The College Conspiracy Scam

This documentary discusses several important points, including:

• Why higher education in the US is a corporatist racket
• Why tuition fees continue to rise, i.e. government subsidies
• The crippling debt that students accumulate and how this debt is preventing young people from saving money and investing, especially in gold and silver.
• The link between higher education and the legal industry
• The dearth of farmers, miners and other productive members of the economy due to greater desire among young people to be bankers and lawyers
• The lack of skills that college and university courses actually provide and why an apprenticeship or work experience would be far better
• The decreasing value of university degrees due to their increased prevalence
• The future of education: online learning

An Epidemic of Irresponsibility

A transcript of this video can be found here.

Thomas Sowell explains the how the lack of personal responsibility is the path that leads to dictatorship, because as individuals become more and more reckless and irresponsible the nanny state has to step in to "take care of them". Once it is easy to blame externalities and never oneself for one's problems, the finger can then be pointed at the nebulous entity called "society", which basically means that the state can and should use its coercive powers to bring about the desired utopia in which no one has to feel responsible for their actions.

Thomas Sowell further explains this phenomenon here and here. 

What Prof. Sowell is saying dovetails nicely with what is called the Peltzman Effect, named after University of Chicago economist Sam Peltzman:



In brief, the safer people feel the more recklessly and irresponsibly they will behave, as explained very well in this blog post. This is another example.

One only has to reflect on various state services to see examples of the Peltzman Effect. For example, in London there is a special ambulance, aptly called "the booze bus", that picks drunks up off the street. Some of the people these paramedics pick up are women:

Not a pretty or dignified sight, but more dangerous and disturbing is that the girl is easy prey for a passing attacker. Paramedic Brian Hayes shakes his head: "Look at the state of her. These young women just don't realise what risks they're taking when they go out and get smashed. They're so vulnerable."

But how will these young women realise the risks they're taking if the nanny state is always there to take care of them? Isn't the very existence of the booze bus encouraging this type of behaviour? Without it, the very real threat of being mugged or raped would dissuade women from acting so irresponsibly. In the short-sighted vision of the state, citizens are being "taken care of", but the long-term effect is that they are being infantalised.

The wider problem of state-sponsored healthcare is that it generally leads to irresponsible behaviour in terms of lifestyle and eating habits. If one never has to pay directly (i.e. as opposed to via taxes) for a visit to the doctor or a stay in hospital, the incentive to keep oneself healthy is greatly diminished. When people have to pay directly for such things, you will notice how much more concerned they are about eating the right foods, dressing properly and maintaining a generally healthy lifestyle.

This attitude also extends to schools, as parents can now blame teachers for their children's vile behaviour. While teaching at an "Islamic" school in the UK almost a decade ago, I often received complaints from parents about how their children were misbehaving...at home. For example, one parent complained that his son didn't wake up for the fajr prayer, while another said that while his son behaved during the school day, he was not the same when he arrived home. I responded by asking this father, "Do you ever go out with your son and spend time with him?" The father responded with an incredulous look on his face, "I work seven days a week!" Obviously, in his mind, anything beyond providing his son food, clothing and shelter was not his responsibility, so it can't be his fault that his 14-year-old son smokes, skips classes, only prays when monitored and told to etc. A boy like that may very well become a pimp and drug dealer later on, but again, this would be the fault of his teachers, his classmates, the government, "society" etc., but never the two people who brought him into this world.

Allah says:

"Safeguard yourselves and you families from a Fire whose fuel is men and stones." [Taḥrīm 66:6]

In short, we are responsible for ourselves and our families. We can't blame others. To many of us it may be instinctual to place safety nets in as many places as possible, but in most cases those very safety nets are the cause of the problem. The attitude that "someone else will do it" or "someone else will clean up the mess", or "pick up the bill", must die and die hard. It should have no consideration whatsoever in any of our personal decisions, i.e. decisions that effect us directly, from major decisions such as what to study at university and whom to marry and start a family with to relatively minor ones such as whether to eat certain foods or to be at a certain place at a certain time.

We must learn and understand that our actions have consequences, and this valuable lesson must be passed on to our children.

Related Posts:

Human Livestock
Good Intentions

Hikma 185: Speaking About the Revealed Law Without Knowledge and Sincerity

With Sheikh Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān Al-Būṭī, may Allah have mercy on him

ربما برزت الحقائق مكسوفة الانوار

اذا لم يؤذن لك فيها بالاظهار

Book Release: Right Livelihood and the Common Good: Three Classics from the Islamic Tradition

This special volume includes three texts:

Imam Al-Shaybani's Kitab Al-Kasb

Imam Al-Ghazali's Kitab Adab Al-Kasb wa Al-Ma'aash

Imam Al-Lubudi's Kitab Fadl Al-Iktisab

Please click here for further details. The volume is also available from Wardah Books.

What Every Muslim is Obligated to Learn

A translation of this fatwā from Naseem Al-Sham

Question:

I’m an adult,[1] twenty-five years old…am I obliged to learn the rules for reciting the Qurʾān[2] as well as fiqh or are they sunnah?[3] As a young Muslim, what is the minimum that I am obligated to learn?

Answer (from Sheikh Rushdī Salīm Al-Qalam):

Praise be to Allah, and He suffices, and peace be upon His Chosen Messenger:

To proceed:

It is obligatory upon every human being to know what he is obliged to learn in order to carry out his prayers, his zakāt, his fasting and his Ḥajj,[4] as these are all individual obligations. The person who prays must have proficiency in the Fātiḥah and well as some sūrahs through which his prayer is validated. Likewise, with other matters of fiqh, it depends on what is needed. Thus, the merchant must know the rulings regarding trade,[5] usury[6] and partnerships[7] before entering the market. The person who does not own any wealth is not compelled to know the details of zakāt with regards to himself, and all rulings must be learned from Muslims who are proficient in such matters and specialise therein.[8]

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[1] (tn): bāligh. The source for the picture is here.

[2] (tn): Ar. al-tajwīd (please see this fatwā)

[3] (tn): i.e. recommended in the Revealed Law, which is synonymous with words like mandūb and mustaḥabb.

[4] (tn): For the Shāfiʿīs, the obligation includes ʿUmrah. Please see Al-Baqarah 2:196 as well as Sūrat Al-Tawbah 9:3, in which Allah refers to Ḥajj as Al-Hajj Al-Akbar, or the greater Ḥajj. If there is a greater Ḥajj then there must be a great Ḥajj, or Al-Hajj Al-Kabīr, which would be ʿUmrah. Thus, both Ḥajj and ʿUmrah must be performed once in a Muslim’s lifetime.

[5] (tn): Ar. al-bayʿ

[6] (tn): Ar. al-ribā

[7] (tn): Ar. al-sharikah

[8] (tn): i.e. Muslims who are qualified to teach such matters

More on Fracking

Clips from the film Fracknation:





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My constituents are complaining about eco-protesters, not drilling
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The Innovation of Loneliness

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Not Fasting Due To Illness

Sūrat Al-Baqarah 2:184

A translation of this fatwā from Naseem Al-Sham:

Question:

What is the value of the kaffārah[1] for the person who has been prevented from fasting by his doctor for health reasons? How does he carry it out, when and to whom?

Answer (Imam Muḥammad Tawfīq Ramaḍān):

Whoever has to break his fast due to illness and it is hoped that he will recover, all he has to do is make them up when he is able.

Whoever has to break his fast due to an illness[2] from which he is not expected to recover has to donate the equivalent of approximately half a kilogramme of rice[3] for each missed day,[4] and when we say rice we mean the rice itself, not its monetary value.

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[1] (tn): The word should actually be fidyah, which means redemption, while kaffārah is expiation. Please see this fatwā  and this article. Someone who misses fasts due to illness has not committed any sin, and thus fidyah should be regarded as an alternative means of worshipping one’s Lord.

[2] (tn): ‘those who are ill (N: the illness that permits not fasting being that which fasting would worsen, delay recovery from, or cause one considerable harm with; the same dispensation applying to someone who needs to take medicine during the day that breaks the fast and that he cannot delay taking until night.’ [Reliance of the Traveller (Beltsville, Maryland: Amana Publication, 1999), section i1.3(1), p.279]

[3] (tn): i.e. half a litre of food, which should be the staple crop of the country. Please see Reliance, section i1.33, p.290. According to Muʿjam Lughat al-Fuqahāʾ (Beirut: Dār Al-Nafāʾis, 1431/2010), s.v. Mudd, one mudd is equivalent to 0.543 kg, to be precise.

[4] (tn): i.e. to the poor

More Fatawa On Ramadan And Fasting

Combining Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ when ʿIshāʾ is Late

Evening Twilight

A translation of this fatwā from Naseem Al-Sham:

Question:

My family and I live in Europe and the adhān for ʿIshāʾ is very late, around quarter past eleven. We’re very tired by that time and especially the children, who have to sleep early in order to wake up and get ready for school. It is permissible for us to combine the ʿIshāʾ prayer with the Maghrib prayer when the first prayer comes in,[1] which is at about ten minutes to nine? Or, do we have to wait for the ʿIshāʾ prayer, and if it is the case that we have to wait until ʿIshāʾ, it is permissible for the children, especially those who are under 14, to combine their prayers and sleep, and especially the ones who are used to sleeping early, i.e. before half past nine? Please let us know, and may Allah reward you.

Answer (Sheikh Rushdī Salīm Al-Qalam):

Praise be to Allah, and He suffices, and peace be upon His Chosen Messenger.

To proceed:

Jamʿ al-taqdīm is not permissible unless one is travelling, and it is possible for the difference between Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ to be an hour and a half for people whose red horizon[2] never disappears, and this applies to every adult.[3]

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[1] (tn): known as jam’ al-taqdīm, which would also apply to praying al-Ẓuhr and al-ʿAsr during the time for al-Ẓuhr. Jamʿ al-taʾkhīr, on the other hand, refers to delaying the first prayer and combining it with the second prayer during the second prayer’s time.

[2] (tn): Ar. al-shafaq al-aḥmar, i.e. evening  twilight, during which time there is red in the sky.  Please see http://www.spc.noaa.gov/publications/corfidi/sunset/, which is also the source for the image above. What the sheikh is saying, may Allah preserve him, is that it is not permissible to combine prayers merely because the second prayer is late. If there is indeed no disappearance of the redness in the sky, one can wait an hour and a half and then prayʿIshāʾ.

[3] (tn): Ar. bāligh, which, in the Revealed Law, is anyone who has reached puberty, indicated by a wet dream in the case of boys and menstruation or pregnancy in the case of girls. If none of these occur, then the child is deemed legally responsible (mukallaf) once he or she turns 15 lunar years of age. Please see Reliance of the Traveller (Beltsville, Maryland: Amana Publications, 1999), section k13.8, p. 411-412, which is in the Book of Trade.

The Legal Ruling for the Tarāwīḥ Prayer

Question:

What is the legal ruling for the Tarāwīḥ prayer?

Answer (from Sheikh Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān Al-Būṭī):

Aḥmad, Ibn Ḥibbān and Al-Ḥākim have related, and the latter declared it authentic (ṣaḥīḥ), from the ḥadīth of Abū Dharr, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Prayer is the best of matters, so whoever is able to do a great deal of it let him do a great deal.”[1]

This clearly means that whenever a Muslim does a lot of supererogatory (nāfilah) prayers he gets more reward for doing so, and the Tarāwīḥ prayer is supererogatory. Therefore, whoever forbids someone praying from doing more than eight or ten or twenty [rakʿa] has gone against the speech of the Messenger of Allah. Indeed, he has declared it mistaken!

Indeed the debate that gets worse and worse in some masājid, regarding this issue, only exists for the sake of exalting one’s ego and defending one’s position, and whoever has devoted his attention to seeking Allah’s pleasure will never delve into this debate in the slightest. Let the person praying know that he is in charge of himself, and thus, if he wants to pray Tarāwīḥ as four, or eight, or twenty or more…then it is supererogatory, and the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has said, “Prayer is the best of matters, so whoever is able to do a great deal of it let him do a great deal.”

[Translated from Maʿ Al-Nās: Mashūrāt wa Fatāwā (Damascus: Dār Al-Fikr, 1423/2002), v. 1, p. 37]

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[1] (tn): Ar. الصلاة خير موضوع فمن استطاع ان يستكثر فليستكثر