Author Archives: Ikram Hawramani

Ikram Hawramani

About Ikram Hawramani

The creator of IslamicArtDB.

IslamQA: Is it sinful to curse or swear when startled or angry?

Hello, i want to ask, is it a sin if i swear/curse when i'm angry or startled? Thank you in advance

Hello,

The Quran says:

God does not like the public uttering of bad language, unless someone was wronged. God is Hearing and Knowing. (The Quran, verse 4:148)

So speaking curses aloud is not recommended, so if you have to curse, it’s best to do it only in your head.

IslamQA: A Christian who enjoys reading the Quran

I am a catholic but I find it very comforting to read the Quran. I do it privately because in the west it can be a little problematic you know but my question is I am catholic is it bad to find god thru another religion

I am a Muslim and I listened to Alexander Scourby’s reading of the King James Version. It made me shiver and brought tears to my eyes in many places. To me the Bible and the Quran come from the same place, the Quran is just like a cleaner version of the same “drug”. So I see nothing wrong with you enjoying the Quran, it is very admirable that you are able to leap over theological differences and appreciate God’s words for what they are. I wish all Christians could do that.

The Quran says this about some Christians who read the Quran:

83. And when they hear what was revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears, as they recognize the truth in it. They say, “Our Lord, we have believed, so count us among the witnesses.”

84. “And why should we not believe in God, and in the truth that has come to us, and hope that our Lord will include us among the righteous people?”

85. God will reward them for what they say—Gardens beneath which rivers flow, where they will stay forever. Such is the reward of the righteous. (The Quran, verses 5:83-85)

Note that this doesn’t imply that they have to convert to Islam to appreciate the truth of the Quran. The Quran never says that Christians have to convert to Islam to be considered good and righteous people by God (despite what many scholars say). The Quran says to Muslims who like to think that only they will attain salvation:

123. It is not in accordance with your wishes, nor in accordance with the wishes of the People of the Scripture. Whoever works evil will pay for it, and will not find for himself, besides God, any protector or savior.

124. But whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, and is a believer—those will enter Paradise, and will not be wronged a whit. (The Quran, verses 4:123-124).

The part where it says to Muslims “[i]t is not in accordance with your wishes” couldn’t be any clearer, but unfortunately some people ignore it. There are of course many scholars, especially those of al-Azhar University, who agree with my way of thinking.

Follow-up question

Hello again! I’m the catholic girl again! I’m on mobile so i don’t know if you have a faq section but can you please suggest some scholars reading or name some authors because I really want to get more invested into religion and particularly in the Quran. Thank you for being so understanding and always being so kind and thorough with your thoughts

Hello,

You are very welcome. You may be interested in Being Muslim and The New Muslim’s Field Guide, which explain the basics of Islam. My own book An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims explains in detail how Muslims really think and what Islam is about (free online versions here).

Many people have found my book The Sayings of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah very helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of the spiritual side of Islam (free online version here).

Books by Dr. Jonathan Brown (a convert to Islam) are all very good.

If you want to learn more about the Quran, many people highly recommend The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary.

Best wishes.

IslamQA: Are we patient if we complain silently to God?

If we complaint silently in hopes that God listen to our hearts, does that count as patience?

Sure. Complaining to God is what the Prophets did, peace be upon them, when they were being patient.

85. They said, “By God, you will not stop remembering Joseph, until you have ruined your health, or you have passed away.”

86. He said, “I only complain of my grief and sorrow to God, and I know from God what you do not know.” (The Quran, verses 12:85-86)

Best wishes.

Follow-up question

can we get back to the “complaining to god” conversation. if we are dealing with a frustrating situation where we are incapable of digest what’s going on, if I say in my mind “this is unfair I deserve better, when will the good things happen to me” isn’t it that ungrateful, am I not being a brat because so far god has been good to me isn’t it family-wise and health-wise. I mean he has favored me in other areas so if I complain wouldnt that be ungrateful

It depends on the tone of your conversation with God. You can state your situation to Him without blaming Him or acting as if He has wronged you. The Quran gives us a very beautiful example of the right attitude in the story of Prophet Ayyub (Biblical Job), peace be upon him:

83. And Job, when he cried out to his Lord: “Great harm has afflicted me, and you are the Most Merciful of the merciful.”

84. So We answered him, lifted his suffering, and restored his family to him, and their like with them—a mercy from Us, and a reminder for the worshipers. (The Quran, verses 21:83-84)

Instead of asking for anything, he simply states his condition and tells God He is merciful. God treats his complaint as if it is a prayer and answers it by taking away his difficulty.

IslamQA: Are hadiths not in Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim less authentic?

Assalamualaikum, if a hadith is not in the top authentic hadith books e.g Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi etc and instead says something like Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah should you feel comfortable in being especially doubtful of it?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

Each scholar had their own way of verifying hadiths. Just because it is not in Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim it does not mean the hadith is lower in quality. What many Muslims don’t know is that Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim are not meant to be encyclopedias of hadith. They are handbooks for legal scholars, making it easy to quickly look up hadiths on questions like fasting or Hajj. They intentionally did not include many high-quality hadiths that were not relevant to their aims. A book like Sahih Ibn Hibban is perhaps as good as al-Bukhari. Also note that Sahih al-Bukhari contains many low-quality hadiths that were criticized by other scholars, and Sahih Muslim is perhaps five times as bad when it comes to including low-quality hadiths, because Imam al-Bukhari had higher standards and was more knowledgeable about the reliability of hadith transmitters.

Note that some collections intentionally include many weak hadiths, such as the Musnad of Imam Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi’s collection. If the collection’s title does not have the word “Sahih” in it then it is likely to contain weak hadiths too, because the scholars’ intention was simply to collect as many hadiths as they could for research purposes regardless of their authenticity.

Personally I do not differentiate at all between different hadith collections, I combine chains from all the collections in my studies, determining the hadith’s authenticity by looking up the reliability of each transmitter.

IslamQA: When does religious belief become toxic?

In what condition does a religious belief becomes dogmatic and toxic to its follower?

When a person thinks that Islam is meant to replace their humanity. Below is an excerpt from my book An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims on this question.

George Orwell and George Eliot

George Orwell, in his Road to Wigan Pier, has relevant things to say about this discussion:

for the food-crank is by definition a person willing to cut himself off from human society in hopes of adding five years onto the life of his carcase; that is, a person out of touch with common humanity.1

In Orwell’s time, the food-crank was what the extremist vegan is today, someone picky about food and willing to inconvenience, insult and look down on those around them for the sake of their ideas about eating. His critique for the preference of ideology over common humanity among certain types of people extends to Catholics, in a passage that could equally apply to some Muslims today:

One of the analogies between Communism and Roman Catholicism is that only the ‘educated’ are completely orthodox. The most immediately striking thing about the English Roman Catholics – I don’t mean the real Catholics, I mean the converts: Ronald Knox, Arnold Lunn et hoc genus— is their intense self-consciousness. Apparently they never think, certainly they never write, about anything but the fact that they are Roman Catholics; this single fact and the self-praise resulting from it form the entire stock-in-trade of the Catholic literary man. But the really interesting thing about these people is the way in which they have worked out the supposed implications of orthodoxy until the tiniest details of life are involved. Even the liquids you drink, apparently, can be orthodox or heretical; hence the campaigns of Chesterton, ‘Beachcomber’, etc., against tea and in favour of beer. According to Chesterton, tea-drinking is ‘pagan’, while beer-drinking is ‘Christian’, and coffee is ‘the puritan’s opium’. It is unfortunate for this theory that Catholics abound in the ‘Temperance’ movement and the greatest tea-boozers in the world are the Catholic Irish; but what I am interested in here is the attitude of mind that can make even food and drink an occasion for religious intolerance. A working-class Catholic would never be so absurdly consistent as that. He does not spend his time in brooding on the fact that he is a Roman Catholic, and he is not particularly conscious of being different from his non-Catholic neighbours. Tell an Irish dock-labourer in the slums of Liverpool that his cup of tea is ‘pagan’, and he will call you a fool. And even in more serious matters he does not always grasp the implications of his faith. In the Roman Catholic homes of Lancashire you see the crucifix on the wall and the Daily Worker2 on the table. It is only the ‘educated’ man, especially the literary man, who knows how to be a bigot. And, mutatis mutandis, it is the same with Communism. The creed is never found in its pure form in a genuine proletarian.3

Many expect Muslims to act exactly like this minority of Catholics Orwell describes, seemingly eating religion for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Orwell contrasts this religion-obsessed mindset among certain Catholic intellectuals with the mindset of ordinary Catholics, who better represent real, embodied Catholicism.

For the average Catholic living in a Catholic society, religion is not something to bring into every discussion. It is, in fact, something that is very rarely talked about. Real Catholics embody Catholicism as humans, rather than ignoring common humanity, things like politeness and decency toward others, in the name of religion. A religion-obsessed Catholic, similar to a recent convert to an extremist form of Islam, tries to make their religion replace their humanity, making it explain everything and be everything to them. This causes them to join a class of bigots that are out of touch with the rest of society.

A Catholic like that, instead of enjoying the loving atmosphere of Christmas morning at a relative’s house, uses the occasion to lecture the family about how Christmas is really pagan. A Muslim extremist, too, if one makes the mistake of inviting her to a birthday party, will likely end up giving her friend a lecture on how a true Muslim should not celebrate such heathen practices. In this way, those who make religion replace their humanity insult many other people around them due to their belief that their being religious exempts them from common decency and make themselves a nuisance in society. This is not merely a problem of the religious; the same scenario is repeated whenever a person embraces any ideology strongly enough. A “true believer” in Marxism is going to be perfectly happy to offend everyone around them in the name of fighting capitalism.

Orwell contrasts the self-conscious, recently converted Catholic intellectuals with the millions of Catholics who have been practicing this religion for centuries. The first is a tiny minority that has a total view of religion as a replacement for common decency and culture. The second group forms the actual representative group of Catholicism, which very much respects common decency and culture. The first group is radical and wants to abolish everything in the name of religion. The second group is conservative and is happy enough to enjoy life as it is. The first group thinks mankind is raw material that can be remade. The second group understands that humans by and large remain the way they are no matter what one tries to make out of them.

The majority of Muslim men and women are like that Catholic majority. Tell any educated Muslim that their love for science fiction films makes them less “Muslim” and they will either be insulted or laugh at the foolishness of the statement.

Many Western writers about Islam are unfortunately often incapable of conceiving of a faithful Muslim who is as intelligent and independent-minded as themselves, believing that a proper Muslim is one who is a nuisance in polite society just like an extremist vegan. It is inconceivable that a man or woman of their own caliber could enter into a covenant with God to abide by His commandments and ethics, acting as His steward while maintaining a fierce individuality and independence of mind. To them, being a devout Muslim is always associated with some sort of sickness of the mind; the most devout is the most stupid because he or she is going to be the one who is best at acting like a scripture-controlled robot. They think that the only reason a Muslim can be intelligent and independent-minded is if they abandon parts of Islam.

Thus in books like Lost Enlightenment by S. Frederick Starr4, the writer does his best to stretch the evidence so that all Muslims who accomplished some great work are dismissed as actually freethinkers who did not take their faith seriously, while also having a rather snarky attitude toward great Muslim thinkers like al-Ghāzalī who were clearly orthodox. A Muslim must supposedly first give up the stupidity-promoting total religion that is Islam in order to become partly human and achieve something of human worth. Al-Ghāzalī, despite his great achievements, is worthless because he made the unforgivable sin of defending orthodoxy, which to Starr is proof that he was subhuman and twisted, since no proper human could ever be fully religious in his view.

1 George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958, 136.

2 A popular communist publication at the time.

3 Ibid., 209-210.

4 See S. Frederick Starr, Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013. See Frank Griffel’s devastating review in Die Welt des Islams 56, no. 2 (2016): 272-278.

IslamQA: Are selfies sinful or haram for women?

Salam, people say posting selfies is a sin (they tend to focus this exclusively on females tho) is this accurate? And is it a sin for the person who liked the picture? Thank you jzk

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

There is nothing inherently sinful about that. Women are allowed to show their faces and hands in public, whether in pictures, videos or real life. If there is anything wrong with selfies then it fully applies to men too.

IslamQA: Listening to the Quran as a replacement for music

Is it allowed if I listen to Quran as a replacement of music? Listening to it while playing games or doing homework etc…

The Quran commands us to be attentive when the Quran is recited, so it doesn’t seem proper to me to play it when you cannot give it full attention.

When the Quran is recited, listen to it, and pay attention, so that you may experience mercy. (The Quran, verse 7:204)

Follow up question:

salaam, in regards to the anon who asked if it’s ok to listen to the Quran while doing h/w. isn’t it better for us to have the Quran than music? Scientifically even what we listen to has an overall effect on us and it is said that a Quran is a healing. Just further wondering? Jazak khair Allah

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

I understand your point, but the Quran is not like music. It has its own requirements as the verse I quoted said. If you do something like gardening where you can focus on the recitation, then there is no issue. But if you cannot give it attention then it seems improper to me, and the many fatwas I have looked at all agree with my opinion.

You can of course listen to nasheeds, they are great for remembering God while you are busy.

IslamQA: Is it sinful to wear the hijab only sometimes?

I've often been told that either I wear hijab or I don't. I long for wearing it, but because of my family I've not yet taken the step. How ever I have had times when I've been able to without them knowing. Is there anything wrong in only wearing it once in a while when my circumstances allow me to ?

Wearing the hijab is like any other act of piety. You can do as much of it as you can, and you can ease yourself into it by wearing it when it is comfortable for you to do so. You can also start by wearing modest dresses and a hat that covers most of your hair.

Covering the hair is obligatory for women, so it’s never perfectly O.K. to show it. But God is understanding and forgiving, and the hijab is just one part of piety.

IslamQA: What is the root of all evil?

What do you think is the root of all evil?

The existence of free will. Evil is simply what comes about when humans go against God’s wishes. If humans didn’t have free will, they would have followed God’s plan perfectly and they would have committed no evil. Evil is like darkness. God is light and the further you stray away from Him the more you end up in darkness. So God is not directly responsible for evil because evil is what happens when we turn away from Him. But He is responsible for creating a system in which evil can take place.

You may be interested in my essay: Why God Allows Evil to Exist, and Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

IslamQA: Dealing with hurtful comments

Assalamualaikum & Hello, lately I heard bad comments about me and people judging me for no reason. I’ve never spoken to these people before therefore I am saddened by the fact that they would say such things about me. All this time I have been nice to everyone I meet and I try to not repeat any mistakes I’ve done in the past. These comments have been bothering me for weeks now and it is affecting my mental health and self confidence. What should I do to not let these petty comments affect me? 😞

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

Sorry to read that. Feeling pain at such occurrences is a natural part of being human. Even the Prophets (peace be upon them) felt fear or cried when something hurt them. The best course of action may be to first accept that the pain is going to be there. Then maybe read the Quran daily to strengthen your relationship with God. Once you feel really close to Him then the ordinary pains of living lose some of their power and relevance.

Best wishes.

IslamQA: Meaning of “they deem every shout to be against them” in the Quran

Assalamualaikum, in the Quran 63:4 what does it mean by "they deem every shout to be against them"? I tried to read some tafsir it said it means they think every incident or frightening thing is headed their way but that meaning doesn't seem match the translation to me? Jzk

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

According to my favorite tafsir scholar the Persian Imam al-Wahidi (d. 1075 CE), it refers to the fear and cowardice of the hypocrites. Whenever they hear someone call out some news in the marketplace, they immediately fear it might be about them giving away their hypocrisy. He says it may also refer to their feeling fear whenever they see someone talk to the Prophet PBUH, because they fear the talk may be about them and their hypocrisy.

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 if a hadith was accurate although poorly transmitted and I chose not to follow it because in my limited understanding the alternative seemed better?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

The problem is that it can be a matter of life and death. For example, by relying on low-quality hadiths, scholars ignored the text of the Quran and concluded that stoning adulterers was the punishment recommended by the Prophet PBUH, as I discuss here. We also have contradictory hadiths, such as an “authentic” one that says only bad people listen to music, and another “authentic” one where we see the Prophet PBUH listening to music and approving of it. We need a way to judge which of these authentic ones is superior. As it happens, the one approving of music is five times more authentic, as I discuss here.

So our goal in having high standards for which hadiths we accept is that we want to follow the real Prophet PBUH and to avoid following teachings falsely attributed to him, including many teachings that make him look like a bad or cruel person (as in the stoning of adulterers). A person who truly loves the Prophet PBUH will hate to see anything immoral or illogical attributed to him.

In general we have two kinds of scholars, hadith scholars who love to increase the number of authentic hadiths as much as they can (as al-Albani, may God have mercy on him) without too much concern for how these hadiths would affect our understanding and practice of Islam. Then we have fiqh scholars, scholars of Islamic law or jurisprudence, who have the difficult task of making sense of all the contradictory hadiths and finding how they will affect our understanding and practice of Islam. Scholars of fiqh have much higher standards for the hadiths they accept and in their books of legal theory (usul al-fiqh) they have very lengthy discussions on probability theory; the number of chains a hadith needs for a hadith to be considered authentic beyond doubt. Some scholars require four authentic chains (something that’s extremely rare), others say there is no set number of necessary chains, we just have to use our own hunches until our heart is content that a hadith is truly authentic.

So the issue is rather complicated, and personally I have a fiqhi approach to hadith. I see all hadiths as probabilities, not certainties, and I use probability theory to find out which ones are the most authentic.

Also note that great scholars like Imam Malik were happy to reject authentic hadiths when they had additional evidence from non-hadith sources (the opinion of the scholars of Medina, which they had inherited from the Companions without hadiths). Imam al-Shafi`i preferred an authentic hadith on how the athan should be said, which Imam Malik considered ridiculous since the athan had been said differently in Medina since the time of the Prophet PBUH. Imam al-Bukhari himself rejected perfectly authentic hadiths when he considered their contents to be ridiculous, as in a hadith that claimed something would happen within 200 years that never happened. See Dr. Jonathan Brown’s study (PDF): How We Know Early Ḥadīth Critics Did Matn Criticism and Why It’s So Hard to Find.

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 it would be halal, even if it is taken from haram animals like pigs.

Personally I prefer to consider it forbidden.

Also note that anything that is certified kosher (permissible to practicing Jews) is also automatically halal except alcohol. So if the product has a kosher symbol on it then you can use it. Most products sold in the US by large companies have kosher certification. Below are some of the most commonly seen kosher symbols.

IslamQA: Do Muslims have to stick to one madhhab?

Assalamu'alaikum what do you think of the statement "it does not matter which madhab you follow, what matters is that you choose one and follow it 100% rather than picking and choosing what you like from each one" I agree you shouldn't pick & choose, but I don't understand why you have to follow one school of thought and cannot digress in your understanding of its rules. why are we meant to seek knowledge if all the answers are preset by the schools of thought? And why do Muslims encourage that

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

That statement is actually completely ridiculous. We should always follow the opinion that seems to be most just and logical and most in agreement with the text and spirit of the Quran and Sunna, regardless of where it comes from. Please see my article: On deciding which madhhab to follow and the multi-madhhab approach

IslamQA: Struggling to leave Christianity for Islam

Assalamualaikum I've been studying Islam for the last year or so. I feel the pull and I'm grateful for the hidaya that Allah (SAW) has given me. However I struggle to part from christianity. Any advice on what to do? Or is it my own journey to make?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

I recommend that you read the Quran many times from beginning to end and see if that settles your heart. I especially recommend reading Surat al-Kahf at least once a week (personally I listen to it every day), I fall in love with God and Islam all over again every time I listen to the recitation by al-Minshawi.

If your struggle is an intellectual struggle, then learning more about Islam is the solution. You can start by reading my essays. But if your struggle is due to an uncertainty in your heart, then reading the Quran may be the best solution.

Best wishes.

IslamQA: Donating to charity while being in debt in Islam

Assalamualaikum, is it valid to donate money from loans? E.G student loans? And can you donate to charity from your own earnings whilst in debt (provided you are paying off the debt incrementally with the same earnings?) jazak Allah khairun

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

Unfortunately I cannot find any fatwas on the permissibility of donating from interest-bearing loans. As for donating to charity while you are in debt, some scholars, such as al-Bukhari and al-Nawawi, consider it forbidden, since creditors have the greater right to the money, while others consider it permissible but disliked.

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