if a fatwa falls in the forest does it make any sound?
The Guardian has run a few articles concerning the World Health Organization’s findings on global pollution [1, 2]. There’s a discussion on reddit’s /r/futurology that is quite informative and scary. I was going to share the articles on Facebook with a few tangential comments. After typing them up, I figured that I would share them … Read more…
From my Intensive Animal Farming: Wrongs & Responsibilities paper: Completely eliminating the consumption of animal products is neither a viable or desirable option for Muslims, since animal sacrifice is involved in several religious rites and occasions. Additionally, moderate consumption of meat is a Prophetic norm (Sunnah). So one really cannot make a case that the Sacred … Read more…
It is hoped that lab-grown meat will help reduce the significant animal abuse and environmental damage that are inherent to our meat addiction. Lab-grown meat will need to solve several fiqh challenges before Muslims consider it lawful for consumption (halal). One of those challenges is that the source cells need to be grown without using … Read more…
Perhaps one the best known Islamic tool for choosing is the Guidance Prayer (ṣalāt al-istikhārah), a prayer named for the supplication for guidance that occurs at its end. The Arabic word “istikhārah” comes from the root “khā-yā-rā.” In his Muʿjam Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn Fāris, the core linguistic sense is to feel favorable or to incline … Read more…
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…