Many churches with Muslim communities on their doorstep offer English language classes or English Conversation groups and find that these activities open the door to engaging with their neighbours. Find out how to use Halloween topics as a springboard to talking about Jesus.
Muslims show the greatest respect to the Prophet Muhammad especially during the celebration of Mawlid al-Nabi. And that makes Mawlid a great time to talk about how important Jesus is to us, not just as a prophet, but as our Saviour. Starting a conversation can be tricky, but it’s as simple as asking ‘How will you be celebrating Mawlid?’
This month we’re sharing some ideas on how we can engage with, and pray for, our Muslim friends and colleagues.
What do you picture in your mind when you think of Muslims in the UK? Whatever the image in your mind, God tells us to love all Muslims! But what does that look like in practice?
The Islamic month of Ramadan runs from 10 March to 8 April this year (2024). Ramadan is a great time to start conversations with Muslim friends and colleagues and to focus on praying for Muslims in our local community and across the UK. These next few weeks are full of opportunities!
Did you manage to wish your Muslim friends ‘Eid Mubarak’ (blessed Eid) as they celebrated Eid ul-Adha last weekend? You may also know of people who are undertaking the Hajj at this time. These are both great occasions for sharing stories about your faith and the Biblical take on these topics.
We’re facing the realities and uncertainties of the current situation but we look to him with eyes of faith. Even when we don’t see it he’s working - may we be ready to join him in the new thing he’s doing (Is 43:19). Continuing the theme of last month’s update, here from across the network are more possibilities emerging and initiatives being taken.
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By Steve from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“We have been rescued from our enemies
so we can serve God without fear,
in holiness and righteousness
for as long as we live.”
Though a minority, Muslims in Taiwan experience a religious freedom which Muslims in mainland China could only dream of.[1] Muslims in China experience a lack of freedom to worship, and many have been sent to ‘re-education camps’. The government, in its fear of religious extremism, has been heavy handed in its treatment of Muslims. An estimated one million people are being held in Xinjiang, North West China[2].
Chinese Muslims in the UK experience a measure of freedom, yet most have relatives in China who are ‘missing’, all are facing grief, separation and pressure, even after they arrive in the UK. Unable to contact family members, and fearful of causing them further difficulties, Uyghurs in the UK are desperate for freedom. An orthodox Jew has been protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in London[3]; his own family suffered in concentration camps in Auschwitz and he is standing up for freedom for his Muslim brothers and sisters.
[2] https://www.amnesty.org.uk/chinas-uighur-muslims-truth-behind-headlines
Loving God, set Chinese Muslims free from their captivity, set them free to worship without fear, and ultimately bring them to complete freedom that only you bring.
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
We should care not just about freedom for followers of Isa, but also for people of all religions. When others are not free, we are not truly free. What can you do to advocate for and stand alongside the Chinese Muslims in their oppression? For example, Change.org have a petition supporting Uyghur Muslims in China.
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
A reminder of some some helpful guidance and food for thought from the Church of England in light of past media coverage of churches hosting iftar meals.
Also, please consult the latest advice from Public Health England or your relevant authority for guidance on travel and social situations.
You can read and discuss the guidance and recent events on Mahabba's online community area, Discourse.
Alternatively, a PDF version is available here. If you've not registered for Discourse, you can do so quickly here.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
Please see the footer on the 30 Days of Prayer website
Image Elam
By Bryan from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“And they have conquered him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”
Last October, I attended an amazing meeting, unlike an meeting I have been to before and one that will impact me for some time to come. It was a Memorial Service for the Martyrs of the Iranian Church. It was held in Westminster Chapel and about 400 people were present, mainly Iranians. At the front were large photos of eight Iranians who gave their lives about 25 years ago and many of the relatives of those martyrs were present. It was a solemn service but not an unhappy event - plenty of smiles and some laughter. They thanked God for the lives of these men and acknowledged that fact that each of them knew the risks they were taking for their Lord and the Christian community.
It has also been brought to my attention that the church is growing faster in Iran than in any other country in the world, despite the fact they have no buildings and no organised hierarchy. But I think the real reason behind the work of the Holy Spirit in Iran is their attitude and commitment to the concept, reality and likelihood of torture and martyrdom. Their discipleship involves teaching people how to die, which is something way off our radar in the UK. Most of us will not read much of Tertullian, but in chapter 50 of his work called Apologeticus, comes the statement most of us will have heard, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church". These early church fathers knew what they were talking about.
We are blessed to have so many Iranian Christians in the UK. We may want to help them, but the help many of them can give us is far more significant for the kingdom of God and the future of the UK church.
Oft quoted by Iranian Bishop Dehqani Tafti (whose son was martyred in 1979) Hafiz's poem: LOVE'S AWAKENING (trans Arberry):
Ho, saki, haste, the beaker bring, Fill up, and pass it round the ring;
Love seemed at first an easy thing- But ah! the hard awakening.
Pray for the Iranian Church and believers from a Muslim background for whom finding the God of Love and following the Way of Love is indeed a 'Hard Awakening'
O God, Bahram’s blood multiplies the fruit of the Spirit in the soil of our souls: So when his murderers stand before thee on the Day of Judgement
Remember the fruit of the Spirit by which they have enriched our lives,
And forgive.
(End of Dehqani's prayer for his martyred son)
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Read the story of Bishop Dehqani-Tafti and his wife Margaret.
Have a look at ELAM website. www.elam.com They support the church in Iran in the Diaspora in UK. Subscribe to their prayer updates. Support and Pray for their ministry. Particularly pray for those who're still 'persecuted but not forsaken'.
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
A reminder of some some helpful guidance and food for thought from the Church of England in light of past media coverage of churches hosting iftar meals.
Also, please consult the latest advice from Public Health England or your relevant authority for guidance on travel and social situations.
You can read and discuss the guidance and recent events on Mahabba's online community area, Discourse.
Alternatively, a PDF version is available here. If you've not registered for Discourse, you can do so quickly here.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
Please see the footer on the 30 Days of Prayer website
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By an Iranian asylum seeker, as told to Chas from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
The style of living, dress, speech and beliefs of Iranians have all changed since the revolution. Religious people told me that Iranians are better believers than before the revolution. But there are many questions in my mind.
As a child I couldn’t understand the reason for the Iran/Iraq war. When I asked my mother, she just said that we were fighting the enemies of God, those who had been killed were martyrs of God and were in heaven. I asked myself, ‘Can Iraqi Muslims be enemies of God?'
When I was a teenager I participated in some religious ceremonies, I saw people crying for some Imam that passed away thousands of years ago. I asked myself, ‘Why are people crying for something so long ago? And why are people praying and kissing shrines? Can a shrine bless our life? More importantly, why cant we know God and talk with him in our language? Does that mean God cannot understand my language? How can I have a relation with someone when I can't understand his language? How can feel his presence in my life?'
I pray for the many Iranians seeking asylum in this country. Please connect them with Christians in the UK who can lead them to a living relationship with you, Lord.
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Take the opportunity to welcome Iranians you meet; many of them are searching for answers. Give them warm hospitality and offer them a Bible in Farsi to help them discover the truth.
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
A reminder of some some helpful guidance and food for thought from the Church of England in light of past media coverage of churches hosting iftar meals.
Also, please consult the latest advice from Public Health England or your relevant authority for guidance on travel and social situations.
You can read and discuss the guidance and recent events on Mahabba's online community area, Discourse.
Alternatively, a PDF version is available here. If you've not registered for Discourse, you can do so quickly here.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
Please see the footer on the 30 Days of Prayer website
Image Unsplash
By Steve from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Some British Muslims are part of a growing ‘movement’ to reform Islam. Dr Taj Hargey (Chair of the Muslim Educational Centre, Oxford) won a High Court libel case against a “conservative” Islamic newspaper, which falsely accused him of being a ‘heretic’ who should be excommunicated from the Muslim community. Hargey hopes his victory emboldens all progressive Muslims to also put their heads above the parapet and speak out against what he calls ‘self-appointed’ conservative mullahs who have taken over with their own ‘warped’ and ‘backward-looking’ manifestation of Islam, based on ‘fabricated hadiths, which are passed off as infallible’. He encourages all ‘thinking Muslims’ (particularly female writers) to continue resisting the ‘foreign’ Wahabi ideology and to create a ‘British Islam’.*
Maajid Nawaz, a former radical turned progressive media spokesperson, fully agrees with Hargey and asks, “Where are the missing voices of ‘liberal Muslims’; ‘feminist Muslims’ and ‘gay Muslims’ and even ‘ex-Muslims’?”**
* Taj Hargey, My persecution by the Muslim McCarthyites: Islam has been taken over by a distorted faith. We need a reformation to rescue it, The Times, April, 10, 2009
** Maajid Nawaz, Quiliam Foundation, Multiculturalism is Dead, on LBC Radio, using Home Office statistics
Lord God, We worship You as the Lord of history and the affairs of humankind. Thank you for those in Muslim communities who are calling for a preferable future where their faith resonates more with the issues of the 21st century. May Your Spirit brood over the ‘progressive’ movement'. Speak Lord into searching hearts, shine the Christ light into questioning minds and call them into a new fulfilment of their heritage, in you. AMEN
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Why not Google details of the writings of influential progressive Muslims, such as The Quiliam Foundation; Wafa Sultan; Irshad Manji; Ayan Hirsi Ali; Maajid Nawaz; Taj Hargey; Ali Abd al-Raziq; Abdel Wahab El-Affendi; Sheikh Ali Gomaa; Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im; Adnan Khan and Amir Taheri. Pray for some of these by name.
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
A reminder of some some helpful guidance and food for thought from the Church of England in light of past media coverage of churches hosting iftar meals.
Also, please consult the latest advice from Public Health England or your relevant authority for guidance on travel and social situations.
You can read and discuss the guidance and recent events on Mahabba's online community area, Discourse.
Alternatively, a PDF version is available here. If you've not registered for Discourse, you can do so quickly here.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
Please see the footer on the 30 Days of Prayer website
Image Unsplash
By Ted from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
According to the list of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world, number one for 2020 is not an Arab nor a head of state but a Pakistani, Taqi Usmani, the head of the Deobandi movement.
Looking around UK cities, you probably won’t see the name ‘Deobandi’ on any mosque but around 45% of all mosques are Deobandi-led.
Deoband, a city in India, was the birth place of a reform movement seeking to purify the life and religion of Muslims. They promote conservative values and rigorous religion. The movement was the first to establish Islamic seminaries in the UK. I have an imam friend who served as a prison chaplain. “How did you find it?” I asked. He smiled ruefully. “It reminded me of my Deobandi boarding school days,” he replied.
My friend sees himself as British first and Pakistani second. He may have misgivings about aspects of his upbringing but he is firmly orthodox. He wants his congregation to be more British and less Pakistani, but at the same time he longs to see them becoming more truly Muslims and less Pakistani too. Such people respect Christians who talk about how to become righteous, rather than how to get forgiven.
Though Islam prides itself upon its freedom from sacramentalism and priesthood, in that all worshippers worship for themselves, it is evident that the salaat postures are profoundly sacramental in a general sense.
Protration, in particular, proclaims and serves to actualize a totality of surrender. The face, the proudest thing in human personality, comes into contact with the dust, the lowest thing in nature. The physical thus embodies and expresses the spiritual. (Kenneth Cragg The Call of the Minaret. p98)
Try praying for your Muslim friends on your knees, with your 'proudest thing in human personality' in touch with 'the lowest thing in nature' - face to the ground ....
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Nothing to do with Deobandis, but have a look at these Malaysian kids' cartoon and sing along
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
Image Twitter
By Will, talking to Phil, from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.””
The youth group from our church used to go prayer-walking in the Muslim area, often stopping at the Pakistani corner shop and the Tandoori Take-Away, to chat with people. We sometimes did litter picks and people asked why we were doing it and we said we wanted to bless the community and that gave us opportunity to share about our faith.
There was the old Sunni Mosque and a smaller one we called ‘the radical mosque’. They also ran a Bookstall right outside our church, because a Church member had set up a Christian bookstall there. They wanted to compete. It was like a ‘battle of the bookstalls’!
I started engaging with them – one of guys knew the Bible well, because he had been brought in a Catholic church and had become what he called a ‘revert’ to Islam. Theirs was a polemic type of bookstall. There were two guys I got to know, Mustafa’ & ‘Malik, both with big, bushy beards. They had strong views and were good at arguing.
They would try to pick the Bible apart and say it was not to be trusted – I also enjoyed a good argument and would come back strongly with questions and answers.
I even invited them to our wedding and they came. But we lost touch when the bookstalls stopped functioning.
If you come across a Muslim bookstall or an evangelist who believes passionately I would say Go and engage with them, have a conversation. Gently befriend them, they are people too. Build a relationship. They are more likely to listen to you, if you listen to them ….
Lord give us opportunities, courage and grace to engage with our Muslim neighbours in our day to day lives. Show us how we can demonstrate your love for them through our everyday words and actions.
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
One of these passionate believers quoted Num. 23:19 “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.”- therefore Jesus, he argued, who was a man was not God. Have a think how would you answer Mustafa and Malik, and send us your thoughts …..
Read more on fundamentalist, radical Islam, eg
Bill Musk (1992) 'Passionate Believing: the fundamentalist face of Islam' Ziauddin Sardar (2004) Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a sceptical Muslim -
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
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By Riz from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all ‘one’ in Christ Jesus.”
India is officially a secular state, but there are a diverse mix of religious beliefs and practices and for most Indians faith is very important. 80% of the population are Hindus but there are still over 100 million Muslims and 25 million Christians, all living together in relative harmony.
Indian Muslims in the UK will hold on to their Muslim traditions, but being Indian often means mixing with other Indian families from a Hindu, Sikh or Christian background. The strength of the Indian community in the UK is that there is more from the Indian culture, such as food and family values that unite, rather than differences in religion that divide.
Growing up as a Muslim in an Indian family meant that, even though as an individual family we held on to Muslim traditions, we had the blessing of mixing with family friends of all faiths, attending Hindu and Christian festivals and homes, as they visited ours. There was more from the Indian culture that united us rather than separated us.
As a UK Indian Muslim being exposed to different religions and their practices, I was open to the possibility that God could be found in any religion. But which one?
Whilst attending an Alpha course, seeking truth in Buddhism and practising Ramadan as a Muslim, my constant prayer was ‘God, I will be whatever you want me to be, just show me the truth’. It was one night during Ramadan, when I prayed that earnest prayer, head down on my prayer mat, the Lord revealed himself in a very powerful way. My search was over.....
Who do you know that is seeking God ? Pray that the Spirit of truth, will come, and guide them into the truth (John 16v13) Will you trust that the Holy Spirit can do a powerful work in them, just as He did in me, on that prayer mat during Ramadan ?
Pray for all those who are “Seeking Allah’ during Ramadan, that they may ‘Find Jesus’ (you might like to also read Nabeel Qureshi’s book ‘Seeking Allah: Finding Jesus’ to encourage your faith)
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
All that was 14 years ago…… Now as a follower of Christ I still hold on to the belief that in spite of differences in ethnicity, social status or gender we can look to what makes us ‘one’.
If you are a Christian in a community of mixed religions and cultures, try and find what is common with your neighbour, you might be surprised at just how much you have in common, rather than just focusing on the differences .
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
Image Flickr
By Ted from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him....”
I was totally wrong-footed. It was 1990. I was visiting a Baptist Church in London to talk about the work I was doing among Muslims in Africa. I expected to explain what Islam was and how it conflicts with the message of the Gospel.
“My son has become a Muslim,” said one middle-aged lady, clearly working hard to keep from showing her emotions. “So has mine,” said another. For them, Islam was not something distant. It was a stressful part of their family lives.
This church was almost entirely made up of Afro-Caribbean people. It was led by a fine young pastor in his 30s, but otherwise there were no young men. Migration causes enormous stresses especially where there is a strong racial divide. So often, it is the children of respectable migrants who cannot find their way. Many drift into gang culture and crime. In this particular case, for many young men the first step for getting order back into their lives was to embrace an Islamic identity that made sense of the feeling that they did not belong. For some it was a phase, for others it was a beginning. This continues to be a live issue.
Pray for young black men - often of Afro-Caribbean descent, many of whom are becoming Muslim in prisons and in wider society. Pray for the witness of Black 'diaspora' Churches, and that they will be able to share in mission, and Mahabba love, especially to young black Muslims.
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
"In the last two decades, Islam has arguably become the fastest growing religion among Black people in Britain." Richard Reddie (author of Black Muslims)
Watch this YouTube video by Richard Reddie about black converts to Islam.
Read this article in the Guardian
and if you want to go deeper. read this NPR article 'Muslim Twoness'
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
Image Unsplash
By Phil from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet ...... She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”
Women’s Interfaith engagements provide unique opportunities for sharing memories, hopes, dreams, and longings for future goodness. In a Northern UK city, Christian women and South Asian Muslim women, and their daughters, gather together frequently, building strong relationships and support networks that go beyond faith tradition and family ties. Recently, with some simple creative writing, discussion, and workshop tasks, this group completed a 6-week journey together into the world of the Bronte sisters and back into their own century, exploring the Bronte story in a new, modern light. Discovering similarities and differences for creative women then and now brought out deep insights, probing the creativity in each woman and her daughter and within the gathered group. Visiting the Bronte Museum and contributing to an original play, I Am No Bird, written by the creative host, Sophia Hatfield, formed essential aspects of this journey. Capping the journey by watching the film, Walking Invisible, together set the stage for almost two hours of authentic and vulnerable sharing. All gathered felt the presence of godly wisdom and grace through and to one another.
We thank you, Great God in Heaven, Creator of all life and peoples, for bringing together Christian and Muslim women in authentic friendship and creative pursuits. We ask You to continue inspiring women to come together, dream together, and work together for peace and care within communities across this great nation. Pull down all barriers, lead women to form bridges and pathways for one another and their daughters – to “walk together, visible”, visibly bringing godliness, peace, encouragement, and joy while forming spaces in which others can thrive.
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
If you are a girl or woman, become involved in grassroots interfaith endeavours. If there aren’t creative initiatives around you, consider how God might inspire and lead you to form them. Support the interfaith endeavours of women in your area and city. Shine the light on how the relationships that women share provide safe spaces, not only for themselves, but for their communities and the good of the city.
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
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As told anonymously to Gillie from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
I have been privileged to get to know many Arab Muslim women both in the UK and overseas over the last 18 years but my first Muslim friend, Samira, was a lady from Saudi Arabia whose husband was studying in Edinburgh. I was studying Arabic and she wanted to learn English so we agreed to practise on each other. I was the first British person that she had connected with even though she had been in the country for several months and it was a fascinating cultural experience for both of us.
She used to feed me huge meals of rice and chicken at three in the afternoon, and we would sit on the floor together with her children, eating with our hands as she told me about her life in Saudi. I invited her out for coffee and discovered that she had never been in a coffee shop before. Every outing turned into a journey of discovery and we turned a few heads as we shopped together in Edinburgh, me in my standard student attire and Samira in her black burqa.
The thing I remember most about Samira was her fascination for all things Western, and her desire to know more about a life that was so different from her own. She was searching for freedom and hoped to find it in Western society. I hope I sowed a few seeds of the gospel and the liberty that Jesus offers us in the time we spent together, although at the time she was more interested in the freedoms that living in Britain gave her. Let’s pray for Muslim women that are seeking freedom to find it in the only One that can truly release us from all our burdens.
Father we thank you that you offer us your free gift of salvation. We pray for Muslim women all over the world that their eyes would be opened to the truth of who You are and that they would find the true freedom offered through Jesus Christ.
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Initiate a conversation today with someone from a different culture. Ask them about their home country and enjoy listening to their stories.
NB if social distancing is in force then it can be over the garden face (6ft distance), by text, mobile, Facebook, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype. Let’s use our imaginations.....
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
Image Unsplash
By Ted Bearup from Mahabba’s team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”
Have you ever felt you were in a minority? A misunderstood, misrepresented minority? You are not the only one.
The Shi’ites are a minority in the Muslim world and the Daudi Bohras are a minority among the Shi’ites. Like all such minorities they have the satisfaction of knowing that they are the ones that are right, of course, and being of the faithful few is key to their identity.
In the UK, they are a small group, maybe 6000 in number, and most have roots in India but came to UK via East Africa. They are usually prosperous and highly educated with strong sense of community.
Mohammad is a bright young man, pursuing doctoral studies. He has family members all over the world; they are highly mobile and professional yet maintain their connections across the miles.
Mohammad has always known he is in the minority; the more so now that he follows Christ.
"If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is 'thank you' that would suffice." - Meister Eckhart
Give Thanks for Muslim minorities in UK; for the opportunity to interact with them, for all they contribute to our society; for what we can learn from them and our faith that we can share with them .....
Why not find a prayer quote that inspires you and share it with us in Mahabba
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Read this article on the man who blesses Scottish Salmon!
Watch this video of a Daudi Bohra's event in "Noor Masjid" in Levenshulme, Manchester. Dawoodi Bohras hold Interfaith celebration in Manchester (9 December 2017)
Have you ever attended an Interfaith or Civic event like this? Tell us about it
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
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By ABC (Applied Biblical Christianity)
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
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“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Blog written by ABC (Applied Biblical Christianity) aboutabc.org
The Ahmadiyya Muslims are named after Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad who started the movement in 1889 in India. The followers are also known as Ahmadis.
Today they have grown to an estimated 10 million in over 200 countries. Most orthodox Muslims consider the Ahmadiyyas to be a 'sect' like Christians do with JWs. They have numerous aspects in common with the Jehovah Witnesses, such as central leadership, tight rules for members, expected to take an active part in the community, called to share their faith, not accepted by other Muslims.
Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad claimed to have been the promised Messiah through a spiritual second-coming of Jesus. This and many other of their unique teachings are explained and questioned from a Christian perspective in an evangelistic way at: christianityexplained.net/Ahmadiyyas/
Ahmadis are very open to discussions with people of other faiths. They like taking part in “Meetings for Better Understanding” (MBU) initiated by Christians. God is at work among them and some have become Christians: e.g. Nabel Quereshi (nabeelqureshi.com) and Foozie (youtube.com/watch?v=LWqHxEaUXyk&t=23s).
Someone who prays for Muslims encouraged us:
In a vision I saw you drilling holes in the foundation of the mosque. One day it suddenly collapsed! Keep on drilling by sharing the Good News with these precious people. Your work is not in vain!
Lord we ask that through the Meetings for Better Understanding taking place across this country your light would shine on the hearts of people from an Ahmadiyya background.
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Find out more about Ahmadiyya's here and read about MBUs here. And think and pray about starting them in your area.
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
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By Phil Goodchild from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
‘Let’s meet together and see what our Holy Books have to say about God, us and everything.’ From this starting point, several groups of Muslims and Christians around the UK are looking at what the Bible and the Quran have to say, without anyone ‘interpreting’ the words, just letting the text speak for itself. The important questions are, ‘What does this tell us about God, what does it tell us about people and what am I going to do about it?'
Our little group of women, half Christian and half Muslim, have enjoyed getting to know each other. A couple of the Christian women had never really met a Muslim, and for some of the Muslim women it was the first time they had met a real follower of Jesus. It has been a great joy to see ladies who have only just met sharing deeply about their joys and their difficulties, and then discussing together what we learned about God from the stories of Jonah, Joseph and Noah. We have talked, among other things, about what it means to trust God in difficult circumstances, being obedient to God, and the power of forgiveness in families.
Another group was looking at the story of the calming of the storm. In retelling the story a young Muslim lady referred to Jesus as ‘this man.’ How poignant – at the end of the story the disciples say ‘What manner of man is this?’ As she and others read more of ‘this man’ may they come to see who he is.
Pray that as Muslims read the Bible they would meet Jesus, the living Word of God.
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Find out about Holy Book Club or Prophets stories
Here is an example of text from Quran and Bible that people have looked at together
Or simply ask a Muslim friend if they would like to read the Bible with you and pray together
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
Linked up to love - an update from the network
Connection and being linked together online is continuing to allow the work of Mahabba to thrive, despite these challenging times. An update that reminds us of the importance of prayer, the encouragement to connect and the possibilities of sharing Jesus’ love with Muslims in many spheres of society.
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By Ted Bearup from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.”
Ask around and you will find key people active in churches who did some short-term mission in the past. In the 1960s, Operation Mobilisation and Youth With A Mission led the way getting young people into radical mission trips. Before that, short-term missions were just not thought of. But these were not the first.
Back in 1926, a short-term mission was founded in India. It is called the Tablighi Jamaat and is an Islamic movement, the biggest mission in the world today. The HQ for Europe is in Dewsbury. TJ calls nominal Muslims to an engaged and missional life style. It is extraordinarily low-tec. No social media, no publicity, no audio-visuals, just face to face contact.
Many British Muslims, mainly men but also women, have been on short mission trips. There is something about setting aside the norms of daily life to put into practice the things you have always believed with a motivated group. When it comes to doing getting mission done, our minds tend to turn very quickly to tools, media and technology. Those things are good, but more can be achieved with a simple message, a clear intention and face-to-face contact than we realise.
“Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.” Edward McKendree Bounds
Pray for those who spread their message of submission with zeal and passion. Pray that they too may encounter Isa al Massih in a dream or vision and seek to follow Him with a new zeal and passion.
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Read this article on Tablighi Jemaat: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/sep/08/religion-islam-tablighi-jamaat. Islam is also a missionary faith so if you see a Muslim missionary be prepared to engage with them relationally with "a simple message, a clear intention and face-to-face contact."
Remember the mnemonic: ISLAM = 'I Sincerely Love All Muslims'
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
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By Ted Bearup from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.”
We have ten mosques or more where I live, but if I talk to my Muslim friends about mosques they say “Watch out for that one. They are Wahabis.” The guys who meet there reject the title and call themselves Salafis. They are the guys who reject centuries of Islamic scholarship and say real Islam is only to be found amongst the very first Muslims. Others have added or taken away stuff, they say, you have to get back to the founders.
Such talk sounds scary. Didn’t it all start with war and barbarity? The imam of that mosque is someone I regard as a friend. I don’t see him very often but when I do, it is always a pleasure. He appreciates the freedom he has in the West and denounces terrorism at every opportunity.
Many years ago, I led a Wahabi to Christ. He had left the ways of his fathers and joined the Wahabis in search of truth. What he read in the Quran prompted him to read the Bible and came to Christ. Already used to verbal abuse, rejection and persecution, he was a great help to other believers. Let's watch out for Wahabis.
Help us Lord to watch out for these who would do harm and to pray for our enemies; Help us to watch and pray that we do not enter into similar temptations to judge others and Help us watch out for one another in Love... that we would all be able to follow you as disciples...
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly, day by day. Amen.
Prayer of Saint Richard of Chichester
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Find out about the mosques in your area - Choose one ... See if they have a website. Get their address. Go and have a look-see. Pray for those who are praying there. Be friendly. See if you can start a conversation with someone who attends. Take it from there.....
https://www.visitmymosque.org/find-my-mosque/
https://www.halaltrip.com/find-mosques-near-me/
https://mosques.muslimsinbritain.org
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
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By Steve Bell from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples…who he took as prisoners…As he neared Damascus…suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”. Saul asked, “Who are you Lord?”; “I am Jesus who you are persecuting.”
‘Wahabbism’ is an Islamic ‘movement’ that was founded by the Saudi Qur’anic scholar, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It is an ultra-conservative doctrine, which is puritanical and often linked with Islamist ideology.
The Wahabbi movement has a disproportionate influence. This is due to the fact that it is endorsed by the Saudi royal family as the religion of state. Oil-money is made available to propagate this strict form of Islam worldwide; this includes scholarships for Muslims to study in Saudi Arabia, funding for the worldwide building of mosques, subsidising of the publication of the Qur’an, funding Muslim missionaries and propagation of literature and online material. There is also a lot of evidence of Wahabbi influence in the more devout and radical elements of the Muslim community in Britain, which it is propagated by assertive Muslims.
Wahabbi doctrine is a significant driver, which is causing the internet-savvy younger generation of Muslims to reject it. They see it as ‘backward-looking’, which aspires to return to a perceived ‘golden age’ of Islam, rather than being relevant to the present and future.
‘Father, thank you for your authority in the spiritual realm and that you are at work at the heart of human movements and ideology, such as Wahabbism. We recognise your loving interest in the most strident of religionists and ask you to intervene in the hearts and minds of the most prominent Sheikhs, Mullahs, Imams and speakers. Do among them, what you did for Saul of Tarsus we pray. In Jesus’ name we pray. – AMEN
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Research and read more on Wahhabism in UK. For example, this article from 2017 https://www.theweek.co.uk/87832/wahhabism-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter. Check in your own heart and mind, whether you are ‘in faith’ (or not) that God is both able and willing to arrest radical Muslims as he did Saul of Tarsus.
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
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By Steve Bell from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the [Nubian] woman he had married: for he had married a [Nubian] woman.”
As well as ‘movements’ of Muslims who choose to follow Christ, God is involved in the social movements of Muslim communities.
A classic example is the ‘ebb’ and ‘flow’ of the gospel history of this tall and slender Nubian people.
Things ‘flowed’ when Nubians embraced Christianity to form one of the early African churches.
Things ‘ebbed’ after the arrival of Islam, which caused Nubian Christians to shrink to just 1% of the 2 million-strong people group today.
Things ‘flowed’ (a little) as some explore Sufism in search of a personal experience of God, making them more receptive to the gospel.
Things have ‘ebbed’ again as thousands of Nubians seek work in the Gulf States to help provide for their families back home, become exposed to ultra-conservative Wahhabi Islam, making them more resistant to the good news about Jesus.
Father, thank you for your unseen involvement with Nubians throughout their history. While some are racist against them, they are still a nation on your heart. Cause them to be on the heart of others. As their lives are intertwined with the people of Upper Egypt, please call Egyptian believers to reach out to them. Although fewer Nubians come to Britain, would you follow them when in diaspora in the Middle East and also in the territory of Nubia. Amen
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Check out Nubians in the book Operation World or equivalent or else online. What was Nubia called in Bible times and see if there are any promises which include them.
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
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By Ted Bearup from the Mahabba team
Inspired by today's entry in the 30 Days of Prayer booklet, but with a UK twist!
If you’ve not signed up to receive the daily prompts to your inbox - see here →
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Each year, a body with Jordanian royal sponsorship publishes a list of the most influential 500 Muslims and ranks them in order, ‘Top of the Pops’ style. The top 20 positions are dominated by kings, presidents and heads Islamic bodies numbering millions, but in among them, at number 9 in the world, is the director of a school in Yemen.
His name is Habib Umar bin Hafiz. His school attracts people in from all over the world to learn Sufi Islam. Habib Umar and his associates reach out across the world via the internet. I know a band of his followers who meet weekly in a large room over the dry cleaners ten minutes’ walk from my home.
They meet each week to recite a liturgy that celebrates the birth of Muhammad, to sing and to eat together. They seek to raise their awareness of God through meditation and recitation. They are part of a lively and growing network across the UK, seeking a deeper life. Pray for these men and women as they search after God that they might find him.
I am in the House of Mercy, and my heart is a place of prayer - Jelaluddin Rumi
A person is where their heart is…so be sure to place your heart accordingly - Habib Umar bin Hafiz
Pray for Sufis, men and women, as they search after God that they might find him, perhaps in a way they did not quite expect…
Please note: actions were written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult the latest advice from your local public health authority or government and adhere to any current restrictions on travel or social situations.
Read up about Sufis - you can read about Habib Umar here (http://www.ghazali.se/artiklar/personligheter-i-islam/shaykh-al-habib-umar-bin-hafiz/) including his direct line from the prophet (his religious pedigree)
Watch this video on many shades of Islam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KmlI0bb_H4
Let us know how it went! Leave a comment on our online community platform, Discourse, or tag us on social media with the #lovefast hashtag on social media.
Do you want to involve your church in blessing Muslim people through prayer and friendship?
There are new 30 Days of Prayer church resources available for you:
Pray Together as a Congregation
Small Group Session
Night of Power Prayer Meeting
Prayer Walk Guide
What’s your next step after 30 Days? There are loads of resources to help you on your journey.
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