Letters to the Editor
Q. I have been reading your Islamic magazine since 1995. As a matter of fact,I had collected many of your monthly magazines, but I had to shift from place to place – so lost some, gave away some to others, and denoted to library most of your magazines.I request you to reprint three things which I miss most:
1. There was a saying of Anas (may Allah be well pleased with him), “am 80 years old, blind in one eye,… yet am afraid to look at non-Maharam…” or something to this effect.
2. There was an idea of Muslim marriage (first night) which you had shared about the bride and groom… although they don’t know each other… or something to this effect.
3. One poem of Mirza Ghalib:I think…heart, mansion of ruins… something to this effect again.
Syed Mohammed,
On Email
YMD
Regretfully, we have around 30,000 files in our computers. It is far from easy to trace out a file containing the three items that you have asked us to dig out.
Referring to point 1 above, we are not sure whether Anas (ra) said any such thing or not, but we did remember and traced back that it was Sa`id al-Musayyib who did not trust himself with women, although at 80, he had gone blind in one eye, and the other too was not too healthy. Yet, he avoided any contact with women.
When he was told that women could not be interested in him in that age and in that physical condition, he replied, “But I will not trust myself with a woman.”
Q. We are staying at a house since one year on lease for Rs. 3 lakhs.We also pay Rs. 1000/- every month as the tax for water.So my question is: should we give Zakath on the lease amount?Also, is it correct to stay on lease (as our monthly income is approximately 50-60 thousand) or should we stay on rent?
Ashurah55,
On Email
YMD
Regarding Zakah on the amount not in your hand, and not in your control, such as the lease amount, one of the two rulings is that if you are sure to get back the amount, you might pay the Zakah, while the second is that there is no need to pay, until the amount is realized. But if you are not sure of getting the money back, then, again there are two opinions: one, pay out the Zakah for all those years during which the money was not in your hand or control, two: calculate from the day received, and pay out after one lunar year is passed.
As for lease agreement, please present all data and find out from a local Mufti (someone officially recognized as one), whether it is Islamically legal.
Finally, whether you take a house on rent or not, is not a matter affected by the amounts one earns.
Q: As I recall, we had subscribed with the Young Muslim Digest as life members. Apparently, we all have become net-savvy people and have shifted our residence from Bangalore to the address below.
I am sure in your data bank, Major Syed Abdul Hafeezand the undersigned would figure. I just wanted to check if you send these monthly through emails also. I remember that they used to make a good and informative reading about Islam.
Col. (Retd.) Syed Abdul Hakeem/Afsar,
GM, Emirates Taxi & Fast Airport Limo,
Abu Dhabi & Al Ain, UAE
YMD
We are making a note. We do not send the magazine by e-mail.
Q. I have been intrigued for some time after reading your answers to one of the questions about men wearing jewelry. You had stated that men can wear platinum rings. Can you reconfirm this in the light of Hadith and Qur’an as I understood it to be only in the form of silver?
YMD
The answer given earlier was the opinion of the Fuqaha’. They depend not on Qur’an and Sunnah alone, but take into consideration other principles and sources of law.
Some stupid people of our times have spread the opinion that Islamic Fiqh is based on the Qur’an and Sunnah alone. Their understanding is false, and their efforts to propagate the opinion is stupidity.
Interestingly, this very group bombarded Sheikh Bin Baaz, `Uthaymeen, Albani (may all rest in peace) and many others with hundreds of questions and clarifications, in the belief that the Four Fiqhi schools were null and void and these scholars could give answers from the Qur’an and Sunnah alone. But, little did they know that Sheikh Bin Baaz, `Uthaymeen, Albani, etc. did not, and could not, give the answers directly from the Qur’an and Sunnah.In many cases, not found in the Qur’an and Sunnah, either they took answers from Ibn Taimiyyah, or from sayings of the Salaf, or, if not available, used some principles of Fiqh, of their Madhhab (Ahl al-Hadith) and their own making – such principles of Fiqh which digress from those of the Four Fuqaha’. This explains why they differed between themselves over many issues (some quite important), in their Fatawa, and why, apart from other reasons, their methodology and Fatawa based on those principles, were not accepted by any of the Shari`ah Court of Law, in any Middle-Eastern country.
Arab Muslims know these facts, but the non-Arab was left with the slogan-like statement, “Let us stick to the Qur’an and Hadith.” Poor souls, they have no idea how the Shuyukhworked out their Fatawa.
These poor souls do not know that even when a Fatwa is arrived at from the Qur’an and Sunnah, the derivation employed is by such subtle methods and reasoning that will raise hair on their heads if they knew Arabic.
Q. Also what other jewelry can men wear and made up of what material? I have seen a lot of men wear chains, rings and bracelets made of gold or silver or platinum or copper or other metals or simply made of threads.
YMD
Perhaps you do not understandthe difference between shapes of jewelry and the materials from which they are made. The males in Islam are not allowed to wear gold and silver. No matter what shape they give them, gold and silver may not be used. Jewelry from other minerals can be worn, no matter what shape they are given.
Q. One other question I have is pertaining to men wearing Mehendi on their body either in their palms, nails or other parts of the body as tattoos. Can you clarify this is not permitted for men?
Shoaib Farhad,
On Email
YMD
Application of Mehendi is allowable for males in Islam, whether used for tattoos or for some other purpose.
Tattoos are the manifestation of genetic changes in the males of those people who live half-naked. They must, to display their genetic disorder, remove their shirts and trousers to live in undergarments. Feminism is another manifestation of the genetic disorder.
Islamic way of life tends to produce 120% males. Its culture leaves no place in the body for display of tattoos. Its males smuggle themselves into the battle-fields with their heads on their hands.
“Wanna send me to Paradise? Go ahead. I’ll fight back with stones – ya J’s and C’s. And I don’t care where my body falls, if my soul lands in Paradise.”
That’s the Islamic male: not in inner garments, no ring he wears on his earlobes, and no tattoos he displays.
Q. Recently I read a fatwa from website of Darul Uloom Deoband, in which the Mufti had termed ideas of MaulanaMawdoodi as quite different from that of mainstream Muslims? Is it true?Please elaborate.
Tawseef Ahmad,
On Email
YMD
It was right of the Mufti to use the word ‘ideas’ because, whoever expresses his ideas about Islam,learns that there are many views contradicting his. Every thinking man has his own ideas of Islam. So, why be surprised if his critic had different ideas?
Yet, some of his ideas run in tandem with the ideas of the mainstream Muslims, while some are not. Some are way off the mark. That is where he puts others to test. If they remain quiet, they are expressing assent without uttering a word. If they speak out, they are attacked as the younger brothers of Taghut/an enemy of truth/an envious person/ an outsider, etc.
Yes, Mawlana Mawdudid did try the people.
But, what about his agreement with the mainstream Muslims in matters of Fiqh? Was he not a Hanafiyy and a Deobandi at heart and in spirit?
So, if ideas divide, why Fiqh should not be given a chance to unite?
Q. I am a regular reader of the Young Muslim Digest. I really appreciate the hard work and the sincere efforts of the YMD team towards this magazine and helping young Muslimahs like me to gain knowledge about Islam and Islamic affairs across the world.
I have recently stumbled upon this website: http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Main_Page. As I was going through various articles in it, I felt that it was somewhat Islamophobic, though it didn’t claim to be one and I couldn’t find that out initially. Incidentally, I happened to read an article on Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her).(web address of the article: http://wikiislam.net/wiki/The_Tragedy_of_Aisha)The article said that Islam condones pedophilia.
I know I shouldn’t believe anything that comes up on the internet. And I do know that the website has put up many articles whose gist contradict with Islam. And that is why I had assumed that the website was Islamophobic, averting people from the truth.However, I would want some clarity on Aisha’s marriage with the beloved Prophet (Sallallahualaihiwasallam).
Does Islam really condone pedophilia?When Islam considers homosexuality to be unnatural, then why is pedophilia acceptable? It’s not that I’m supporting homosexuality, indeed, it’s the highest degree of perversion. But pedophilia is not natural either. Doesn’t it go against the natural order of Allah’s creation?
XYZ,
On Email
YMD
While every Jew knows that Islam is under attack from every side, yet, given fifteen minutes offree time, our youth goes straight into an Internet site set up to help deviate the deviated find their way out of Islam.
You ask: “Why is pedophilia acceptable?”
Now, you must be sufficiently educated to know what pedophilia is. So, did you say to yourself, “Wow! Never saw it happening in my 20 years of life. Wow! Never was I ever told of it happening in my community in generations. Wow, baby!Either I am stupid, or this website is pork-pie.”
It did not occur to you to conduct an enquiry aboutwho is involved in pedophilia activities in our times. You did not ask, “Who exactly these present-day pedophiles are? Who has been caught, tried, and jailed?Arabs?Malaysians?Turks?Or,a British?An American?A French?”
And the irony is: after you implicateour Prophet in pedophilic activities, you have the audacity to say, “Sallallahualaihiwasallam!”
What is wrong with us that a former Roman Catholic British priest, says, “After a little study of Islam and its Prophet, but remaining a Catholic, as a teacher in a Public School, where I taught Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and other world religions, whenever I tried to speak of Muhammad, I had wet eyes that I tried to hide, or felt a lump in my throat.”
What is wrong with us that we ringout, in all earnestness, “Sallallahualaihiwasallam”but never it iswith wet eyes and a lump in the throat?
We are not writing anything to clear the doubt, because, after all the literature that has been made available by the scholars of Islam, if the youth still bumps into pork-pie websites, then, our labored answer will be of little good.
The criticism here is actually not aimed at you as a person. It is aimed at the trendy young of this Ummah.
Q. I would like to know aset of books, which should be in every Muslim’s house?
Saqlain Salahuddin,
On Email
YMD
Islamic literature is rich and vast. It is richer and vaster than any other literature, including English. The trend to gain knowledge and gather books had started from the time of the Companions itself. Ibn `Abbas, a Companion of the Prophet, had needed several camels to transport his books. If he were here now, he would need trucks. Until recent times, every Muslim house – including in the village – had a small library containing a few dozen books. The educated ones built libraries at home, consisting of hundreds of books on every imaginable subject.
But the present-day generation can be termed as the neo-Jahiliyyahcrop. Muslims of today are, perhaps, the least knowledgeable people when compared to other communities. Normally, one will hear the excuse that the Internet meets with the needs. Nonsense. The books are downloaded from there by the thousands, because they are in electronic format and need no space to store. However, they are browsed through by a few and read by fewer. This explains the fast pace of spread of neo-Jahiliyyah among Muslims.
Below we give the smallest possible list of English-Islamic books that should be there in every home. Perhaps a few will say, it is too few. Well, we have only some disciplines in mind. The list could get longer for some. It should.
1. The Educational Encyclopedia of Islam as produced by Iqra Welfare Trust
2. A translation of the Qur’an – Yusuf Ali, Abdul Majid Daryabadi
3. Ma`arif al-Qur’an, Mufti Shafi` Deobandi
4. In the Shade of the Qur’an, v.30, SayyidQutb, tr. Adil Salahi and Shumaysi
5. Tafheem al-Qur’an,MawlanaMawdudi
6. Ishraq al Ma`ani, Syed Iqbal Zaheer
7. Ma`arif al-Hadith,MawlanaManzoorNo`mani
8. Riyad al Saliheenwith commentary
9. What is Islam? MawlanaManzoorNo`mani
10. SeeratunNabi, ShibliNo`mani
11. Life of the Prophet, Mahdi RizqaAllah
12. Life of Muhammad, Ibn Ishaq
13. Seerat-e-`A’isha, Syed SulaimanNadwi
14. The Makers of Islamic Spirit – Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi
15. Shari`ah: Islamic Law, Abdul Rahman I. Doi
16. BahishtiZewar (English), Ashraf Ali Thanwi
17. History of the Arabs,P.K.Hitti
18. Fake Pearls, Syed Iqbal Zaheer
19. Spread of Islam in the World, Thomas Arnold
20. Ihya’ Ulum al-Din and/or Keemiya-e-Sa`adat, Imam Ghazali
Q. What is the fatwa regarding Circumcision?
YMD
According to the Ahnaf, it is Sunnah and one of the Sha`a’ir of Islam. Some other schools of Fiqh have thought that it is wajib.
Q. Is it obligatory for every Muslim including new converts/reverts to Islam?
YMD
It is left to the individuals.
Certain diseases, however, have been found less prevalent among Muslims and Jews, which both communities practice circumcision.
Q. Is it permissible to urinate while standing even when there is a facility to do so while sitting?
YMD
Yes.
Q. Is it permissible to eat/drink while standing?
Wani Bilal,
On Email
YMD
Yes.
However, taking all the answers given in yes above, to live by in life, would be almost a sin.
