Word of the Month for Rajab

A translation of this article from Naseem al-Sham

In the Name of Allah, the All Merciful, the Most Merciful

شهر رجب

Word of the Month for Rajab

By Asmāʾ Ramaḍān

Translated by Mahdi Lock

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all Creation, praise that complies with His blessings and compensates His abundance, and blessings and peace be upon our master Muḥammad, may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him and all his family and Companions.

To proceed:

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim have related in their two Ṣaḥīḥ collections, from the ḥadīth of our master Abū Bakrah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, gave a khuṭbah in his farewell pilgrimage and in that khuṭbah he said, {Indeed time has come full circle and returned to how it was the day Allah created the heavens and the earth. The year is twelve months and four of them are sacred, three of which are in succession: Dhūl Qaʿdah, Dhūl Ḥijjah and Muḥarram, and the other is Rajab Muḍar, which comes between Jumādā and Shaʿbān}…and the rest of the ḥadīth.

Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has said in Sūrat at-Tawbah: {There have been twelve months with Allah in the Book of Allah, from the day He first created the heavens and the earth. Four of them are sacred. That is the true religion. So do not wrong one another during them. However, fight the idolaters totally just as they fight you totally, and know that Allah is with the godfearing.} [At-Tawbah 9:36]

Thus, Allah, Glorified is He, has informed us that since the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the creation of night and day, both have revolved in their orbits and as a result we have the darkness of the night and the whiteness of the day, and that was when the year was made to comprise twelve months based on the sighting of the crescent moon.

Therefore, the year in the Revealed Law is measured according to the moon and its ascending, not the sun and its passage through the zodiac, as is done by the People of the Book.

Democracy and Debt

Global government debt in 2010. Please take note of which countries have the highest debts.

 

Assalaam alaykum,

A few years ago, this article was forwarded to me and I was asked for my thoughts. I replied with the email below and subsequently wanted to publish it as a blog post but never got around to it. Now, with a general election next month in the UK, I am again hearing discussions about the validity and legitimacy of voting and democracy and therefore I think the information below is very relevant. I haven't quoted any fatawa or even touched on the issue of man-made legislation. Rather, I've quoted Americans and other westerners who have grown up and still live in democracies. For the purposes of the blog, I've added links where appropriate.

______________

Assalaam alaykum,

Jazakum Allah khayran for the article.

It appears to me that the author has completely missed the point about what a democracy is, and why democracies are always in debt.  The author also has no idea what a bank is supposed to be and what free markets are. In conclusion, he favours social democracy even though he laments that it is now large social democractic projects, like the EU, that are working for the banks. So, as a typical leftist, he continues to sing the praises of statism, i.e. a big government regulating and controlling an economy, and when the obvious and inevitable consequences happen (i.e. debt, unemployment, corruption, a ruined economy etc.) he can sniffle and say "if only the right people were in charge". As Milton Friedman said, we don't want a system that depends on the right people running it. Rather, we want a system that forces the wrong people to do the right thing.

Why Muslims Don't Need Adam Smith

Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism, revisited

Assalaam alaykum,

When I posted Benedikt Koehler's video and article last year, I somehow managed to miss a summary of his book that had been published only a few week earlier. Koehler's conclusion is as follows:

"Indeed, Islamic societies today looking to invigorate economic dynamism do not need to prop on to their economies institutional templates from abroad: a complete set of policies regarding competition policy, consumer protection, and fair trading is contained in the economic reforms of Muhammad and his early successors. Arguably, the roots of Chicago economics lie in seventh century Medina."

Another article that argues the same point is by Guy Sorman, who concludes:

"Popular capitalism is the only way out of misery and chaos. Enlightened Arabs should proclaim it, not by imitating the West or importing Western values, but by rediscovering their own faith and history. Adam Smith is not needed in the Arab world. Muhammad's life is enough of a reliable model to rekindle economic growth and opportunities for the people."

Wassalaam,

Mahdi

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The Book of Waqf

A Conflict of Visions

By George Will

A most interesting discussion on where America is headed, and why.

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Human Livestock

Book Release: The Book of Waqf

Alhamdulilah, another book is now available from IBFIM. For further information, please use the contact details in the poster or visit the the IBFIM Bookshoppe Facebook page.

And with Allah alone is every success.

Wassalaam,

Mahdi

Related Posts:
Appendix A with Correction
The Glorious Legislation of Endowments (Appendix B)
A Word Of Clarification Regarding Appendix D

Fatāwā that Appear Islamic But Actually Serve the West

الجامع الاموي

By Imam Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī[1] رحمه الله تعالى

            I don’t know of any matter in the religion that provokes more awe in the soul when it is approached and is more conducive to biding one’s time and being wary of it than the matter of fatwā, for the scholar finds himself in front of something that he must take up the cause of…and I don’t know of any matter in the religion in this current age of ours that is more attainable, easier to practice and has more people crowded around it and competing for it than the matter of fatwā.

            I reflect on the stances that the Imams of the Islamic Revealed Law, those whose vast knowledge, accurate understanding and high rank in derivation has been testified to by generations, along with their upright conduct, abstinence in the life of this world and carefulness in dealing with others. I see them looking at the job of fatwā as something undertaken on behalf of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, so where does this insolence when approaching it come from and how is it that they have come to treat it lightly and hasten to make a decision therein?

...

[1] Translated from the Imam’s book al-Islam wa al-Gharb (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 2007), p.143-156

[For the full article, please visit the English Naseem al-Sham site, Meeraath or Jurjis. The PDF can be downloaded here.

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Condemning the Destruction of Imam An-Nawawi's Grave

A translation from Imam Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti's official Facebook page

ضريح الامام النووي رضي الله عنه

Today [Wednesday, January 8, 2015], the criminals and tools of tribulation who have raged through several Arab and Islamic countries added to their archive of filthy crimes…the dogs of the Fire,[1] as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, called them.

Today, they destroyed the grave of our master, Imam an-Nawawī, may Allah be pleased with him, who is considered one of the greatest scholars of Islam. We can’t find any justification for this disgusting act that these self-described revolutionaries have committed…other than their deep hatred of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and of every symbol of the Islamic religion.

We ask Allah by the esteemed rank that our master, Imam an-Nawawī, has with Him, and out of His vigilant care for His friends, to avenge him and everyone else whom He loves and to make this crime the last of their crimes and corruption on earth, and to make it the cause of their destruction and the destruction of those who support them and send them to the Levant. O Allah, count them one by one and destroy them one by one, and don’t let any of them remain!

And we ask all those who love Imam an-Nawawī to say ‘Amīn!’

---

[1] (tn): i.e. the Khawārij

جريمة جديدة ارتكبها اليوم مجرمو وأدوات الفتن التي تعصف بالكثير من البلاد العربية والإسلامية وأضافوها إلى أرشيف جرائمهم القذرة .. كلاب النار كما سماهم رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم.

إذ قاموا اليوم بتدمير قبر سيدنا الإمام النووي رضي الله عنه .. الذي يعد واحداً من أكابر علماء الإسلام.

ولم نجد مبرراً لهذا العمل الهمجي القذر الذي ارتكبه العملاء الذين يسمون أنفسهم ثواراً .. سوى حقدهم على الله جل جلاله وعلى كل علم ورمز من رموز الدين الإسلامي.

ونسأل الله تعالى بحرمة سيدنا الإمام النووي عنده وبغيرته على أولياءه .. أن ينتقم له ولسائر أحبابه، وأن يجعل هذه الجريمة خاتمة جرائمهم وإفسادهم في الأرض، وأن يجعلها سبب هلاكهم وهلاك من يساندهم ومن يصدرهم إلى الشام. 

اللهم أحصهم عدداً .. وأهلكهم بدداً ولا تبقي منهم أحداً 

وأرجو من كل محب للإمام النووي أن يؤمن على الدعاء ..

Related Posts:

Building Over Graves and the Ruling for Demolishing Them
The Life of Imam an-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy on him (Reasons for Faith)

On Mockery

A partial translation of this article

Imam ash-Shaʿrāwī, may Allah have mercy on him, was asked for his opinion regarding a book that one of the mockers of Islam had written and that had generated a lot of discussion in the 1990s.

He replied, ‘I haven’t read it and I will never read it.’ They then said, ‘How, when there has been so much discussion about it?’ Imam ash-Shaʿrāwī, may Allah have mercy on him, then recited the words of Allah the Exalted in Sūrat an-Nisāʾ:

{It has been sent down to you in the Book that when you hear Allah’s signs being rejected and mocked at by the people, you must not sit with them until they start talking about other things. If you do, you are just the same as them. Allah will gather all the hypocrites and disbelievers into Hell.} [4:140]

The disbelievers from amongst the Quraysh used to recite poems and songs that criticised the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as well as the noble Companions, but these poems and songs haven’t reached us because the Muslims didn’t relate them and spread them, nor did they pay them any attention, and thus they fell into oblivion and were forgotten. Therefore, we must disregard and ignore anything that insults the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or Islam, so that we don’t contribute to its spread.

And implement the sincere advice of ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him: ‘Put falsehood to death by being quiet about it, and do not chatter about it lest the malicious come to know of it.’

And may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon His Messenger.

The Democratic Fallacy

By Thomas Sowell




Unrelated:
Terrorism is a crime, not an act of holy war

Sustenance

Courtesy of The Fig Tree Group




And with Allah is every success.