Anes Ibn Malik (One of the  Prophet’s Companions) reports that a Bedouin came to the Messenger of Allah and greeted him in the Mosque. The Messenger of Allah asked him where he came from.The Bedouin said: “I come from far seeking answers to some questions. “Our master told him to ask his questions.

•     Q:  I wish to be an intelligent man, what should I do?

      A:   Fear Allah

•      Q: I wish to be a loyal servant to Allah and do what He wants me to do:

        A: Read the Qur”an.

•      Q:  I wish to be enlightened and have peace of heart

        A: Remember Death.

•      Q:  I wish to be protected against enemies

       A: Trust in Allah.

•      Q:  I wish to follow the Straight Path

        A:  Do good to others for Allah”s sake.

•      Q: What should I do so that Allah does not abase me?

        A:  Do not respond to the desires of your flesh.

•      Q:  I wish to have a long life

        A:  Praise and thank Allah.

•       Q: I wish for prosperity

        A: Be in a state of ablution at all times.

•       Q: How can I save myself from the hellfire?

       A: Protect your eyes and your tongue and your hands and what is below your waistline against Evil.

•      Q: How can I cleanse myself from my sins?

        A:  Shed tears for what you have done and repent by undoing what you have done  wrong.

•       Q: I wish to be a respectable person.

        A:  Then, don’t ask for anything from anybody.

•      Q: I wish to be honorable.

       A: Then don’t divulge the wrong doings of anybody.

•      Q:  What should I do to protect myself from the tortures of the grave?

       A:  Recite the Surah Mulk.

•      Q: What should one do to be rich?

        A: Read the Surah Muzammil.

•       Q: How should I calm my fear of the day of last judgment?

        A: Remember Allah before you eat anything and before you sleep.

•       Q: What should I do to feel the presence of Allah when I make my prayers?

        A: Give the utmost care in taking your ablutions and in being clean and pure.

A two-day conference convening in Mardin over the weekend tackled the problem of violent extremism perpetrated by Muslims through the re-evaluation of a centuries-old Islamic legal verdict by contemporary Muslim scholars.

Influential names such as Bosnian Grand Mufti Dr. Mustafa Ceric and renowned sheikhs Abdallah Ibn Bayyah and Habib Ali al-Jifri were among the speakers at the academically minded “Mardin: The Abode of Peace” summit held at Artuklu University. The subject at hand was a well-known legal verdict, or fatwa, issued by famous Islamic scholar Sheikh Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah in the 14th century concerning Mardin, and it was expected that upon the end of the summit, after Today’s Zaman went to press, the “Joint Mardin Declaration” would be signed by the participating scholars to denounce the misinterpretation and abuse of such fatwas.

The fatwa has been used by some extremist groups to justify acts of violence, rebellion and discord. Ibn Taymiyyah’s “Mardin fatwa” addresses the question of whether the city — in his time ruled by the Mongols, who were nominally Muslims but committed atrocities that some claimed cast doubt over their status as such — fell into the classical categorization of either dar al-harb (abode of war) or dar al-Islam (abode of Islam). The answer to this question was of critical importance when it came to the issue of jihad as warfare, including the determination of legitimate vs. prohibited targets.

During the conference’s plenary session on Saturday, Mardin Mufti Mehmet Kızılkaya emphasized that no matter how great, no Islamic scholars were higher in standing than the Prophet Muhammad. “The Prophet brought peace,” he said, noting the good relations maintained amongst Muslims, Christians and Jews during that era. The works of Ibn Taymiyyah are in part a product of his experience, Kızılkaya said, which included the witnessing of Mongol atrocities, sieges and long periods of imprisonment. “Ibn Taymiyyah was exceedingly clever, a genius, but he lived in tempestuous times,” he said. “We now live in a globalized world.”

In sessions later Saturday and on Sunday, however, scholars moved the discussion away from the chaotic context in which the Mardin fatwa and others like it were produced, instead focusing on the misuse of such texts not due to contextual incongruence but rather interpretations and readings that are just plain wrong. Experts on Ibn Taymiyyah’s work stressed that they must be read both properly and together with legal opinions issued by his contemporaries. They also stressed that the fatwa did not designate Mardin as an abode of war legitimizing armed conflict, rather asserting that non-Muslims needed to be taken care of as opposed to attacked.

Speaking to Today’s Zaman in an interview, conference speaker Dr. Ahmet Özel of the İstanbul-based Islamic Research Center (İSAM) said that the conference and declaration would probably speak more to the Western public than the Muslim world.

Commenting on the choice of Mardin and Turkey as the venue for the conference, he said that outside of the obvious connection between the fatwa of Ibn Taymiyyah and the city of Mardin,  “since the advent of Islam here, Mardin has been a place where members of different religions, cultures, ethnic groups have lived together. In Mardin today, Turks, Arabs and Kurds live together; there are Muslims, Syriacs and Yezidis here. Mardin is a symbolic city of peace.” He added that Turkey was in the spotlight both throughout the Arab world and in the West due to its recent roles in regional politics, making it a prime venue to release such a message.

The conference was sponsored by the Global Center for Renewal and Guidance (GCRG) and Canopus Consulting, independent Muslim NGOs that focus on education and research.

Human Rights Watch has urged Libyan authorities to reveal during an Arab summit it is hosting this weekend the fate of missing people, including prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric Imam Moussa Sadr.

The New-York based rights watchdog said Libya should also provide information about two of its own citizens who went missing 20 years ago after they were returned home from Egypt where authorities had arrested them.

“One of the themes of this Arab League summit is reconciliation,” HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement released late Friday. “Libya should use this opportunity to inform the families who have been suffering the pain of not knowing where their loved ones are,” she added.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman is boycotting the summit in Sirte amid a lingering dispute with Libya over the disappearance of Imam Sadr, and has sent his country’s ambassador to Cairo instead.

HRW acknowledged that Libyan authorities began in 2008 “for the first time” to address the case of hundreds of people who disappeared “in connection with a massacre at the Abu Salim prison in 1996.”

“Over the past year, the authorities have informed at least 800 families that their loved ones perished at the prison in 1996, offering compensation in exchange for relinquishing any legal claims. But many other Libyan disappearance cases remain unresolved,” it said. It specifically mentioned Libyan opposition figures Jaballa Hamed Matar and Izzat al-Megaryef, who it said were arrested by Egyptian security forces in Cairo in March 1990. “Their families later learned that Egyptian security forces had handed them over the next day to Libyan security officials, who detained them in Abu Salim prison,” HRW said, adding they have not been heard of since.

“Disappearances are a continuous crime for which the Libyan government is responsible,” Whitson said. She urged Libya to “tell the truth about what happened to these victims” and to “provide reparation and prosecute those responsible for their disappearance.

The police have arrested the terrorist belonging to the banned outfit, police sources confirmed on Monday.

SSP CID Omer Shahid informed that the CID Police have arrested the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorist Ziauddin Mehsud alias Khan Mohammad from Sharafi Goth area of Karachi. The police have also recovered 50 kg explosive material and three T.T Pistols.

According to the Shiite News Correspondent, SSP said that the arrested terrorist belongs to Qari Abid group of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

The CID police stated that the arrested terrorist had also involvement in the Nistar Park terrorist attack in 2006 and the assasination of Shia leader Maulana Hassan Turabi. The arrested terrorist was also involved in the kidnapping of the trader Shaukat Afridi providing petrol to NATO forces in 2008. The name of the arrested terrorist is also in the Red Book which consists of the names of most wanted people.