Book Release: The Wonders of Waqf

A revised appendix from the translation of Kitāb al-Waqf from al-Mughnī al-Muḥtāj by al-Khaṭīb ash-Shirbīnī

Blurb:

Waqf is a means of drawing nearer to Allah. It is an act of worship. Waqf shows the sincerity of the endower’s faith, his desire for goodness and his avidity for the interests of the Muslims. It shows his love for them and for their subsequent generations, as he is keen for them to receive benefits that are never interrupted. Since the time of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the Muslims have provided the most sublime examples in the fields of waqf.

From the Introduction:

The book in your hands is a selection of chapters from The Book of Endowment,[1] the main body of which is the rulings concerning establishing and administering endowments, or awqāf (sing. waqf) as they are known in Arabic. In the translator’s introduction to that book, I wrote the following:

‘The topic of endowments was chosen in order to follow up on a theme touched on by Imam al-Ghazālī in The Book of the Lawful and the Unlawful,[2] which is the sources that governments get their money from, and it is made clear that no government has access to a bottomless treasure chest. On the contrary, just about every government on earth, and especially those in the Anglosphere, are suffering under crippling debts, so crippling that they are never expected to be paid off. It is widely acknowledged that government spending needs to be cut and budgets needs to be balanced. While there is definitely a large element of crony capitalism, or corporatism,[3] in how governments spend their resources, there is also the concern about basic public services, such as healthcare and education. If and when governments go bankrupt, what will happen to these services? How will they be funded and maintained?’

‘The answer lies right here in this book and any fiqh manual that describes the rules and regulations for establishing and running an endowment. Endowments, or awqāf, are how Muslims provided free education, healthcare and other services to the wider public from within the private sector. As the reader shall see, they were set up with a desire for everlasting reward in the Hereafter; reward that would continue to accumulate long after the endower had left this world and returned to his Lord. As Benedikt Koehler points out in his lecture ‘Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism’,[4] endowments were a brilliant example of localism; instead of a small group of people in a faraway capitol deciding what is in the people’s benefit, we have thousands upon thousands of private individuals making those decisions for the benefit of their communities. Instead of one source for decision making, which causes endless complaints from taxpayers in liberal democracies regarding how their money is spent, we have endless sources, and when the individual makes his or her decision, he or she backs it up with his or her own money.

‘Therefore, after laying out the rules and regulations for endowments, it was decided that some concrete examples should be given, and this is why three chapters from the book Min Rawāʾiʿ Ḥaḍāratinā[5] by Dr Muṣṭafā as-Sibāʿī have been translated and added as an appendix, namely the chapter on endowments in general plus the chapter on schools and academic institutions and the chapter on hospitals and medical institutions. Lord willing, the reader will draw great inspiration from these chapters and feel proud of what Muslims achieved, hundreds and hundreds of years before the peoples of the West even came close.’

[1] A translation of Kitāb al-Waqf from al-Mughnī al-Muḥtāj by al-Khaṭīb ash-Shirbīnī (Kuala Lumpur: IBFIM, 2015)

[2] Kuala Lumpur: IBFIM, 2013

[3] Please see Chapter 6 of The Big Step for further details

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sav7V4S2q0M, accessed on July 26, 2014

[5] i.e. ‘Some Glittering Aspects of our Civilisation’

If Allah so wills, the original work will republished in full in the near future, and with Allah alone is every success.

UPDATE: The book is now available from Amazon.
UPDATE: If you are in South East Asia or Australia, the book is available here. 
UPDATE: This book is now only available for only £6 from Lulu. Please click the link above.

Virtual Book Launch: The Great Event Has Occurred

A virtual book launch for the translation of Imam Muhammad at-Taaweel's work on banking and usury

With al-Hajj Abu Ja'far al-Hanbali 

Book Release Post

Available from Lulu

Further Reading:
Is it permissible to take out a mortgage?

The Abodes of the Earth

Europe is not Dar al-Ḥarb

Understanding Ḍarūrah and Ḥājjah and Their General Rules

Fatawa that Appear Islamic but Actually Serve the West

What is Scientific Truth?

Paving the way for another podcast

If Allah so wills, the next podcast on The Foreword channel will cover the nature of reality, and it will be a follow up of this podcast:

It will also be an elaboration of this discussion as well as this post.

And with Allah alone is every success.

Related:
Man's Creation and the Theory of Evolution


UPDATE: The podcast is now available:

 

Imam an-Nawawī: Swearing on Pain of Divorce that Imam ash-Shāfiʿī is the Best of the Imams

  حلف بالطلاق أن الشافعي أفضل الأئمة

مسألة: لو حلف بالطلاق أن الشافعي أفضل الأئمة في عصره ومذهبه خير المذاهب، هل يقع عليه الطلاق أم لا؟

أجاب رضي الله عنه: لا طلاق عليه، والله أعلم.

Question: If a man swears that his wife is divorced if Imam ash-Shāfiʿī is not the best of the Imams in his age and that his madhhab is the best of the madhhabs, is his wife divorced or not?

He, may Allah be pleased with him, replied: His wife is not divorced, and Allah knows best.

[Translated from Fatāwāal-Imam an-Nawawī al-Musammā bi: al-Masāʾil al-Manthūrah (Beirut: Dāral-Bashāʾir al-Islamiyyah, 1417/1996) p.197]

Victory is With Patience

An excerpt from the upcoming translation of al-Wāfī fī Sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn an-Nawawiyyah by Imams Muṣṭafā al-Bughā and Muḥyī ad-Dīn Mistū

The Nineteenth Ḥadīth:

عَونُ اللهِ تعالى وحِفْظُهُ ونصره وتأييده

عن أبي العَبَّاس عَبْدِ الله بِن عَبَّاسٍ رَضي اللهُ عنهما قال: كُنْتُ خَلْفَ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلّم يوما، فقال: {يا غُلامُ، إِنِّي أُعَلِّمُكَ كلِماتٍ: احْفَظِ اللهَ يَحْفَظْكَ، احْفَظِ اللهَ تَجِدْهُ تُجَاهَك، إذا سأَلْتَ فاسْأَلِ اللهَ، وإذا اسْتَعَنْتَ فاسْتَعِنْ باللهِ، واعْلَمْ أَنَّ الأُمَةَ لو اجْتَمَعَتْ على أَنْ يَنْفَعُوكَ بِشَيءٍ لَمْ يَنْفَعُوكَ إلَّا بِشَيْءٍ قد كَتَبَهُ اللهُ لَكَ، وإن اجْتَمَعُوا على أن يَضُرُّوكَ بشيءٍ لَمْ يَضُروك إلّا بِشَيءٍ قد كَتَبَهُ اللهُ عَلَيْكَ، رُفِعَتْ الأقلامُ وجَفَّتِ الصُّحُفُ.} رواه الترمذي وقال: حديث حسن صحيح.

وفي رواية غير الترمذي: {احفَظِ اللهَ تَجِدْهُ أَمَامَكَ، تَعَرَّفْ إلى اللهِ في الرخاءِ يَعْرِفْكَ في الشِّدةِ، واعْلَمْ أنَّ ما أَخْطأَكَ لم يَكُنْ لِيُصِيبَكَ، وما أَصَابَكَ لَمْ يَكُنْ لِيُخْطِئَكَ، واعْلَمْ أنَّ النَّصْرَ مع الصَّبر، وأنَّ الفَرَجَ مع الكَرْبِ، وأنَّ مع العُسْرِ يُسْراً.}

Allah the Exalted’s Help, Protection, Assistance and Support

It is on the authority of Abū al-ʿAbbāṣ ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with both of them, who said, ‘I was behind the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, one day and he said, {Boy, I will teach you some words. Be mindful of Allah and He will be mindful of you. Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him in front of you. When you ask, ask Allah. When you seek help, seek help from Allah. If all of creation came together to benefit you with something, they would only benefit you with something that Allah had already written for you. If they came together to harm you with something, they would only harm you with something that Allah had already written against you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.} At-Tirmidhī has related it and said that it is a good, authentic ḥadīth.

In a narration other than that of at-Tirmidhī: {Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him in front of you. Get to know Allah in times of ease and He will know you in times of adversity. Know that whatever misses you was never going to hit, and whatever hits you was never going to miss. Know that help is with patience, deliverance is with distress and that with difficulty there is ease.}

At-Tirmidhī has collected this ḥadīth in the Description of the Hour, the Softening of Hearts and Carefulness from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace (in the chapter entitled: {Rather, O Ḥanẓalah, an hour and an hour}), no.2016, and Aḥmad has collected it in his Musnad: 1/307. The aforementioned wording has been related by ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd in his Musnad, as the commentators of The Forty have mentioned.


The Importance of the Ḥadīth:

Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī says in his book Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam, ‘This ḥadīth comprises great advice and comprehensive principles that are some of the most important matters of the religion, such that one of the scholars said, “I reflected on this ḥadīth and it astonished me. I was almost confused. Alas for my ignorance of this ḥadīth and my paltry understanding of its meanings.”’

(...)

Victory is with Patience: The life of man is various battles. He is exposed therein to many enemies, of all kinds, and his victory in these battles is connected to the extent of his patience and is the consequence of it. Patience is the way to the victory that is sought. It is the effective weapon that subdues the enemy in his various forms, whether he is hidden or in the open. This is why Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He, has made it the subject of the exam for His slaves in this life, to distinguish the filthy from the pure, so that the truthful and certain is known from the doubtful hypocrite: “We will test you until We know the true fighters among you and those who are steadfast and test what is reported of you.” [Muḥammad 47:31] “You will be tested in your wealth and in yourselves and you will hear many abusive words from those given the Book before you and from those who are idolaters. But if you are steadfast and have taqwā, that is the most resolute of matters.” [Āl ʿImrān 3:186] i.e. the matters that every sane person should be resolute in and be accustomed to, because of the perfection of virtue and honour that they contain.

Allah the Exalted has said in describing the righteous, the people of taqwā and the truthful, “…and are steadfast in poverty and illness and in battle.” [al-Baqarah 2:177]

Patience, as it has been defined, is to keep the ego in check, i.e. to control it, according to what is required by the intellect and the Revealed Law. Likewise, one keeps it in check and prevents it from that which the intellect and the Revealed Law prevent it from. If we were to review Allah’s verses, Mighty and Majestic is He, and the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, we would find that the word patience (ṣabr) appears in many places, and in each place it bears the abovementioned definition, aiming at one end and realising one result, which is victory and triumph. These places include:

A. Patience with doing acts of obedience and leaving disobedience:
Doing what Allah the Exalted has commanded and leaving what He has prohibited is a discomfort. There is no doubt that it is a type of weight on the human soul, and therefore a person must strive to overcome his real enemy, which is embodied in the nafs,[1] one’s passions and Shayṭān: “The nafs commands to evil acts” [Yūsuf 12:53], “…and do not follow your own passions” [Ṣād 38:26], “Shayṭān is your enemy.” [Fāṭir 35:6] These hidden enemies places temptations in front of a person, and embellish for him the love of worldly appetites. They entice him to turn away from obedience and incline towards disobedience. They are tireless in what they do, never leaving him alone and never subsiding. Thus, a person must strive to subdue them, push his nafs to be obedient, and make his passions follow what Allah’s legislation has brought, Mighty and Majestic is He. All of this involves patience, endurance, struggle and sacrifice. Allah the Exalted has said, “Follow what has been revealed to you and be steadfast until Allah’s judgment comes.” [Yūnus 10:109]

He has also said, “He is Lord of the heavens and the earth and everything in between them, so worship Him and persevere in His worship.” [Maryam 19:65]

He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has said, {The mujāhid is the one who does jihād against his nafs for the sake of Allah}, as related by at-Tirmidhī and Ibn Ḥibbān.

There is no doubt that whoever is able to confine his nafs to what pleases Allah the Exalted, and thus obeys Him and avoids disobeying Him, has overcome his hidden enemy and subdued his nafs, his Shayṭān and his passions. This is a victory that no other victory comes close to, because with it the person controls himself and becomes free from the captivity of desires, passions and the whisperings of Shayṭān. When that battle with the internal enemy has ended with him being vanquished and subdued, the truth shines forth in the believer’s heart and illuminates it, and thus he follows Allah’s path, Mighty and Majestic is He: “As for those who do jihād in Our Way, We will guide them to Our Paths.” [al-ʿAnkabūt 29:69] The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, spoke the truth when he said, {Patience is radiant light}, as related by Muslim.[2]


B. Patience with Calamities:
In this life, man is exposed to catastrophes that beset his person, his property, his family and his dependents, or his safety and serenity, and there is no doubt that this has a severe impact on a person, allowing despair to overcome him: “When evil touches him, he despairs.” [al-Isrāʾ 17:83] Restlessness (halʿ) and anxiety (jazʿ) take over: “Truly man was created restless, anxious when bad things happen.” [al-Maʿārij 70:19-20]

Halʿ is more intense than jazʿ, and jazʿ is intense fear.

A person in this state is defeated. He cannot carve a path to victory in this life. This is why Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He, urges the believers to be resolute, to hold their ground in the face of these calamities, which are real, no doubt, and to rise above weakness and lassitude and carve their path to victory and prosperity, arming themselves with patience, which is the foundation of exaltedness and the secret of success. “We will test you with a certain amount of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and life and fruits. But give good news to the steadfast, those who, when disaster strikes them, say, ‘We belong to Allah and to Him we will return.’ Those are the people who will have blessings and mercy from their Lord; they are the ones who are guided.” [al-Baqarah 2:155-157]

There is no doubt that these people are guided to the path of might, honour and glory, especially those who hold their ground as soon as a catastrophe strikes: {Patience is only at the first blow}, which is agreed upon. They therefore come out of it victorious, facing life with absolute courage and boldness, so that they can turn the trial that has befallen them into something good that they can benefit from, in this life and the Hereafter. Thus, their state in times of trial is no different from their state in times of ease. {How astonishing is the affair of the believer! His entire affair is good, and this is only for the believer. When something good happens to him, he is grateful, and that is good for him. When something bad happens to him, he is patient, and that is good for him.} Related by Muslim.

[Translated from p.131-132 and 140-142 (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1428/2007) ]

[1] (tn): i.e. the self, or ego
[2] (tn): Please see the 23rd ḥadīth in this book.

You can read more of the commentary here.

eBook Release: The Big Step

The electronic version is now available

What does it mean to become a Muslim? What tends to happen when someone becomes Muslim in the English-speaking world, and why? Is there an agenda at play? Is Anglosphere Islam not everything it is cracked up to be? Does it have a future? How can a new Muslim thrive in such circumstances? In The Big Step, you will find the answers to these questions and so much more.

Please click here to order your copy.

The book is also available from the iBookstore.
To convert a file from EPUB to Amazon Kindle, please click here.

The paperback edition is still available. The podcast about this book is available here.

Book Release: The Great Event Has Occurred

By Imam Muhammad at-Taaweel, may Allah have mercy on him

The Foreword Publications and Moorish Heritage Press present the translation of Imam Muhammad at-Taaweel's book Wa Akhīran Waqaʿat al-Wāqiʿah

Blurb:

Any fatwa allowing bank interest, whether taking it or giving it, is an invalid juridical opinion, an affront to the Islamic Revealed Law and a slander against it, if not an objection and outright opposition to it.

Likewise, it is an immense service to usurious banks, a priceless gift that they have waited for and yearned for a very long time. On the one hand, it destroys the religious barrier that Islam had placed between the Muslims and the usurious banks, protecting them from their greed and exploitation and from their economies and destinies being controlled.

On the other hand, it mobilises and conscripts the Ummah to serve imperialistic capital by providing its banks with sufficient monetary liquidity, so that they can expand their activities, secure their influence and consolidate their monopoly, after which they can acquire further fixed benefits. This is how they eat the profits of those who save and exhaust the efforts of those who invest and borrow, and they appropriate Muslims’ wealth because of fatwas given by Muslims.

To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FOREWORD by Ustādh ʿAlī Filālī

TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THE GREAT EVENT HAS OCCURRED

THE FIRST JUSTIFICATION: Bank transactions are a modern form of transaction that was completely unknown to previous fuqahāʾ

THE SECOND JUSTIFICATION: They say, ‘There is no clear text in the Book of Allah or the Sunnah of His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that declares this transaction unlawful.’

THE THIRD JUSTIFICATION: They say, ‘Bank transactions are not lending, and what the bank receives from its customers by way of money cannot be called a loan such that it would fall under the prohibition against lending with a surplus.’

THE FOURTH JUSTIFICATION: Some of them say that a bank transaction is a sleeping partnership (muḍārabah) or some type of investment, and that the holders of the wealth deposit their money in the bank with the intention of investing it and they have a fixed share of the profit

THE FIFTH JUSTIFICATION: They say that bank transactions are sleeping partnerships and sleeping partnerships are in accordance with what the partners agree to and consent to and it is not stipulated that that profit not be specified in advance

THE SIXTH JUSTIFICATION: Some of them say that a banking transaction is the same as commissioning another to do something (wakālah), meaning that the bank is the agent (wakīl) of the money’s owner and can invest it in what Allah has declared lawful and he is satisfied with whatever comes back to him by way of profit

THE SEVENTH JUSTIFICATION: They say that if the ruler sees nothing wrong with banks specifying the profits in advance then there is no harm in it

THE EIGHTH JUSTIFICATION: Necessity (ḍarūrah)

THE NINTH JUSTIFICATION: Following the school (madhhab) of Abū Ḥanīfah in allowing usury in the abode of war (dār al-ḥarb), based on the fatwa of the European Council, which has permitted Muslim minorities in Europe to buy homes by way of usurious bank loans

THE TENTH JUSTIFICATION: The claim that interest-bearing loans remove difficulties for Muslims and make their transactions easier for them

THE ELEVENTH JUSTIFICATION: To cling to the outward purport of the Exalted’s statement: “You who believe! Do not feed on usury, multiplied and then remultiplied.”

THE TWELFTH JUSTIFICATION: To say that taking out a mortgage to buy a home has an undoubted benefit for the borrower embodied in the ownership of a home in the end, and in that he is exempt from taxes for the duration of the loan

SUMMARY

APPENDIX A: Understanding Ḍarūrah and Ḥājjah and Their General Rules

APPENDIX B: Is it permissible to take out a mortgage? (Refuting the European “Fatwa” Council)

APPENDIX C: The Abodes of the Earth

APPENDIX D: Europe is not Dār al-Ḥarb

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

 

UPDATE: The book is now available from Amazon.
UPDATE: If you are in South East Asia or Australia, the book is available here.