Letters to the Editor

We hope to answer somewhat in detail through an article in one of the forthcoming issues, Allah willing.

It is quite disconcerting to learn that dating is now becoming the accepted way of life. But, factually, this represents the notion and practice among the Westernized Muslim sections of megacity-societies. It is certainly not the accepted way of life among Muslims in smaller cities, towns, or countryside.

Therefore, it is not only disconcerting, but alarming also in view of one of the Sunan of Allah stated in the Qur’an (17: 16): “When We wish to destroy a town, We command the affluent thereof to work corruption in it. Thus the word comes true against it and then We destroy it in utter destruction.”

Sex and female companionship are the legitimate needs and thus natural rights of every person. But how should a Muslim go about meeting with it and gaining his right? Dating is certainly not the right way. Islam prohibits even looking at a non-Mahram woman. Dating is absolutely out of question. It is Haram. And, never will any good come out of Haram.

And never has any good come out of this Haram act, even in non-Muslim societies. In the West, and now in the East, dating led to opening the flood gates of obscenity and immorality. Societies that allowed it to become an accepted practice, have suffered complete breakdown, and such distancing from sane behavior at the family level, that any recovery is now out of the question. Hundreds of millions of men and women have been exposed to unhappy family-life, and driven to illicit sex, homosexuality, lesbianism, wine, drugs, homicide, and suicide. The Western society is in a catastrophic mess from which it will perhaps never recover.

Any society that accepts this pathway has to end up falling into the same destructive ditches. The need of the hour is for young Muslim men and women who have been dating to repent and give it a complete stop. We warn them in no ambiguous terms that if they persist and do not repent, they will pay a heavy price. What exactly we cannot say. But, just as smoking can lead to cancer, or drinking wine to impotency, dating will necessarily lead to ill consequences. Laws of Nature are unbreakable. If you jump from the balcony, you can only go down. No power will shoot you up or send you into levitation. Similarly, the Laws working against dating are unbreakable. You better not challenge Allah.

We do not know and wish to say nothing about the advantages or disadvantages of registering as a member of the Scheduled Caste, but we do believe that no Muslim should register himself as a Scheduled Caste.

A Muslim’s only identity is that he is a Muslim. And it is a matter of great honor that he is a Muslim. He is Allah’s own servant and under His mercy and protection. He works hard, earns a lot, takes enough out of his earning to lead a simple honorable life, hands over the rest to those needier than him, and begs no one, neither the State nor the Community, for his sustenance.

His Prophet told him, “Seek providence in a dignified manner because each is driven in ease to what is written for him.”

He said, “Seek providence in a dignified manner. Let not its late coming lead you to seeking it in Allah’s disobedience. For, what is with Allah, will not be obtained but through obedience of Him.”

The Prophet also said, “The upper hand is better than the lower.” Therefore, a Muslim would rather contribute to the State treasury, through hard work and honesty, rather than draw from the State on one pretext or the other, under one policy or another.

If the report is true, filtered cigarettes should be avoided by Muslim smokers. But, should Muslims smoke at all?

We agree with you that a Chief Justice, any Chief Justice, should not sit together in a public function next to someone alleged to have a hand in a criminal case, even if the allegations are yet to be proved.

It must be fascinating to study the six hadith works. You must be congratulated for having finished Bukhari and Muslim.

From the point of view expressed by you, there is no specific order. In fact, scholars would not suggest that one should study Bukhari first simply because it is the most trustworthy after Allah’s Book. In many schools where Hadith is a subject, Bukhari is almost taken up last.

Perhaps Ibn Majah is best for a start where self-study is involved. Bukhari is quite tough. Someone not familiar with the Hadith discipline might not profit much from the first reading of Bukhari.

Many students are misled by the age-old remark, “the most trustworthy book after the Book of Allah.” And, in our own times, this has been turned into a slogan and has been taken off its true meaning by ignorant people who have done disservice to the Hadith discipline without realizing it. Their usage of the above evaluative remark in a sinister sense has diminished the importance of not only the rest of the six, but also of many other Hadith works apart from the six.

You must understand that the remark, “the most trustworthy ..” has ‘narrator value’ alone. It does not reflect the ‘meaning value.’ A student will need ahadith from several other Hadith collections to fix the meaning of narratives in Bukhari, or, for that matter of any Collection. This of course is a technical discussion and hard upon many readers. One may study the methodology that the Muhaddithin have adopted in their Commentaries to fix the meaning of narrations. In the forefront is, of course, Ibn Hajr. His Fath al-Bari is a good example of how to go about fixing the meanings of the ahadith. Just because it is in Bukhari, does not mean that derivation of right meaning is also guaranteed. In fact, it is commonly acknowledged that the relationship of the Chapter Headings with the ahadith below them has been quite challenging to discover.

We recommend therefore that you study Ibn Majah first, then Tirmidhi, Nasa’i, Abu Da’ud, Sahih Muslim, and then Bukhari.

If you do not know Arabic, but know Urdu, we recommend you study some of the Hadith Commentaries such as Tafheem al-Bukhari/Tafheem Muslim/Taqrir Tirmidhi, or, a simpler one: Tarjuman al-Sunnah, or, yet simpler, Ma`arif al-Hadith, or perhaps the simplest, Kalam al-Nubuwwah.