Asalamu alaykum
A few years back, while in the states, I received a chilling phone call from a scared sister; voice shaking and tears falling she said, “Suhaib, my husband………………..my husband beat me! He beat me in front of our apartment in front of the non-Muslims?” I latter found out that she went to the hospital with a fractured skull.
The Changing of a Religious Edict According to Time and Place: Part One [changes in developments and capabilities]
Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi
“Modern knowledge and developments provided people of this era with astonishing capabilities unknown to those who preceded them. This can be traced back to the following, knowledge based, revolutions:
These discoveries provided people with means unknown to those before them and have an effect on rulings and religious edicts.
The Question:
There is a scholarly difference nowadays as to fiqh al-aqalliyyat or the fiqh of Muslim minorities. Some scholars regard it as an innovation that manipulates Allah’s religion, and some others consider it a lawful necessity. What is your point of view on that issue with special reference to the concept of fiqh al-aqalliyyat itself? What is the nature of the scholarly difference in that regard?
The Answer:
18 page well researched article that clarifies a number of misunderstandings and accusations thrown at Fiqh al-Aqaliyat.
Click here
Casablanca Break Dancers (Morocco)
Islam is strange in the land…
We have a new neighbor now in my zone turned “hood” you read correctly “hood” the phenomena of hip hop and the culture of the inner cities of America is becoming more apparent in the lands of Islam, in the Middle East.
Hujjat al-Islam Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali d. 505 a.h [may Allah have mercy upon him.] said:
“Thus, if you see a scholar of law wading into declaring others infidels and misguided, shun him and do not busy your heart nor tongue with him! Indeed, provocations in knowledge are from people’s nature, and the ignorant one is not able to exercise patience with it. And because of this, differences have multiplied amongst people. And if the knowledge was forcefully taken from the ignorant, then differences would subside.”
Al-Hafidh al-Dhahabi [may Allah have mercy upon him] states, “I heard our Sheikh, Ibn Taymiyyah d. 728 a.h [may Allah have mercy upon him], say towards the end of his life, “I will never declare anyone from the people of the Qiblah (Muslim direction of prayer) as a rejecter of faith.”
One of the important legal axioms related to the axiom of ‘ease’ is:
‘If there are [scholarly] differences surrounding issues of contention, or issues involving independent judgement [ijtihad]; in the absence of a scholarly rebuke, such differences are excused.’
Ibn al-Qayyim said, ‘If there is no sunna, or unanimity, on an issue, and independent judgement is possible, then one should not be reprimanded for acting on such an issue whether layman or scholar.’ ‘ilam al-Muwaq’in ‘an rabi al-’Alamin 3/365
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