One of the leading Islamic calligraphers Khalil al-Zahawi has been shot dead outside his home in the New Baghdad District. Al-Zahawi (May God have mercy upon his soul) was highly regarded in the Ummah for his classical Arabic script.If we are to look back into our History books, which unfortunately our Masjids do not tend teach, it can be seen that Baghdad had played an important role in the emergence of the Islamic Golden age.

Under the Command of Khalid Ibn Waleed, the newly created Islamic Empire moved into the region of Iraq. By about 762 A.D., the Abbasid dynasty took over rule of the vast Muslim world and moved the capital to the newly founded city of Baghdad, which over the next 5 centuries had made Baghdad into the world’s centre of education and culture. Baghdad now has become the world’s centre of death and destruction due to the war launched for the sake of the most brutal racist state of Israel.

It was in Baghdad where the Islamic Scholars contributed to the subjects of medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, literature, and more.

Also including that the worlds leading Islamic Scholars had their educational roots in Baghdad. One of the most famous centres of learning was Bayt al-Hikmah (the House of Wisdom) that had attracted scholars from all over the world from many cultures and religions. Here, teachers and students worked together to translate Greek manuscripts, preserving them for all time. They studied the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippo crates, Euclid, and Pythagoras. The House of Wisdom was home to, among others, as well as the most famous mathematician of this period: Al-Khawarizmi, the "father" of algebra (which is named after his book "Kitab al-Jabr").

While Europe festered in the Dark Ages, Baghdad was thus at the heart of a vibrant and diverse civilization. It was known as the world’s richest and most intellectual city of that period, and was second in size only to Constantinople.
I ask the Muslim Community of Britain to do dua for Khalil al-Zahawi, his family and for the Muslim Ummah. We also ask you to come and join the Muslim communities and organisations, which were once filled with diversity, intellectuality and great values that are based upon the Quran and Sunnah.
We are more powerful together than we are apart.