The Universal Digital Library: A Platform that Makes Digital Piracy Unnecessary, Funds Creators, and Makes eBooks, Games and Software Affordable

In my previous essay Why Digital Piracy is Ethical and Necessary I discussed why there are no proper digital libraries: publishers pretend that digital goods cannot be sold. They demand continuous rents for digital products they give to libraries, making things like ebooks costlier (and for more difficult to lend due to various licensing clauses) than printed […]

China’s scientific output per capita compared to Malaysia’s

As part of my series of posts comparing the scientific output per capita of different countries, in this post I will compare Malaysia and China. Malaysia is interesting for being the most industrialized Muslim-majority country in the world. It took China until 2001 to reach Malaysia’s scientific output per capita levels for 1996, meaning that […]

Malaysia and Iran’s scientific growth compared

In the previous posts I compared South Korea’s scientific output per capita with China’s, then with Iran’s. In this post, I will compare Iran and Malaysia, to see how far behind Iran is compared to Malaysia. It took Iran until 2003 to reach the same scientific output level as Malaysia had in 1996, meaning that […]

Why Digital Piracy is Ethical and Necessary

Disclaimer: This is an academic essay on the ethics of digital piracy. It is not a call for breaking the law by pirating. Some jurisdictions punish piracy severely, therefore the risk is entirely your own if you choose to break the law by pirating content. For my proposal for a digital library that makes piracy […]

Malaysia has overtaken Japan in scientific research output per capita

Below is the graph from my previous post where I discovered that Malaysia has been producing more scientific research per citizen than Japan since 2016. This is very interesting because Malaysia is a Muslim-majority country. Japan has stagnated since 2006 due to its aging population and stagnant economy while Malaysia, thanks to having a sustainable […]

South Korea and Malaysia’s scientific output growth compared

As part of my series of posts comparing the scientific output per capita of different countries, in this post I will compare South Korea and Malaysia. This is an interesting comparison because South Korea is one of the most recently industrialized parts of Asia, while Malaysia is the most industrialized Muslim-majority country in the world. […]

IslamQA: Taking pills to prevent pregnancy without telling the husband

Hi, is it wrong if I take pills to prevent pregnancy without telling my husband? I’ve been married for almost 6 months now and he did not take any prevention bcs he wants it to happen naturally. He said that he’ll be happy if we can have kids and can wait for Allah rizq whenever […]

IslamQA: Can one read or listen to Quran online without wudu?

Do we have to get ba-wudu even if we reciting or listening Quran online? There seems to be general agreement that qira’ah (reading/listening to/reciting aloud the Quran) can be done without wudu. The only thing that most agree should not be done without wudu is touching a book of Quran (i.e. a mushaf) (however, the highly respected […]

IslamQA: Can a woman take off the hijab for an online suitor?

Salam alaikum. Brother, what are your thoughts on a man who found a woman in an online dating site, whom wants to get to know of her, felt good connection after few conversations because they have lots in common, but asks her to take off her hijab before any agreements for marriage? He didn’t force […]

The Ultimate Programming Crash Course (Learn with JavaScript)

Master the Basics of Coding in Under Two Hours in Interactive Steps and Visual Examples Methods for using this guide: View the online version on this page (scroll down) Download a free PDF version Download a free Mobi version (for e-readers and ebook-reading apps, zipped) Buy the Kindle version on Amazon Buy the paperback version […]

IslamQA: What to do if all the negative coverage of Islam and online Islam-bashing affects you

I’m from India and I see a lot of negativity towards Islam and it saddens me very much. Filthy comments made about Islam and people who practice Islam. I usually do not indulge in such arguments/comments because there is no point but it effects me. Please help Jazakallah khair That is a promise of the […]

How to get a demo of the OneDrive File Picker JavaScript SDK to work on a local development server

After getting the Google Drive file picker working on the page of a project I’m working on within just a few hours, I was faced with the task of getting the OneDrive JavaScript Picker to work, which I almost abandoned because of Microsoft’s brain-dead documentation. After hours of watching Microsoft videos and piecing together documentation, […]

Why the Banks are So Powerful and Why the Bible and the Quran Forbid Usury: Charting How Interest Creates Obscene Wealth Inequality

Imagine if in 1913 the real economy of the US had $100 billion in capital, while the banks and money-lenders had only $1 billion. Given everyday economic circumstances, by 2017, the wealth of the real economy would have grown to $2163 billion (with a 3% economic growth rate). Meanwhile, the wealth of the banks and […]

Probablistic Hadith Verification: Combining the Science of Hadith with Legal Theory

A Quick Preview Let us say we are faced with two hypothetical authentic (i.e. ṣaḥīḥ) hadiths from a respected collection such as Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, with the following chain diagrams, and we are trying to decide which hadith is stronger and better attested. The first hadith below has four transmitters (the four on the right), all […]

The Muslim Plan for Western Civilization: There is No Plan

Do Muslims hope to establish a World Caliphate? It is undeniable that some Muslims, including religious scholars, look forward to one day there existing a new Islamic empire that represents “true” Islam and that brings back the glory of the olden days. As is usual with fantasy-land Islam, the thinking is top-down, the caliphate has […]

Indonesia’s unlocked scientific potential?

The Scimago Journal & Country Rank is one of the things I look forward to most to seeing every year. The rankings show each country’s scientific output, a very important measure of a country’s present level of development and its speed of development. The biggest surprise in the 2017 rankings was from Indonesia, whose cited paper […]

The Dark Side of Swearing: The Philosophical Reason Why Using Profanity is Wrong

A philosophical investigation of why using various forms of profanity is dangerous and harmful in the long-term. Included is a discussion of why using the word “sexy” casually is wrong. The line “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” from the 1939 film Gone with the Wind was one of the most shocking examples of profanity that had been shown on screen up to that time […]

IslamQA: What happened to Islamic civilization? Why did Muslims fall behind in science and technology?

I wanted your in depth opinion on a particular observation. Muslims, historically speaking, have been responsible for hundreds and thousands of scientific discoveries. What happened to us? Why are we in the stage we are? Only 100 years ago, which is just a little more than one human lifetime, the Ottoman Empire was a sovereign […]

IslamQA: Why is sexual harassment of women common in Muslim countries? IQ and development, not religion

What I have noticed is that in Muslim countries in which there are more modest woman I get more catcalls, harassment, men following me, staring at my body parts etc. I’m not saying I’m for zina, but it feels unfair that they take out their sexual frustration on us. Maybe you’re not able to relate […]

Forecasting the World’s Top 50 Most Powerful Countries in 2035 Using the HQI

The following table is a list of 50 countries that are predicted to have the most economic, technological and military power in the world by the year 2035, according to HQI theory. The projected power of the United States is set to 100 to make it easy to compare other countries with it. China’s projected […]

A Biography of Ahmad Moftizadeh

Kak Ahmadi Muftizada: Darwazayak bo Xabateki Nanasraw (کاک ئەحمەدی موفتیزادە: دەروازەیەک بۆ خەباتێکی نەناسراو, Ahmad Moftizadeh: A Gateway to an Unknown Struggle) is a 394-page Kurdish biography of the great Iranian Kurdish leader Ahmad Moftizadeh written by Sarwat Abdullah, apparently published in 2010. I have been reading all available materials on Ahmad Moftizadeh, since he is […]

A Hadith Scholar Presents New Evidence that Aisha was Near 18 the Day of Her Marriage to the Prophet Muhammad

The age of Aisha bint Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with her and her father, at the time of her marriage to the Prophet Muhammad PBUH is one of the thorny issues in modern Islam, used as one of the main talking points against Islam by Islam’s detractors. How could God’s Prophet, a widower […]

The Closing of the Muslim Mind and the Decline of Islamic Civilization

A response to Robert R. Reilly’s book The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis. Last I year I published then took down an early version of this essay. This is the updated version (also published as chapter 3 of my book An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Understanding Islam […]

Professor Abu Zahra: The Egyptian Islamic Scholar who Rejected the Punishment of Stoning

Muhammad Abu Zahra was one of the foremost authorities on Islamic law in the 20th century, whose works on the various schools of Islamic law continue to be used in academia. He was a member of Al-Azhar University’s Academy of Islamic Research and a professor of Islamic law at Cairo University. He was loved by […]

How lenders contribute to decreasing native populations in industrialized nations: Housing prices, wages, interest and low fertility rates

The following chart from a BBC article (archived link) shows how home prices in the UK increased much faster than wages between 1975 and 2005. If you ask “Why are wages not increasing fast as home prices?” you are asking the wrong question. What we are seeing above is a literal land grab enabled by […]

IslamQA: Understanding Islam’s Sophisticated Approach to Slavery: Why Muslims Practiced Slavery in the Past, and Why They Reject it Today

Below are my preliminary thoughts on why Islam’s tolerance for slavery is not necessary unethical. It may sound like nothing but empty apologetics to defend Islam’s toleration of slavery and say that Islam’s goal was to abolish it, when Islam’s Prophet ﷺ and his companions all practiced it widely. And generally this is what much of […]

IslamQA: Determining start of fajr prayer in the UK

I’ve recently started to pray but I’m having difficulties with fajr and the timing. I’m from the uk and at my local mosque fajr start time is 3.05am but dawn is at 4.07am will my prayer be accepted or have I been praying too early There are multiple definitions of “dawn”. You have probably looked at […]

Why People Dislike Middleman Minorities: A Fix for Thomas Sowell’s Blind Spot

On most days of Ramadan, fasting makes it impossible for me to do my usual programming and writing work. For this reason I spent most of the daytime hours of this Ramadan reading books, finishing over 20 books (mainly audiobooks). For years I have been aware of Thomas Sowell as perhaps the greatest living African […]

Is Islam really pluralistic? An Islamic defense of pluralism

If Islamic teachings can be used to defend pluralism, that tells us something very important about the future of Islam. My views are not unique; they are similar to those of the great twentieth century Egyptian scholar Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh Drāz (1894 – 1958 CE), who defended a similar vision in many of his articles and […]

Islam, the Good Parts: Guaranteed Basic Income for Women

One thing that is rarely mentioned when speaking about Islam, even among Muslims, is that Muslim women don’t have to work. They can work if they want to, but they don’t have to if they don’t want to. Islam makes it the duty of a woman’s male relatives to take care of her financially. Men have to […]

IslamQA: Are virtual credit cards halal?

Salaam. I was planning to create a PayPal account, but I’m unemployed, have no credit card, and thought of creating a VCC or Virtual Credit Card to get a full access to PayPal and to make overseas online payment or transfer. Unfortunately, the VCC service asks their users to take up 1,9% to 4,5% from […]

Measuring Economic and Military Potentials of World Nations with the Human Genetic-Cultural Quality Index (HQI)

Introduction What is the biggest predictor of a country’s scientific output, industrial capacity and military prowess? It is not geographic size. For instance, Kazakhstan and Mongolia are huge compared to Israel and Switzerland, yet Israel and Switzerland far outdistance them in all measures of intellectual, technological and military attainment. It is not population. India’s 1.28 […]

An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims

Free download (PDF) Free download (Mobi) (for e-readers and ebook reading apps) Buy as a paperback on Amazon.com Buy as a Kindle ebook on Amazon.com My new book An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims is now available on Amazon.com. This book grew out of a review of Shahab Ahmed’s wonderful What is Islam? that […]

My Chronic Fatigue Treatment Program

[August 28, 2017 Update: I have unpublished this book as the program, which seemed to work well for many months, has stopped working reliably. As I’m not certain of the value of the information presented in it, for now I will keep the book unpublished.] In this essay I will summarize the treatment program I […]

A guide to using PHP to download Google Drive files selected by users in the Google Drive Picker

Let’s say you’ve managed to get the Google Drive JavaScript Picker API to work, and have also managed to coerce your users into logging into the Picker and selecting one of their files: And you have verified that the onSelect function works properly: function initGoogleDrivePicker() { var picker = new FilePicker({ apiKey: api_key, clientId: client_id, […]

[Book Review] Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane by S. Frederick Starr

Lost Enlightenment is a highly readable overview of the history of the Persian-speaking cities of Central Asia, an area that gave Islamic civilization the majority of its great philosophers and thinkers (Jabir ibn Hayyan, al-Khwarizmi, al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Biruni, al-Ghazali)  and many of its great scholars (such as the creators of five of the six “canonical” hadith […]

The Qur’an (Oxford World’s Classics) by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem

The Qur’an by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem is one of the best translations of the Quran available in English. With its many clarifying footnotes, the book is especially helpful to people new to the study of the Quran.

Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy [Short Book Review]

Professor Jonathan Brown’s Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy is one of the best English-language books about Islam written by a Muslim (he converted to Islam in 1997). While the book’s focus is on the issues surrounding the authenticity and interpretation of hadith, it provides a good general history of the development of […]

In the Footsteps of the Prophet by Tariq Ramadan

In the Footsteps of the Prophet is a long-needed biography of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that focuses on his character, manners and experience, rather than merely narrating dates and facts. Many classical Islamic books are somewhat out-of-touch for modern readers, so that while they may have been satisfactory to their original (often Middle Eastern) readers, when […]

Japan, South Korea and China’s scientific research output compared

As part of my series of posts comparing the scientific output per capita of different countries, in this post I will compare Japan, South Korea and China’s scientific output per capita, meaning the number of scientific research papers published per million citizens by each country. In the late 1990’s South Korea was going through industrialization […]

IslamQA: The appropriate way to approach and propose to a Muslim woman

Salam, A man with good intentions and a clean heart, finds a young lady attractive and has heard very pleasant things about her. Mashallah, she is gorgeous and after getting to know her, he is very sure about the decision of inshallah making her his wife. Pure intentions, clean heart, no ill means wallah. However, […]

IslamQA: The morality and immorality of sexual fantasies

Sexual fantasies is not the same thing as having a “wet dream” where you are literally asleep and can’t control your dreams. To fantasise means your are leading your thoughts to imagine and visualise and thus stimulate yourself. To entertain such thinking is not moral and thus not normal or healthy. Instead of answering hormones […]

The Philosophy of Pornography and Masturbation

Why is it wrong to watch pornography? Even if a person is not religious, they will still feel guilt and shame about a porn-watching habit. Where does this come from? Even the most free-thinking and atheistic person will have reservations about watching pornography with their family, even if everyone in the family is an adult. […]

The 12-Year Min-Max Average: A Simple Method for Calculating Real, Legitimate Economic Growth and Canceling Out Central Bank Manipulations and other Noise

Introduction Real economic growth is different from the increase in GDP that comes from monetary expansion. The 12-year min-max method that I have come up with is a way of calculating a country’s GDP growth rate over a 12-year period that aims to cancel out “fake” growth caused by monetary expansion and boom-bust cycles by […]

IslamQA: Islam and downloading cracked software (piracy)

Assalamu alaikum. What is the rule for using a free-downloaded software from the internet? Do we have to buy the original software from the publisher so that we don’t violate the copyright? Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, I have seen no intelligent juristic voice on digital piracy, so I decided to do my own research on the […]

IslamQA: The Islamic View of Sex Education and Adolescent Exposure to Sexual Scenes in Novels and Films

My child loves to read books. Some of the books she wants to read mention sex. She is 13 years old and I don’t know when to allow her to read those books or even when to tell her about sex. I need help with this. Thank you! When a child reaches puberty (and I […]

IslamQA: Is it permissible to draw and paint in Islam?

I read your essay on the permissibility of drawing but I’m still a little confused. Is it okay to draw (animals, people etc) as long as you don’t put it up on walls? As to show it off/be proud/or idolise it? – and how can this be connected to social media, drawings should not be […]

The 1599 Geneva Bible Notes or Study Bible (Downloadable eBook Versions)

Download links: PDF – Word – ePub – Mobi (kindle) The text was sourced from Sacred Texts. It uses modern spelling and the quoted verses are apparently from the KJV (only the notes come from a Geneva commentary). Michael Hoffman, in his Usury in Christendom: A Mortal Sin that Was and Now is Not, made a reference to the 1599 Geneva Bible Notes as a […]

IslamQA: How to begin practicing Islam

Hello. I write to you because I don’t know what else to do. I come from a Christian family, in a very much Christian country where Islam is never regarded, not even discussed or insulted. Just ignored. Yes, people know about it but when I speak about my love for the Quran or my wishes […]

The Sayings of Ibn al-Jawzi

Selected and Translated by Ikram Hawramani Copyright © 2017 Ikram Hawramani A Brief Primer on Ibn al-Jawzi Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Jawzī (1116 – 1201 CE) was a major historian, hadith scholar, jurist and popular preacher in medieval Baghdad. He is said to have written over a hundred works (some mention as many as […]

Islamic Law and Jurisprudence: Studies in Honor of Farhat J. Ziadeh

Islamic Law and Jurisprudence: Studies in Honor of Farhat J. Ziadeh (published 1990) is a collection of papers written in honor of the Palestinian-American professor Farhat Jacob Ziadeh (1917-2016), founder and first chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington. I bought this book after seeing it cited […]

An Introduction to the Origins of Modern Islamic Terrorism

Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy. —George F Kennan, American Cold War diplomat and father of “Containment Theory” Introduction A […]

IslamQA: OCD is making their practice of Islam difficult

Selam I have a problem I suffer from OCD scrupulosity aspect of it. To be honest my personal relationship to Islam is so messed up I don’t know where to start. With my prayer and wudu I am in constant doubt. I repeat multiple times because i think I passed gas or ect. I find […]

IslamQA: Are savings accounts halal if you give away the interest in charity?

Assalamualaikum, most reputable banks near me gives interest for a savings account, there are 2 Muslim banks but they don’t have the best customer service reviews. I need to open a savings account but I don’t want any Interest attached. A Muslim friend of mine with the same issue opened an account but records the […]

IslamQA: Is it permissible to earn interest to give it away in charity?

Assalamualaikum, most reputable banks near me gives interest for a savings account, there are 2 Muslim banks but they don’t have the best customer service reviews. I need to open a savings account but I don’t want any Interest attached. A Muslim friend of mine with the same issue opened an account but records the […]

IslamQA: On betrayal from a friend

I found a girl in charity shop and I though she is really nice and kind. So we start friendship she used to text me call me all the time. We r like Best friend/sister.I was so happy. I’m a reupholster so she wanted to buy a chair and I told her the price. And […]

IslamQA: Are student loans, mortgages and credit cards haram in the West?

Are student loans haram? what if one is unable to pay for school? are credit cards/mortgages in the West haram? Yes, they are all haram unless a person is unable to avoid them. Ideally a Muslim who is able should avoid all of them. They fall on a spectrum when it comes to how bad […]

A bash script for automatically restarting an unresponsive Apache server only when needed

One of my servers responds to about 100,000 requests per day. Apache would randomly hang a few times a day, taking all of the websites down. I tried every solution I could find online to prevent Apache from hanging, but nothing helped, so I decided to stop wasting time on it and simply develop a […]

IslamQA: She promised Allah not to talk to him then broke her promise

Asalam Walikum, I hope you are doing well. I really really need help 🙁 so i went through a heartbreak with someone i liked and wanted to marry. I made a promise to Allah about it, that ill stop talking to him until he is brought for marriage. He did come back after so many […]

IslamQA: On Islam, Homosexuality and Homosexual Muslims

You don’t have to answer this because its a very complex question but do you think you can be Muslim and gay? And how should we as Muslims feel about gays? How shall we treat them? How do you reconcile Islam (in the sense it is a religion that discourages/disagrees with homosexuality) with homosexuality? Is […]

A new approach to the Quran’s “Wife-Beating Verse” (al-Nisa 4:34)

In this essay, I present a plausible framework in which traditional scholarly interpretations of 4:34 can be considered correct without this becoming support for violence against women. I argue that the error has not been in understanding 4:34 but in scholarly efforts to justify it. There is a new line of justification that has so […]

IslamQA: On thinking that Muslims are ignorant and contribute little to science

Maybe it will sounds so hateful but as a Muslim I think most of the Muslims are ignorant and uneducated,our religion is about love and kindness but most of the Muslims are so hateful,they treats womens bad,they treat animals badly,they have no respect for others,they are judging Christians Jews and Gays,but they don’t do anything […]

IslamQA: On Muslim migrant criminal and uncivilized behavior in the West

Why are Muslim migrants so destructive to whatever nation harbors them? They actually use their faith to justify their criminal behaviour, leeching off the welfare state, and anti-western sentiments. Catholic South America is just as bad but those who do the same don’t justify it with their faith; there’s no crusade mentallity against ‘infidels’ when […]

SSDs became 3.4 times faster in eight years, 15.5 GB/s read speeds by 2030

In November 2010, AnandTech reported about an SSD that was achieving 800 MB/second sequential read speeds: In July 2018, AnandTech reports that 2700 MB/second SSD drives are available: In this period of about 10 years, PCIe SSD speeds increased by a factor of 3.4, at least when it comes to sequential read speeds, which is an […]

The Point of Marriage in Islam (and the Problem with Romantic Relationships Outside of Marriage)

An essay on the question of whether romantic relationships outside of marriage are acceptable in Islam, and if not, why. Why is marriage such a big deal in religiously conservative societies? Why can’t people just enjoy themselves without involving everyone and their mother in their private affairs? Islamic law does not have anything strict to […]

How to: Become wise

If you want to become wise, read 100 books that interest you. The books you choose to read can be about any topic and they can be of any quality, good or bad. The important thing is that you should find them interesting, because the fact that you find a book interesting means it contains […]

IslamQA: Can one take medications when fasting?

hello, i know ramadan is months away but i wanted to ask this before i forget, can we take medication while fasting? without water of course, because i get really bad migraines and i need pills to calm them Taking medications by mouth is not permitted when fasting. You could try taking the medication before […]

Fixing washed out colors in Ubuntu 16.10

How I improved the colors and brightness/contrast and the appearance of fonts on my Ubuntu 16.10 PC monitor After moving to Ubuntu from Windows, one thing that has been constantly annoying me was the washed out/stark colors on my monitor and ugly-looking fonts in Firefox. I have spent hours fiddling with my monitor’s settings, color […]

How to ignore accents and other diacritics in WordPress/MySQL search (Arabic, French, etc.)

On my new Asmaa.org website, which is an Arabic-language baby name resource, I use a simple loop to show the posts in alphabetical order. Each post title is a baby name: $args = array( ‘paged’ => $paged, ‘orderby’=> ‘title’, ‘order’ => ‘ASC’, ‘cat’ => $cat_id); query_posts($args); ?> while ( have_posts() ) : the_post() Since the […]

Islam and Depression: A Survival Guide

Please note that this article is not meant as a replacement for medical help, but as a supplement to it. What does Islam have to offer someone who has been suffering depression for years and sees no end in sight to their suffering? Depression is not sadness and cannot be cured by thinking positively as […]

Intelligence: All That Matters by Stuart Ritchie

IQ and intelligence, as a topic of study in themselves, no longer interest me very much because they are largely a foregone conclusion for me. Long ago I was convinced of the very realness and importance of IQ and of the fact that it is largely a genetically-mediated trait. What interests me these days is […]

The Uniqueness of Western Civilization by Ricardo Duchesne

There are times when you read a book that completely change your understanding of the world, answering questions you have had for most of your life, and even better, answering questions you did not know you had. This is such a book. Duchesne unites economic analysis, anthropology, history and philosophy in order to make a […]

A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani

A History of the Arab Peoples is a great general introduction to the history of the Arab countries and the history of Islam. It was written by the respected British scholar Albert Hourani (of Lebanese Christian descent). While not written by a Muslim, the book’s treatment of Muslims is balanced and fair-minded. This book does not cover […]

The Muslim World on the Eve of Europe’s Expansion by John J. Saunders

The Muslim World on the Eve of Europe’s Expansion (published in 1966), at only 136 pages, is a short and enjoyable history of the Muslim world in the early modern period, with interesting articles on the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires, the Mamlukes, the Uzbeks, Islam in Southeast Asia and Africa, the remnants of the Mongols […]

IslamQA: The biography of Ibn al-Jawzi

Assalamualaikum, I wanted to ask about the biography of ibn al-jawzi. Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, If you Google “Ibn al-Jawzi”, you will find many articles about him. Unfortunately I could not find any comprehensive articles that I could link to. Below is also a lecture on Ibn al-Jawzi that you may find helpful.

IslamQA: On nail polish and ablution

As-salamuʿalaykum, I recently i have come across Dr. Shabir Ally’s thoughts on the nail polish dilemma on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOpxO_ISJQ4). I’m inclined towards his reasoning for it but would like to know your take on his opinion too if possible. Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, I watched the video but unfortunately he did not say anything new on […]

How backward is Russia compared to Europe and the United States and when will it catch up?

Below is a chart of the scientific output productivity of a number of important countries. Scientific output productivity refers to the number of scientific research papers published by a certain country divided by its population. A higher number indicates that the country is more “scientifically productive”, meaning that it is prosperous and advanced enough to […]

IslamQA: What happens if a Muslim girl gets caught with a boyfriend?

If a girl is having a relation with a boy secretly (as a bf and gf) and get caught by her family, then what should be her family’s reaction towards her and if she realized her mistake and apologizes with her true heart? Please tell me about both of these situations According to Islamic point […]

IslamQA: The Quran guarantees religious freedom, so why don’t Muslim scholars believe in it?

I would be very thankful if you could answer me on my following question. In Quran is written: “There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong. So whoever disbelieves in Taghut and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break […]

IslamQA: The hadith that commands to kill homosexuals is a weak hadith

A few years back JAKIM ( Department of Islamic Development Malaysia) circulated a Hadith that said Muslims are obliged to kill homosexuals. Thoughts? That hadith comes through Amr b. Maysara who is considered a weak transmitter by Imam Malik and others. So the hadith is not strong enough to be used in Islamic law. I […]

IslamQA: Answers about Islam and misogyny

Hey assalamu alaikum I’ll forward some messages here from previous conversations with someone who gave me worse explanations Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, I broken up your question to address them individually. there’s something called child support he pays money to support his family not to pay his supposed to be wife I feel worse about myself […]

The incredible growth of science in the Muslim world: The scientific output of Muslim countries in 2017

See the 2018 update: Science in the Islamic world grew at the fastest rate in 2018 The scientific output of Muslim-majority countries has grown tremendously over the past 20 years, measured in the number of scientific and scholarly papers published in international journals. The top scientific publisher is Iran, followed by Turkey, followed by Malaysia: […]

IslamQA: Islam and dealing with PTSD from sexual abuse

Salaam, greetings from Malaysia. I am 21yrs old. I need help. I just feel like i need to let this out before i go crazy and do something i might regret. Not many people know of this but im dealing with PTSD. I was assaulted by my uncles at the age of 5,13 and 16. […]

What the Prophets Teach Us About the Proper Etiquette of Dua (Supplication)

In answer to questions regarding the nature and ideal manner of supplication in Islam The true servant of God is the one who accepts whatever the Creator decrees. If he asks of Him and He answers, he considers that a privilege granted by Him, and if he is denied, he considers that an act of […]

IslamQA: Islam’s theory of free will versus physical determinism: Why humans are responsible for their actions even though God operates the universe

In your essay “God, Evolution and Abiogenesis,” you said an atom has no power to move on its own. It is God who has to move every single thing that moves in this world. Given that, does that mean we don’t have free will? On the atomic level, it is due to the chemical reactions […]

IslamQA: Can we ask God for small things as well as great?

Alslam alikum Sometimes I want to ask ALLAH for something to help me with my studying life or love life but then I remember the people who has more serious issues than mine ,like those who have cancer or those who have lost a child and I feel bad about myself so I don’t ask […]

Why God Allows Evil to Exist, and Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Introduction There is a surprising amount of confusion among the religious, even among clerics and scholars, when it comes to understanding why evil exists and why God stands aside when so much suffering happens throughout the world. Most of us express wonder when we see some horrible catastrophe happen, or when we see evil individuals, […]

IslamQA: Gender dysphoria in Islam

(1) Greetings. I have been following your blog and are fascinated by your wisdom in viewing life through Islamic lenses, but does not fail to be logical. I am a Muslim young woman in her mid-twenties and am thinking to be a transgender, because ever since I was little I sometimes thought myself as a […]

Inconsistencies in the Harry Potter Books

Introduction This page lists all of the errors and inconsistencies I’ve found throughout my many readings of the entire series (I have Stephen Fry’s reading of the books on my phone as an audiobook, to which I sometimes listen when I’m resting or trying to fall asleep). Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone What Object […]

Medieval Female Mystics of Islam

A review of Arezou Azad, “Female Mystics in Mediaeval Islam: The Quiet Legacy.” (Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 56 (2013) 53-88). Andrea Cabrera The article, “Female Mystics in Medieval Islam: the Quiet Legacy” was written by Arezou Azad, who is a Leverhulme Research Officer of the Oriental Studies Faculty at […]

Using PUT to RESTfully upload an image to a server with jQuery AJAX and PHP

When uploading a single image to a known location, for example a user uploading an image to use as their profile image, using a PUT request for the upload makes more sense than POST if you are trying to follow REST principles. I couldn’t find a complete solution online, so the following is what I […]

IslamQA: How to have the motivation to finish things

How do we finish things? Like I usually have a problem of finishing reading a book,after some time I get bored and just stop reading and completely abandoning the book. This also goes for everything else like trying to learn something. Unfortunately your motivation to finish things is strongly influenced by the neurochemical balance in […]

IslamQA: How to learn Quranic Arabic

Assalamualaikum. Do you have any advice for someone who wants to learn Arabic in the Qur’an? I already know how to read the Arabic, but since I want to understand deeply about Qur’an maybe you have learning methods which you can suggest. Jazakallah brother Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, You may be interested in my book Learning Quranic […]

IslamQA: Getting tattoos as a Muslim

Dear Mr.Ikram Hawramani Salam brother, i hope you find the question in good health. I have benefited from some of your blog post and i find that you have a poetic way of explaning things so here i am asking for your advice. To put in perspective i am 19 years old and i have […]

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