Why is the shirk greatest sin?

Because it goes entirely against the purpose of our creation. See this previous answer for more on that purpose.

What’s the point of life? I can’t seem to find any meaning in it.

The universe is a factory for creating true friends of God. Think of what “true friend” means. A true friend is someone who loves you and trusts you even though they have no mathematical proof that you love them.

God throws us into a universe where we have no hard evidence of His existence. We get to know Him through the signs He shows us in our souls, in the universe and in scripture. We eventually develop an attachment to Him, while always being free to disobey Him, ignore Him, and pretend that He does not exist. Those of us who maintain His remembrance and serve Him like good servants, even though the Master seems “absent”, even though the Master is never there to force us to serve Him, prove by this that there is something to our relationship with Him that is more than mere forced slavery.

And it is this “more than slavery” aspect that justifies the universe. God could have created a world where He showed Himself and His angels to us and forced us to serve Him without choice. But He wanted more from us humans. He wants our relationship with Him to be a true love affair, filled with doubt, uncertainty, feelings of abandonment, pain, and always the choice of disloyalty. Those who make it through all of this while maintaining the purity of their heart and the innocence of their soul prove by this that they are more than slaves. And it is such people that God wants close to Him in Paradise; people who have proven that they are not mere robots serving Him, but people who could have disobeyed Him yet chose to serve Him.

If you were a powerful king, would you want to be surrounded by ministers and servants who served you because they had no choice regardless of their loyalty to you, or who served you because they loved you and because they proved their loyalty to you in the most difficult times when they had the choice to be disloyal? A wise king would only choose the second type of person to be his close companions.

Your lifetime is therefore an opportunity given to you for promotion; to be promoted into a close companion of the greatest king. As I have said elsewhere, even if the universe managed to create a single true friend of God, then that would justify the whole of creation.

Salam. In Japanese culture, it’s normal to bow down to someone out of respect. As a Muslim surrounded by Japanese society, most of the times I did this too, but then u know, the feeling of guilt triggered. I know in Islam we’re ordered not to bow down to anyone other than Allah. How to deal with this?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

The only hadith we have that prohibits bowing when greeting others is found in al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Maja and the Musnad, but it comes through Hanzala b. Abdullah who is considered weak by many scholars. So there is no strong prohibition on bowing. Shaykh Faysal Mawlawi (from the European Fatwa and Research Council) permits bowing in sports like Judo as long as it is merely a form of greeting / showing respect.

References

Fatwa from IslamOnline that mentions Shaykh Faysal's opinion (Arabic PDF)

How come you’re not answering any questions?

Unfortunately I have had a bad episode of chronic fatigue that has disabled me from doing most kinds of work. Alhamdulillah it seems to be passing now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

if a man and a woman have sex before marriage and still marry eachother is allah still going to punish them

If they repent then there will be no punishment inshaAllah. Please see: How to repent from zina (sex outside of marriage)

selam Is this dua mandatory before prayer and if one is not native Arab speaker is it ok if u mispronounce sometimes by mistake. I have hard time with arabic. subhanaka allahumma wa bihamdika wa tabarak ismuka wa tala jaduka va la ilaaha ghayruka sorry if dua wa misspelled.

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

That dua is not mandatory, and there is no issue with mispronouncing it. What matters is your sincerity and your understanding of the dua.

salam Alaykum, I have this friend who is a guy. but we are just friends. no more than that. we don't like each other. we talk about the people we find attractive. and we are there for each other when we need to talk. is this okay? wishes the best thank you

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

Please see this previous answer: Can a Muslim woman have male friends? The Islamic view of having friends of the opposite sex

What's your writing process? How do you pick your books to discuss and how long does it take when you write essays or long answers?

I read books according to what interests me. My three main interests are Islamic studies, Western thought (philosophy and literature) and sociology / life sciences (everything to do with the study of humans, including biology, economics, population genetics, law, etc.).

I can sometimes write an essay in one sitting (3-4 hours) when I have the inspiration and energy to do it. The same applies to long answers. I do not have any systematic writing process; if I can write I can write regardless of distractions, stress or duties. I do not believe in any methodology for improving my ability to write, or in creating a certain environment (such as quietness, etc.). The ability to write for me is entirely a mental phenomenon. I suffer from multiple illnesses that sometimes prevent me to write for weeks at a time (I have, or may have, chronic fatigue syndrome). I have spent years trying to find a cure for my condition, and the things that have helped me most are olive leaf extract, hemp oil and gamma-tocopherol (a type of vitamin E).

I'm Muslim, tomboy, lesbian and I hate myself I tried to be normal but I just can't what should I do?

I understand the difficulty of your situation. My advice is to accept yourself as you are; you didn’t ask to be this way. My second advice is to carry out your Islamic duties as best as you can. Ask God to guide you and help you and He will do so. He has infinite powers, you have little power on your own. He can give you a meaningful and productive life regardless of your sexual orientation. Please also see:

• Gender dysphoria in Islam
• Living as a Muslim and a homosexual

“إِنَّهُۥ عَلَىٰ رَجْعِهِۦ لَقَادِرٌ .يَخْرُجُ مِنۢ بَيْنِ ٱلصُّلْبِ وَٱلتَّرَآئِبِ. خُلِقَ مِن مَّآءٍ دَافِقٍ. فَلْيَنظُرِ ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ مِمَّ خُلِقَ” “Sura al Tariq. 86 : 5-8” So I have often heard this verse being used as evidence for Quran being scientifically inaccurate because it seems to imply semen comes from between the backbone and the ribs which we know isn’t true. I want to know if this is truly what the verse means and if not I would love to know what it actually says.

That verse can actually be considered one of the proofs of the truth of the Quran, because semen does not come from the testicles; it comes from the seminal vesicles that happen to be in the belly, and the verse is speaking of semen, not sperm. Sperm, of course, comes from the testicles. But the sperms have to merge with other materials in the seminal vesicles, and the result is sperm. So when a man ejaculates, the seminal fluid comes from the belly as the verse suggests.

Salamalaykum Brother, In you essay it says to ask god for a meaningful life, but I'm afraid it could mean asking for something negative. I want to ask god, but dont want to pay the price for it, because I've gone through alot already. Could you tell me if there any consquences to asking god for a meaningful life? Jazakallah Brother.

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

Wanting to be close to God and asking Him to make your life meaningful will certainly have a price. But the reality is that if you do not do this, you will still go through difficulties, it is just that they will be pointless and will lead nowhere. So you either choose God and suffer meaningful difficulties that help build your character and turn you into an admirable person, or turn away from God and run into life’s many pointless annoyances and problems.

This is what I have noticed in my own life; being close to God and obeying Him takes away all the pointless annoyances and hindrances of daily life, but it does not take away all difficulties. There is always challenge after challenge to overcome.

So the difference is between choosing a Mentor who will help you be the most admirable person you can be, or ignoring the Mentor and going through life without a guide and facing all kinds of unnecessary difficulties that do not make you a better person.

I encourage you to be courageous, to face God sincerely and to let Him manage your fate for you. He can take you places you never imagined. Do not be like all those people who, while believing in God, are too cowardly to truly connect with Him and are willing to accept whatever He places in their path.

It is the difference between choosing growth or stagnation.

What’s the point of life? I can’t seem to find any meaning in it.

The point of this universe is the creation of true friends of God. As I have said elsewhere, the possibility of creating a single true friend of God may be sufficient to justify the creation of the whole universe, especially when you consider the fact that it costs God nothing to create a universe.

God says:

I did not create the jinn and the humans except to worship Me.

The Quran, verse 51:56.

He also says:

The life of this world is nothing but diversion and play, and the Home of the Hereafter is the Life, if they only knew.

The Quran, verse 29:64.

So everything in this life is a silly game except for the worship of God, which is the purpose of life.

By “friend of God” I mean saintly individuals who love God and serve Him despite the fact that they have no hard evidence of His existence and despite life’s difficulties. For more on “friends of God” and the purpose of this universe please see my essay: Why God Allows Evil to Exist, and Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

I dont have good relations with the people around me. I feel like I have no one. Growing up I had no mentor. Maybe thats why I have made some mistakes. Do you have any advice for someone like me?

First, realize that you cannot guide yourself. No matter how much you try, without God’s aid you can never be a well-guided person. So the first step is to start to sincerely ask for God’s guidance every day. This is the most important thing you can do.

The second thing to do is to read the Quran daily. The Quran is the best mentor and will help you grow your character and correct any flaws in it.

The third thing is to read the sayings of the great scholars and to try to emulate them. Check out the pages: The Sayings of Ibn al-Jawzi and The Sayings of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. Maybe buy the books and keep them close to you, reading a few pages every day.

Salam Brother, You've said in your essay to ask god for forgiveness, guidance and mercy. Would it be an insult to ask god for specific traits, for example, give me the ability to do good?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

My opinion on that has actually changed recently and I now believe that we should pray to God for all things, including the general things mentioned in the essay and any specific thing we want, even something as small as praying to God to help you find your keys when you have lost them. Asking God for things is a form of worship and we should do as much of it as we can.

However, the attitude mentioned in the essay is the right attitude; that is, while we can constantly pray for specific things, we should always be prepared for God to choose something else for us. We should never attempt to “force” God’s hand by praying for something exact and getting upset when it doesn’t come about. The proper attitude is to feel like a helpless servant who constantly wishes for his/her Master’s help while always loving the Master regardless of whether the Master makes their wish come true or not.

Is gender reassignment surgery halal if the person is a trans naturally and not cosmetically, and if not, what does Islam instruct trans Muslims to do to help in their lives, and are there any special exceptions for them such as in attire and marriage etc?

The Qatari Fatwa Authority permits gender reassignment surgery on the condition that the person has a medical condition where their apparent sex is different from their “real” (internal / genetic) sex. For example a person with androgen insensitivity syndrome can be genetically male without developing male genitalia.

As for gender reassignment for those who feel psychologically to belong to the opposite gender, this is generally forbidden. But opinions on this issue are still in the development stage and may change in the future. Giving a genetically-male person female hormones (as it is done with those who change their sex) may have extremely negative long-term consequences for the person’s health, and since the rise in gender reassignment is recent, there are not many long-term studies on its effects.

References

• Fatwa from the Qatari Fatwa Authority (Arabic PDF)

Salaam. I've heard many people talk about end of days, but you said that it isn't mentioned in The Quran. What are your thoughts and arguments regarding that?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

The Quran puts very little stress on the signs of the end of the world, and if you read it carefully you will realize that the end of the world could be tomorrow or it could be in 100,000 years (or longer). For this reason I am not a fan of “end of days” literature (and most of it comes from questionable hadiths).

Is it okay to ask for gods mercy for yourself?

It is permitted to pray for yourself only for whatever you want. There are many examples in hadith in which the Prophet PBUH prays for himself. He also instructed others to do the same, as in this hadith:

Abu Malik Ashaja'i reported on the authority of his father that whenever a person embraced Islam, Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) instructed him to recite:

" O Allah, grant me pardon, have mercy upon me, direct me to the path of righteousness and provide me sustenance."

Sahih Muslim 2697 a

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 she sad please I can't buy it because I don't have enough money . can you please teach me how to do. I'm not going to make it for sale. I want to do for my house. After that I sad OK sis. I teach her. And after that she start selling reupholster furniture. I ask her that sister you promised me that your not going to sell it. And she block me from all the app and everything stop.I'm very hurt. Don't known what to do. They have another business and 2 expensive car and now reupholster businesses still they live council house How.

Perhaps it would help to consider it a blessing that you were able to find out her bad character. As for her competing with your business, I wouldn’t worry about it. God provides for us from where we do not expect if we are obedient servants.

Best wishes.

Assalamualaikum I wanted to know about Islam's stance on the consumption of camel urine. I read somewhere that a group of people was asked to drink it by the prophet(PBUH). Is that Hadith authentic? Also, do other versions of this narration (which do not mention camel urine) exist?

The hadith mentioning it is authentic. I haven’t studied the hadiths that mention camel urine as I do not consider it an important issue, especially since scientists have discovered camel urine to have medicinal properties. The most important benefit is its ability to kill microbes and prevent bacterial infections:

• The inhibitory effect of camels urine on mycotoxins and fungal growth
• Camel urine components display anti-cancer properties in vitro
• The unique medicinal properties of camel products: A review of the scientific evidence
• Cytotoxicity of the urine of different camel breeds on the proliferation of lung cancer cells, A549
•  In vitro assessment of the antimicrobial activity and biochemical properties of camel’s urine against some human pathogenic microbes