In the 500 Most Influential Muslims 2010, Mr Winter is below the King of Saudi Arabia – who comes in at number one – but ahead of many more chronicled figures. He is ranked in an unspecified position between 51st and 60th, considerably higher than the three other British people who make the list – the Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi; the UK’s first Muslim life peer, Lord Nazir Ahmed, who was briefly jailed last year for dangerous driving; and Dr Anas Al Shaikh Ali, director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought – making him, at least in the eyes of the RISSC, Britain’s most influential Muslim...

In an increasingly secular Britain, sociologists suggest with regularity that “football is the new religion”. Winter understands the comparison. “Football has everything that is important to religion,” he says. “Solidarity, skill, ritual, the outward form of what looks like a sacred congregation. Except it’s not about anything.” Just don’t tell his brother. -- Paul Williams

Among the Indian Muslims, sectarian divisions continue to abound. Most Indian Muslims are Sunnis, and they are divided among themselves on the basis of school of jurisprudence (the majority being Hanafis, with a small minority of Shafi‘is and Ghayr Muqallids, who do not subscribe to taqlid or ‘blind following’ of any particular school of jurisprudence); and the basis of school of thought (mainly Deobandis, Barelvis, Ahl-e Hadith, Ahl-e Quran, and Jamaat-e Islami). Shias form a minority among the Indian Muslims, being mostly Ithna Ashari Imamis, but also Nizari and Mustalian Ismailis, these latter two being, in turn, divided into several different largely endogamous sect-like groupings. Each of these different Sunni and Shia formations has its own distinct understanding of Islam. -- Yoginder Sikand, NewAgeIslam.com

One should keep in mind that Islam did not invent the practise of multiple marriages, but it was present in the culture of all ancient nations: Athinians, Chinese, Hindus, Babilonians, Sumerans and Egyptians.

 Most of these peoples simply had no limit to number of wives. Chinese Law Lao Ce permitted to men to have hundred and thirty wives. One of the Chinese kings had more than a thousand. [4] Jewish religion, also, made it lawful to men to have unlimited number of wives. All the prophets of Torah were polygamous. In Torah Sulaiman a.s. is mentioned to have had 700 wifes and additional 300 concubines.

In Christianity too, one does not find explicit texts forbidding multiple marriages. Moreover, it is historically proven that the ancient Christians married more women, and some church dignitaries also had more than one wife.[5] Therefore, the fact that the idea of polygamy exists in Islam too should not come as a surprise. However, in Islam it is limited to the maximum of four wives, and that, of course, only to those men who meet certain conditions. -- Dr. Safvet Halilović

Thus Jan-i-Janan also argues theologically Hindus are believer in one God and cannot be called hiders of Truth or kafirs. As for idol worship, he gives very interesting explanation. He maintains that it is a popular practice as common people find it difficult to imagine a god who is formless and without attributes and they need some concrete object for worship and hence they carve out some shape and see reflection of one Ishwara in it. What they worship, according to Jan-i-Janan, is not piece of stone but one Ishwara through it.

It is important to note is that Mazhar Jan-i-Janan does not take rigid position that Hindus are kafirs but tries to understand their religious faith and common Hindu psychology as to why they worship idols. All this is available in the letter written by Jan-i-Janan to his disciple. The letter makes very interesting reading. Also, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad has quoted several passages from Vedas in his volume on Wahdat-i-Din of Tarjuman al-Qur’an to show essential unity of all religions. Shah Waliyullah too, in his classic work Hujjatl-Allah al-Balighah treats comprehensively the doctrine of unity of religion (wahdat-i-din). -- Asghar Ali Engineer

In order to really contribute to the economy, Islamic banks will have to expand their commercial and investment banking services, and various streams of deposits should finance these ventures. They will have to diversify their product mix, making use of their comparative advantage, and not just using the conventional modes

Should Islamic banking broaden its base? All un-serviced sectors say that it should, in case it wishes to finance small enterprises, farmers and the homeless, rather than concentrating on big business. -- Muhammad Aftab

Why is being a Twelver ominous? According to Beck it is because Ahmadinejad believes that the coming of the Mahdi -- the Muslim messiah -- needs to be hastened. In Beck’s cuckoo version of Islam, only Twelvers are awaiting the Mahdi. But the truth is that nearly all Muslims believe the Mahdi will appear at the end of the world -- though only Shi’ites identify the Mahdi with their returning Twelfth Imam, who has not been heard from in a thousand years. – Richard Bulliet

Prophet Muhammad (peace is upon him) stated: “There is a piece of flesh in man’s body; if it is good the whole body is good, if it is bad the whole body is contaminated. Understand it! That piece of flesh is the heart.”

From this Hadith, we know that of all the organs of the body, the most reformable organ is the heart. All human deeds whether they are of worship, family affairs, industry, business and trade, generosity, trust, justice and fair play, modesty and decency, compassion and mercy, courtesy and kindness, pardon and forgiveness, toleration and patience, service to humility, sacrifice and fidelity, chastity and purity, so on and so forth, can be performed perfectly only when man’s heart is imbibed with the beauty of the light of piety and abstinence. -- Khwaja Mohammed Zubair

The role of Muslims in the slave trade, both in the middle ages and in modern times, is well known in academic circles. But the variety of Muslim ways of life in Africa goes well beyond that. An article by Andreas Eckert

The author says: In his provocative book "Weltgeschichte der Sklaverei" ("World History of Slavery"), published last year, Egon Flaig describes Islam as "the greatest and most long-lived system of slavery" in history. But in so doing, Flaig, who teaches classical history at Rostock University, tends to ignore the complexity of Muslim slavery, so that he can uphold his basic thesis of a conquering Islam. With regard to Islam in Africa, at least, Flaig could have called upon a long tradition of research on the topic to put the subject better into perspective.

For the Indian Muslims and Muslims all over the world in general, an intellectual renaissance has now become indispensable. This includes a renaissance in their political, social as well as religious thought. There must be a re-thinking of certain strongly-held notions that have come to be seen an essential part of traditional Islamic thought, although these may not actually be so. In this regard, ijtihad or critical reflection on issues is of immense importance and we can no longer avoid it. Unfortunately, however, many of our ulema continue to ignore, and even deny, the need for ijtihad. Many Indian ulema have simply no idea of the needs and conditions of today’s age. They simply lack the capacity to understand the demands of the times and the need for appropriately addressing these issues. This is a matter of very grave concern. -- Maulana Waris Mazhari

The relevant verse on hur is as follows: “Immortal youths will wait upon them with goblets, and ewers, and cups filled with water from unsullied springs by which their minds will not be clouded and which will not make them drunk; and with fruit of any kind that they may desire. And (with them will be their) companions pure, (hur al-‘in), most beautiful of eye like unto pearls (still) hidden in their shells. And this will be reward for what they did (in life) (and not only for martyrs). No empty talk they will hear there, nor any call to sin but only the tiding of inner soundness and peace. (56:22-26) ... In this whole discourse on hur there is no reference to sex or lust but of richness of soul and moral purity. In fact hur is plural of both ahwar (masculine) and hawra’(feminine).Thus hur in Qur’an would mean morally pure men and women who will be companions of those who enter paradise. And Qur’an also says that there will be no empty talk (laghw) and one will hear only peace and peace (salaman salaman) i.e. eternal peace of soul. Thus neither hur are women nor seventy in number. This sublime description of jannat (paradise) is spiritual in nature and those who resist all temptations and do nothing but good and are truthful and just would bring about such an order of eternal peace in this and the other world. -- Asghar Ali Engineer

In the summer of 1927, Damascus witnessed several incidents of women being harassed and prevented from visiting public places as they were not wearing veils. One person who felt greatly disturbed by these events was Nazira Zainal Din, the teenage daughter of Shaykh Saeed Zainal Din, the then judge of the court of appeal on Lebanon. She shared her agony with her father, who encouraged her to study the subject in the light of Islamic sources and reduce her conclusions into writing. -- Arif M. Khan

The north Indian Muslims are sharply divided on the basis of sectarian affiliation. The Sunnis, who form perhaps nine-tenths of the Indian Muslim population, consist of the Barelvis, the Deobandis, the Ahl-e Hadith, the Jamaat-e Islami (each of whom considers that it alone represents the one ‘true’ version of Islam) and a large number of Muslims who are not associated with any organized Islamic formation but, rather, are linked to what are often dismissed as ‘folk’ traditions associated with Sufi saints. In terms of school of jurisprudence, the north Indian Sunnis are divided between the majority Hanafis and what are called ghair muqallids, who do not follow any particular school of fiqh. The majority of the north Indian Shias belong to the Ithna Ashari sect, the rest being Ismailis, who, in turn, are divided into various sects or jamaats. Despite the rhetoric of Muslim unity, each of these sectarian groups functions as a separate community, having its own mosques, madrasas and other community organizations, and marriages usually take place within each sect. -- Yoginder Sikand

Muslims in general admit that Muslim society the world over is characterized by a severe moral decline—indeed, nothing short of a moral crisis. This is apparent not just in our personal lives but also in our collective affairs and dealings. This lamentable state of affairs brings to mind the well-known saying of George Bernard Shaw that while Islam is a good religion, Muslims are generally not good people…..

Many ulema think it is their right to criticize others for their real or alleged immorality or irreligiousness, but if the same complaint is made against them they declare it to be a ‘conspiracy’ against Islam and the ulema. This response is often totally unfair because, needless to say, in every class of society, including those who call themselves ulema, there are opportunists and unethical people. If every class, including the ulema, practiced introspection and self-criticism, our society would surely be much healthier, in terms of moral standards, than it presently is. – Maulana Waris Mazhari

Two key ideologues were responsible for the invention of this political interpretation of Islam: the Egyptian Syed Qutb, and Syed Abul Ala Maududi, in the Indian subcontinent. I can say without any hesitation that this political interpretation of theirs was totally baseless, and cannot be proven from a proper reading of the Quran and Hadith. The arguments that these two ideologues offered are not at all convincing or coherent, and represent unwarranted reading into the Quran and Hadith of concepts that are totally foreign to these two basic sources of Islam -- Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

The Arabic word mushrik in Islamic theology means 'one who associates a worldly object with Divine power'. If the Hindus are mushrik in this sense, so are we, the majority of Muslims in the subcontinent. They associate with God Almighty numerous idols put on pedestals and we, numerous saints of antiquity buried in their graves. They worship God through the medium of images seen as sublime symbols, we petition dead saints to intercede with God to grant us earthly and heavenly favours. If one way is shirk, so is the other. If despite all this Islam remains a "monotheistic" faith, so does Hinduism, says Professor Tahir Mahmood, Member, Law commission of India and former Chairman, National Minorities Commission.

“Truly, the life of this world is nothing but a [quick passing] enjoyment, and verily, the Hereafter that is the home that will remain forever.” [The Holy Qur’an, 40:39]

“And know that your possessions and your children are but a trial and that surely with Allah is a mighty reward.” [Qur’an 8:28]

“And strain not your eyes in longing for the things We have given for enjoyment to various groups of them [polytheists], the splendour of the life in this world, that We may test them thereby.” [Qur’an 20:131]

 The Prophet remembered and praised Hazrat Khadija all the time: “She (Lady Khadeejah) believed in me when other people disbelieved; she acknowledged the truth of what I said when others accused me of lying; she was generous to me with her wealth when others were not; and God has granted me children through her but not through my other wives.” (Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

True izzah (might and glory) is not stubbornness that seeks strength through falsehood, or tyranny that uses brutal force to silence others, or an overwhelming upsurge motivated by desire, or a blind force that pays no heed to right and justice. It is none of this. It is the ability to rise above one’s own desires, rejecting fetters and humiliations, and refusing to submit to any other than God, says Sayyid Qutb.

Mysticism is the pivotal point of Sufi poetry. Like in Vedanta, Sufis believe that God is there in every human being but He is hidden from us by khudi (ego), called aham in Hindu scripture. Therefore, it is necessary to kill khudi before becoming one with the Supreme. The path chosen by Sufis for this purpose is Ishq-Majazi to Ishq Haqiqi.