if a fatwa falls in the forest does it make any sound?
Several of the books that I am working on as part of my Shāfiʿī fiqh curriculum include evidence related to fiqh positions. One of the things I watch for is when evidence in later books differs from the evidence in earlier books. Some of these instances involve later scholars citing a hadith as evidence whereas earlier … Read more…
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Q. Is it true that there is agreement amongst the scholars that a woman must cook and clean? A. Not only is this false, but a husband is required to inform his wife that this is not the case. Furthermore, she is entitled to wages for doing so – if she … Read more…
I’m always a baffled whenever people repeat the claim that abridgment [ikhtisar] and commentary [sharh] are proof that Islamic law stagnated. The reason I am baffled is that my experience reading of Shafii legal material compels me to arrive at the opposite conclusion, namely: that lots and lots of changes are going on. Three quick … Read more…
Since my last blog post was about the damage of poorly-research and poorly argued fatawas and another blog post touched the topic of fantasizing about sex with someone other than one’s spouse, I figured I should comment on a report from RadioFreeEurope: …fantasizing about someone other than your spouse during sex can lead to a woman giving … Read more…
The issue of crypto assets has been a real eye-opener for me because it gives me insight on how much poorly-researched and poorly-reasoned fatwas1)I have nothing but respect and appreciation for well-researched, well-reasoned legal opinions that totally disagree with me. contribute towards negatives views of Islamic scholarship. When a common Muslim individual reads a scholar’s … Read more…
“Bitcoin and crypto assets aren’t real because they’re just information.” If so, what about the majority of your paycheck that never gets converted into paper notes? And what about books present in one’s mind before they are expressed through spoken or written words? “Yeah, but someone can always withdraw those as paper money or print them … Read more…
Here’s an obvious yet still interesting difference between transmitting a message orally versus via blockchain: When a message is transmitted orally, each subsequent repeat does nothing to increase our confidence that the original message has not been corrupted while increasing the likelihood of transmission errors. This is in contrast to transmitting that same message via … Read more…
From euronews: Buying and selling virtual currencies is not compatible with religion at this time because of the fact that their valuation is open to speculation, they can be easily used in illegal activities like money laundering and they are not under the state’s audit and surveillance The objections given in the article seem to … Read more…
From Malay Mail Online: “Surely the worst of living creatures in God’s sight are those that are deaf and dumb and do not reason” — Quran, 8:22 As we can see from the above Quranic verse, the worst of living creatures are neither dogs nor pigs but those who shun themselves away from reasoning. […] … Read more…
From Malay Mail Online: […] …in reference to the viralled incident of a tudung-clad Muslim woman who kept her pet dog in the house and allowing the dog to lick her, after she posted it onto her Facebook page. …the Prophet’s hadith as narrated by renowned Islamic scholars Bukhari and Muslim mentioned reduced daily blessings … Read more…