Matovu Abdallah Twaha
SHARJAH: From May 19, next Monday two events that are central to the Muslims will take place at Al Muntada Al Islami headquarters in the vicinity of Sharjah Television building. One is presentations on The Lost Capitals: Stories from Cordova, another is A Photographic Exhibition about Cordova and Granada.
Perhaps you have heard about Al Andalus: the Muslims’ name for Spain and nearby territories; so were cities such as Qurtuba for Cordova and Ghurnaata for Granada. What about Jebel Taariq which passes as Gibraltar? The list of such names is long because it will encompass cities, as some historical accounts allege; Fii Amaanillah (In Allah’s peace) today’s Manila; Khairullah (Kerala -Goodness from Allah), and Zanjabaar (Zanzibar).
By holding these exhibitions, which are a weekly menu for the event-packed table of Al Muntada Al Islami throughout the year, the organisation is fulfilling its goal of propagating what Islam is but not what the Muslims say or do.
“Islam is very good but some Muslims do not reflect this reality,” says the body’s General Secretary, Majed Abedullah Bu shlaibi. “Since Islam has returned to Europe, it is our mandate to spread its true message that espouses tolerance, harmonious coexistence, equality and justice to humanity.” This is the key essence of Al Muntada “and we let people make their own choice.”
Since its establishment in 1929 and its intermittent closure until when it was permanently housed here since 1997, Al Muntada has hosted hundreds of scholars including all Imams of Haram (Makkah). The website: www.muntada.ae clearly indicates the weekly events on the calendar.
A few days ago, a Saudi scholar, Dr Qis Al Sheikh Mubaarak made a presentation on Family Law which was shortly followed by the monthly roundtable that discussed Zayed Fiqh Encyclopaedia. Interestingly, Al Muntada events crossover to a huge Al Maghfirah Mosque barely a kilometre away where a symposium of hundreds of youths is held to remind them about Siiratul Al Nabawiyya (History of the Prophet PBUH).
Huge library
The lectures and exhibitions are all electronically stored, and some are bound into books and compact discs (CDs). The work is buttressed by the vast library which boasts of over 20,000 titles and serves as a nest for researchers and students. In the shelves are rare books such as tomes of Timbuktu manuscripts.
Curiously, though, they do not have the 1929 classic work of Joseph Mary Nagel Jeffries’ Palestine: The Reality. Acclaimed by the Amazon as a “demolition of Zionist propaganda,” the English title is virtually non-existent. However, they should have stocked an Arabic translation under the title: Palestine: Ilaykum Haqiiqah which was funded by the UAE Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi.
For Majed, the manuscripts of Arab travellers have enriched Al Muntada library and activities. “The Arabs have tended to keep travel notes. We are therefore have the works of Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khladoun among others, and have just gathered and stored 180 manuscripts in the handwritings of Muslim scholars from the 3rd century of Hijrah (around 800AD) onward.”
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