If these fundie mullas and shuyookh had any say in the matter, there would be no "Islamic science and art". You remember HM how we were taught how unislamic and foul it was to decorate the masajid? I don't know if you ever came across this one, but the green dome over Mo's grave should according to these salafi scholars be demolished. If only the ummah were rightly guided, it would be an obligation to do so, but the ummah is ignorant so we must not stir up fitnah.
My god, yes! I remember once I was at the house of a prominent and famous salafi scholar in Makkah and he was going on about the evils of
Qabaabeeb. Arabic is, of course, a second language for me so I wasn’t familiar with that word. After him going on and on about how bad these
qabaabeeb were for several minutes and how he had worked to get them banned in Makkah and in Madinah to no avail, I leaned to the student next to me and asked what the word meant. “
Jam3’ qubbah,” he said, “It is the plural of
qubbah, domes.” This shaikh, a famous and influential one in Makkah, mind you, was going on and on about how evil domes were and how vile it was that the masjids are decorated and beautified.
He also stated that in the mosque down the street from his home, he had them duct tape over the calligraphy on the walls because it could lead to shirk to have “Allah” and “Muhammad” written out on the walls inside of mosques. Sure enough, when we walked to pray maghrib in that mosque later that evening, I noticed that he had in fact had the calligraphy covered in tacky tape.
He then went on to say that having the names of the sahaabah (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, etc) engraved on the walls and pillars as they are in Masjid Al-Haram can lead to shirk. He went on to criticize the pilgrims who cried at the kaa’bah, mocking them, saying that most of them were committing shirk and riyaa (showing off).
I got to hear a lot from that shaikh and concluded rather quickly that he was an ignorant, grumpy old man. I remember how he would criticize the mu’ethineen (athan callers) of Makkah and Madinah, saying they were nothing more than singers. The funny thing is, the two things that really moved me about Madinah in particular were the beautiful architecture of the Ottoman era and the skillful, soulful call of the mu’ethins.
The serenity of sitting in the Prophet’s mosque just before sunset, the green dome of the prophet’s tomb glistening majestically against the twilight as the heat of the evening breeze swept across the courtyard, the silence pierced by the melodious, echoing calls of the athan cascading across the city: that is the closest thing to a “spiritual” experience I remember about those days. Every single evening, it made me happy to be there. It would probably still impact me today if I could experience it again.
But it’s like anything that elicits that feeling of spirituality and happieness is banned and vilified in salafi Islam. It’s no wonder they are always so angry about everything.
Topic: Pharrell - Happy British Muslims!