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One of the quieter but deeply important threads in Islamic scholarship concerns how the Prophet (peace be upon him) navigated the religious customs of pre-Islamic Arabia. When he declared that neither the Fara’ nor the ‘Atira were permissible, he wasn’t dismissing generosity or celebration — he was drawing a precise line between sincere worship and inherited ritual that had become hollow, or worse, spiritually harmful.

The Fara’ was a practice of sacrificing the first offspring of a herd as…

Global markets opened the week with cautious optimism as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq extended gains, but the dominant story is the upcoming NATO summit where President Trump will meet Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and Syria’s al-Sharaa. That meeting, alongside [Turkiye hosting its first NATO summit in 22…

The hadith describing Anas performing Hajj on a simple packsaddle — the same kind the Prophet himself used, even while carrying baggage — is easy to overlook. But it contains something quietly profound. Anas was not poor. The narration explicitly notes he was not a miser. He simply chose simplicity because the Prophet had modelled it, and that model was worth following precisely as it was.

Hajj is one of the most remarkable human gatherings on earth. Over 1.7 million pilgrims performed it…

If you ask Mu what is moving in markets, the answer used to come after a planning step that considered all the possible ways to handle a general question. That step was thorough, but for a straightforward market query it added a half-second of unnecessary indirection. We have since refined the planning for market-mover questions so that the path to the data is more direct. The change is small, but it reduces friction in the ask-to-answer loop for one of the most common everyday requests.

The…

Reports from Tehran describe enormous crowds gathering for the funeral of Ayatollah Khamenei, defying intense summer heat to mark the death of a man who led Iran for over three decades. For outside observers, the scale of public mourning raises a genuine question: what does it reveal about a society that Western media often reduces to its government’s foreign policy?

It is worth holding two things simultaneously. Iran is a country where political dissent carries serious consequences, and…

Massive crowds filled Tehran for the second day of funeral processions for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US airstrike, as the BBC shows. The outpouring comes as analyst Paolo von Schirrach argues the US is facing a “changing global order” and its influence is increasingly challenged — a theme echoed by the Al Jazeera documentary “How US power and policy shaped the modern world.” Meanwhile, Bitcoin jumped above $⁠63,000 during thin July 4 trading, reversing…

The verse from Surah Al-Qiyamah carries a deceptively simple instruction: when revelation is recited, follow it closely. The immediate context is the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) being gently corrected for rushing to memorise the words as they came — an entirely understandable impulse, given what was being revealed. But the divine response was reassuring: slow down, be present, trust that the meaning will settle properly. This small moment contains something worth sitting with.

There…

President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging CNBC interview has cast a long shadow over today’s financial and political landscape, particularly as he defended his family’s crypto windfall worth at least $⁠1.4 billion, stating there is “nothing wrong” with it. That confidence contrasts with the broader market mood: Bitcoin whales bought $⁠16.7 billion of BTC in two weeks even as US ETFs bled a record $⁠4 billion, pushing BTC up 2% to $⁠62,513. The first known congressional disclosures of SpaceX…

Global markets are bracing for a mixed open today as a sustained rotation out of technology stocks weighs on sentiment across Asia and the US. The US labor force participation rate has fallen to its lowest in 50 years outside the pandemic, with job seekers giving up – a troubling signal beneath a headline drop in unemployment. Meanwhile, President Trump…

One of the less discussed names of Allah carries perhaps the most quietly radical implication for how we understand wealth, legacy, and ambition. Al-Waarith — the Inheritor — tells us that in the end, every possession, every fortune, every empire, and every institution will return to its ultimate owner. Nothing is permanently ours. We are, at best, trustees for a limited term.

This is not a discouraging idea. It is, on reflection, a liberating one. If we understand that we do not…

When you ask Mu what is moving in markets, the goal is to get you the data, not to walk through a planning loop. Recently we tightened how the agent handles market-mover questions so that the ask-to-answer path is shorter. The change is small in code but noticeable in use: instead of the assistant mapping out a generic sequence and then fetching, it now recognises the intent and goes straight to the market service. The result is that the answer arrives faster, with less intermediary…

The story of Barirah in the hadith literature is easy to overlook — a woman seeking help to buy her own freedom, navigating a financial contract called a kitaba, which allowed enslaved people to purchase their emancipation through agreed instalments. What makes the narration remarkable is not just its historical detail but its moral architecture: the Prophet actively facilitated her path to freedom, Aisha assisted without hesitation, and the system itself was designed to honour human dignity…

The US decision not to renew the USMCA trade pact with Canada and Mexico opens the door for renegotiations, as President Trump targets America’s trade deficits with both neighbours. That uncertainty weighed on commodity markets, with copper slipping 0.3% and silver falling 1%, though oil steadied at $⁠68 after a 0.8% decline. Meanwhile, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh told the ECB Forum that inflation remains “too high” but declined to hint at July’s rate decision, keeping the dollar firm against the euro…

The US political landscape continues to shape both tech and finance: a new bipartisan bill introduced by Senators Tim Scott and Bill Hagerty seeks to block foreign adversaries from accessing American AI technology, building on the earlier GENIUS Act. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure revealed he pocketed more than $⁠1 billion from crypto ties, including over $⁠580 million in crypto-related income—a disclosure that coincides with a down day for digital assets, with Bitcoin…

The story of Thumama bin Uthal, recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, is brief but extraordinary. He was the chief of Yamama — a powerful leader, not a minor figure — captured and brought to the Prophet’s mosque in Medina. For three days he remained there, the Prophet visiting him each time and asking simply: what do you have to say? Each time, Thumama replied with defiance or bargaining. On the third day, the Prophet ordered his release without condition.

What happened next was entirely…

One of the most quietly instructive narrations in Islamic tradition is this: the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) bought food on credit and pledged his armour as collateral. No divine intervention to skip the transaction. No special exception from the mechanics of economic life. The Prophet engaged the financial system of his time, honestly and transparently, with his own possessions as security.

This matters more than it might first appear. In an era when Muslims are often caught between…

Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 52,000 for the first time on Monday, lifted by gains in Alphabet and a temporary pause in US-Iran hostilities — but that calm may be short-lived as

after ceasefire tensions flared. Across the Atlantic, the UK’s new defence secretary Dan Jarvis has secured an extra £1.5 billion to boost drone spending, with a [long-delayed defence plan due…

The everyday internet has a shape: weather from one company, news from another, mail from a third, search and video from the biggest ones. Each platform owns its slice and earns from your attention. The stack as a whole belongs to no one — least of all you.

Mu is a single agent that covers the same ground. You ask it in plain language and it calls the relevant services — weather, news, market prices, mail, web search, video — and returns one answer. It remembers your preferences over…

The hadith recorded about the people of Quba is easy to overlook — a brief account of neighbours who fell into such bitter dispute that they began throwing stones at each other. What makes it remarkable is the Prophet’s response. He didn’t send an emissary, issue a ruling, or wait for the situation to resolve itself. He said, simply: “Let us go to bring about a reconciliation between them.” He went himself.

This is worth sitting with, especially against the backdrop of today’s headlines….

Oil prices rose 1.2% to $⁠70 a barrel on Monday as markets reopened after US airstrikes on Iran over the weekend, with Tehran putting nuclear talks on hold and President Trump again threatening “annihilation.” The escalation has rattled global equity futures, though Wall Street is coming off a mixed week driven by a rotation out of tech stocks. Gold dipped slightly to $⁠4,081, while…