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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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: Muslims may use “God” instead of “Allah”, and why most converts to Islam should keep their pre-Islam names

They say in our doctrine that the word “God” is way different than “Allah”, and shouldn’t be said as long as the Kuffar use it. We as Muslims differ from what they came with.. Similar to what happened when Adan was first confirmed. What’s your take on that? The Saudi scholar Ibn Uthaymeen says there […]

Learn Quranic Arabic

This page contains the full text of Learning Quranic Arabic for Complete Beginners by Ikram Hawramani. You can get this book on Amazon.com as a paperback and Kindle ebook. Learning Quranic Arabic for Complete Beginners ✽ A Step by Step Self-Teaching Guide to the Arabic Language of the Quran Ikram Hawramani 2019StewardsPublishing STEWARDS PUBLISHING Copyright © 2019 Ikram Hawramani First […]

IslamQA: Is it permissible to use a credit card to build credit?

Salam, I’m a 19 year old canadian and a few days ago I was kind of pressured into getting a credit card. He said I’ll have to start building my credit for my life ahead, mentioning not being able to rent or get housing without a credit score among other things. Since he mentioned that, […]

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 […]

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, […]

IslamQA: Can Muslims use utensils in which pork or alcohol were cooked or stored?

If a non muslim cooks pork or anything that has alcohol using our kitchen utensils such as pan, can we muslim still use it or do we have to throw it away? It’s sufficient to wash it thoroughly, then you can use it like any other utensil. Reference: Fatwa from the Qatari Fatwa Authority (Arabic PDF)

IslamQA: Why do Muslims use Jewish names?

Salaam,my mom said after she gave birth to me she named me “Yakup” after that she said she fall asleep and she saw a dream,she said “I was in water and there was a lot of people in the water with her too,water was so clean and then everybody told me” Look that’s prophet Yakup” […]

IslamQA: Is it permissible to use the name “Wahhab” without “Abdul”?

Asalamalaikum It is permissible to use Wahab/Wahhab name without Abdul or a similar prefix. According to a fatwa by the website IslamOnline (which is overseen by the respected scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi), using the name Wahhab without “Abdul” is not permissible because it is specific to God. The fatwa refers to the opinion of Ibn Qayyim […]

IslamQA: Is it permitted to use interest to save for marriage or college?

Salam! We have been going through hard circumstances since I’m born. It has always been hard for us to meet our ends. My mum has saved some amount of money for my marriage now, she wants to fixed deposit it in the bank. So that until I get married she can afford my brother’s university […]

IslamQA: Is it permitted to use the student loan interest deduction?

salamu alaykom, i know that student loans are haram but i have one that I’m paying off from when I didn’t really know it wasn’t okay. my question; on taxes in the U.S. you can put down the interest you paid on student loans as a deductible on your tax return filing and get some […]

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 […]

The Philosophical Reason why Homosexual Relationships are “Wrong”

Some preliminary thoughts on homosexuality that uses the Western philosophy of personhood to argue that homosexual relationships are morally wrong. Although homosexual desires can be natural and blameless, acting on them is harmful. In this essay, I will argue that among the elite and highly-educated, we can have “proper” male homosexual relationships between two men […]

The Sayings of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah

Selected and Translated by Ikram Hawramani Copyright © 2017 Ikram Hawramani Hawramani.com All Rights Reserved A Brief Primer on Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah Ibn al-Qayyim[1] was born in Damascus on January 28th of the year 1292 CE, equivalent to the seventh of Ṣafar of the year 691 AH. His full name is Abū ʿAbd-Allah Shams al-Dīn […]

A guide to adding Google Drive (and OneDrive) upload functionality to Froala

Froala is a great JavaScript editor until you try to extend its functionality. Its documentation is horrible and there is little extra functionality you can add without having to do a lot of reverse-engineering and reading of GitHub comments. Below is a guide to my solution for adding a Google Drive button to the Froala […]

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 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 […]

Is ruqya part of Islam? A study of the hadiths on ruqya using probability theory

There are numerous narrations that mention ruqya (the use of certain words, prayers or Quran recitations as charms or spells to heal or protect a person). I decided to to conduct a search of all major hadith collections and some minor ones to find all the hadiths that mention ruqya in order to find out […]

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 […]

Using jQuery and JSON to recover from a failed TablePress save

I was happily working away on my 700+ row table in TablePress, saving occasionally. Server issues came up and I was prevented from saving for a few hours. Eventually the server was back up again and I wanted to save, but I ran into the dreaded Ajax save failure message. Even using shift+save did not […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

IslamQA: Should Muslims boycott the Hajj because of Saudi repression and war crimes?

I’ve read that when we do hajj we are financially supporting the Saudi government to oppress people in it’s country and also to kill people in Yemen. Is it true that they use hajj revenue for bad stuff? I doubt there is a major country in the world that does not kill innocent people whenever […]

Import and play your own audiobooks on the Amazon Fire Phone

[Update: I now recommend using these steps to install the Google Play Store (which does not “root” the device and does not cause any permanent changes), then buying the highly rated Listen Audiobook Player (which has up to 3x playback speed with pitch correction and a slider that shows your place in the book and […]

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 […]

Mysticism without Sufism: A Guide to Tahajjud, Islam’s Meditation Practice

What does mainstream Islam offer to someone who wants a deep, meaningful and permanent connection with God? When it comes to Islamic mysticism, Sufism is often treated as its main and perhaps even only outlet. But the truth is that it is quite possible to have deep, mystical practice as a Muslim without going through […]

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 Quranic Phenomenology of Atheism

It is common in religious thought to dismiss atheists as obstinate wrongdoers who reject religion out of a combination of irrationality, egotism and their preference for their base desires. But if we appreciate the great honor and dignity that God bestowed on all of humanity (the angels bowed down to us), we should perhaps be […]

Believing Women in Islam (2019) by Asma Barlas and David Raeburn Finn

Believing Women in Islam: A Brief Introduction by Asma Barlas and David Raeburn Finn is a short book that attempts to present the main ideas of Barlas’s longer work “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Quran. First, I should mention that I believe that any self-respecting and civilized man should demand that his female mate […]

IslamQA: The Islamic ruling on dyeing hair (for men and women)

Summary: Dyeing the hair is permitted in Islam as long as pure black is avoided. Dark shades are permitted. Beginning of translated fatwa from IslamOnline Question: Is it permissible for a man to dye his hair when it becomes gray? What about a woman? It mentioned in a hadith of the Prophet PBUH [that he […]

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 […]

A Traditionalist Critique of the Islamic Prohibition on Taṣwīr (Making Drawings and Statues of Humans and Animals)

To many Muslims today, it will sound patently absurd if someone were to tell them that it is a mortal sin for them to draw a cat. But some religious scholars would tell you that drawing a cat is an act of taṣwīr (the depiction of living things in paintings, sculptures and elsewhere), a sin for which […]

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 […]

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 […]

Reconciling Islam and Darwinian Evolution: Al-Ghazali’s Matrix and the Divine Template

Introduction (Download this essay as a PDF) This essay demonstrates the relationship between Islam and science/rationality through my effort to reconcile Darwinian evolution with the Quran. I am as much a “Darwinian” as any evolutionary biologist and as much a believer in the literal meaning of the Quran as any conservative Muslim. By showing how […]

On the evolution of language

Languages evolve or devolve until they reach the state of minimum energy consumption necessary for its speakers to conduct their affairs. Low IQ descendants of speakers of English will quickly lose most of their vocabulary and complex grammatical structures if they end up on an isolated island for generations. While the complexity of the language […]

IslamQA: Why I don’t believe in the Mahdi

Salamu alaikum. Is the story about The End of Times true, like the Imam Mahdi, the descend of Prophet Isa (alaihi as-salam), the Ya’juj & Ma’juj, Daabbatul Ardh, etc? Are these all in an authentic hadith? Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, I don’t believe in the Mahdi due to the lack of strong evidence in support of […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

IslamQA: What types of insurance can Muslims get?

Salaam. I wonder how do we muslims deal with matter of insurance? We need to be insured incase of any damage to our expensive belognings such as house etc , or any illness/accident. So its hard to reject it Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, If we are legally required to get non-halal insurance, for example in order […]

IslamQA: What to do if certain Quranic verses and hadith narrations sound harsh or illogical to you

Hi! i’m trying to read the quran in my language to understand and apply to my life. but it comes harsh to me. i don’t want to be disrespectful to Quran but some things even look ridiculous. same goes for the hadidths and so. the more I try to learn I get distanced. I already […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

IslamQA: The separation of church and state in Islam

What is your opinion on separation of church and state. Is such thing possible in Muslim countries? Separation of church and state only matters if one envisions the state as an authority that forces certain behaviors on the population. This is mainly a concern for elitist intellectuals who think that a small number of intellectuals […]

IslamQA: Listening to the Quran

You mentioned that you listen to the Quran everyday, what website do you use to listen to the Quran? I don’t use a website. I have the Quran recitation on my phone and use the Listen Audiobook Player app to play it.

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 […]

Speeding up grep of a 12.4 GB text file

I am working on a vocabulary-building book for SAT and GRE students. Below is a picture of the provisional cover of the book: In order to have a wide corpus of classical texts to find word usage examples, I downloaded a massive ebook collection from the Gutenberg project and merged all of the text files […]

A Study of the Hadiths on Qadar (Predestination): Judging Between Fatalism and Free Will

This is a supplement to my essay Reconciling Free Will and Predestination in Islam with al-Māturīdī and Ibn Taymiyya Qadar (divine predestination) is one of the most controversial issues in Islam. Muslim thinkers are generally divided into two groups on this issue. There are the rationalists and semi-rationalists like the Matūrīdīs, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and most mainstream intellectuals […]

IslamQA: The difference between sunna and nafl

Asalamalaykum, I was wondering if Tahajjud is permissible without first sleeping. As a student, who usually is busy studying during the night, can I still pray Tahajjud even if I have not slept to wake up? Also, when I make the intention of my Tahajjud namaz, are they followed as sunnat or nafl intention? Please […]

How to search a document on Linux while ignoring diacritics (harakat/accents)

The Problem Most applications are not smart enough to ignore accents when searching through the text of a document. Here is a screenshot of LibreOffice 5.2 failing at finding the word Arabic word “bsm” because I didn’t type in every single diacritic: This is an especially serious problem when searching through Arabic text because the […]

Recovering from a SAXParseException error with no data loss

I was working on a book I’m writing in LibreOffice Writer. I am using the docx format for the book, as I plan to finish its formatting in Microsoft Word, not knowing that LibreOffice Writer has a tendency to corrupt docx files. After closing and opening the file again, I received the following error: I […]

IslamQA: Why the hijab is still obligatory (and why it is not only a vestige of 7th century Arabia)

Below is a response I wrote to someone who sent me a YouTube video in which the speaker argues that the hijab was necessary in ancient Arabia due to sexual harassment but that it is no longer necessary in the modern world I will first speak of the problem with her way of thinking, then […]

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 […]

A Selection from Aqiday Mardia of Mawlawi Tawagozi by Baba Ali Qaradaghi

Mawlawi Tawagozi (1806-1882, known simply as Mawlawi in Kurdish) was an Islamic mystic and one of the great poets of Kurdistan, belonging to the Hawrami minority that I belong to. This book is a 160-page commentary on a small selection of Mawlawi’s 2450-verse poem Aqiday Mardia (The Approved Aqeedah), which tries to offer a journey through the field […]

IslamQA: On Muslims working for companies that deal with interest

I just wanted to ask you since my major is economy and some jobs involves working with the interest rate especially if it’s a firm that works with lending money. Can I still work with them? There’s a lot of competition here in this country regarding this major so saying no to a job means […]

Using one category page to show multiple categories in WordPress

[Update: There is probably never a good reason to do this. Instead, create a new category to hold the posts.] Trying to show multiple categories in one loop is easily the hardest thing I’ve done in WordPress. First, create a container category where you want your multiple categories to be shown. Let’s call it the […]

Ending technological servitude: On the need for tariffs on Internet companies (and others)

In my view the most important reason why protectionism is necessary, or at least one of the most important reasons, is the prevention of technological servitude. A simple example illustrates the point: Your country cannot be a pioneer in aerospace technologies if your country is not producing airplanes. If all of your airplanes come from China, the […]

[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 […]

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 […]

IslamQA: Listening to Music is Permissible in Islam

Is music really haram? I’m not talking about the Rihannas “Wild Thoughts” kind of music, more of peaceful piano, flute, violin, ancient music. The kind of music that doesn’t give off sexual vibe and stuff, but the music that adheres peace, you know? [Below is a quick survey of opinions on this matter gleaned from […]

IslamQA: Explanation of the “kill them where you find them” verse of the Quran

How do I defend the ”kill them where you find them verse” in the Quran? In that verse the Quran is laying out the laws of warfare. That verse tells us that during warfare a Muslim army is allowed to fight in cities and in the countryside, on land, sea, in the air and in […]

IslamQA: Islam and the legalization of recreational drugs

I really love your blog, keep up the amazing work! I have been researching about the dealings of the mafia in various countries, and came to the conclusion (after thorough research) that legalizing all kinds of drugs is the best way to eradicate a big part of the mafias (to remove one of their main […]

IslamQA: Wiping over socks to avoid frostbite from ablution

Brother, I get frost bite on my toes in winters so I have not been washing my feet while performing ablution since grade 9 (Only In winters). Is my act right or wrong? Also I miss prayers cux of cold weather nowadays so tell me how can I get motivation to offer prayer regularly in […]

Beauty as Pointer: An Islamic Theory of Aesthetics

There is something special about beauty, as has been recognized by philosophers in the recent centuries. If someone says the above piece of architecture is ugly, I would judge them either liars or somehow morally corrupt. When we appreciate beauty, we feel morally uplifted. This is very strange. Why should appreciating some design have any […]

IslamQA: The stance of mainstream Sunni Islam on Sufism: Can you be Sunni and Sufi at the same time?

Salaam alaykum I’m a Sunni sister, and I’ve recently come across Sufism and Islamic mysticism. I’m very much interested in learning about Sufism but there are debates on this whole ‘Sunni-Sufi’ thing, I’m confused and I’m trying to ask everyone of their opinion and know if what I’m doing is right or wrong. Could you […]

IslamQA: Is alcohol in beauty products and make up haram?

I recently found out a make up product I use derives a fatty acid ETHYLHEXYL from an ethanol compound called 2-ethylhexanol, would that make my product haram? Even if it was ethanol it would be permitted. Alcohol is only forbidden to use when it is consumed for its own sake and it has a chance […]

IslamQA: Is surrogation permissible in Islam?

Assalammualaikum, I wanna ask, is it haram for us muslim to do surrogation?’ Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, As far as I can find it is unanimously prohibited by Sunni scholars for a husband and wife to use a surrogate woman to carry the conceived fetus or to use donated egg or sperm. I have looked at […]

IslamQA: The Islamic ruling on donating corpses for scientific research

This is a matter of difference among scholars and some prohibit the use corposes for scientific research. But According to a fatwa by the Qatari Fatwa Authority, donating one’s body to be used for scientific research is permitted since it fulfills a good purpose and is not opposed to any of the fundamental precepts of […]

The Unleashed Thunderbolts of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya by Yasir Qadhi

A review of Shakh Yasir Qadhi’s paper “‘The Unleashed Thunderbolts’ of Ibn Qayyim al-Ǧawziyyah: An Introductory Essay.” This 2010 paper by Yasir Qadhi is a study of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala ʿalā al-Jahmīya wa-l-Muʿaṭṭila (The Unleashed Thunderbolts against the Jahmites and the Negators [of Divine Attributes]). I will focus on Ibn al-Qayyim’s positions as […]

IslamQA: The foundations of morality in Islam: Reason or revelation?

Salaam. Can I say that religion is one of human needs, and that is to attain inner peace? As for how human beings live on the earth, we are free to make our own rules on how to regulate our people. I know from an Islamic religious group that human should not make their own […]

IslamQA: Can Muslims celebrate Valentine’s Day and Halloween?

I’m asking bc Halloween and I think Valentine’s Day have pagan beginnings and I wasn’t sure if it would mean you are participating in paganism In my opinion the origins of these celebrations does not matter. What matters is what the celebration means today. A hundred of million Iranian Muslims, Sunni and Shia, celebrate Nowruz […]

Islam’s Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science

Nidhal Guessoum’s Islam’s Quantum Question (originally published in French in 2009, published in English in 2011) is well worth reading, mainly for its detailed refutation of various pseudo-scientific defenses of Islam and the Quran that have been offered by others. His detailed critique of Iʿjāz literature and its supporters (such as Zaghloul El-Naggar), who purport to show scientific […]

IslamQA: Singing and playing musical instruments is permissible in Islam

assalamu aleikum, is it haram to play instruments? like violin or the piano Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, Since there is no irrefutable evidence banning singing and playing musical instruments, the mainstream opinion is that they are permissible. There is some evidence that certain early authorities strongly disapproved of them or prohibited them, but that evidence is counterbalanced […]

IslamQA: If Islam believes in religious freedom, why does it call people to become Muslim?

Salaam. Islam says that religion is not to be compelled upon people, but why does in the early days of Islam Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), when Gabriel revealed him God’s revelation, he is calling upon the people of Medina to tawheed (to worship only one God)? What are your thoughts on this? Jazakallahu […]

IslamQA: Is it haram to hang pictures in a room?

Is it haram to hang pictures up in a room where one doesn’t use the room to pray? Part 2: is it also haram to have stuffed animals in a room you don’t use to pray in? The mainstream view is that there is nothing wrong with either of those. I do not see anything […]

IslamQA: Is it wrong to reject low-quality hadiths in case they are authentic?

Assalamualaikum, I have apprehension in judging the veracity of hadith, (e.g the probability calculator) after reading verse 4:65: “But no, by your Lord, they can have no faith, until they make you judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission” because what […]

IslamQA: Cleaning parts of the body hit by toilet splash-back

Assalamu ‘alaikum, when I use the toilet I feel splash-back (not certain exactly where so I wash everything) and it’s too hard to wash it off – i go in the tub (as staying on the toilet will cause even more splash-back) and it gets quite lengthy and tiring. What should I do to eliminate […]

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 […]

Ayesha, At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (Book Review)

Ayesha, At Last is a 2018 novel by Uzma Jalaluddin, a Canadian Muslim. It is her first novel. The publisher stresses that this is a Muslim version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. This comparison is very unfair to Austen’s great masterpiece and sets readers up for disappointment. The story is a melodramatic and unrealistic […]

IslamQA: It is permissible for Muslims to say “Merry Christmas” to non-Muslims

Hi. So I was wondering if it’s okay for us as Moslems to say “Merry christmas” to our Christian friends. There’s a lot of people around me, including my parents, who told me to not say it because it’s haram. If it’s not okay, how do we explain it to our Christian friends without offending […]

IslamQA: My opinion on the site IslamQA.info

Assalamualaikum What is your opinion of the website Islamqa.info? Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, IslamQA.info represents a brand of Islam that’s not followed by the majority of Sunni Muslims in the world. It’s often called Wahhabism. It often has good answers when it comes to questions on the very basics of Islam, such as rulings on the […]

IslamQA: Are skincare products with animal ingredients haram?

Salam, Is it haram to use make up or skincare with animal derived ingredients? Jzk Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah, Some scholars consider it forbidden regardless of what animal it comes from if the animal has not been slaughtered in the Islamic way. Others say that the ingredient, if it has been purified and transformed chemically, then […]

IslamQA: On which scholar’s opinions to follow and scholarly consensus (ijmāʿ)

I don’t mean to offend you in any way but I just want to know (because I find other Islamic sources different from your answers sometimes). But I’m wondering when people ask you a certain thing on your blog , do you go after the scholars who give the fatwas/explanations that sounds most logic or […]

On Using HadithGraph

Link to the tool: HadithGraph I have been quietly working on a tool that automatically diagrams and “verifies” hadiths (based on my hadith verification method), and recently I finished it, and the results far exceeded my expectations, alhamdulillah. The tool is simply a calculator and diagrammer, so that instead of having to do the probability […]

IslamQA: What is the Islamic way to treat cruel and repugnant relatives?

I have relatives (we’re all Muslims) who have mercilessly beaten the poor and vulnerable, mocked and treated the poor like they’re sub-human, and just overall have vile character. As a result, I have no respect for them. I can’t help but be filled with a degree of bitterness and scorn towards them. Is that considered […]

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 […]

Page 1 of 3
1 2 3