Monday, November 02, 2009

LETTERS: Further Open Letter to Afroz Ali ...


The following open letter was sent to Afroz Ali. I don't expect a response given that I have had such letters unanswered since as early as least April 2006!

Dear Afroz,

Assalamu alaykum.

As you are aware, there has been some discussion for the past 4 years concerning your religious qualifications and credentials, if any. Some of that discussion has been in the form of blog posts on my blog as well as discussion on internet forums. I have also spoken with you personally about this matter and have documented our conversations on my blog.

Your Melbourne representative, Taymour Nabulsi, has advised that your full academic qualifications and credentials are available and on display at your office in Lakemba. If that is the case, I wanted to arrange a time to meet with you and you could explain to me these documents which, Mr Nabulsi says, are quite complex and intricate.

As my own knowledge of Arabic is rather weak (to say the least!), I also wanted to bring along 2 persons whom I trust in these matters. One is a graduate of the Islamic University of Madina as well as having qualifications from Turkey and strong Arabic fluency.

Can you please advise via return e-mail on when would be a good time to visit your centre. Ma salameh.

Regards
Irfan Yusuf


Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf


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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

You also need to take two persons he trusts, so that they can explain his credentials to him. He is just a tad bit better in Arabic than in Ngurmbur.

Unknown said...

If you are going to leave such a defamatory comment, then I suggest you do so openly and not hide behind anonymity.

And Irfan, your persistence with this matter and the manner in which you have chosen to do it is completely inappropriate and rude. May Allah guide you.

Hisham said...

Agreed with Alev. Please take this down until you have properly investigated and substantiated your assertions. He should be innocent until proven guilty, rather than guilty because you didn't receive a response to an email in 2005. That's pretty bad.

Irf said...

Hisham, you really have been watching too much Monty Python.

If I suddenly set up shop as a cardiologist in Lakemba in 2005 and someone asked me repeatedly to provide evidence I was qualified and I refused to answer them despite their repeated requests, what would they assume?

I have asked Afroz repeatedly, in private and public, in person and over the phone as well as via e-mails. And I have been doing it since 2005.

What more do he and his "murids" expect? Must I write to each and every shaykh he claims to have studied under?

Afroz is delaying and delaying, hoping that his newer followers will defend him while his older ones leave disillusioned (usually after themselves making the same lines of inquiry).

When AGC had its first international guest out here (Farid Esack), Afroz did not call himself an imam. When he had Zaid Shakir out here the first time, I did not call himself an imam. What changed?

Why doesn't he just come clean? If he wants to shut me and others up, why not just provide:

1. a coherent account of what he has;

2. a place and time where it can all be viewed and verified;

3. an explanation as to the discrepancies of past claims e.g. the alleged degrees from Madina Islamic University.

How hard is that? Does it take 4 years to do it?

Irf said...

I will not remove the anonymous comment because I have heard similar comments from qualified Arabic-speaking imams.

Alev said...

You've heard Arabic speaking imams tell you that Afroz Ali needs his own credentials explained to him? That seems rather odd considering you claim no one knows his credentials.

I think you missed the main point: stop being rude.

I don't want to make you believe that you are some kind of Muslim spokesperson, so i won't comment on this further. May Allah guide you.

Irf said...

No, Alev, I've heard Arabic-speaking imams say that they found Afroz's Arabic very weak and his pronunciation quite unusual. And some of these imams were not themselves native Arabic speakers but had learned Arabic.

Er, did I ever claim to be a community spokesman in any way? Have I called myself a president of some organisation? Have I manufactured my own organisation and declared myself an imam?

Anonymous said...

A paragraph in Arabic from the Ihyaa of Al-Ghazaali, ostensibly the role model for AGC:

وأما الآثار فقد قال عمر بن الخطاب رضي الله عنه أفضل الأعمال أداء ما افترض الله تعالى والورع عما حرم الله تعالى وصدق النية فيما عند الله تعالى. وكتب سالم بن عبدالله إلى عمر بن عبد العزيز اعلم أن عون الله تعالى للعبد على قدر النية فمن تمت نيته تم عون الله له وإن نقصت نقص بقدره. وقال بعض السلف رب عمل صغير تعظمه النية ورب عمل كبير تصغره النية. وقال داود الطائي البر همته التقوى فلو تعلقت جميع جوارحه بالدنيا لردته نيته يوما إلى نية صالحة وكذلك الجاهل بعكس ذلك.

Take two qualified Arabic speaking imams with you and ask Afroz to read it without the Arabic vowel indicators and then translate it to plain English.

If he can't do it, he too should resign into anonymity.

Anonymous said...

Wow Irfan! You sure got nothing better to do than slander other people just because you can't get any credentials!

Seriosuly grow up for God's sake!!

Anonymous said...

It's not slander if it is the truth. It's also not slander if Irfan *asks* him to produce his qualifications. The person in question publicly claims to be an "imam".

He should either show his qualifications in black and white or ignorant self-righteous clowns like you should learn to stop thinking on your feet!

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/slander

–noun
1. defamation; calumny: rumors full of slander.
2. a malicious, false, and defamatory statement or report: a slander against his good name.
3. Law. defamation by oral utterance rather than by writing, pictures, etc.

–verb (used with object)
4. to utter slander against; defame.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the definition! Very much appreciated...i hope you've read it yourself because i know what slander is! Irfan should stop being a couch potato and go and get whatever he wants rather than blab and blab on about what he knows not! If he wants the qualifications he can go find them in colour, not even in black and white only if he SINCERELY wanted to!!! But ofcourse every cheapskate will rather slander on the internet then waste 1/2 a L of petrol to find the truth!

And as for your comment about thinking on your feet, i was just about to say the same to you, though i was not going to refer to you as 'self-righteous' just ignorant was going to suffice.

P.S. i find it interesting you didnt deny my statement that he cant get any credentials! :D