawi in Madinah, was destroyed by dynamite and flattened on August 13, 2002. Imam al-Uraidhi was ninth in line from the Prophet (saw).
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/52814

According to Shaikh al-Islam: “When someone fell ill or suffered an affliction,
Khaircha would go to him and recite the Fatiha [the Opening Sura of the Quran and
breathe upon him. That person would recover there and then. An erudite scholar once
suffered from toothache, so he went to Khaircha, who recited the Opening Sura and
breathed upon him. His toothache was cured, but he said: ‘O Khaircha, you do not recite
the Fatiha correctly. Shall I teach you to recite it correctly?’ Khaircha said: ‘No, you
must correct your heart!’”

-Nafahat al Uns

The Blessed Mantle, also known as the Holy Mantle, according to tradition was given by the prophet Muhammad to the poet Kâab bin Züheyr. The poets poem Kasida-ı Burda praising the prophet decorate the Room of the Blessed Mantle[1]. Although many legends were spun about the appearance of the mantle, it is almost two yards long and made of black wool lined with a cream-coloured fabric.[2].

The mantle used to be visited by the sultan and his family and court with a traditional ceremony once a year on the fifteenth day of Ramadan.[3]. The kissing of the mantle was not done directly, but a piece of muslin was placed over it. This decorated kerchief was called the Noble Kerchief (destimal-ı şerif) and was provided for each person by the Agha of the Muslin (Tülbent Ağası). The mantle was kept in a golden box, of which only the sultan had the keys. The box was opened while he intoned the besmele. The mantle was actually wrapped in a number of square pieces of cloth called bohças. In it was another small golden box in which forty bohças were wrapped around the mantle itself. The number forty was considered especially auspicious.

The Agha of the Muslin placed the first kerchief on the mantle and the sultan kissed it, followed by the imperial princes, viziers, officials, male attendants and eunuchs. This was done while Koranic chants filled the chamber. Next to kiss the kerchiefs were the women, who were lead by the Queen Mother, followed by the chief consorts, concubines and daughters of the sultan, as well as the wives of all officials present and female attendants. Princess Imperial Ayşe Osmanoğlu, daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, gave a rare eyewitness account in her book. “Babam Abdülhamit” (My Father, Abdülhamit). Istanbul, 1960. Intimate glimpse of Abdülhamit II and of her own life by his daughter, Ayşe Sultan.:

We began to prepare three days before the visit to the Blessed Mantle, on the fifteenth day of Ramazan. We got up early that day, wore our most beautiful long-skirted ceremonial dresses, put on our jewels, and went to Topkapı. My grandmother got into a carriage of the sultanate; the drivers wore the embroidered uniforms of the royal stable, like the drivers of the padishah. Halim Efendi, who was the officer in charge of harem outings, was in front with the guards. The harem ağas, wearing embroidered uniforms, followed the carriage of my grandmother, which was in front. Thus we left Yıldız and went to Topkapı. There we were met by old female attendants who came from Dolmabahçe, and we went to the room assigned to each of us in Topkapı. All those outside the palace to whom the invitation had previously gone, the married sultans [the ruler’s daughters were called sultan] and the wives of the ministers also came. We invited the people we knew personally.

In the room called the Room of the Armchair my grandmother sat under a canopy in her royal costume, and all of us went and kissed her hand. All together we waited for the opening of the Pavilion of the Blessed Mantle. Sultan Abülmecit’s wives [he was a deceased sultan], Serfiraz and Şayeste, were there too and sat beside my grandmother. Usually the valide paşa [the mother of the khedive of Egypt] was at the ceremony.
The baş musahip [the head harem eunuch in attendance on the sultan] came to the harem when the Blessed Mantle was opened and, with an Oriental salute, gave the news to my grandmother, the valide sultan. The valide sultan rose, and after her walked the wives of Abdülmecit and then the sultans and the kadın efendis, all in order of precedence, and we all went to the Pavilion of the Blessed Mantle. Everyone wore a piece of white muslin on her head. We sensed odours, because incense was burning everywhere, and from behind a curtain came the Noble Koran read in an extremely beautiful voice by the muezzin. The hearts of all of us filled with deep and humble reverence, with slow steps, our skirts sweeping the ground, we walked in ranks until we came in front of the padishah who stood at the foot of the throne. [This is the only mention of a throne in connection with the visit to the Blessed Mantle.] With an Oriental salute from the ground . . . we took the noble kerchief which was given into our hands, kissed it, put it over our heads, withdrew backwards, and went and again stood in our ranks according to precedence. . . .
The young princes, the sons of the padishah, stood in rank in uniform at the foot of the throne.
After us the valide paşa and the wives of the grand vizier, the other ministers and the şeyhülislâm entered. The lady treasurer and the other palace servants also participated in the ceremony. At the end of the ceremony the baş musahip appeared, gave an Oriental salute from the ground, and we left in ranks as we had entered, the valide sultan in front.
Our carriages drew up to the Harem Gate [Carriage Gate] of Topkapi in order of precedence, and we mounted them and returned to Yıldız Palace in the same formation as we had left it. These carriages, which proceeded slowly because of the horses, usually brought us to the palace at the time of the iftar cannon [the cannon that announced the end of the day’s fast during Ramazan].” Davis, pg. 150-151

1 ^ Davis, pg. 146
2 ^ Davis, pg. 149
3 ^ Davis, pg. 149
4 ^ Davis, pg. 151