Oh, my bad, i should read the article completely. The only problem i have is i neither read long articles nor i post them. However, from now on, if i want to reply any article i must read the whole article period. Anyway, thank you for the correction. I am somehow new to this place. So, ha ila yaabin.

w/salaam waraxmatullahi wabrakatu. haseena When I embraced Islam in 1983, by the grace of Allah Well, sister, i did not read the whole thread you posted, but when i read the above sentence, i decided to congratulate for you, even thou it is too late. Mashallah! Well,what can i say, May Allah protect us from all falsehood, make us firm in our belief and seal our lives with it and to protect us from wrong ideas.

I think the poster is asking the word “intellectual†itself and how you guys define it. But not that he asked who the Most intellectual person is. Let me put it into this way, the term intellectual is being openn to new ideas, a capacity to question and think critically, and the motivation to master new skills, as well as detecting problems, and finding solutions. I think that is the real meaning of that word and these also summaries anything you guys wrote in here.

Well, it is very important attending Friday prayer and the circumstance you have mentioned will never and ever be an excuse in the sight of Allah. However, I would like to encourage him to go to two times a month if he can. You can tell some excuses those school teachers but there will be no excuse in the Day of Judgment. So, I would also advise him to pray a lot of none-obligatory prayers (Sunnah) because it might help him in case if he doesn’t have enough obligatory prayers in hereafter. As our prophet said, in the Day of Judgment, if the person did not have enough obligatory prayer, Allah will ask if his servant has prayed none obligatory prayers, if that person prayed a lot of Sunnah, then Allah would give him credit for that and will survive him from Cadaabka.

Viking, there are things that can be taken as a literal and some other things that can’t be taken as literally. There is a similar incident about the question you are asking. As we know when the prophet (saw) was talking about “Al Bait-ul-Ma'mur†he said, “70,000 angels perform prayers daily and when they leave they never return to it†in this hadith, we can see our prophet use 70, 000 again, what do you think about this; can’t we take it this literally? I believe the question you asked is same like this one and need to be taken as it is. Walahu Aclam

Sister, Ukhtii-Muslimah, first of all, thank you for the taking time to, it is very much appreciated. Second thing, I did not say going to Chrisms party is allowed. If you really read the first article I posted, you would not think in that way. I was at home when my friend brought the food, since I was not the one who attended the party I felt like it is okay for me to eat-- even thou, I did not eat it because I was not quite sure if it was halaal or haram. I hope you understand where I am coming from right now. Anyway, as I said earlier, and I believe sister Haseena also said, we must be careful what we say halaal or haram.

I don’t think their divorce was caused by the charity they gave in order to help the poor people who needed, especially those who live Somalia or Somaliland. I think their problem did not started from this charity; maybe they had another disagreement quite sometimes. On the other hand, the weakness of their imam can also be responsible about this incident, if it is true what you are saying.. I don’t know if we all remember, The Farewell Pilgrimage, when Bilal spread out a cloth and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) urged the women to be generous with their gifts of charity, for when he had been allowed a glimpse into the flames of Hell, he had noted that most of the people being tormented there were women. In this hadith we can see that they are able to donate or give us a charity their dahab, or anything they owned. However, if their husband were so needy and poor, they should give to them instead of giving to someone else. For instance, One day, Zainab, the wife of Ibn Masud, came and said “O Prophet of Allah! Today you ordered people to give alms and I had an ornament and intended to give it as alms, but Ibn Masud said that he and his children deserved it more than anybody else.†The prophet replied “ Ibn Masud had spoken the truth. Your husband and your children had more right to it than anybody else. So, they should take care of their houses if they know this will happen. But, I just can’t believe a Muslim person will divorce his wife for this reason. There is no limit for giving out charity, even if we are not able to give any, we are encouraged to enjoin Al-macruf and keep away anything that is evil-this will be regarded as charitable deeds. Walahu Aclam.

Sister, this happened to me too sometimes ago. I used to read a lot of verses before I go to bed. I can’t remember what i used to read, but I will try to remember and get back to you inshallah. But, keep taking wudu and reading the Quran as well, it will help you.. Specially read Ayat Kursi three times, Surat An-Nas tree times, Surat Al-Falaq three times and Surat Al-Ikhlas three times. Keep doing that almost everynight until you feel okay.

Asalamu caleykum Islamtoday and ukhti-Muslima, thanks for your honest contributions. Islamtoday, you are right, we can understand several things for that question. First, going to party and mixing the opposite gender is not allowed in Islam. Second thing, if the food they serve is pork and wine, it becomes automatically haram. If they don’t serve pork, we can say their food is halaal to us, because they are people of the kitab. However, there is something goes wrong in their celebration. As Ukhti_ Muslima mentioned, they sacrifice that food for Jesus--considering him as a God. In this case, it becomes haram because anything that has been slaughtered as a sacrifice for other than Allah is Haram. Sometimes, they know that you are a Muslim, so they give you or allow you to take some fruits and anything that is not a pork or wine. This is the thing I don’t understand and I could not say whether it is haram or halaal. I don’t want to say this is halaal and this is haram because I don’t want to make up a lie against Allah. You know Allah (swt) said in his holly Quran, “ And say not concerning that which your tongues put forth falsely: “This is lawfully and this is forbidden†so as to invent lies against Allah. Verily, those who invent lies against Allah will never proper†[surat An-Nehl, verse 116]. Therefore we need to be very very careful before we say this is a lawful and this is not a lawful. I still can’t get it; I am just trying to avoid such things if it is haram.

I have this friend who went to a chrisms party. His co-workers invited him to attend the party. He went there and enjoyed with them. When he came back, he brought some food with him. So, my question is can I eat that food??

Asalamu caleykum It is always a good thing to have a good friend who encourages you to do the good deeds. Having a Muslim friend is a beneficial for our own good since Muslims enjoin what is good and forbid evil things from one another. On the other hand, there are dozen of verses that warned us not to be a friend with non-Muslim. I think the friendship those verses are talking about is not just being a friend and mixing with them--it is considering them as a protector and showing them that you love them more than you love your Muslims brothers. As we know, we (most of us) live in non-Muslim countries where our neighbors, our co-workers and our classmates are non-Muslim so, what a Muslim person ought to do in order to follow his/her religion? Well, it is acceptable to treat them as they treat you. And you can also have a polite and a decent conversation with them without crossing the line as long as they behave well. but if you follow their foot steps, act like the way they act and forget your religion, it is forbidden to hang out or being a friend with them under any circumstances. Walahu Aclam

Asalamu Caleykum As you all you heard, Dr. Tariq Ramadan has called an international call for Moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and the death penalty in the Islamic World. Mr. Tariq pointed out it is injustice to fulfill these Hudud upon Muslim societies since there is no a fully Islamic government that exists in anywhere in the world today. It is very clear and we all know that these penalties are applied almost exclusively to women and the poor, the doubly victimized, never to the wealthy, the powerful, or the oppressors. Death sentences are decided and carried out against women, men and even minors without ever given a chance to obtain legal counsel. Let’s just talk about Somalia; there are Islamic courts that carry out hudud to the public. In Somalia, killing, robbing and raping are common and it is really hard to punish everybody who commits these crimes. This is because some people are more powerful then others and it is hard to bring them to the justice. Are they (Islamic Courts) doing the right thing? Do they punish everybody equally? Is it okay to suspend the Sharia because of this? If there is any, is there any other solution rather than suspending the Islamic Hudud?

Originally Posted by Islamtoday 5. To LOVE Allah SWA and His messenger and also to love this religion and the muslims and to show dislikeness to anyone who goes against it." The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: There are three (qualities), whoever possesses them, will taste the sweetness of Iman (belief): to love Allah and His Messenger more than anyone else, to love the Muslim only for the sake of Allah, and to dread returning to kufr (apostasy) as he dreads being thrown in fire. Originally Posted by Islamtoday "The key word in the verse is "FOLLOW"... and what does it mean to follow SAW... in what way? i leave that to you.." This means to follow the holy Quran and the Sunnah and to accept the Islamic monotheism without following our desires. Jazakalahu Kheyran.

Originally posted by islamtoday "Islam" is not the problem but us... Well spoken saxib. I totally agree with you in here. it is all our problem and we need to correct ourselves.

The Prophet said: 'My ummah will be divided into 73 different groups.' For this info, I don’t think Muslim countries will never and ever unite because of this hadith and what we see in the Muslim world recently. It is really very sad to know that _________________________________________________ Brother, this Hadith is not saying that Muslims will never be able to unite as an ummah, but, I think it says their understandings of Islamic religion and the way they want to follow the Quran and the Sunnah will be different. Therefore, one of these groups will enter the Jannah. By the way, it is possible Muslims to hold the rope of Allah together without looking back their diversity and face their enemy as a one.

Most of the time, we hear that Islam is the religion of backwardness and it needs to be moderated in order to find its way and be compatible in the 21st century. Muslims all over the world have failed in anyway to prove and show that Islam can be adopted in any century whether we live 7th century or this moderate world. As we all know it is easy to hear from people (disbelievers and even some so called Muslims) who claim that Islam needs to be renovated. This is not something new or something that makes us surprise because there are some reasons behind their claim and rumors- 1) Muslims are the least developed countries in the world, 2) The lack of modern technologies and freedom of speech are the key points of their idle speculation against Islam and its society. So, who is the responsible of these problems we have at the moment? What is the difference between a moderate Muslim and a normal Muslim? And should Muslims need to moderate themselves or Islam itself needs to be reformed?

First of all,you asked a good question. Second thing, there is nothing simple or easy when it comes to Islamic questions and one must not use such words. _______________________________________________ To answer your question, Islam is not against any method of contraception that prevents the conception of a child, but it is against destroying a fetus once it has life. During the life of our prophet a man come to him and said that he withdrawal from his wife during intercourse. The prophet did not tell the man to refrain what he was doing. So, if you don’t want to have many kids or want to give some intervals between your kids or some health problems, you can simply follow that method or use condom, if you find it safe and can satisfy your needs. Walahu Aclam