Letters to the Editor
Q: Can I know about the Fatawas given in ‘Letters to the Editor’ column are answered by a Mufti or by the Editor himself. Because matters related to Shariah should be answered by a Mufti. I just want to clear my doubt.
Syed Asmathullah,
On Email
YMD
Being uncomfortable with some answers, one way of keeping them at bay – and out, if possible – is to question the validity. We hope that is not the case.
The word “Fatawas” is brought into use by the newest propagandists who are yet to learn the alif, baa, of Arabic language. The tendency today is to ignore all that requires time, energy and determination to achieve. Learning is one such thing.Anyhow, plural of Fatwa is Fataawaa or Fataawi, and not Fatwas, and enough of head banging against the walls, a fatwa is, to express in English, very inaccurately, “a religious opinion.” Languages other than Arabic can only – somewhat successfully – define and explain what a fatwa is, but can never translate it accurately. “A religious opinion” therefore, is a faulty way of translating “fatwa.” And, it is this translation that leaves the Muslim mind, confused over many issues, so that our religious opinions are thought to be fatawi.
Our religion is as bound with the Arabic language, as tea is bound with flavor. No flavor, no tea. So is Arabic. No Arabic, no knowledge. Some information could be there, but the flavor would be missing.
This is to impress on you that without knowledge, for which Arabic language is the single medium, you will always remain in doubts and a victim of Satanic suggestions.
To come to the main point, what is Fatwa?
A Fatwa is a Shar`ee ruling, concerning a frou` (a subsidiary issue – not one of the Muhkamaat) pronounced in writing, by a Mujtahid, acknowledged as one by majority of Mujtahideen of the time, who approved it verbally or by means of silent consent, and did not raise a legal objection to any part of it.
What does not meet with the conditions as above remains a personal view. It will not go into the Fiqh books, and will not be quoted by any scholar as a Fatwa.
As laughable is the knowledge of today’s Muslim youth, and even of the so-called Da`wah workers, so laughable is the knowledge of the authors of the massive Brill Encyclopedia of Islam which states in its article on Fatwa: “The institution of the futya corresponds with the Roman institution of jus respondendi and is comparable with it in many respects,” by which the innuendo shot is that the Islamic discipline has been influenced, if not taken, from the Romans. They tend to forget that the Roman Law was consigned to trash with Islam’s entry as liberators of the Roman lands.
The main point is that if one knows what a Fatwa is, he or she would never imagine that this magazine issues Fatawa.
Back to us, we are not qualified to issue Fatawaa and do not issue them. We state religious opinions in this magazine. However, such opinions too are either directly from Hanafiyy Fiqh scholars, or their works, or heavily influenced by them. It follows that if you discover that any of our ‘religious opinion’ contradicts with a Fatwaa proper, you will be doing us good to write back to us.
Q. I have few doubts and clarification that need to be cleared. I’m into lot of confusion. Alhamdullilah I used to follow Hanafi Madhab without any doubts in mind until I saw some videos on YouTube of different scholars which have difference of opinion and which has created lot of confusion in my mind.
YMD
We can hear a thunderous applause by the Devil sat you having fallen into doubts. Their objective has been achieved. To confuse the minds of the new generation Muslims is the first objective of these videos and their makers.
In the second phase, their targets – the youth –will be taken off the Schools of Fiqh completely. Their inner self will become Law-makers themselves.
In the third phase, trust in Hadith collections will be lost. And, finally, doubts will be planted about the Qur’an and its deliverer Prophet Muhammad.
This process is noticeable as happening since 200 years (since the time writings of the critics of Islam – the Westerners –became vogue among the educated in the Islamic world).
All phases will achieve their objectives in as subtle a manner, as did the first phase; and every doubt will give rise to some amount of Nifaq (hypocrisy) maturing over the coming decades. A time will come when they would be believers in deeds but unbelievers at hearts. The Qur’an said:
“Only those are believers who believed in Allah and His Messenger, then did not fall into doubts, and fought with their possessions and their persons in Allah’s path. Those, they are the truthful ones.”(49: 15)
Q. Issue of constantly raising hands in Salaah (Rafadayen) in Hanafi: we do not practice Rafa’ yadayen but the scholars in video quoted Hadees which says about Rafa’ ydayen and confirms that it is from Sunnah. If it is so then why are we in Hanafi not practicing it? Is raising hands in Salaah Farz?
YMD
Yours is a good example why we disapprove of Islamically uneducated youth from watching videos or listening to the modern-day Da`ees and activists. These are designed to create doubts. The youth should find out who the specialists are in town: those who specialize in Fiqh, or Hadith, or Tafsir. They should request them to give them time, and receive regular Durus from them for an extensive period – rather than ask them a question here, a question there. Otherwise, for every video they watch, or a speaker they listen to, their confusion and, correspondingly, Nifaq will grow in the same measure as the time and the ear they give to them.
Regarding Rafa` al Yadayn, you can see how those “some videos” made a fool of the unsuspecting. Firstly, they refused to inform you that there are ahadith, one in Muslim too, which forces you to attempt a reconciliation with others which are at variance with the Hanafi ruling. These false champions of Islam reveal what they will and conceal what they will. Or perhaps they are ignorant, having been taught by their school-leaders to become organs of Shaytan. Creating doubts is Shaytanic activity.
Secondly, they failed to inform you that in this regard the practices of the Companions varied. This is all the more a difficult problem for the activists to get over. Their best hours are spent in collecting material that will create doubts, rather than what is of true educationally value.
Thirdly, they failed to inform and emphasize that the practice of Rafa` al Yadaynis only Sunnah and not Fard; so that, ultimately, they cleverly lead the uneducated people, without they– the people – realizing it, to a dithering situation, so that the victims contradict themselves within two lines, not knowing whether Rafa` al Yadayn is Fard or Sunnah.
They also fail to inform their victims that, in the Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, hardly ten to twenty percent regularly do the Rafa` al Yadayn.
This is because, Islamically being better informed, they concentrate on Faraa’id and Waajibaat.
From this distance we can read your mind which is asking: “Granted, it is only not Fard, but what’s the ruling regarding Rafa` al Yadayn?” If we are right in assuming this, then it is another reason why the Devils have the right to applaud. Their planted doubt has taken its firm place in your heart. Your mind failed to say, “These are issues of the hearts which have become sick. Let me remain a simple Hanafiyy as the matter is inconsequential. Perhaps I may memorize a few verses of the Qur’an instead of indulging in these useless topics; or may be, I should be looking for an orphan to adopt.”
We hope you, and thousands the likes of you, realize that religion is something sublime and cannot be left to these half-baked propagandists and self-advertising showmen.
Again, what is a Sunnah? For example Raf` Yadayn– which is a Sunnah. How do we deal with it? The answer is that it is something that if you did, you are rewarded, but if you did not, you are not questionable.
On the other hand Fard and Wajib are those articles that are essentials. If you did not perform any of them, the Prayer (Salah) is invalid.
Now, you may notice that the talks on the You Tube do not – generally – deal with Faraa’id and Waajibaat. They are discussing articles that are – more or less – inconsequential, in complete neglect of the consequential Fara’id and Waajibaat.
Experimentally, if you decided to check with people, especially the youth, (but you might not actually do it, since the Devils do not wish you to do it), to count out the Fara’id and Waajibaat, you will discover that out of ten, there are ten who can’t do it.Whether you will include yourself for the test, is right up to you. The YouTube gurus, in any case, do not include self-evaluation in their programs and syllabi.
So, why are these Samaritans kicking up dust over Raf` Yadayn? The obvious answer is that they cannot divided the Ummah over Fara’id and Waajibaat which are essentials of Islam, and agreed upon by all.
So you might be tempted to conclude that these guys have their priorities all wrong. They are probably confused.
Well. You couldn’t be more wrong.
These priorities have had forethought. They have been deliberately set. Why? Because, if priorities are set right, they cannot divide the Ummah, to attain which, planting doubts is the first step.
Q. Issue on reading Faza’ail-e-A’maal, they have pointed out many errors in the book and says it contains lots of weak hadees and hence it should not be read. If the book has so many errors then why is it that in every Hanafi Masjid after every Fajr Salaah this book is read?
YMD
We suggest you begin to live with the Ummah. The book is not read in every Hanafiyy Masjid. It is read in only some Hanafiyy Masjid. It is not read in Hanafiyy mosques alone. It is also read in mosques of the Shafe`iyiyyah also. It is not read out in Fajr Prayer alone. It is read out in some Masajid after Salah al-`Isha. Finally, it is not read out in “all” mosques, but only in some.
Yet to correct, Masaajid are not Hanafiyy or Shafe`ee.
Supposing you stopped being a kick-ball, played around by the mischievous, and decided to get serious. Supposing you asked these divisive forces to look into all hadith collections and removing the so-called weak reports, reprint them. Supposing you send us a few ahadith from the book Faza’ail-e-A’maal which, a Muhaddith proper of the past declared removable. Supposing you sent us those ahadith that convey more or less the same meaning as in Fazaa’il, but are Sahih. Supposing you did it, would you have a clearer understanding or more muddled?
Q. Issue of making Du`a in Jammat after every Farz Salaah is not supported by Hadith, as commonly practiced in all masjids after every Farz Salaah, the Imaam supplicates and rest say Ameen. If this is not from the Sunnah, then why are we following it?
YMD
Please send us a hadith commanding the Muslims to say a half-hour long Du`a in Witr, in congregation, in the last Raka` of the Taraweeh prayers of Ramadan, in almost every mosque of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia.
Please obtain a Fatwa not from the “rift-creators,” but Fatwa authorities of the entire Sunni-Islamic world, to the effect that the practice of congregational Du`a is a Bid`ah and Haraam.
Q. I would be really great full if you can clarify my doubts and clear my confusion at the earliest.
Ghani Junaid,
On Email
YMD
Not all people are able to remove their religious confusions. Admittedly, confusions, accompanied by doubts, are dead-weights that cannot be easily disentangled from the complicated labyrinths of the mind. Your resolve to enter into a Master-student relationship with a specialist will help you out, Allah willing. You need a couple of years of study under a proper scholar, doing several Islamic disciplines.
Your mind and soul do not appear to be healthy. You will need several kinds of treatments, and follow many dietary rules. It is far from easy to be healthy again, given that you cannot get out of the sickening gas chamber of division and schism.
Q. First of all I would like to tell you that you are Islamically inspiring a lot of youth with your magazine who in turn could inspire many more in their life, Inshaallah. My question is relating to a point in your article, The Splintering Ummah (YMD: April 2014). You have written Haraam as “Completely impermissible and can take one out of the fold of Islam, if committed knowingly.” I thought only Ibadis held this view about Haraam, that knowingly committing them makes you Kafir. Are there such opinions present amongst mainstream Islamic scholars? Kindly clarify/explain.
Faraz M Syed,
On Email
YMD
You are right, and we feel guilty that we did not notice the error while allowing the article in question to appear. Thank you for pointing it out.
The position of the Ahl al Sunnah wa al Jama`ahin this regard is clearly expressed in words that no Haraam, committed intentionally or unintentionally, ushers a man into Kufr, unless, if after knowing that it is in the Qur’an or in Ahadith Mutawatirah, he insists that he does not accept it as Haraam. That is, he does it in defiance of the Qur’an and Sunnah. That ushers him into Kufr.
Q: I am 22, a female who’s completed my Postgraduation.. I get a lot of negative thoughts. I would say I fear losing my parents. Sometimes, I imagine my life without them, and then forget about it as the time goes by, and I get busy. Since a week, I’m getting suicidal thoughts for no reason. Astagfirullah! I know I don’t have the guts to do it, but these thoughts are kind of scary. Do I seek counselling? I told my parents about it; they told “It’s just your imagination… Divert your mind.” I know they won’t understand me in this situation, and I don’t get such thoughts when I’m busy. I want to know Muslim counselling centers in Hyderabad. Don’t post this in your magazine… Please reply me here.
Anonymous,
On Email
YMD
One of the gifts of the Western civilization is mental disturbances. However, we do not think that you need counselling at this stage. You have to try the Qur’anic prescription first. If, after say six months, and if it worsens, then only you might have to see a counselor. At this time, your parents’ suggestion could be right:it’s imagination, and could have something to do with your “marriageable” age. Marriage will, perhaps, help drive away these thoughts.
At all events and as an immediate relief, you are advised to memorize some chapters of the Qur’an. Begin with smaller chapters that can be recited in Prayers. The Prophet has warned that the Qur’an is like a camel: Let loose and it wanders away. So, you must recite the memorized Qur’anic portions in the Prayers.
Any Muslim psychologist who was exposed to the Qur’an, has had to say, that it has mental and spiritual healing powers.
If smaller chapters are successfully placed in memory, move on to longer ones. Memorize an ayah every day; do not be in a hurry. Give it half an hour a day, regularly.
Although we could not reply by e-mail, we have concealed your identity.
Q: When I recently returned to India from Turkey and Dubai, I wondered about the diversity of Muslim spheres in this world that we live in. From not so affluent populace striving to preserve its identity in India to the one that shares free joy with everyone in Turkey to an authoritative society that imposes its will on others in UAE, I had seen three different worlds in one small world. Link below:
http://vksaxena-nationfirst.blogspot.in/2014/08/triangular-world-of-three-muslim-spheres.html
V. K. SAXENA
President, National Council for Civil Liberties,
Ahmedabad,
On Email
YMD
What country does not impose its will on its citizens and visitors?
If it is surprising that a religion of global presence displays a variety of expression in peoples of regions between Guinea to Tokyo and Calgary to Perth, it is not so unsurprising that from those in sizzling heat of the deserts to the ice-cool Fuji Mountains, the Islamic idea imposes its will upon the humanity lying in between, for whom the global idea comes first, their own nations next – a point of distress to many unused to universality of the human.
What visibly unites them is the warmth of faith – envious to many. Peep into the mosques (rather than into the crimsoned but profane systems of slavery), to observe spiritual unity despite the physical, material, cultural, diversity.
