Author Archives: Ikram Hawramani

Ikram Hawramani

About Ikram Hawramani

The creator of IslamicArtDB.

IslamQA: Why is Hell eternal? Who deserves eternal burning punishment?

Why is Hell eternal? Does anyone really deserve eternal fiery punishment in Hell, or is the view of Ibn al-Qayyim correct that by "eternity" the Quran means a very long time, not time without end?

About the eternity of Hell, unfortunately I do not have anything new to offer. But I feel that most ordinary people (especially in the West), at least those who grow up with middle class values, due to being wholesome people, have a hard time imagining what the deservers of Hell are really like. We have so much empathy for others, and we see them as like ourselves even if slightly worse, that we cannot imagine what it is like to be so deprived of all goodness to deserve Hell.

But look at what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians. They are filled with so much arrogance and pride and bloodthirst that they consider the Palestinians animals that have to be butchered so that they can enjoy the lands they have stolen.

Or think of the bankers in the West who probably orchestrated the war on Iraq knowingly, knowing that millions of innocent people could die. Look at the US knowingly arming the Afghans in the 1980’s, knowing it would cause millions of innocent deaths, just so that they could force the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan and in this way weaken the Soviet Union by making it lose money and men.

What do such people deserve? I used to have difficulty accepting eternity in Hell until I started thinking of such people, not of individual sinners. I feel that such people deserve eternity in Hell. They have knowingly given up their ticket to Paradise, they have rejected all goodness, they have rejected God and insulted Him and killed His innocent creatures.

It would be the greatest injustice to let such people into Paradise, because they have changed their own nature, they have utterly corrupted their own souls.

There are also two very important considerations:

  • If the punishment is not eternal, it means they “win” in the end, they will have the “last laugh”. The committers of genocide will be able to look at the mothers of the dead children in Gaza and think they got away with it in the end.
  • The Quran tells us that the ones burning in Hell, if they were to be taken out and put back on earth, they would go back to committing their evil deeds (The Quran, verse 6:28). To put the committers of genocide back on earth means to give them the freedom to commit it again. Even if they were to burn in Hell for a thousand years, if they were put back on earth, they would continue just as before.

Since the ones in Hell will, for all eternity, continue to fully embrace the idea of going back to their sins given the chance, they will never, for all eternity, be deserving of Paradise.

It can then be said that God, having forbidden them Paradise, could have put them somewhere less extremely punishing than Hell, such as putting them on a planet and taking away from them the ability to take pleasure in anything. The problem here is that this is not really punishment, it is to allow them to continue to exist in limbo without paying for their actions. A mortal human from earth may find such a life a horrible punishment, and they may lose their minds if they stay there long enough. But these condemned criminal will be immortal, and God will preserve them as they were when they were resurrected. Having the guarantee that they will never die, they will lose all fear and worry, and they will come to terms with their existence.

Isn’t this, too, a kind of winning for the committers of genocide? They committed unspeakable evil, and they will be perfectly willing to commit it again, and they are placed here, suffering no pain, suffering no worry or anxiety about their safety or their future.

For it to be a proper punishment, there must be pain. Pain is the only thing that humans cannot come to terms with. Pain is the only thing that will show these people that they have not “won” in the end. And the main must continue, because as soon as it is taken away from them, they will go back to arrogantly thinking they have won.

So this imaginary punishment planet must contain pain. How much and of what kind? God’s justness requires that the punishment’s intensity must match their crime, their current evil nature. For if the most evil ones are given just a little pain, they will be able to continue to maintain the arrogant feeling that they have won.

So we have an exact equation here: The pain must be sufficient to place them in a state of permanent defeat. The less evil ones will feel defeat if they are given a little pain. The most evil ones, those who proudly laughed in God’s face and challenged Him to punish them, and who will do this again if they were put back on earth, these ones may only be defeated by the most horrible punishments. It must crush their pride, and keep it crushed for eternity, because as soon as punishment is taken away it will bounce back and they will start laughing in God’s face again, and in the face of all those they committed atrocities against.

Even in this world there are people who believe in God, and who suffer terrible pain from illness, and who nonetheless challenge God to defeat them, who nonetheless tell God they will go back to doing the evil they did as soon as they are able.

So in Hell there will be lesser and greater punishments, perfectly matching each person, until there is not one person left who can challenge God, who can face God and laugh at Him.

And in the end, as the book of our universe is closed, everyone will have received exactly what they deserve. The good will live happily ever after, and the evil ones will permanently be chained in a way that they can never feel that they have won. The good ones in Paradise will not have reason to complain to God that their unrepentant victimizers can still laugh in their faces, their victimizers who would be perfectly willing to victimize them again any time given the chance. They will know that that evil has been dealt with forever.

The above explanation misses one important point: Crimes are not committed only against other humans, but against God too. God too is victorious on that day. Those who victimized Him (the Quran does use such a phrasing in 33:57) must also suffer whatever level of pain necessary until they can no longer feel that they have gotten away with their crime and laugh in His face.

Crimes against God include things like a person mocking Him and mocking His revelations while knowing in one’s heart that He exists and has sent revelations, or that person working to convince others not to believe in Him. A crime against any other human (or even animals) is also a crime against God for victimizing His creatures. And the fact of misusing His gifts and blessings is also a crime against Him.

Such criminals may again be subject to the equation of having to be placed in a state of permanent defeat.

This is my current thinking on this question, and I cannot claim that it is perfectly sound or that it is the best view.

My new book: Learning Modern Standard Arabic for Complete Beginners

Buy it on Amazon (US): Kindle | Paperback
UK: Kindle | Paperback

Update: I have reissued this book under the title Learning Arabic for Complete Beginners.

In August last year I thought I could start working again, but I was wrong. In March this year things changed and I was able to start working on my book Learning Standard Arabic (MSA) for Complete Beginners, a book I have wanted to write since 2019. It is based on the same learning method as my other book, Learning Quranic Arabic for Complete Beginners.

In over 350 pages, readers begin by learning the alphabet and go on read a fable from Aesop, a story about a boy’s trip through Jerusalem with his grandfather, then move on to modern Arabic poetry. Meanwhile proper transliterations and pronunciation are provided for every single sentence of Arabic, using my beloved Brill Encyclopedia of Islam system.

Buy it on Amazon (US): Kindle | Paperback
UK: Kindle | Paperback

From then on I take readers through what is perhaps the greatest Arabic poem written in the past century or two, the 119-line Rain Song by the Iraqi poet Badr Shaker al-Sayyab.(1926-1964). This poem is the only piece of Arabic writing I have read that is almost as hard-hitting as the Quran, making shivers run through your skin.

In the fourth part learners read a poem by the Persian intellectual Ali Shariati (1933-1977) called One and Beside it Zeroes Without End. There was no proper Arabic translation of it, so I had to translate it from Persian to Arabic, and of course from Arabic to English. It is written in the form of a Persian fable with a strong spiritual meaning it, starting from God creating the world.

It is strange but what I have discovered (I could be wrong, though) is that when I stop trying to work toward big goals and missions, when I simply tell myself that my job is simply to live, to be, with no greater goal in life, that is when I can actually work on the things I love. It is like a dark cloud is removed and my energy and inspiration comes back.

I have written an article about this, and once I’m reasonably sure I’m not mistaken I will publish it. I may be able to come back to my regular work in Islamic studies, but I do not know.

On Using HadithGraph

Link to the tool: HadithGraph

For those wondering about the point of the probability calculation that this tool does I have added a last section explaining this.

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 calculations and diagramming manually, they all take place automatically.

Users can use the tool merely for diagramming hadith chains, even if they have no interest in the probability calculations.

See the essay linked above for how the probability calculation works.

Rewriting and inputting the chains

Given the Bukhari hadith (Bukhari #1):

حَدَّثَنَا الحُمَيْدِيُّ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ الزُّبَيْرِ ، قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ ، قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ سَعِيدٍ الأَنْصَارِيُّ ، قَالَ : أَخْبَرَنِي مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ التَّيْمِيُّ ، أَنَّهُ سَمِعَ عَلْقَمَةَ بْنَ وَقَّاصٍ اللَّيْثِيَّ ، يَقُولُ : سَمِعْتُ عُمَرَ بْنَ الخَطَّابِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ عَلَى المِنْبَرِ قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ : إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ ، وَإِنَّمَا لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى ، فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى دُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا ، أَوْ إِلَى امْرَأَةٍ يَنْكِحُهَا ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ *

Enter the hadith’s isnad in the textbox as follows:

Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi

The chain starts from the chief transmitter (the Companion, in this case Umar. b. al-Khattab [RA]), and the transmitter names are separated by ” > “. Note that there are spaces before and after the “>”.

The spelling of the names does not matter as long as it is consistent. You must always use the same exact spelling for each unique transmitter, so Umar b. al-Khattab must always be spelled “Umar b. al-Khattab” in any additional chains you add.

But there is no need to worry too much about getting spellings wrong, because the diagram will immediately make it obvious by making the transmitter show up twice (below we have erroneously spelled Umar b. al-Khattab’s name differently on different chains):

Then gather additional chains for this hadith using hadith search engines and/or takhrīj tools, for example Bukhari #6587 gives us another chain for the hadith:

6587 حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو النُّعْمَانِ ، حَدَّثَنَا حَمَّادُ بْنُ زَيْدٍ ، عَنْ يَحْيَى بْنِ سَعِيدٍ ، عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ ، عَنْ عَلْقَمَةَ بْنِ وَقَّاصٍ ، قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ عُمَرَ بْنَ الخَطَّابِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ ، يَخْطُبُ قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ : يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ، إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّةِ ، وَإِنَّمَا لِامْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى ، فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ، وَمَنْ هَاجَرَ إِلَى دُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوِ امْرَأَةٍ يَتَزَوَّجُهَا ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ *

Now enter the new chain from this second hadith into a new line in the textbox, so that we have the following two lines:

Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Abu al-Nu`man

Now we get the following diagram:

And below we have added a chain from a third hadith (Bukhari 3719):

Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Abu al-Nu`man
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Musaddad

Adding hadith collection information

If you wish the details of the hadith collection to show up on the diagram, you may add it as follows:

A > [Bukhari]
B > [Muslim]

That is, the hadith collection information must be enclosed in square brackets. Adding the hadith collection information to the diagram has no effect on the probability calculations.

Important: Using square brackets here is essential, otherwise the hadith collection will be treated like any other transmitter, causing inaccurate calculations.

Adding comments

Comments can be added for your own convenience; they have no effect on the diagram or probability calculation. Comments start with a “#” character. You can add comments before each chain as follows:

# Bukhari 1
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi
# Bukhari 6587
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Abu al-Nu`man
# Bukhari 3719
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Musaddad

Setting custom probabilities

Each transmitter has a default probability 0.6 (i.e. 60%). Sometimes you are dealing with transmitters who are lower quality, although not totally unreliable. In those cases you can set a custom probability in brackets after the transmitter’s name, as follows:

Transmitter 1 > Transmitter 2 (0.4) > Transmitter 3

Above, Transmitter 2 gets a probability of 0.4 (40%) in the calculations.

Setting probabilities above 0.6 will be ignored.

We are verifying meanings

This tool gives the probable authenticity of the text (matn) of the hadith. But some variant hadiths sometimes contain additional sentences or lack them. Make sure all of the chains are the chains of hadith texts that mention the meaning you are trying to verify, such as “all actions are judged (by God) by the intentions behind them”.

What is the point of the calculation?

The point is simple: you may want to compare one authentic hadith’s reliability with another authentic hadith’s reliability (perhaps they seem to contradict each other). And they both have 5-10 complex chains of transmitters each of which involves a hundred transmitters. How do you know which one is the stronger?

Edit: I moved this lengthy section to the top of this essay in which I fully describe the verification method.

Just an update

The last time I did any serious work in Islamic studies was four years ago, in March-April 2019, when I was busy showing that, according to my hadith verification method, none of the pro-predestination hadiths were reliable. I was never able to finish that work.

I might possibly be “back” and I might be able to continue the kind of work I was busy with in 2017-19. But I cannot promise anything; only God knows what is in store for me.

I apologize to all the people I’ve failed to respond to. My condition worsened in 2019, and in 2020 due to Covid-19 I ended up being sick and fatigued for months at a time. Sometimes for months at time even reading a paragraph of text was more than I could do. In early 2021 I had a minor stroke during the fourth or fifth time that I had Covid-19, and I’m still recovering from that.

But I’ve still been able to do a lot of reading over the past four years in order to cure my lamentable ignorance about many things. A lot of my reading is in academic monographs and essay collections, so perhaps it’s not all entirely useless entertainment for myself. I’ve read 252 books since April 2019, if we count Quran re-readings too. Here are some of the books I’ve read in 2023 so far:

  • Ian Hodder, Studies in Human-Thing Entanglement (2016)
  • C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964)
  • Owen Barfield, History in English Words (1967 Eerdmans [1953])
  • Neil Rhodes, Shakespeare and the Origins of English (2004)
  • Ahmad al-Jallad, The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions (2022)
  • Peter Magee, The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia: Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (2014)
  • Robert G. Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (2001)
  • Norman Yoffee, Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States and Civilizations (2004)
  • Kay Redfield Jamison, Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (1993)
  • Leslie A. Marchand, Byron: A Portrait (1976 [1971])
  • Second reading of C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (1943), and That Hideous Strength (1945).
  • C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (1956) (second reading)
  • C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (1945) (second reading)
  • C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933) (second reading)
  • James Turner, Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities (2014)
  • John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China: A Social History of Examinations (1985?)
  • Johannes Pedersen, The Arabic Book (1984 [1946]) tr. Geoffrey French ed. Robert Hillenbrand
  • Jim B. Tucker, Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives (2013)
  • Ian Stevenson, European Cases of the Reincarnation Type (2003)
  • Ian Stevenson, Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation (Revised Edition) (2001/1987)
  • Ian Stevenson, Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (1997)
  • James G. Matlock, Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory (2019)
  • Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond (2021)
  • Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf H. Smit, The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences (2016)
  • Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience (2016)
  • Kenneth Ring, Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience (1998, 2006)
  • Raymond A. Moody, Life After Life (25th Anniversary Edition) (1975, 2001)

Among these the most eye-opening one was al-Jallad’s The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia. There’s something strange and wonderful about seeing inscriptions by pre-Islamic Arabians writing things in a very strange alphabet that, once deciphered, is very recognizably “Arabic”.

l mqm bn ymlk w wgd ʾṯr ḏʾb w ḥrśn f ngʿ f h lt slm
 ‘By Mqm son of Ymlk and he found the traces of Ḏʾb and Ḥrśn and grieved in pain
so, O Allāt, may he be secure.’

The transliteration above does not add vowels because it is not known how the people who made these inscriptions actually pronounced these words. Reconstructing the pronunciation from Arabic would be premature and unscholarly. But regardless of the pronunciation, turning these letters into Arabic makes most of the words make some kind of sense in Arabic:

wgd ʾṯr = وَجَدَ أَثَرَ = "he found the traces of"

f h lt slm = فها الّات سَلِّم = O Allāt [the name of the pagan goddess] make safe / provide safety

C. S. Lewis

In August 2019 I read C. S. Lewis’s Allegory of Love (an academic book on medieval poetry), and I soon sensed that he was truly “a man after my own heart”. I went on to read over 30 other books by him, including his 4000-page collected letters. When I discover one of those extremely rare thinkers who show promise that they can teach me something new, I tend to read all of their books that I can get my hands on. There’s still an important book of his I haven’t read, the 600+ page Poetry and Prose in the Sixteenth Century.

Tolstoy

In early 2021 I read Tolstoy’s War and Peace and saw that he was another one of the greats worth reading. Since then I have read War and Peace two more times. I have also read some of his other major works and his biography. I noticed during my first reading of War and Peace that despite his wonderful insights, there was something “off” about him, a kind of moral laxity. He was no C. S. Lewis or Dostoevsky, men who truly spent their days like candles burning for the greater glory of God.

Dostoevsky

Between 2021 and 2022 I read all of Dostoevsky’s novels (starting with the definitive 900-page biography by Joseph Frank). I used to say that Dostoevsky fills in the missing pieces in C. S. Lewis’s worldview, writings, thinking, or what have you, and maybe that is true.

Dostoevsky’s last novel The Brothers Karamazov is considered his greatest by many, or even one of the greatest novels of all time, but I had to force myself to finish it because, having read all his previous novels, there wasn’t anything new or interesting left for me to learn from him. It felt like a reworked summary of his other works (when it comes to the ideas and feelings pushed forward, not the plot, which is of little interest to me).

And I agree with Joseph Frank that Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent was a really bad, or at least unentertaining, rambling and insight-poor novel. But poor Dostoevsky needed the money.

I will end this article here. I hope to have much more to say about all the interesting things I’ve read.

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 months and i dont know if my dua is accepted or not. He kept telling me he never moved on and etc. and i cant even respond, then i finally did to clarify why im not talking to him and my pain. i broke my promise what do i do?

I feel super guilty about breaking my promise I made. I really didnt want to break my oath to Allah at all. I really wanted to clarify and tell him that i also wanted to marry and etc but i am trying to keep the promise afterwards that conversation with him. Do I have to fast 3 days or help the needy? I feel so guilty I have no one to ask.

I just am also sad I really want to tell my parents about him but he isnt 100% ready for marriage and I don’t want to lie to them again of not talking to him when i already did that before. I just feel like a horrible person right now. i really don’t want them angry, they were tired of my heartbreak and if i tell them one day we fixed they will be super mad at me.

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

I apologize for the late reply. Sorry about your situation. It seems to me a good thing that you clarified the situation to him since it can cause a person a great deal of pain and turmoil to be left hanging without an explanation in such situations.

Regarding whether you should make expiation for breaking the oath, it depends on the nature of your promise and its solemnity. Either your promise was to put an end to regular contacts with him, or it was to never have any contact whatsoever with him. If it was the first one, then merely giving him an explanation doesn’t break the promise if you do not start talking to him regularly again. But if it was the second one, then it seems the promise is broken.

Note that breaking an oath can sometimes be a good thing, which is why the Quran allows it. The Prophet PBUH says:

"By Allah, Allah willing, if ever I take an oath (to do something) and later on I find something else better than the first, then I do the better one and give expiation for the dissolution of my oath."

Sahih al-Bukhari 6680

Merely promising God to do something and then not doing it is not the same as breaking an oath. But if when you were making the promise you had the intention of making a solemn oath (and from your description this seems probable), then breaking the promise requires expiation. What you should do is either donate enough money to feed or clothe ten needy people (you can do this online by going to Islamic Relief’s website and choosing “kafara” on the donation page), or if you can’t afford to, to fast for three days.

If you think the kafara is necessary and you perform it, then the oath no longer applies, it is like it wasn’t made in the first place, and there is no need to feel guilty about it anymore. The way forward seems to be to avoid contact with him (as I don’t recommend secret romantic relationships) as much as possible until he is ready to formally propose. 

Regarding the kind of romantic relationships that are appropriate in Islam, you may want to see my article: Dating and Relationships in Islam: What is Allowed and What is Not

Best wishes. May Allah make things easy for you.

References (regarding oaths):

IslamQA: Can you read the Quran on a smartphone without wudu?

Hi! Do you think it is okay to read Quran through an app without performing ablution? The phone isn’t Quran after all, so does holding the phone without ablution, though reading Quran through it require to perform ablution?

Assalamu alaikum,

There is no need for wudu when reading the Quran from a computer or smartphone, or when reading a translation. Even menstruating women can use these methods, as discussed here.

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 please share your thoughts on this?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

It seems to me the key issue is the sources of knowledge we accept. In mainstream Sunni Islam we accept the Quran and hadith, while in many forms of Sufism a third source of knowledge is added that establishes the doctrine of the allegiance to particular shaykhs and the various spiritual stations that one is said to be able to acquire. These things are not found in the Quran and hadith.

If you are interested in Sufism, there is the mainstream Sunni option of following what we may call paleo-Sufism, the Sufism of its original founders, such as the “father of Sufism” the Persian mystic Junayd of Baghdad. But even such people may bring into Islam ideas that do not have any obvious foundation in the Quran and hadith. So the problem with many forms of Sufism is that it claims to provide knowledge that is separate from the Quran and hadith. For a person dedicated to following pure and original Islam, the introduction of such external systems of knowledge is something to be suspicious of unless given overwhelming proofs.

Personally I don’t have any issue with most kinds of Sufism and there are admirable orthodox scholars who were also Sufis.

I am very interested in spirituality and I believe the right way to deal with Sufism is Imam al-Ghazali’s way, which is to use Sufism instead of accepting Sufism as a third system besides the Quran and hadith. Instead of “becoming Sufi”, you can read Sufi works and adopt whatever beneficial teachings they provide.

I believe Imam al-Ghazali, Ibn al-Jawzi and Ibn al-Qayyim show us what it is like to benefit from Sufism while remaining within mainstream Sunni Islam. It’s similar to benefiting from philosophy and logic. Imam al-Ghazali’s great achievement was that rather than becoming a typical philosopher (like Ibn Sina / Avicenna), he used philosophy and brought it into mainstream Islam while maintaining the Quran and hadith as supreme. He did the same with Sufism, bringing it into mainstream Islam without becoming a typical Sufi seeker or shaykh.

So there are two ways to use or practice Sufism. Either one accepts it as a third system besides the Quran and hadith, “becomes Sufi”, and gives allegiance to particular Sufi orders, systems or teachers, or one treats Sufism like any other field of knowledge, benefiting from it while maintaining allegiance to the Quran and hadith. The second route is the only possible one for me personally because as a very logic-minded and skeptical person, I cannot accept Sufi systems due to their lack of obvious and unchallenged foundation in the Quran, hadith or common sense. The various Sufi saints may have great things to teach me, but it is wholly against my nature to submit to them as a disciple. I can only view them as superior colleagues who have useful things to teach me, similar to the way I view any Islamic scholar, or any secular philosopher, thinker or scientist.

I have no issue with people reading Sufi works, or even non-Muslim works of spirituality and mysticism. As long as a person does not submit to systems, authorities and individuals outside the Quran and the Prophet’s guidance PBUH, then they can safely benefit from things like Sufism without leaving the mainstream and becoming something else. As long as you constantly read the Quran and try sincerely to submit to no authority other than it and the Prophet PBUH, then even if you are unconsciously influenced by Sufism or secular thought, you will always be brought back to the right track inshaAllah. I have been reading the complete works of the great Christian thinker C. S. Lewis and despite the fact that I admire him and see much beauty in his kind of Christianity, my reading has only helped me to see Islam’s beauty and superiority more clearly. If Islam is truly God’s final and perfect message, and if we always sincerely go back to it, then no amount of reading and learning will make us abandon it, because as knowledge and understanding increases, our appreciation for God’s teachings will also increase, if Islam is really true (which I believe).

You may be interested in my books The Sayings of Ibn al-Jawzi (free version) and the The Sayings of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (free version), which show us the thinking of two spiritual practitioners who benefited from Sufism without becoming Sufi. Imam al-Ghazali is also very much worth reading. He’s often categorized as a Sufi, but it’s clear from his works that he used Sufism rather than accepting it as a third system. He used Sufism just as he used philosophy and Greek logic.

Best wishes.

The Quranic and hadith evidence for prohibiting touching non-mahrams

Assalamualaikum I came across a hadith on Facebook which says that touching any non- mahram woman is harām. I wanted to ask if that Hadith is authentic, and if it is so, then to what extent does this rule apply in our life. I mean I have female relatives who are quite elder to me( 9 years and more) . Is it allowed to shake hands with them or hug them if in my heart I consider them to be like my mothers and sisters?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

Touching people of the opposite sex whom you can potentially marry (i.e. non-mahrams) is not permitted in Islam unless there is a good reason, as in a doctor touching a person of the opposite sex during a procedure. There is also an exception for shaking hands with a person of the opposite sex in order not to humiliate them by refusing the handshake. When it comes to shaking the hands of the relatives you mentioned or hugging them, it is best to avoid it, but it is not a great issue if you accept these gestures in order to avoid upsetting them, until you find an opportunity to tell them that you wish to avoid these things in the future for religious reasons. As for elders who are at an age where they would no longer consider marriage (perhaps 60 or more), then these rules can be relaxed. But if they are 30 or 40 years old, then the rules would continue to apply even if you are much younger than them.

The most explicit hadith we have on the issue of touching the opposite sex is the following:

لأن يطعن في رأس أحدكم بمخيط من حديد خير له من أن يمس امرأة لا تحل له

It is better for one of you to pierce his head with an iron needle than to touch a woman for whom she is not halal.

Al-Tabarani

This hadith comes to us through Shaddad b. Saeed who is considered trustworthy but unreliable by many scholars, therefore this hadith is not guaranteed to be authentic and is therefore not relevant to this discussion.

The next hadith is one where the Prophet PBUH explicitly states that he does not shake women’s hands:

Muhammad bin Munkadir said that he heard Umaimah bint Ruqaiqah say:
“I came to the Prophet (ﷺ) with some other women, to offer our pledge to him. He said to us: ‘(I accept your pledge) with regard to what you are able to do. But I do not shake hands with women.’”

Sunan Ibn Majah Vol. 4, Book 24, Hadith 2874 and others.

Below is the chain diagram for this hadith:

This hadith receives an authenticity score of 38.69% according to our probabilistic hadith verification method. This score is rather high, since sahih hadiths start at 30%, meaning that this hadith is very high-quality.

The next hadith on touching non-mahrams is the following:

Aisha the wife of the Prophet, said, "Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) used to examine the believing women who migrated to him in accordance with this Verse: 'O Prophet! When believing women come to you to take the oath of allegiance to you… Verily! Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful.' (60.12) `Aisha said, "And if any of the believing women accepted the condition (assigned in the above-mentioned Verse), Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) would say to her. "I have accepted your pledge of allegiance." "He would only say that, for, by Allah, his hand never touched, any lady during that pledge of allegiance. He did not receive their pledge except by saying, "I have accepted your pledge of allegiance for that."

Sahih al-Bukhari Book 65, Hadith 4891; Sahih Muslim 1866 a; other collections

Below is a chain diagram of the hadith:

This hadith receives an authenticity score of 27.57%, making it close to the authentic mark of 30%.

The above appears to be all of the explicit evidence we have on the touching of non-mahrams.

Evidence from lowering the gaze

The Quran commands us to “lower our gaze”. The context of the two verses that command this make it clear that it refers to gazing at the opposite sex idly and/or lustfully.

Tell the believing men to restrain their looks, and to guard their privates. That is purer for them. God is cognizant of what they do.

And tell the believing women to restrain their looks, and to guard their privates, and not display their beauty except what is apparent thereof, and to draw their coverings over their breasts, and not expose their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their women, what their right hands possess, their male attendants who have no sexual desires, or children who are not yet aware of the nakedness of women. And they should not strike their feet to draw attention to their hidden beauty. And repent to God, all of you believers, so that you may succeed. (The Quran, verses 24:30-31)

There are also hadiths that mention the same concept, as in the following:

Jarir said I asked the Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) about an accidental glance (at a woman). He (ﷺ) said “Turn your gaze away.”

Sunan Abi Dawud 2148

Below is the chain diagram for this hadith:

This hadith receives an authenticity score of 12.14%, which is not very high. But it is easier to accept such hadiths as authentic due to their uncontroversial contents.

Naturally, if we are commanded to avoid gazing at the opposite sex idly or lustfully, then the same would apply to touching.

Evidence from the hijab

Another highly relevant area of evidence is that which applies to the rules on parts of the body that have to be covered. Naturally, if we are forbidden from looking at a certain part of a person’s body, we would also be forbidden from touching it. For the evidence on the rulings on which parts of the body should be covered see:

Conclusion

From the evidence presented above, it is clear that touching the opposite sex idly or lustfully is not permitted in Islam. The Prophet PBUH avoided shaking women’s hands despite this being a harmless form of greeting, which shows us that the highest Islamic ideal is to always work to minimize contact with the opposite sex. However, the evidence does not prohibit necessary touching, as in a doctor touching a person of the opposite sex during a medical procedure.

The exception on shaking hands

Scholars such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi permit shaking the hands of the opposite sex when meeting non-Muslims in order to prevent humiliating them by refusing the handshake, since in such cases avoiding humiliating the person takes priority over the no-touching rule. Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi mentions that while the Prophet PBUH never shook the hands of women, Umar [ra] did that, and Abu Bakr [ra] shook an old woman’s hands.

References:

IslamQA: Is life insurance permissible in Islam?

Is getting life insurance permissible?

If the insurance is provided by a for-profit company then it is prohibited, because they are making money through a procedure that amounts to gambling/betting. But if the insurance is provided by a non-profit where people’s money is pooled to support members who die, then that is permitted provided that the company’s methods have been reviewed and approved by scholars.

IslamQA: Were Atatürk’s changes in Turkey un-Islamic?

Salam brother What do you think about the changes brought by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey? Was what he did unislamic?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

He did many things against Islam, such as forcing women not to wear hijab, and persecuting Islamic scholars. He also did some good things for Turkey. So each one of his actions has to be judged on its own, but on the whole he was no supporter of Islam.

IslamQA: On getting close to Allah

Assalamualaikum How can we get closer to Allah? I was am a firm believer in Allah and I follow almost all Islamic duties except praying all five times (due to laziness) . I know it's very important to pray but whenever I resolve to pray regularly I do so just for a few days and then I again stop praying regularly. This happens every time 🙁 Another sin that I commit is watching pornographic and semi-pornographic videos and photos. I really want to get rid of these two bad habits and get closer to Allah

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

The only way to always be close to Allah is to make an effort every day to connect with Him, and the best way to do that is to read the Quran daily for a certain amount of time, such as an hour every day. There is no way to remain close to Allah without working for it daily. My following essay might be a good place to start for rebuilding your relationship with Allah inshaAllah:

God has not abandoned you: Regaining your sense of purpose when life feels spiritually empty, lonely and meaningless

Regarding pornography, perhaps understanding why it is morally wrong to view it would help encourage you to avoid it. Please see my essay: The Philosophy of Pornography and Masturbation

IslamQA: On masturbating due to the unavailability of one’s spouse

i am a married man with children, but are some circumstances that push me into this act. some times my wife does not surrender herself or make herself available when i really need her for sex. secondly, i engage in this act during the breastfeeding period because my wife can never allow to come near her during this period.

It appears that your question is about masturbation. I do not believe that masturbation is strictly prohibited in Islam (as discussed here: Masturbation is not clearly forbidden or allowed in Islam), therefore what you are doing is not a big issue in my opinion, even though I believe that a great man would always avoid masturbation regardless of the temptations and unsatisfied needs.

If you feel guilty about masturbating, you can do an act of worship to make up for it, such as reading the Quran for an hour, or giving away a certain amount of money, after each time you do it.

If you masturbate, it is best to avoid using pornography for that purpose, as that is a far more questionable thing to engage in. For more on pornography please see: The Philosophy of Pornography and Masturbation

IslamQA: On Muhammad Shahrur

Do you have opinion on Muhammmad Shahrur and his work, who just recently passed.

Unfortunately I have yet to study Shahrur’s works, therefore I cannot give any detailed opinion on him. Some of his views, such as that on the Quran having to be interpreted according to changing social realities, sound sensible. But I do not know how far he goes in this view. And as far as I am aware he did not offer a reliable framework for making sense of the relationship between the Quran and hadith, and for judging hadiths using better methods. I believe that my method of hadith criticism solves most of the problems that have troubled modernist Islamic intellectuals about traditional Islamic scholarship. For more on this method please see: Probablistic Hadith Verification: Combining the Science of Hadith with Legal Theory

IslamQA: How to stay hopeful when Muslims are so weak and subjugated

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله I have been reading through this website a lot recently and they helped me better understand my religion and integrate it into my scientific of thinking . I might not agree with you on everything but you have my thanks and respect Now as for my question : how do you keep faith in these current times where it seems we can’t go a year without some new genocide of Muslims popping up somewhere : be it in China with Ughyur , mynnmar and of course Israel . I try telling myself that there will be some way out for them but it just looks hopeless to me. How does one remain faithful when fellow Muslims are freely subjected to so many horrors and Islam as a whole just seems doomed to be eradicated in many places?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh,

I’m glad that you have found this website useful. Regarding your question, please see my essay What happened to Islamic civilization? Why did Muslims fall behind in science and technology? where I deal with your question in detail.

Best wishes.

IslamQA: Are children and teens permitted to dye their hair?

Assalamualaikum, please can a small child and a teen dye his or her hair.

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

There is no difference in the ruling on dyeing hair between children and adults, therefore it is permitted according to the conditions that apply to adults. For more on dyeing hair please see: The Islamic ruling on dyeing hair (for men and women)

IslamQA: Is there any support in the Quran or Sunna for prohibiting women from delivering Friday sermons?

Peace be upon you, I was wondering if there is any Quranic/Sunnah support for the view that women aren't permitted to deliver the Jummah Khutbah to a mixed audience, irrespective of whether they lead the prayer. Thank you!

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah,

As far as I’m aware there is no explicit evidence to prohibit women from giving Friday sermons. It is simply that it has always been the practice of Muslims for men to deliver the sermon. I believe the issue of whether women should be permitted to deliver it or not is a cultural matter and different cultures may reach different conclusions on it.

IslamQA: He hurt his close female friend by breaking off their friendship

Assalamo alaikum. There was this really good and decent person i fell in love with. We talked about work stuff, spiritualism, books and joked. She never found out that i was falling for her. Then i realized that this was wrong. My religion has strict rules about na mehrams so i stopped talking to her. She almost begged to tell her the reason behind this. Because i knew she would find some loophole to resume our friendship, i never told her. I don't talk to her anymore. I hurt her, i know. But i had to choose between Allah and her and to me the answer was clear. Is the way i hurt her worthy of punishment?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

Sorry to read about your experience. It would have been better to explain to her why you felt the relationship was inappropriate. And if you considered her a good potential wife, you could have proposed to her and made your relationship with her public. Then with the permission of both your families you could have continued your relationship (if she agreed to get engaged to you).

It is a good thing to try to avoid getting romantically involved with people you are not engaged to. But it is much better if you sincerely express your feelings and give her the chance to decide to get engaged to you or not.

IslamQA: Commentary on verse 49:11 of the Quran (Surat al-Hujurat)

As-salaamu 'alaykum, wa rahmatullaah. Would you be willing to provide a commentary on Surat al-Hujuraat, aayah #11: "O, you who believe: let not some men among you laugh at others …". May Allaah reward you.

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh,

Unfortunately I do not have anything original to contribute to the explanation of this verse. Below is the commentary by Abul A’laa al-Maududi which you may find helpful inshaAllah.

Text of the verse:

O you[1] who have believed, neither should men mock other men, it may be that these are better than they; nor should women mock other women, it may be that these are better than they.[2] Do not taunt one another among yourselves,[3] nor call one another by nicknames.[4] It is an evil thing to be called by a bad name after faith.[5] Those who fail to avoid this are wrongdoers.

Commentary:

[1] In the preceding two verses after giving necessary instructions about the Muslim people’s mutual fighting, the believers were made to realize that by virtue of the most sacred relationship of the faith they were brothers one to another, and they should fear God and try to keep their mutual relations right. Now, in the following two verses, they are being enjoined to avoid and shun those major evils which generally spoil the mutual relationships of the people in a society. Slandering and taunting the people and harboring suspicions and spying on others are, in fact, the evils that cause mutual enmities and then lead to grave mischief. In this connection, from the commandments that are being given in the following verses and the explanations of these found in the Hadith a detailed law of libel can be compiled. The western law pertaining to libel in this regard is so defective that a person who sues another under this law may well cause some loss to his own honor. The Islamic law, on the contrary,, recognizes a basic honor for every person and gives nobody the right to attack it, no matter whether the attack is based on reality or not, and whether the person who has been attacked has a `reputation” of his own or not. Only the fact that a person has debased and humiliated the other person is enough to declare him a criminal unless, of course, it is proved. that the humiliation caused had a legal ground for it.

[2] Mocking does not only imply mocking with the tongue but it also includes mimicking somebody, making pointed references to him, laughing at his words, or his works, or his appearance, or his dress, or calling the people’s attention to some defect or blemish in him so that others also may laugh at him. All this is included in mocking. What is actually forbidden is that one should make fun of and ridicule another, for under such ridiculing there always lie feelings of one’s own superiority and the other’s abasement and contempt, which are morally unworthy of a gentleman. Moreover, it hurts the other person, which causes mischief to spread in society. That is why it has been forbidden,

To make mention of the men and the women separately does not mean that it is lawful for the men to mock the women or the women to mock the men. The actual reason for making a separate mention of the two sexes is that Islam does not at all believe in mixed society. Ridiculing each other generally takes place in mixed gatherings and Islam does not permit that non-mahram males and females should meet in such gatherings and make fun of each other. Therefore, in a Muslim society it is inconceivable that the men would mock a woman, or the women would mock a man in an assembly.

[3] The word lamz as used in the original is very comprehensive and applies to ridiculing, reviling, deriding, jeering, charging somebody or finding fault with him, and making him the target of reproach and blame by open or tacit references. As all such things also spoil mutual relationships and create bad blood in society, they have been forbidden. Instead of saying, “Do not taunt one another”, it has been said “Do not taunt yourselves”, which by itself shows that the one who uses taunting words for others, in fact, taunts his own self. Obviously, a person does not use invectives against others unless he himself is filled with evil feelings and is almost in a state of bursting like a volcano. Thus, tire one who nourishes such feelings has made his own self a nest of evils before he makes others a target, Then, when he taunts others, it means that he is inviting others to taunt him. It is a different matter that the other person may evade his attacks because of a gentle nature, but he himself has opened the door to mischief so that the other may treat him likewise.

[4] This Command requires that a person should not be called by a name or a title which may cause him humiliation, e.g. calling somebody a sinner or a hypocrite, or calling someone a lame or blind one, or one-eyed, or giving him a nickname containing a reference to some defect or blemish in him, or in his parents, or in his family, or calling a person a Jew or a Christian even after his conversion to Islam, or giving such a nickname to a person, or a family, or a community, or a group, which may bring condemnation or disgrace on it. Only those nicknames have been made an exception from this Command, which though apparently offensive, are not intended to condemn the persons concerned, but they rather serve as a mark of recognition for them. That is why the traditionists have allowed as permissible names like Suleman al-Amash (the weak-eyed Suleman) and Wasil’ al-Ahdab (the hunch-backed Wasil) among the reporters of the Hadith. If there are several men of the same name and a particular man among them may be recognized only by a particular title or nickname of his, the title or nickname can be used, even though the title by itself may be offensive. For instance, if there are several men called Abdullah, and one of them is blind, he may be called Abdullah the blind, for his recognition. Likewise, those titles also are excluded from this Command, which though apparently offensive, are in fact, given out of love and the people who are called by those titles themselves approve them, like Abu Hurairah (father of the kitten) and Abu Turab (father of the dust).

[5] That is, “It is very shameful for a believer that in spite of being a believer he should earn a name for using abusive language and for immodest behavior. If a disbeliever earns reputation for himself for mocking the people, or taunting them, or for proposing evil and offensive titles for others, it may not be a good reputation from the point of view of humanity, but it at least goes well with his disbelief. But if a person after affirming the Faith in Allah and His Messenger and the Hereafter earns reputation on account of these base qualities, it is simply regrettable.

IslamQA: Are Ahmadis/Ahmadiyyas Muslims?

Assalamualaikum Are Ahmadis Muslims or not?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

The Ahmadiyya rely on the weak hadiths on the Mahdi to claim their religion supersedes traditional Islam (see this previous answer on why I do not believe in the Mahdi). Since they follow the Quran and Sunna they can technically be said to be Muslims, even if their beliefs and practices are not mainstream. I don’t think there is anything to be gained by arguing about whether they are Muslims or not.

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