This blog is a companion to my book, The Common Sense Muslim: Treatise on Islamic Justice, Muslim Unity, and Islam in the West. These additional essays, quotations, and articles supplement the text offering additional inspiration and motivation to Muslims to reenergize their personal journey to Islam and to invite them to share the message of Islam as their occupation.

Islam is dormant in the West. Statistically, today, even though many enter Islam; simultaneously, many exit Islam. Without exemplary behaviors to observe and follow, without a governance or state to protect those adherents, returning to a pre-Islamic state is easier than struggling to negotiate Qur’an and Sunnah or to adjust to the “newness” of Islam. Since Islam develops good character according to the profile of a Believer described from the Qur’an and modeled from Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, it must always be renewed after sleep and when awake. Everyday I, myself, realize this from my struggle to be steadfast. I realize this when I choose to adopt a pattern of behavior and pursue actions to implement and protect this covenant Deen promised to Allah ﷻ by the Shahada.

The intent of this blog is to enlighten, inform, and energize those who struggle. It sends messages and suggests ways to know and to apply this covenant consistently and persistently. By sharing intellectual and spiritual understandings that address the plethora of experiences that Believing Muslims experience while learning Islam, acquiring Iman, reaching for Ihsan, this mission can be achieved.

I have been Muslim for 50 plus years. Each day has been and is genesis — rebirth for me — waking up and sleeping; to be revived again and again my the permission of Allah ﷻ. Every time I read Qur’an, my sight and insight increases– I am renewed by remembering Allah ﷻ, and inspired by reading and realizing the prophetic traditions and the work of Prophet Muhammad ﷻ, the Sahaba (his immediate followers), and those generations that followed, including present day persona who continue to withstand oppression and injustice with the character of the Prophet ﷺ for the pleasure of Allah ﷻ.

A Muslims responsibility is enjoining all that is halal and forbidding all that is haram. This occupation extends from the physical to the intellectual to the emotional and spiritual realms. It is employed in the social, economic, and political realm of our lives. We are not exempt from this task in any time or under any circumstances. It is the duty of one Muslim toward another to ensure that Muslims know how to keep Islam alive within themselves first, then their families, then their neighbors, then their society and culture. This employment extends to the Ummah of Muhammad, which is all humanity.

This is my work now — the work of the Prophet ﷺ. This blog is a testament to that occupation.

May Allah ﷻ accept it from me. Ameen.