By: u/Archiver_test4

• whoever ˹truly˺ believes in Allah (see 2:255)
• and the Last Day (see chapter 107)
• and does good, (see 2:195)

these 3 are the pillars of islam, what every prophet and messenger believed in, from adam to muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)

this is what is directed to all followers of the "millat-e-ibrahim", the followers of abraham.

this includes, muslims, jews, christians and sabians.

there is NO verse in the book of god that lists 5 pillars of islam as follows

• shahada that there is only one God and that Muhammad is his prophet,
• praying,
• fasting,
• charity
• Hajj

its like the garbage books have corrupted minds of people for generations when 5:69 is right infront of everyone.

why not 5 pillars as traditionally decided by scholars from various spread out verses?

well there is an argument.

do pillars come at the start of something or at the end? did adam practice the 3 pillars i mentioned or the 5 pillars in traditional sense?

wasn't prayer supposedly mandated on day of me'raj? what about other prophets, did they give zakat and did hajj and did fasting? or prayed 5 times?

By: u/New-Satisfaction3993

By: u/LogicalAwareness9361

Or can it just be any sane adult?

By: u/LogicalAwareness9361

The salafis, sunnis, Shias, ahmaddiyahs, the Quranists.

The Quran argues against using the Quran to fit your nafs and desires but arguably every single person is somewhat biased based on their upbringing, own moral code etc - so who’s to say what is based on their own nafs and what is truly the Qurans message?

The salafis argue that progressives use their nafs, the progressives say it’s the salafis. The sunnis say it’s Shias, the Shias say it’s Sunnis.

So how do we know?

Note: I’m speaking in broad terms only for simplicity - I know not every member of these groups truly believe every other is corrupt etc

By: u/Obvious-Tailor-7356

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6051019/I-breathe-Im-itchy-properly-Liz-Jones-describes-week-wearing-burka.html

In the modern day, you might find a lot of discussions around 'Fiqh' online. The term is used to denote legalistic rulings based on islam, but historically and quranically, this is not what Fiqh meant, this is a historical phenomenon that departs from the true meaning of the word and how the early muslims understood it, and not rectifying this misconception can be a major cause for over emphasizing legal rulings in Islam, something that is neither encouraged scripturally, nor historically by early muslims.

How the quran and hadith use the word 'fiqh'

The Quran

Fiqh is explicitly is 20 times in the quran, none of which denote 'legal jurisprudence' but 3 main verses prove this point the best in my opinion. (Mustafa Khattab translation used)

Case 1

O Prophet! Motivate the believers to fight. If there are twenty steadfast among you, they will overcome two hundred. And if there are one hundred of you, they will overcome one thousand of the disbelievers, for they are a people who do not comprehend. (la yafqahūn)

8:65

Surah al-anfal is about the battle of badr. The word is obviously used as a critique against the Quraysh who violently opposed the early muslims, not just having wrong legal opinions.

Case 2

'However,' it is not necessary for the believers to march forth all at once. Only a party from each group should march forth, leaving the rest to gain religious knowledge (li-yatafaqqahū fī al-dīn) then enlighten their people when they return to them, so that they "too' may beware 'of evil

9:122

The context of the verse emphasis that gaining religious knowledge is as important as protecting muslims from harm. This would include understanding the practical elements of islam as a part of it, sure, but unless one claims that fiqhi questions that are often trivial like "Is it halal to marry an Al chatbot" as important as protecting muslims from harm, it would be a stretch to say this refers to Fiqh as legal concept the way many muslims today understand it. There is just no evidence in this verse that supports the legalistic understanding of Figh.

Case 3

The seven heavens, the earth, and all those in them glorify Him. There is not a single thing that does not glorify His praises-but you 'simply' cannot comprehend (tafqahūna) their glorification. He is indeed Most Forbearing, All-Forgiving.

17:44

Its abunduntly clear the quran here is using fiqh as a deep understanding of the universe and of gods nature, not legal rulings.

The Hadith

There are tons of hadith that mention the word, but they mainly use it the same way the quran does. For brevity i wont bring it up but ill bring up one that very clearly showcases fiqh is not a legal concept:

*"Whomever Allah wants good for, He gives him deep understanding (figh) in religion."

[Şahīh al-Bukhārī 71; Şahīh Muslim 1037]*

To me its clear that this hadith implies a deep spiritual understanding of islam is a great reward, not a deep understanding of islamic legalistic jurisprudence. Why would a deep reward be me understanding if nail polish invalidates wudu or the exact length of cloth that makes something too revealing? The former view is far more compatible with how the quran understands the word 'fiqh', the latter departs from this view.

How 'Fiqh' became a legal term

It can be tricky to explain this topic with brevity, and i prefer not to risk oversimplifying islamic history just for the sake of simplicity. I recommend watching Maulana Wahiddudan Khan's video on this topic if you are interested in more detail. The really short story is "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.", and if you're a scholar who specializes in understanding islam legally, then you will do precisely that with islamic scripture.

Conclusion

To share opinion of Al-Ghazali:

Indeed those who immerse themselves excessively in legal subtleties have gone astray; they continue digging into details like a fire consuming knowledge that does not benefit their character, nor does their knowledge benefit them... The scholars went astray by training themselves in subsidiary details and forgot about their proper scale; it is as if they have abandoned the essential mission in favor of minutiae...

Ihya Ulum al-Din.

Its clear that the use of the word Figh is a misunderstanding of what figh truly means. There is hardly any basis for an obsession with legalism that we see present today. God of course wants us to follow islam clearly, but to imply that god demands strict adherance to a legalistic system just lacks any basis, and is a later development. He wants us to develop a deep understanding of the spiritual message of the religion, not an obsession with law.

I highly recommend checking out Maulana Khan's video that i linked earlier. He was the main source of my writing and he goes into great detail on how figh historically came to be the way it is.

(Side note, making effort posts here again feels really weird since i havent done it in like over a year and i never really expected to come back. Hoping ill get back into a rhythm again.)

By: u/Dizzy-Bee-5737

Whenever there's a post by a Muslim person that shows even a bit of empathy towards Igbtq people, I find comments like this all the time.

I don't understand why people are so hostile towards Igbtq people?

Even if they think it is a sin, aren't we all sinners in some ways?

Mocking, insulting, saying things like 'You can't be gay and Muslim'

'Read lot's people's story, they got destroyed cause they were gay' 'lot's wife got destroyed cause she was an ally' and what not...

and if someone says something against these comments people start calling them kafir. I'm tired of such people.

Why can't they just mind their own business and let other people be.

By: u/Tenatlas _2004

Anti-muslim sentiments seem to be on the rise in most of the western world for the US to Russia.

As a muslim from a muslim country looking from the outside, it seems threats against muslims are rising, and I pray that fellow western muslims are protected from it.

But it made me wonder if there was a non-muslim country where this wasn't the case?

Where is it the safest to be openly muslim?

By: u/Phagocyte_Nelson

We all have to work for a living. I'm guessing that my job is just as stressful as everybody else's job. And sometimes, the stress of work makes it hard for us to focus on our deen. The dunya is literally taking our time away us, keeps us away from our family and friends, and keeps us away from our prayer mats.

Gosh somedays I wish I could just stop working for a just a second to pray Zuhr or Asr; if not for my own sanity, then for the sake of Allah, the Worshipped One.

One of the lessons of the Prophet (saw) that gives me the most peace comes from the community of Medina. The Prophet taught his companions that to work was worship. At the time, many of the Muslims had just fled their homes in Mecca; many of them didn't even have a home in Mecca, they were homeless on the streets. They suffered persecution for their beliefs and way of life, and then Allah gave them relief by establishing their community in Medina, through the deeds of the Prophet.

One of the first things that the Prophet ordered his companions to do is to build the Kuba Mosque in Medina. By building a community center in the form of the masjid, the Sahaba had a shared space to eat, sleep, and worship. The Prophet himself helped in construction. Many of the Sahaba were shocked to see a man like the Prophet Muhammad (saw) do dirty hard-labor. The Prophet was humble (both in money and character), and he himself had to work many different trades throughout his life.

The Prophet taught us what is halal income and what is haram income. Halal income are jobs that benefit society, such as farming and construction work. Haram income are jobs that leech off of society, such as gambling and usury. Usury was especially frowned upon, and unfortunately we live an epoch where usury dominates our economy. We live in a world where corporations generate profits because they pay their employees less than the monetary value of their work. The Prophet taught that it is a sin to pay someone less than their work was valued.

Personally, I work for Amazon as a delivery driver. I know for a fact that my boss (Jeff Bezos) is one of the richest and most powerful men in the world, and he is in that position because of employees like me. Some may say that it is hard to run a company as large as Amazon and so his wealth is justly earned. But the bottomline is that Bezos's financial income is haram. It is possible for a people to work hard for haram income, but it is still haram nonetheless. May God spare us from hellfire.

Since we are working for most of the hours of the day, we should be more mindful about how we can worship on the clock. Personally, I do dhikr while I'm driving around in my Amazon van. I also time my breaks so that I may pray Zuhr and Asr. On some days when the workload is too much and I can't take a break, I combine my prayers as prescribed by the Maliki school.

We have to be creative when it comes to incorporating worship into work. Imagine all the good deeds that are added to your record when you combine your remembrance of Allah with your time of the clock. This is surely how the Sahaba approached it, they would recite dhikr while plowing the fields; the adhan became their lunch break (mashallah).

Let's reflect on the role that our job plays in society; what good deeds to we manifest while we do our job. Are you a mechanic or a doctor? Then mashallah your job is a blessing onto others. Perhaps your job helps facilitate blessings in society. Do you work at or own a grocery store? Then mashallah you provide rizq and satisfy the needs of the community. If you work at a desk or remote, then you are still creating blessings through your computer. I personally dont mind that Jeff Bezos is my employer, because regardless i become a source of blessings for people waiting on their package. May Allah help me deliver these packages in a timely and disciplined manner.

By: u/evilgenius

I am seeking to verify the claim that Prophet Muhammad is the Greatest Prophet.

I am interested in knowing where this is stated in the Quran, and if the claim originates from Hadith collections.

I would also like to know the relevant references.

Salam ~

By: u/AngryCanadienne

Disclosure: I am not religious anything (would say that I am agnostic Deist); just trying to understand various perspectives hence why I am posting this everywhere.

I get the defence of free will when it comes to the problem of evil. A lot of evil like war, genocide, poverty, rape, mass murder, etc exist because of the existence of evil people and the idea being that God will ensure that justice is done in the after life.

However I do not understand evil such as disabilities, both phyisical and mental. Not like "got hit by a drunk driver" or "age makes the body frail" but thinks like down syndrome, low functioning autism, rheumatoid artheritis, MLS, etc.

Why would God intentionally add extra suffering to some people? Is that person justified in hating God for it? Please help me understand

By: u/ThisGuyThisGuy11

I dont get it, What's the reasoning behind this? You're forcing women to wear it, and punish them if they dont? Would this make them closer to Islam? Or maybe I'm the weird one here for thinking forcing women to wear hijab is wrong

One says extremist.

One says un-Islamic.

u/LogicalAwareness9361

I’ve seen a lot of people say that dressing modestly (abaya and hijab) is actually a lot cooler during the summertime, but that’s just not true for my personal experience or friends that I know.

Wearing hijab during the summertime (and I’m only in Canada - can’t imagine a warmer climate) was SO unbearably hard I always felt like I was suffocating and about to pass out.

I had friends who refused to leave the house because of how uncomfortable it was.

At what point do we accept that Allah didn’t intend for intense hardship on women?

A common sentiment of encouragement from other Muslims was usually “well if you can’t handle this heat, how could you handle the hellfire?”

And I just can’t understand that. I do understand that this life is a test and we should struggle and strive for goodness but at what point does it stop being a struggle / striving and start just being torturous ?

And the fact this made it to the front pages of Reddit...

I don't know why these so called Muslims think it's halal and doing a favor to Allah by killing their daughters.

By: u/ImpossibleContact218

By: u/Taffles57

Verses 4:11–12 explain Islamic inheritance laws:

“Allah commands you regarding your children: the share of the male will be twice that of the female. If you leave only two ˹or more˺ females, their share is two-thirds of the estate. But if there is only one female, her share will be one-half. Each parent is entitled to one-sixth if you leave offspring. But if you are childless and your parents are the only heirs, then your mother will receive one-third. But if you leave siblings, then your mother will receive one-sixth—after the fulfilment of bequests and debts. ˹Be fair to˺ your parents and children, as you do not ˹fully˺ know who is more beneficial to you. ˹This is˺ an obligation from Allah. Surely Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.

You will inherit half of what your wives leave if they are childless. But if they have children, then ˹your share is˺ one-fourth of the estate—after the fulfilment of bequests and debts. And your wives will inherit one-fourth of what you leave if you are childless. But if you have children, then your wives will receive one-eighth of your estate—after the fulfilment of bequests and debts. And if a man or a woman leaves neither parents nor children but only a brother or a sister ˹from their mother’s side˺, they will each inherit one-sixth, but if they are more than one, they ˹all˺ will share one-third of the estate—after the fulfilment of bequests and debts without harm ˹to the heirs˺. ˹This is˺ a commandment from Allah. And Allah is All-Knowing, Most Forbearing.”

My concern is the following:

In the case of a man dying, leaving two or more daughters, a mother, a father and a wife, the verses denote that the man’s estate is divided like this:

• 2/3 for the daughters

• 2/6 for the parents

• 1/8 for the wife

2/3 + 2/6 + 1/8 = 9/8; 112.5% of the man’s estate; impossible.

Some translations say “…your wives will receive one-eighth of what you leave…” which might mean one-eight after all other inheritance is paid. And one-eight of nothing is nothing, getting rid of the mathematical error. But I don’t know I don’t speak Arabic so I don’t know if that’s what it’s really saying, and why would the wives only get an eight of what little money is left? That doesn’t really seem fair.

And scholars have devised a system to proportionally lower the inheritance, given something like this happens.

Someone explain this please…

(edit: I could be wrong about the scholar thing, feel free to correct me, I just wanna learn)