Letters to the Editor
Q: Kindly elaborate on the religious views being held by the modern scholars like Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Harun Yahya and Javed Ahmad Ghamidi as their literature is easily available in English and thus read by a majority of educated youth.
YMD
Unless they are renowned scholars, e.g. Ashraf Ali Thanwi, Shibli, Syed Sulaiman Nadwi, Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi, and those of their status, it is difficult and incorrect to evaluate a scholar’s person. The most we can do is to evaluate a piece of his writing, an article, or a book. Therefore, you will have to kindly send sample writings of the scholars you have named upon which we could offer our remarks and comments.
Q: Kindly dedicate an upcoming editorial to the concept of ‘Peace and Spirituality in Islam,’ as being promoted by a certain strain of apologetic scholars with respect to the holistic concept of Jihad (Akbar, Asghar, bin Nafs, Qitaal) and Tasawwuf.
WaniBilal,
On Email
YMD
We shall try to cover these topics in future editorials. At the moment, we already have a few topics to deal with.
Q: I am regular reader of your digest. I got married two years ago, but till now have not got any child. I am worried… Please suggest me what to do.
I.K.,
On Email
YMD
Two years is not a long period. If you are normal in every aspect, you ought to wait for a couple of years more. If there are no issues, you and your wife should consult a specialist doctor.
But on no account should you consult a Peer or a charmer. Beyond making good money out of you, they cannot do anything about it.
Q: I am sending some Islamic quotes for your magazine. My suggestion is that, apart from the Islamic articles in your magazine, you may please add some Islamic quotes also to make it more interesting.
Pasha,
On Email
YMD
You are right about the need for Islamic quotes in our magazine. We are working on a plan to improve our magazine. Quotes are one aspect.
Nonetheless, the quotes of your sending are in Urdu, which might sound nice to hear but become insipid in English.
Thank you anyway for sending them.
Q: I would like to share some views on the present situation in the country and reach out to the common people of India.
Gul Khan,
On Email
YMD
Thinkers and educated classes of the country are with you in your opinions. They are saying that the efforts are going on to gradually slide India into a Theocratic State. They agree with you in views that you have expressed. But on our part, we cannot publish them without fear of suppression and oppression. In addition, this is not a political magazine. This is a plain religious Islamic magazine.
All the same, we may point out that whatever the State policies, Islam has a way to emerge victorious. A hundred years of Communist rule in the Soviet Union, did little harm to Islam. Leaders of Europe and United States have done everything possible, even took some self-inflicting actions to prevent Islam’s entry. Any other religion would have succumbed to the massive propaganda against it. In fact, without any propaganda against them, many religions are losing ground. But Islam expands. The story and the theme will repeat in India.
You have asked us to plunge in and fearlessly challenge them. You say that this is the demand of faith. True. But faith also demands reasonableness, cool-headedness, perceptiveness, and sagacity. Only fools rush where angels fear.
As for you saying that you would like to reach out to the masses with this message, we believe it is an effort that promises failure before start. Instead, you need to get politically activated by joining a party with whose policies you agree.
Q: I am an avid reader of your magazine, and pray to Allah that it keeps doing what it is doing for years to come inshallah. My question is, I have three kids of one, three and six years of age. Am I to re-do my Wudu if I happen to touch their urine or stool while cleaning them?
YMD
No, you do not have to attempt a new Wudu for coming into contact with their faeces or urine. All you need to do is to clean your hands well.
Q. I have read somewhere about them eating solids and that being the differentiating factor, but then my youngest one is on formula milk.Will that count too? Hoping that you will reply in detail the ruling according to the Hanafi Madh-hab, it will be greatly beneficial to countless mothers like me.
Aisha Raya,
On Email
YMD
You are not required to re-do Wudu even if they have begun to eat solid foods. Actually, being on milk alone or consuming solid food has no effect on the rules pertaining to uncleanliness (Najaasat). In either case, you need not re-do your ablution.
Q. I believe usury, in whatever form and by whatever name, being unjust, is unlawful in Islam. I also hold that we, as Muslims, are collectively responsible and accountable for not practising a just economic system. I have, however, one instance in question. An elder friend of mine happened to proceed abroad in a hurry and asked me to have his domestic travel (Jammu-Srinagar) ticket cancelled for refund (Rs. 170/- in the year 1983). The person stayed abroad for several years (probably till 1988)and, thus, I could not remit the money over the period.
However, due to preoccupation, and may be my slackness as well, I did not pay him back till 2012. There was, thus, a question as to how much should I pay him back? I sent him the prevalent air fare at that point of time (i.e.,Rs. 1700/-) which he declined to take and the amount was spent in charity.
Was that the right course of action?
YMD
You were not bound to pay him any amount more than Rs. 170/=. So, he did the right thing to return to you the additional amount.
You were also not bound to spend the additional amount in charity. However, since you have done it, you will be rewarded for it.
Q. How would the routine loans over a period of time be treated in context of the inflation, given that with respect to the cost of a commodity, the value of money is depreciated?
Rashid Engineer,
On Email
YMD
Value of money can both go down as well as go up following economic, political and social activities and fluctuations. Islamic principles do not allow for loan-amount adjustments according to rise or fall of currency. You are required to return what you had borrowed, lapse of time not counted. That is one of the reasons why exchange and currency used to be in gold.
If, as in the case described above, when you had amount ‘x’ from somebody, any additional while returning it would be interest. As for the lender, the longer his money is with you, the greater the reward for him –which is a kind of spin-off that encourages lenders not to press for return and, if possible, forgive the loans altogether.
In Islam, morals come before materials.
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Q: How should I deal with a mother who differentiates amongst daughters and sons and who supports her sons even when they are wrong? She takes their side even when they put baseless accusations on me and try to prove me guilty. Sir, this behavior of my mother is affecting me psychologically. Please help me.
Ambreen Fatima,
On Email
YMD
We do not see that your mother’s partisanship will hurt you much. You are sure to take it gallantly and come off stronger psychologically.
Let her do as she wants, and watch the fun from a distance. Not far is the day when your brothers, unless good practicing Muslims, would betray your mother, and you will be left to console her.
That will not be the day of triumph for you. It will be a day of pity, gallantry, and compassion.
Q. My name is Nasir Zain. My niece’s name is Alsiha. Can you give us the meanings?
Nasir Zain,
On Email
YMD
Nasir mean helper and Zain means good. As for Siha, we could not trace the word in Arabic lexicons. Could it be a Suryani word, or Konkani?
Q: I’m coming from Dubai, a place where most of the girls were jeans and shirts. Now that I have shifted to India and here at school, my friends call it Shirk’ wearing such an outfit, but I don’t get it. I mean, our body is covered; so what’s the problem?They told me that girls should not wear such a tight outfit because it reveals your body. I even discussed this with my parents but I didn’t get the right answer.
So, is it allowed for Muslim girls to wear such an outfit or could I just wear long shirts on jeans? Because I don’t want Him to be disappointed with me, so can you please help me out?
Faaiza Shaikh,
On Email
YMD
It is right to say that those clothes must not be worn by a Muslimah which reveal her body. It is the strategy of the ordinary women, and those who wish to win approval of their employees to reveal as much as to attract attention or win approval. They do attract their eyes but never win approval. Either the males want to see more, or, if Muslim, disapprove of any revelation.
A Muslimah does not intend to either attract attention or win anyone’s approval. If she wears revealing clothes, it is because she has fallen to the demands of fashion, or just simply follows the prevalent culture. She forgets, or doesn’t know that revealing her body cheapens a woman. The eyes may fall on her, but in lust, and not in reverence.
So, primarily, it is the question of what is revealed. If someone wears a Hijab, then, what she wears behind should be nobody’s concern. At home, she is exposed to the Mahram alone, and therefore, if the clothes are somewhat revealing, it should not matter.
But to consider wearing of jeans as Shirk is extremism.
Q: Amin Ahsan Islahi and Shams Peerzada have heavily criticized the narration of `Umar (ra)saying that there is no match between the Qur’anic language and the verse mentioned in the Ahadith…. Kindly throw some light on this narration and the concept of Naskh of the verse and its recitation, Not the Law. What is the wisdom behind such type of abrogation? [http://www.tadabbur-i-quran.org/text-of-tadabbur-i-quran/urdu-volume-5/urdu-surah-noor/12/]
Mohammed Ilyas Mir,
On Email
YMD
Both the above-named persons were not scholars per se. Their books are not wholly trustworthy. Islahi was a ‘Munkir al-Hadith’ so far as the Qur’an was concerned. He refused to accept AahaadAhadith as a source for Qur’anic explanations. He doesn’t quote them in his Tafsir. Ironically, he considered the Bible more trustworthy than the Hadith. He quoted the Bible to expound Qur’anic verses, but not the Hadith!
Aahaadahadith are the bulk of Hadith literature. So, rejecting them, for whatever reason, was a truly un-Islamic act.
We recommend that you stop studying the two forthwith. Take up, instead, Tafsir ibn Kathir, and read it through. Now, some have tried to abridge Ibn Kathir. Do not read such versions, but rather the full version as written by Ibn Kathir and not as doctored by others.
You have sent an Urdu passage, apparently from some Tafsir work. Regretfully, we cannot reproduce the passage. As regards the two named above refusing to accept the Hadith (which is in the cutting sent by you), it is apparent that the two named had little knowledge of Hadith discipline, to reject a Hadith which is in MusnadAhmad, Bukhari, Muslim, Muwatta’, Ibn Majah, Ibn Hibban, Mustadrak and other Hadith collections. The hadith says that “We (the Companions) used to find Allah’s words, ‘The older man and older women, if found committing adultery, may be stoned to death.’But later the verse was abrogated and removed from memory.”
According to one of the two named by you, the Hadith makes his heart tremble, because it was claimed by the Companions that the words were originally there in the Qur’an, but abrogated and removed from memories. His heart trembled because any such abrogation and removal from memory is damaging to the Qur’an.
Although the expressed emotion is entirely artificial, but if it was real, then, the trembling was for wrong reasons. That’s what happens when you deny and decry Hadith.
As for the wisdom behind abrogation, please study Surah Noor as explained by Ibn Kathir, or in Ma`arif al-Qur’an. As regards this Ayah in particular, and its abrogation, it is a measure of Mercy from Allah.
