Ngonge, juba, please lets be reasonable here! Modesty's statements are perfectly compatible with many Qur'anic verses, such as: "And they will never cease fighting you until they turn you away from your religion, if they can" (2:217). I don't have much time to list all the verses from the Qur'aan dealing with Modesty's statement, which infact consist of three parts, and I really wish you didn't waste your time with questioning my understanding of the Noble Qur'aan and that you in stead (of relying on simple openions) put some efforts in learning the Glorious Qur'aan. Viking, once we agree on the governing principles regarding the Islamic rulings on living among disbelievers and understand the nature of the problem (which you do) and our individual as well as collective duties, then we can go on to the next step, which you have rightly pointed out. From there we can discuss our Islamic duties, in whose neglect, form the source of all miseries, and therefore ultimately, all responsibilities lies with us. Whatever the disbelievers do, do so because they cannot help, and Allah told us all about it, thus if they catch us off guard the blame lies with us, but we do not denie they share of causation otherwise we woun't be able to understand the problem fully if we ever want to find solutions. Dutie of emmigration is one of the central solutions, as we need not to run from our problems (danger to life) and seek protection from disbelievers (danger to faith), be patient, hold on to the teachings of the Qur'aan and the Sunnah, and solve our problems while having faith in Allah. WCWW

This is indeed fascinating... There are two challenges that I would like to put forward to you all who’ve opposed this article. I’m suggesting to you now; to proof that the author is wrong in his conclusion, using either religion (revelation) or science (reason) as evidence to back up and justify your opposition. It is a fact that social sciences acknowledge the influences of the socio-economic-environment as one of the most important factors which shapes and conditions every individual. It is also the case that Islam doesn’t allow muslims to live amongst disbelievers (nice people or not), and as a consequence the author has, in both cases, the support of the academic findings in the fields of social sciences, and that of the Noble Qur’aan and the Sunnah of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So, please explain to us all; what is it exactly that you are opposing here? WCWW P.S. Juba, your lack of Qur'anic understanding horrifies me! In fact what you're doubting here are verses from the Qur'aan, and not merely Modesty's opinion!

Dear brother Nur, Thew story is indeed deep in meaning, it touches on the priceless inner values some of hold dear, that they will never exchange with any material possession. This issue is central to the question of faith itself, as a conflicting inner/outer struggle between the balances of worldly choices in exchange of non-worldly ultimate purpose. When a situation is given where material life is competing with spiritual life, the value of life itself is at stake, and if a person chooses material over faith, then that person’s life is worth whatever the value of his material gain is equal to in this world. If on the other hand a person decides to hold on to his faith whiles in the process forsaking worldly material benefits, then that person’s life has the value as set by Allah in this world, but more so in the hereafter. In the course of my school and work, I have met people of substance, both Muslims and non Muslims, those who earned my highsest respect have always been the principle centered people, because with these people, I was successful, they were like the perfume carrier, both in terms of faith and business, the latter, who are material centered , they were like the furnance, they burn you, both money and soul. Again a very true observation and I used to put the blame on personal/psychological characteristics of the individual without ever realising the nature of the problem, until I came across Dr Mehdi Allam’s commentary on the verse from the Noble Qur’aan: “And certainly We have bestowed dignity on the descendants of Adam.†On which he remarked that a man is dignified only when he is responsible for his actions in line within the purpose and the context of the granted freedoms from Allah. There will be no problems as long as the individual recognises that there are greater values in life, which govern that individual in his/her principled code of conduct as granted, otherwise disaster awaits us! P.S. I've given up most of the efforts I had in mind with regards to the socio-economic and religious crises as faced by "the target group" we've discussed not long ago (the pain still remains though). WCWW

Dear brothers and sisters, Here are some thoughts of a sinner among sinners. My dear tongue... My peak of reflection, yet my lack of it The ease of my pain, yet the cause of it The peace of my reign, yet the terror of it My means of affection, yet my barrier to it Speaker of best words, yet the worst words Key the doors of Jannah, yet to Jahannamah Centre of misery and master of sinful slippery O my dear tongue, listen to me carefully... You are a blessing from Allah, who enabled me to call upon Him through you, to recite the Qur’aan and to be means of worship. Thus hereby I order you to repent, to make supplication and ask for forgiveness every day and every night, lest you taste the tree of Zaqquum, lest you be begging and wishing to turn into dust in vanity, lest you be doomed in the punishments of a tormenting Hellfire! Jazaakal-Laah for the reminder sister, we keep forgetting the importance of repentance; may Allah forgive us all for our sins. WCWW

Dear Brothers and sisters, Richard Burton was disguesting pervert and a liar. :mad: He's totally wrong about our somali women, and many other things too he has written on Somalia, and on Zanzibar, on his exploration for the source of the Nile and on the Xijaaz in his hypocritical pilgrimage. I cannot believe that you people refer to that man's comments, especially on our somali sisters, wifes, mothers and daughters. :confused: For those who don't know it yet, our somali women are the best, they form the crucial socio-economic back-bone of our societies in Somalia and they are somewhat the only certainty in a chaotic, war-torne and disintegrated country. More should be done for their education, but other than that, no one has the right to utter any negative sentiments towards direction.

Dear brothers and sisters, An intelectual is he/she who's able to use his/her intellect, and he/she who's able to his/her intellect is intelligent. If we understand the correct meaning of intelligence, then we can understand the correct meaning of an intellectual. The correct defenition of intelligence is as defined by our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) for us, and not entirely as defined in "Guilford's Structure of Intelligence"! Our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said on intelligence: "An intelligent person is he/she who remembers death very often" WCWW

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Dear Young_gal, I know exactly what you've experienced and it's a very frightening experience, especially when it happens to a person for the first time. Sometimes it feels like an invisible cold "blanket of death" weighting over 2 tonnes is suffocating you. You cannot move or change your sleeping position, you cannot speak with voice or shout for help, but you can move your lips and Allah is always near and aware, so recite aayatul-Kursi with your lips if you ever find yourself in that situation again (your mother will be of no use). What is it? Well,...in short; it's Shaydaan, and it often occurs when the Shaydaan tries to play tricks with you while you're in a dreaming state (scientist refer to this state as REM which stands for Rapid Eye Movements). Sometimes a person wakes up, it may be due to an irregulaty detected in a dream that your subconscious mind alarms you to wake up or an excessive fear (his tricks are generally referred to as nightmares) that may also alarm you to wake up. How can we protect ourselves from it? All you need to do is follow this very easy steps: 1) recite aayatul-Kursi, suuratul-Ikhlaas and the Acuudutayn three times on your hands and 2) wipe them over your whole body as far as you can reach also three times, 3) and finally sleep facing to your right side. Do we need to fear it? Absolutely NOT! We don't fear anything other that Allah, Whose creation it is, and He alone can protect us from His creation, both Jinn and Ins! WCWW

Nice one brother Nur. This is very interesting story for many reasons but one have to dig deep to realise the paradox of human nature. If the precious stone is a metaphor for desires of worldly glitter, material gain and to serve misguided illusions about the keys to happiness in life; then to return that precious stone is the ultimate symbolical act of divorce from all allusions. These illusions make us believe that there’s more to life than it’s actually meant to, as decreed by Allah. We are all willing to forsake exercising the true purpose of life in exchange for short lived pleasures or something seemingly precious and valuable, while all the true precious and valuable things in this life and hereafter are with Allah. In this case, this man was extremely lucky that he could realise (physically and mentally) an illusion before choosing to denounce it, but most of us will die chasing after these illusions and never realising them, let along being in a position to denounce anything. However, there’s always one illusion that we’re living in and we still have a chance, just like that man, to turn our backs on in exchange for kheys and nearness to Allah. Can we recognise the illusion we’re living in? Is the routine of our lives too deeply centred around a big lie/illusion that we’re unable to fully see the mess (and what a mess) we’re in? If you don’t know where to start from, just ask yourselves every time you look into the mirror: WHY AM I LOOKING MYSELF IN THE MIRROR?

by Jonny B The West is not a religion , Islam is. Dear Brother, Islam is not a religion in the sense of western concept, but a way of life compareable to to the West in its totality, including christianity, secularism and every other philosophical belief-system within that way of life. Religion is part of Islam, but not all. If religion is a drop of water, Islam is a rain! I regret the fact that I don't have the time to explain everything at the moment, but I promise to do so in three weeks time, as I'm too busy in the coming weeks. WWWB

The answer is that all animals NOT killed by humans are xaaraam, except for the three above mentioned cases. The second question is more complicated, but I did ask a sheikh once whether those animals you’ve referred to can be classified as street-animals, and since street animals are xaaraam to consume their meat or milk unless kept from the streets for a period of days before it can become xalaal to consume again. The sheikh told me that it was a matter of proportionality, which depends on whether these animals are fed in proportion more xaaraam or xalaal products. If for example, they are fed more meat and bones to boost their artificial proteins hormones, then these animals are xaaraam, unless they are kept few days and are fed normally so they can get these germs out of their system. Wallaahu aclam.

Dear Animal Farm, ...one day she walked in my apt and saw me praying, than she began asking me questions on daily basis, and then one day she was like I’m ready, so we went to the Mosque and she converted. I very much welcome the fact that you pray with open doors, and I even encourage you to do so whenever you can't make it to the mosque! However, what worries me is this: ...her baby was also converted to Islam. Please don't make a habit of it (there's a fair chance that it might, especially if you keep praying with open doors ), as we Muslims don't believe in the concept of original sin, there's no need to pabtise our babies whom are still at the state of fitrah. WCWW

This is a chilling reminder of how Allah, in His Mercy, causes someone to enter the light of Islam, after a lifelong imprisonment in actions of disbelief and darkness (becoming the dwellers of paradise). And how He causes, in His Justice, others to die upon the actions of disbelief and darkness, after a lifelong of having been Muslims and doing righteous deeds (thus becoming the dwellers of hellfire!). If you think that you are a Muslim and therefore save, think again, because no one is! WCWW

When I said I retire from this discussion, I should have helped end it as well. This is why I’m posting this conclusion (which I hope you’ll agree) and not because of whatever opinions you’ve expressed above, as these are all words with no backing or meaning from religious literature, which remindes me of the saying "barking dogs don’t bite," So this is about providing us with a new bone that may occupy and silence some of us, because even barking becomes irritating after a while too. The below fatwa is was issued long before Dr Badawi's and is available at Islamweb.net > Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions. It is compulsory an every Muslim woman to cover her hair from alien men. She should not show her hair to anyone other than the persons Allah mentioned in the following Aayah: {And tell the believing women to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts, etc.) and not to show off their adornment except only that which is apparent (like palms of hands or one eye or both eyes for necessity to see the way, or outer dress like veil, gloves, head-cover, apron, etc.), and to draw their veils all over Juyubihinna (i.e. their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms, etc.) and not to reveal their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husband's sons, their brothers or their brother's sons, or their sister's sons, or their (Muslim) women (i.e. their sisters in Islâm), or the (female) slaves whom their right hands possess, or old male servants who lack vigour, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And all of you beg Allâh to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be successful.}[24: 31]. All the Muslim Scholars are agreed that a woman should cover her head, neck and ears. It is the rule of Allah that He makes good Muslim men and women face trials and misfortunes to raise their ranks and forgive their sins. You should not give up wearing Hijab even though you may face problems or the people may laugh at you. If you give up wearing Hijab you follow the Satan, thus disobeying Allah. How many believing women remained patient and firm ignoring all problems and strictly followed their religion and as a result people, regardless of their ages, showed them respect and followed their good example. We advise you to stick firmly to this good act, i.e. wearing Hijab. You know that the best persons among human beings are Messengers. They faced trials and misfortunes more than any other persons. We ask Allah to help us to follow His path and to act as pleases Him. Allah knows best. Fatwa center supervised by Dr. Abdullah Al-faqih > I don’t expect from you to criticise Dr Badawi for contradicting the above fatwa, or attempt to scrutinise his religious reasoning used to justify his claim. Neither do I expect from you to criticise us for upholding the above fatwa over the Dr Badawi’s hysteric issuance of irresponsible calls. What I do expect from you is, as usual, a highly opinionated chit-chat to defend your initial dogmatic preferences, but you shouldn’t bother. I know a lot of ‘fatwa’ shoppers, who have one ‘fatwa’ for selling alcohol, another ‘fatwa’ for consuming riba/interest, another for listening music, and another for not wearing xijaab. If you show little consistency, you’ll find out that you have to defend all these ‘fatwas’ along the same lines you’re defending this one. Are you going to defend all these? Or are you going to criticise us for rejecting them? I would advice you a few things; first slow down a bit and take a deep breath; second, understand your limits; and finally, you should go to mosques more oftenly.

I refuse to dismiss it (extreme or not). For me to dismiss his fatwa as flawed, I’ll have to question his ability and knowledge. I’ve looked at his CV, looked at his history and education and even noticed that respected sites like Islamonline seek his fatwas from time to time. Other than the written words of brother Shams-el-Deen above, I have not heard or read of any Muslim scholars advising us not to listen to Dr Badawi. Now, whilst I’m not calling Shams-el-Deen a liar, I trust that he’ll understand why I can’t possibly take his words as truth with no proof (what he wrote above is, for the time being, nothing but slander). Brother Ngonge, Well, if you’re just discovering Dr Badawi’s CV, then I see no other reason for us to talk about the sheikh now, let along his history, but I would sincerely advice you to acquaint yourself with some information about the object you supposed to be defending, instead of rendering all that you’re ignorant of or is new to you as slanderous! By accusing me of slander (unless of course you can proof that what I said is false or that the sheikh never made such comments, which I doubt very much judging by your limited knowledge about the sheikh), you have ironically enough uttered that which you have accused me of doing, and made an undeniable defamatory slander against my person. Don’t worry; you don’t need to apologies for that. I’m not sure in what part of the world you live in, but we (various Muslim communities in the UK) have collectively rejected this man long time ago. All the mosques that I’ve been in the city I live in, have all unanimously agreed on the baseless pretences in which this ‘fatwa’ is based upon. All the Muslim sisters groups in the UK have condemned this so called ‘fatwa’, and since this was a ‘fatwa’ only meant for the Muslims in the UK, and they (Muslims in the UK) have overwhelmingly rejected it, no one is asking for anyone’s permission here. All praise is due to Allah, who didn’t made his religion dependent on status, CV, power, academic title, fame and all other worldly “lifetime achievements awardsâ€, which may serve as a tool to awe some of “us†simple-minded victims, but had based upon His Qur’aan and the Sunnah of His Prophet. All praise is due to Allah, who made our religion not a religion of blind following of a so called “grand muftiâ€, like some other religions, where all final authority rests upon the rabbi, clergy or pope, that we are now free from prosecutions and being burned at the stable (even if some may wish to do with me here), but had been a reality for many of the above mentioned religions. Think of Bishop Pothinus and his followers who dissented against Pope Elutherus, think of Iranaeus who refused to follow the Pope, think of Leonidas, Origen, Diodorus, Pamphilus, Donatus, Arius, Eusebius, Lewis Hetzer, Michael Servatus, Francis Davidis, Faustus Socinus, John Biddle, etc. If you go on and keep defending men you don’t know, with no eye for the truth whatsoever (as you care more about winning arguments, otherwise you would have showed some restrains in your absolute judgements of condemning those who’ve questioned this man’s religious reasoning based on the Qur’aan and Sunnah, and you’d not have dismissed everything inconvenient to your “crusade†as all lies), then all praise is due to Allah, who didn’t give you the power the “church†used to have. For clarity to all those who are supporting this ‘fatwa’ based on the “pork in the dessert†analogy, here’s something for you: When a sister is in danger and is at gunpoint or she is unable to cross the street because of hiding snipers, then NO fatwa is needed, the sister can REMOVE her xijaab as she wishes, she is FREE to choose and Dr Badawi shouldn’t flatter himself to believe that his ‘fatwa’ is needed to safe lives. Please don’t mix religion with your personal opinion or preferences and defend this man, but rather side with the truth and ask your self the validity of his religious reasoning. If you are incapable to do so, then ask someone with knowledge and find the truth that way. All I was trying here was to give you some insight in to the issue by presenting to you a valid objections and each time from a different angle which will be a lot easier for some of us to digest, besides that; I hate repeating myself. If we go back to the one verse the sheikh derived his ‘fatwa’ from, and base our reasoning on that one verse out of the context of the prophetic traditions, we encounter with the following possibilities: 1) The logic of alternative; if the xijaab is already a form of protection, then it’s irresponsible to remove an existing protection that Allah commanded us, so we go for the alternatives (I think we all know the alternatives). 2) The logic of protection by recognition; if prior to the revelation of this verse all women dressed alike, then the recognition of Muslim women from all non-Muslim women was a key to their protection. Clearly, Allah in His wisdom must have decreed that harassments, social ills, cultural foes, molestations and all other associated harms with not wearing xijaab and not being recognised from other women, must out-weight all other potential dangers caused by wearing the xijaab! 3) The logic of faith; to have faith in what Allah predetermined for you and accept with endurance whatever comes your way in carrying out your obligatory duties, even if it means martyrdom. 4) And finally his logic, which is the least reasonable, and the reason I made this logic as the last one and have not added few more is; first, the obligatory nature of the xijaab is not always accepted as given, because of the out of context verse; secondly, therefore the logic keeps moving away from the teachings of Islam, which may include; removing the xijaab if you are known to be Muslim, or not in the streets, or in a 100% Muslim country, or when praying in the mosque etc, in all these cases xijaab becomes unnecessary according to some of these logic, when the verse is used out of context! But would you defend any so called ‘fatwa’ ordering us just to do that, because we’re not allowed to question the validity of his reasoning? I’ve reached now at a stage where the best course of action is to retire from this discussion of “fan-clubs†and hooliganism, which does more harm than good. WCWW

Dear brother Aristotle, Because no one is answering your question, and the reason we all are here, I hope, is to benefit each other and assist those with enquiries if we think we know and ask for assistance if we need help with anything. I didn’t attempt to answer your questions immediately as I was hoping that there would be other who know these answers better than I do, but for some reason you haven’t been given, so here is my take on them. Many years ago, in one of the mainland European countries, my mother used to force to attend small-circle study sessions at a nearby mosque. The topics used to vary from al-xalaal wal-xaraam fil-Islaam to moral lessons from qisass-ul-anbiyaa and the Qur’aan as a whole. Since I was there not by free will, I used sit there very annoyed for not being able to hang around with my friends, and therefore never used to pay any attention to whatsoever was said there. However, there was one issue that I was very keen on understanding; and that was what is xalaal and what is xaaraam of the food I eat. Back then (as a ****** teenage boy) I used to take eating xalaal food more seriously than praying! Even though I have a poor memory, I really think that could answer your questions, but only with some help from others. Q 1) Whether it’s xalaal to eat the meat of “1) Animals that were NOT killed by human beings†If we accept in the first place the assumption that not all animals killed by human beings are xalaal for us to eat, and you are hopefully aware of that, then lets swiftly move to the first question. As a general rule, all animals not killed by humans including those which die at accidents or fall off cliffs are xaaraam to eat, but there are three exceptions: 1) Fish and grasshoppers (especially the locust family of the grasshoppers are very tasty if prepared the correct way) 2) The trained hunter-dog, when let lose to catch the prey is done with ‘bismi-Llaah’, then that meat is xalaal even if the prey is already dead when you arrive at the scene, except for the following two case-scenarios; a) if the do takes a bite from the meat, then it becomes xaaraam, because we assume the dog caught the meat for its own consumption b) if there are other hunter animals nearby the prey when you arrive at the scene, then it also becomes xaaraam, because we don’t know which animal caught the prey first 3) There is a danger of starvation or a serious harm to one’s health due to extreme hunger, and the only food one has access to is a meat not killed by humans, then the shariicah allows us to consume from that meat, but only an amount which is sufficient for survival and not more. Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure what you by “animal remainsâ€. Please explain that question with more detail so I may understand the nature of your question.

dear Modesty, Becoming quieter and less social, are not symptoms of being a victim of sorcery, but just a behaviour alien to us Somalians which may came as shock to some. Others like your aunt may even suspect black magic, but see things into perspective and evaluate any changes in your obedience to Allah and worship for the positive or the negative. Also, as our brother indicated, the Qur’aan is the protection against all evils. The most important thing is not to be afraid of these spells of evil; little do we know but the shaydaan cast his evil spells on us every day! He casts three spells in the evening while we are asleep to prevent us from praying salaatul-fajar. What we do is, we recite Qur’aan to guard us from his evil. Keep in touch insha’Allah and we’ll pray for you.

I’ve checked the books of tafseer (Ibn Katheer, Al Tabari, etc) and they all give the same interpretation of the verse. The interpretations do not differ that much from what Dr Zaki states in his Fatwa. Brother Ngonge, That is what happens when you ignore the context of the Sunnah like our sheikh here, I have seen him dismissing authentic xadiiths before, which I'm sure if you yourself were there, would not have given the benefit of the doubt to this man. If he denies such authentic xadiiths, then what can stop him from denying other xadiiths needed to compliment with this particular verse? There is this authentic xadiith reported by Caa'ishah (rc), saying that one came to the Prophet (blessing and peace be upon him) improperly dressed, and told her that nothing should be exposed of a muslim women after reaching their puppetry except this and this (pointing to the face and hands). However, I was once present in one of his lectures, and heard him dismissing another authentic xadiith by Caa'ishah (rc) on the grounds of confusion. Is it unreasonable of me to be weary of a man who made calculative implications so many important and authentic axaadiiths from the Ummul-mu'miniin? For if she is confused in one particular narration, why couldn't she be confused in other narrations? Secondly, xijab is not just the simplistic way he understands it to be, because there are many detailed conditions attached to xijaab. For example, the clothes should be wide and protective, and not like those who are dressed but naked, who our Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) ordered us to "curse them for they are cursed". Also keeping in mind the Qur'anic verse ""And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands..." would mean not wearing makeup or displaying their hair in a fashionable way like the "camel hump" our prophet described and cursed. It would also mean not wearing trousers like men and be cursed by the prophet. Either way, our Muslim sisters will be recognised when out in the streets, and this man had made a major blunder again, and I'm afraid it was not his last!

Assalaamu calaykum, Illaahay ha u'naxariisto sheekha, waa tusaallo aad muhiim u'ah u'na baahan in lagu cibriqaato. Sheekha aduunka wuu ku shaqaystay, Islaamkana aad ayuu wax u'taray, dhamaanteenna noo wada anfacay. Inngana sidaasoo kale ayaa inalooga baahanyahay inaan u'shaqaysanno, sababtoo ah kulligeen waxaynu ku dambayn doonnaa isla godkaa sheekha maanta loo hoyiyay!

Brother, The point is whether the sheikh accepts the xijaab as being waajib or not. From his 'fatwa' is clear to me that he doesn't take that point as given. This is a radical re-enterpretation of the above mentioned verse, and contrary to the understanding of the Saxaabah, the Salufus-saalix and many thousands of far greater scholars than him in the last milennia or so. Therefore, his reasoning is INVALID. We all accept a fatwa as being based on qaala-Llaahu wa qaala rasuuluhuu, our sheik decided to ignore the Sunnah as a whole and issue a 'fatwa' on one mis-interpreted verse. WCWW

Dear brothers and sisters, First of all, I’d like to state that we are here not to insult anyone, let alone scholars who may be doing their best with all the sincerity they could afford to help Muslims in need. Secondly, when I say I know the man, I don’t mean to say that I’m an authority on the sheikh and his ideas, but that I have his writings at home and have been to his lectures, where I even heard him propagating more shocking views than this so called ‘fatwa’. I made a lot of notes of that, but I’m not going to present them here as these views have nothing to do with this subject, and also, to make a blunder once doesn’t automatically proof an increase of likelihood of making a blunder in this case as well. Therefore I’ll present my case differently to avoid unnecessary and lengthy discussions based on opinions which has nothing to do with the subject, as some of us seems to be very hungry for it. Simple steps to understand the problem with Dr Badawi’s ‘fatwa’ Step 1) In His Qur’aan, Allah informs us that: We will surely be tested, as the peoples before us have been tested. That we shouldn’t delude ourselves to believe that we can say “we believe†without being tested, whose belief is sincere and whose not, so there will exist clear and undeniable proofs of what you believed and acted upon on the Day of Judgement (you may wish to consult the first seven verses of Suuratul-Cankabuut). Step 2) Our beloved Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) added that: Most severely are tested by the messengers and prophets, and then those knowledgeable of awliyaa’uLaah, then those believers with most iimaan, and less and less, those with less and less iimaan. Note: therefore initially, this ‘fatwa’ technically seems to be correct, as removing the xijaab by our sisters would mean downgrading them from a higher state of iimaan, to a lesser station of iimaan. This degradation of status in the Sight of Allah corresponds with severely lightened burden of tests and calamities in This world (really? What about hereafter?). However, there are three main problems which the sheikh has overlooked rather carelessly, which prompted me to state “not to take this man seriouslyâ€, and these are: Step 3) The xijaab is WAAJIB, and the disobedience of it constitutes SINNIG (this ‘fatwa’ would make you believe otherwise). Therefore, if you reside a place where you cannot perform your waajibaat, then you have to immigrate to a place where you can perform these waajibaat, instead of abandoning them for the sake of remaining where you are. Thus emigration comes before the slightest contemplation of making any concessions in your beliefs. Step 4) The purpose of our belief is spiritual growth, getting nearer to Allah, increasing iimaan and the aim of elevating one’s soul to the highest station of total surrender and obedience any slave can achieve. But NEVER to degrade and degenerate our iimaan from a state of obedience to that of disobedience. Islam is growth in purity and not decadence! Step 3) Do we have a mandate from Allah, with regard to customising our waajibaat when there be a need, fear, desire or even in the face of prosecution, while we are in the lands of oppression with rebellious attitude towards Islam and Muslims? Well, Allah made it clear for anyone to understand, when He said: “Verily! As for those whom the Angels have taken (in death) while they are wronging themselves (as they stayed among the disbelievers even though emigration was obligatory upon them), they (angels) ask them, ‘In what condition were you?’ They reply, ‘We were weak and oppressed on earth.’ The Angels ask, ‘Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to migrate therein?’ Such men will find their abode in Hell- what an evil destination!†(Suuratul-Nisaa 97) Conclusion: Our sisters in Bosnia stopped wearing xijaab for generations and were only Muslims by name, nevertheless, we still feel the pain of that tragedy which took place in mid nineties, when they were raped, murdered, mentally and physically tortured and starved to death. That didn’t escape my attention and hopefully it didn’t yours either, and we all know that; what Allah decrees, there is no escaping from, xijaab or no xijaab. I think that I would be speaking for the majority on SOL when I say: We pray to Allah for the sheikh and we kindly thank him for his concerns and efforts, but we believe that this ‘fatwa’ is baseless, and that its claim of the support from the Qur’aan is unfounded, and hence we totally REJECT his call!

Dear brothers and sisters, I know Dr Badawi and I advice you all not to take that man seriously. Regarding the difficulties that our Sisters face when they go out in the streets, in a society which openly rebels and conspires to destroy the light of Islam, is when the xijaab becomes a test where obedience to Allah will be abandoned by the ignorant, the weak and those, like the majority of us, who rely on outward religiosity as sufficient. In that situation, our righteous Sisters, who remain loyal servants and show patience, and steadfastness in their obedience to Allah’s commands, Allah will cause them to shine like stars in the dark nights through their fulfilling of duties, within that hostile society that is both morally and ethically the lowest of the lowest in degradation and darkness. I myself am a man who grows his beard, trims low his moustache, wears a cap on his head and as a consequence openly recognisable as Muslim. Therefore I can understand how my sisters feel in these difficult circumstances, especially the psychological pressures associated with if you are socially active or go to university and colleges. If I speak about myself again, sometimes when I go into public buildings, I’m asked to open my bag to see whether I’m smuggling in explosives, other times the buss doesn’t stop at the buss-stops that I’m standing which could be inconvenient too, but never ever will it cross my mind to compromise on my religious and ideological stances. To emigrate, yes, because we all have to if we wish to hold on to Allah’s Qur’aan and the Sunnah of His Prophet. See the thread I posted, which I’ve just renamed “Can we all go back now?†I said not to take Dr Badawi's advice seriously, so as an alternative, you should take THIS advice seriousley! WCWW

Viking, You have an amazing ability to turn everything into conspiratory insults on your person. I'm dissapointed for the fact that you decided not to comment on my simplified example, but I'm glad you appriciated the advice.

Dear Viking, Ahaa, I see you enjoy answering hypothetical questions out of context! I’ll keep in mind to inform you next time, before I post any analogical case scenario. Now, do me a favour and replace “Viking†with Mr A, replace “I†with Mr B, replace “ahlus-sunnah wal-jamaacah†with the followers of the Allah’s Qur’aan and His Prophet’s Sunnah and comment on the issue I brought forward to you once again, please. If you seriously wish to study the meaning of the Qur’aan and are willing to make the time, I would once again advice you to buy Ibn Katheer, after which you would not need other commentaries, as the best commentary on the Qur’aan is the Sunnah of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). I would also advice you to make a serious effort to master the Arabic language. I’m repeating and reinforcing my previous advice, because judging by some of your statements like: "Contaminating" is a rather strong word to use on Muslims who believe in Allah SWT and the Prophet SAWS. I understand that their views might not be in accordance to what you have been taught and might seem offensive. I should've said that it was a Shi'a site but (at the time) I didn't see a point to do so as the issue at hand was commentary of verses of the Qur'an (and not some indoctrinating material).†Is clear that you are missing some important wisdoms from the Qur’aan, and you’ll not gain that by visiting the websites of innovators. In fact, the reason you’re so hungry for extensive commentaries has to do with all the conflicting dogma’s you’ve been encountering in those sites, despite all your best intentions, has created many doubds in your mind, that you are now incapable to find a focus point which could direct you to Allah’s Straight Path. My final advice to you is; stay away from all materials from those who deviated from the Qur’aan and the Sunnah. As for an online commentary, no, I’m afraid I cannot help you with that, other than Tafsir.com, which I have already suggested to you. If you don’t mind listening the tafsiir of the Qur’aan and its commentary online, this is good one: LINK

What IS the issue at hand here? Please please let us discuss these "issues". Now we are getting somewhere! Well, the issue at hand here is as follows: 1) Viking is not naïve, in fact he is wise enough to recognise the truth from falsehood (assumption; he belongs to ahlus-sunnah wal-jamaacah). 2) I on the other hand, am too ignorant and naïve to be able to distinguish truth from falsehood. 3) Viking posts a link containing contaminating (that is to my caqiidah) materials, he does not advice me or warn me about some of its disastrous contents (a neglect of duty towards your fellow Muslim brother). 4) Viking is nice man and I trust his judgement, so I jump head first into that link and before I realise, I am too deep into the s.h.i.t. Therefore, the issue at hand here is not about me or you, but some other nothing suspecting fellow Muslim brothers and sister, who enjoy a duty upon us, as we to them, to advice the good by showing the truth and warn them about the evils of falsehood. If you put aside my approach for once, I think you'll recognise that issue too! As for a good commentary on the Qur'aan, I would advice you to purchase Ibn Katheer. I know the volumes are too numerous and also quite expensive, but trust me when I say to you; they are worth every penny.

Ukhtii Muslimah, You misunderstood the sheekh. I think that it may help if listened once again, and kept in mind the different kind of dimensions in human interaction, the teachings of the Qur'aan and the Sunnah, and finally the surrounding environment that exist/would exist, were it not for the necessary presence/absence of a protective psychological barrier between US (believers) and THEM (disbelievers). Allah simply did not allow humans the capacity to choose and hold different ideologies for the show! Think about that too.