Update on New Article

Just wanted to post a quick update on the article I’ve been working on for the past year and a half. I’m practically done (I think). I’m waiting on a book to be delievered (which should arrive in the coming days) that I ordered from the US; I just wanted to double check on some quotes I’ve used. I’ve also just got to write up a conclusion to wrap everything up, but aside from that, I think it’s pretty much complete. I’m planning on sending it to a few friends to look over and double check, and if everything’s ok, it’ll be published here.

With the chaos going on over in Gaza, it’s been pretty hard to find the desire to continue, let alone focus on the last little bits I need to finish. My heart aches at the devastation and carnage we’re witnessing real time over social media. Please, for those of you few who do visit here, if you aren’t already, please keep our brothers and sisters over there in your supplications. Beg Allah to have mercy on them, to protect and preserve their living, to have mercy and forgive their dead and martyred while in prostration, in the final sitting of your prayer, and if you’re able, include qunut an-nazilah in all your prayers, obligatory and voluntary.

#FreePalestine.

EDIT (Oct. 22, 2023): Book’s arrived.

If You’re a Layman, Stay in Your Lane

Just a quote from the article I’ve been working on.

So … yeah … .

Not sure how many people who visit here are still waiting on the new article I said I’ve been working on, but looks like it’s going to be a little while longer before I’m done. I guess I got ahead of myself in thinking I’d be done after finishing the section I was working on the last time I posted. The more I thought about it, though, the more I felt I should touch on a couple other things that I had made mention of earlier in the paper. So, looks like it’ll be a bit while longer before I’m done. Apologies for those who were anticipating it. Please, forgive me.

I’m currently going through this stack of books, fishing for the quotes I have in mind that I might need. After I collect them and have them translated, hopefully, with Allah’s permission, this should be the last bit of the paper, but who knows? In any case, that’s the update. Still plugging away. Hopefully, it’ll be done and posted soon, insha’allah.

New Article On Its Way

Preparing for the home stretch.

It’s been a long, long while since I wrote anything substantial at all (with the exception of my last blog post, of course), let alone an original article intended for my blog. Over the past year or so, I’ve been working on a follow up to my article Salafism, Do You Really Get It? An Actual Methodology or Merely Empty Slogans? It’s been pretty slow going—actually, who’m I kidding? It’s been incredibly slow going. There are a ton of reasons for that, the main one being I’m lazy as heck. Not having my own, adequately spec’d PC to work on is another huge factor (my personal PC on my desk is near two decades old and runs on Windows XP! LOL).

In any case, thoughts for this follow up began around October of last year (2021) and I’ve been working on it on and off from then until now. The image above is of the books I have set aside in preparing for what I hope to be the last section of the article. I’ve got the pages I need statements from marked off. I just have to translate the relevant passages and tie everything together. I hope and pray I’m able to finish it relatively soon and not take another few months to do so, lol. But yeah, that’s all this blog post is really for: to update whoever still visits on what I’m working on and to expect this follow up, which honestly should have been written years ago. For those curious about the title, I’ve tenatively named it: Salafism Revisited: Some of You Lot Still Don’t Get It. Any how, I hope and pray you are all doing well. Hope this news puts a smile on your faces. Adiós for now!

A Quick Note About the Dead PDF Links

Hey peoples! Just a quick little message about the dead links to my PDF articles here on my blog. When I first started it, one of the brothers @ QSSC did me a huge favour and registered the rasheedgonzales.com domain name and gave me access to my own portion of the server he was using to host the QSSC.org website where I could store files I needed for my blog, such as PDFs for my articles and translations, image files for various posts, etc. That webhost got sold a number of years back and QSSC ended up switching to a new webhosting company to host their site. I didn’t find this out until a year or so ago and figured since I wasn’t really active in maintaining my blog that it didn’t matter.

Anyhow, the registration for the domain expired not too long ago, and as a result all the links to files I had stored on that server are now dead. For the time being, I’ve uploaded 3 of my PDFs on to WordPress itself so that whoever still wants access to them can have it: they are Salafism, Do You Really Get It?, my translation of Rifqan Ahl as-Sunnah bi Ahl as-Sunnah (trans. Gentleness, O People of the Sunnah) and my post titled, What’s the Deal with QSS?!.

I’m not sure if I’m going to go through and re-upload the rest of the PDF articles I have on here, but we’ll see.

Sad News.

It’s been a very long while since I last posted anything to this blog, so I’m sure this post must be a surprise to those of you who still visit here once in a while or who’re subscribed to it still.

That said, I woke up this morning to some pretty sad news. I had heard a few days ago that he had contracted COVID-19, but what I found out this morning was a bit unexpected.

Of all of the scholars I’ve met in person and spent time with, whose books I’ve read, whose tapes I’ve listened to, he’s probably been the one I’ve been influenced by the most. I haven’t always agreed with his views or some of the things he’s done or how he’s approached certain issues, but he was always a kind and very easy-going shaikh. In the vast majority of the times I’ve spent with him in private sittings, sharing meals, watching him interact with others, be it in person, on video or whatever … he was smiling and jovial, cracking the occasional joke and conversing with others. He was very passionate about da’wah and Islam in general and it showed in much of what he did.

Today I found out about the death of Shaikh Abul-Harith ‘Ali bin Hasan al-Halabi, one of the most prominent students of Shaikh Nasir ad-Din al-Albani and one of his companions at the end of his life.’Tis truly a sad day. May Allah have mercy on the shaikh’s soul, may He forgive him for any of his shortcomings, and may He reward him greatly for his ardent passion and tremendous efforts in spreading Islam to the people.

Rest in peace, ya shaikhana. You will be missed by many.

For those who want to read a little bit about the shaikh, may Allah have mercy on him, I posted a brief biography of him several years ago, which you can read here.