Posts Tagged ‘ fatwa ’

Girls education mandatory – an uninteresting fatwa…

Submitted by admin3 on 17 May 2010 – 9:36pm.

By TwoCircles.net staff reporter[……]

Lucknow: In a fatwa issued on Monday the Darul Uloom Firangi Mahal of Lucknow has made it mandatory on all muslims to make efforts for providing education to girls. The fatwa came as a silver lining after a series of fatwas issued by Islamic seminary Darul Uloom, Deoband attracted much media attention reportedly painted as anti-women.

However the fatwa remains silent on co-education and intermingling of girls in schools, colleges and educational institutions. “The fatwa is delivered on the subject asked by any person. This is a different subject and presently we are not saying anything on it,” said Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahli who delivered the fatwa. He however maintained that girls should remain within decent limits during their studies.

At Lucknow, the fatwa was issued by the Darul Ifta of the Firangi Mahal in a written querry by Dr Huma Khwaja on Monday. The written reply by Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahli quoted extensively from the Islamic shariah and hadeeth. “It is compulsory for all muslims that they arrangements for educating the girls of their family. The present poor conditions of the muslims is due to lack of education. Children usually spent most of their time with their mothers and when she is educated, the upbringing of the family will be better,” said Firangi Mahli in the fatwa.

The fatwa also reads that besides the female progeny it is also mentioned that female servants of the family should be provided education. The fatwa underlines the importance of education among girls to a great extent stating that Prophet also has stated that education is a must for the muslims and muslims should give special attention to the education of girls.

“Islam believes in enlightenment and it is possible only through education. It is the first stepping stone for social reform and progress. So muslims should not be in any confusion and strive for attaining education including girls educations,” said Firangi Mahli.

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Wonder how many media houses bothered to publish this news? Well,doesn’t it qualify to be sensationalized?

2010
05/18
CATEGORY
World Around
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10 comments

Fatwa against Working Women

For Favour of publication

To,

The Editor

Recent controversy over Muslim women’s participation in public life and working in offices to support family is highly unfortunate and, if continued, may harm the interest of whole Muslim community. Recent fatwa in this regard from Deoband Seminary must be opposed by intellectual Muslims vehemently. By these fatwas , narrow-minded clerics try to keep common Muslims shackled.

Historians, both Muslims and non-Muslims, rightly claim that long back Islam brought about liberation of woman from bondage and gave her equal rights and recognized her individuality as a human being. Under Law, based on Quran and Sunnah, her status was greatly improved in Islamic Societies. Well known historian, William Montgomery Watt explains: “At the time Islam began, the conditions of women were terrible – they had no right to own property, were supposed to be the property of the man, and if the man died everything went to his sons. Prophet Muhammad, however, by instituting rights of property ownership, inheritance, education and divorce, gave women basic safeguards”.

As a result of rather revolutionary laws for women, early Islamic societies saw Muslim women being involved in diverse occupations and economic activities. They worked in Hospitals as physicians and nurses. They were employed even in Secret Services (part of Postal Department) during the period of Abbasids and Islamic Spain. Maulana Mohammad Akram Nadwi has compiled biographies of 8,000 female jurists during Islamic Rise. Orientalist Ignaz Goldziher estimated that 15 percent of medieval hadith (Prophetic Traditions) scholars were women. Women were also important Transmitters of Hadith compiled in Sahih Sitthah (Six Collections of Prophetic Traditions).

After fifteenth century, things started changing in the Islamic world against the interest of women. Harsh restrictions on women and general violation of human rights began. Local culture and patriarchal constraints played instrumental roles in restricting Muslim women’s educational and economic participation. This was the period of Decline (Fall) of the Islamic World. Now the situation has gone so bad that many people believe that Muslim women are highly oppressed in Islamic Societies. But one must understand that these oppressive practices do not come from Islam.

Recent claims of Mr. L.K. Advani and Mr. Jaswant Singh that Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah was a secular leader, may not be correct. But it can not be denied that Mr. Jinnah and his sister Fatima always promoted the cause of oppressed women. It was in this context that Mr. Jinnah, in his speech of 1944 (March 10, AMU, Aligarh) lamented, “No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you. We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live”. At another occasion (March 25, 1940 ) he said, “I have always maintained that no nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men. No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men”. (Websites)

Your’s faithfully,

Dr. M.I.H. Farooqi

(Dr. M. Iqtedar Husain Farooqi)

Retd Deputy Director, NBRI, Lucknow/Secretary, Sir Syed Scientific Society, Lucknow

C / 3-2 Shahid Apartments, Golaganj, Lucknow – 18

Tel.: 0522-2210683, Mobile: 9839901066

Email: mihfarooqi@gmail.com


p.s: Got this as a mail..

Everybody Loves A Bad Fatwa

Posted: 14 May 2010 03:33 AM PDT

Everybody loves a bad fatwa. And why not? It fills column space for newpapers; It brings in viewers for Television channels; it plays into the image of Muslims as a backward community for communalists; and it gives activists a chance to reinforce their secular credentials. Never mind that this fatwa will not change the lives of millions of Muslims and text of the fatwa could be not what has been reported or maybe the said fatwa doesn’t even exist.

Fatwa is nothing but a religious opinion from a religious scholar to a question asked by a Muslim on a particular situation that he or she may be facing at the time or might face in future and doesn’t know what should be an appropriate way to act in light of Islamic teachings. A mufti then issues a fatwa or opinion based on his understanding of the question and Islam. Just as different medical doctors will have a difference of opinion regarding a diagnosis and treatment plan, it is common for different muftis to give different opinion for the same question.

At least once every year, on a slow news day, some enterprising journalist finds a fatwa that will fit the stereotype about Muslims being backward or Muslim scholars being ignorant or out of touch with the real world or all of the above reasons, and will publish a news story based on this ‘prized’ fatwa. Let’s take the example of the fatwa issued by Darul Uloom Deoband that is making the round in news cycles this week.

The fatwa in question was issued more than a month ago and one can ask the question, why is there a sudden interest by the media in this particular fatwa? A fatwa that is only a sentence long has had numerous newspaper column space and hours of airtime devoted to it. The media bosses have decided that it is an important fatwa because it has all the right keywords to keep the attention of readers & viewers, and therefore will keep a flow of revenue coming in.

One has to question the motive of the major media regarding the publicizing of a fatwa. There is more to this than meets the eye when the Indian media that is obsessed with breaking news and exclusives these days picks up a fatwa that was issued more than a month ago. Within 24 hours of this news being flashed on NDTV on May 11th, 2010, all major media networks of India had reported it. And every new report had added information that was not even there. Let’s look at the fatwa first.


Question number 21031 to Darul Ifta (house of fatwas) of Darul Uloom Deoband asked by someone in India states: “Asalamu-Alikum: Can muslim women in india do Govt. or Pvt. Jobs? Shall their salary be Halal or Haram or Prohibited?” Answer published on April 4th, 2010 simply answers it as: “It is unlawful for Muslim women to do job in government or private institutions where men and women work together and women have to talk with [to] men frankly and without veil.”


Headlines

Now let’s look at some of the headlines of news reports about this fatwa:

  • Fatwa against working Muslim women: NDTV
  • Fatwa to working Muslim women: Don’t talk to male colleagues: NDTV
  • Women’s earnings haram, says Deoband: The Times of India [Print edition]
  • Deoband fatwa: It’s illegal for women to work, support family: The Times of India[Online]
  • Don’t talk to male colleagues: Darul Uloom’s fatwa to all working women: DNA
  • Muslim women can’t work: Deoband: Samay Live
  • Darul Uloom says Muslim women can’t work in public: India Today
  • Now, fatwa against working women: Indian Express
  • Women Working with Men Un-Islamic: Deoband: Outlook
  • Fatwa against men-women proximity at workplace: Zee News

In case you ever wondered why there isnt a successful supermarket tabloid in India, here is your answer. There is no need for one because major media houses in India do that job very well.

Source :  http://indianmuslims.in/everybody-loves-a-bad-fatwa/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+IndianMuslimsBlog+(Indian+Muslims)

2010
05/14
CATEGORY
World Around
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16 comments

Deoband fatwa: It’s illegal for women to work, support family

…as if your fatwa is gonna gulp all muslims out here…..

I guess it is time to have a look at my post Fatwa Drama-Behind the curtain..

Some people claim that the Quran explicitly prohibits Muslim women from going out of their homes. To support this claim, they often refer to the following verses in the Surah Al-Ahzab of the Quran:
033.032 O ye wives of the Prophet! Ye are not like any other women. If ye keep your duty (to Allah), then be not soft of speech, lest he in whose heart is a disease aspire (to you), but utter customary speech.
033.033 And stay in your houses. Bedizen not yourselves with the bedizenment of the Time of Ignorance. Be regular in prayer, and pay the poor-due, and obey Allah and His messenger. Allah’s wish is but to remove uncleanness far from you, O Folk of the Household, and cleanse you with a thorough cleansing.
What they ignore or forget is that the above-quoted commandment ordering the wives of the Prophet to stay in their houses was applicable precisely to them, and not to all Muslim women. According to some scholars of the Quran, Umar Faruq advised the Prophet to ask his wives to adopt seclusion within their homes because all sorts of people, good as well as bad, used to come to the Prophet’s house to meet him. It was on this occasion, they say, that these verses were revealed.

There is even early Islamic precedent for Muslim women working outside their homes. For instance, the Caliph Umar appointed a woman, Shifa Bint Abdullah, as the administrator of the market in Madinah. Obviously, for her work she had to regularly visit the market, inspect how people were conducting their businesses and interact and talk with the businessmen, most of who must have been men. Today, in contrast, many ulema might balk at a woman taking up such a job. They might argue that a market is a centre of materialism, the very opposite of spiritualism, and that a woman working out of her house, and, that too in a market, would cause strife, and that she might even lose her morals. Yet, the Caliph Umar appointed Shifa Bint Abdullah to this post although he could well have chosen a man for this purpose had he wanted to.

They say :

There are several obvious guidelines that should be followed if a woman must work:

First, she must obtain consent from her guardian or husband (if married), who may offer a broader perspective on how her work may influence the family and its functioning.

Secondly, a woman must ensure that her home and children are properly cared for. Her husband may be of assistance in this area, or outside help may be employed.

Thirdly, care must be taken to choose employment that is appropriate and fits with her skills. Obviously, any work that deals with forbidden activities, services, or products would not be allowed but there is a world of possibilities available.

Forthly, any job that prevents her from fulfilling any of her Islamic obligations, like Hijaab or Prayer for example, is not an option to be considered.

Fifthly, while at the job, a woman must maintain her inwardly and outwardly modesty and chastity.

Which woman on earth,irrespective of her religion,goes to work,without fulfilling these requirements? Maybe there are a few who don’t care for husband or kids,and yes,there are more number of men who don’t bring home any money and care for wife and kids. I don’t see any fatwa against them..

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Edited to add :

No ‘fatwa’ against working women, says Deoband

Darul Uloom Deoband, India’s foremost Islamic seminary, on Wednesday denied it had asked Muslim women not to work along with men and said it only suggested that working women should dress “properly.”

“We had only given an opinion based on Sharia that women need to be properly covered in government and private offices,” said Maulana Adnan Munshi, spokesman for the seminary in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

He denied a media report that the seminary was opposed to men and women working together.

“No new fatwa was issued,” Maulana Munshi told IANS on telephone, adding that even the opinion on dress code was given when a Muslim woman desired to know if women could go to work without a ‘purdah’ or veil.

“That too is one-and-a-half months old,” he said.

The Deoband institution also denied having issued a ‘fatwa’ whereby a husband’s dependence on his wife’s earnings was declared illegal.

“We have not issued any such ‘fatwa’ declaring a woman’s financial support to the family as illegal. I fail to understand how such a news was flashed across a section of the media,” Mufti Mohammad Shakeel of the ‘Fatwa’ department told IANS over telephone from Deoband.

According to him, the only case where the income of the lady of the house could be treated as ‘haram’ or illegal was when the means of her earnings were unlawful.

He stressed that neither had such a fatwa been issued in the past, nor was there any scope for such a ‘fatwa’ to be issued in future as it was against the basic spirit of Islam, which believed in equality between man and wife.

“I would not be surprised if someone was misusing the name of this esteemed Deoband institution to paint a distorted picture of the Shariat by projecting such a view,” Mufti Shakeel said.

Maulana Khalid Rasheed, Naib Imam of Lucknow’s Idgah who also heads the city’s oldest seminary Firangi Mahal, said Islam did not discriminate between men and women.

“There was no question of the tenets of Islam dismissing a women’s earnings through legitimate means as illegal. A woman has as much right to contribute financially towards running a family household as her husband,” he said.

But the media report claiming that the Deoband seminary had issued a “fatwa” against working women has led to sharp reactions from leaders and scholars from the Muslim community.

2010
05/12
CATEGORY
Islamic Thoughts
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8 comments

Fatwa Drama-Behind the curtain..

Everyday there is a new fatwa occupying the newspaper columns..Fatwas ranges from Sania’s skirt to Zardari’s flirt and now finally a newer version,Harbhajan asked to apologize for dancing..Religious people are busy making fun of themselves..Today,the word fatwa is something associated with a joke.Everybody seems to be busy issuing fatwa on how others should behave,how I should walk,How I should laugh,How I should pee etc etc etc..Amidst the suffocating world of fatwas,I’d like to share some insight into how and what of it ,and see for yourself how these people today have playing circus -fatwa circus..

 

 

I have seen people(mostly non-Indians) looking for fatwas on every single thing in life..Most of them fail to understand that Fatwa is just an opinion of a scholar and we are not bound to follow it ..As every person in this world has an opinion,Scholar too has on opinion,but only dumb people would follow it blindly just for the sake of it..No matter who says it,the point lies in choosing the right and wise..What we see and hear is only ‘fatwa’ by ‘Sheikh’ Osama ..A rant is not a fatwa..But we hardly hear about radical Deobands issuing and signing fatwa on terrorism..Media is busy digging scoops..So pls don’t blame them for this.Let us look ourselves what is difference between a rant and a fatwa.

 

In his book, Al-Fatwa Bayna al-indibat Wa-at-tasayyub, Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, states the following:

“Lexically, the Arabic word fatwa means to give a satisfactory answer regarding a certain issue.

 

 

In the technical language of Shari`ah, the word fatwa clarifies the Islamic ruling in an answer given to question or a set of questions usually related to an Islamic issue. It does not make any difference whether the questioner is a person or a group of persons.

 

It stands to reason that fatwa is not an easy task, but rather an arduous one. Both the Rightly-Guided Caliphs as well as all the Companions of the Prophet used to show extreme caution before giving Fatwas. Sometimes, they’d completely decline from carrying out the process. They held deep respect for the person who did not hasten in delivering Fatwas. When asked about a certain religious issue, the Prophet’s Companions , used to forward Fatwas to one another, passing them around in an attempt to avoid shouldering the heavy responsibility of answering them.

 

The Prophet,said: “He who issues Fatwas without having sound religious knowledge will bear the burden of the one to whom he issued a Fatwa.”

 

Imam Ahmad said that the one nominated to hold the position of Mufti, should possess the following characteristics:

1. He should have a pure intention to guide the questioner and never to misguide him.

2. He should have deep insight, equanimity and tranquility.

3. He should have a firm religious background and deep knowledge.

4. In his capacity as a religious leader, the Mufti should have adequate means to earn his livelihood.

5. Finally, he should be aware of daily life and contemporary issues.”

Moreover, Sheikh M. S. Al-Munajjid, a prominent Saudi Muslim lecturer and author, adds:

“Not every individual has the right to issue Fatwas and make pronouncements on matters. A Mufti must be qualified and of profound knowledge. He has to be able to know the evidence, the wording and apparent meaning of the texts, what is Sahih (authentic) and what is Da`if (weak), An-Nasikh wal-Mansukh (the abrogating and the abrogated), what is specific in application and what is general, and what is stated in brief and what is mentioned in detail.

This needs lengthy experience and practice, knowledge of the various branches of Fiqh and where to look for information, knowledge of the opinions of the scholars and jurists, and memorization or knowledge of the religious texts. The Mufti should be knowledgeable and rich in life experience. We cannot imagine him to live in an ivory tower and turn a blind eye to life around him.

Undoubtedly, issuing Fatwas without having qualification to do so is a grave sin. Allah has warned us against that, saying: “And speak not, concerning that which your own tongues qualify (as clean or unclean), the falsehood: “This is lawful, and this is forbidden,’ so that ye invent a lie against Allah. Lo! Those who invent a lie against Allah will not succeed.”(An-Nahl: 116)”

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 When it comes to contemporary issues,and on how to deal with different fatwas on single topic..

The eminent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, adds: “When there are conflicting Fatwas, the Muslim is supposed to choose the opinion which he deems sound according to his true conscience.“

  

I wonder why this small logic doesn’t enter some people’s thick head.God has not made us just to act as puppets dancing to somebody else’s tune.. Use some brain and read and learn,rather than just follwoing bainwashed concepts.. I hope the post put some light into understanding what the technical term fatwa means..

 

 

If muslims have issues with people teasing them about some ‘fatwas’ as like Salman’s and Sania’s and like ,it is our own fault that we are not talking loud and for letting radicals speak for us..Its high time that the majority  stood up and talk against these random and rubbish ‘fatwas’..Respect and follow the right one and have courage to talk against the wrong ones..I hope I made some sense..

 

Thanks for reading..

 

Edited to add :

Read a more comprehended article regarding this,

What is a fatwa?

A fatwa is an opinion delivered by a learned scholar versed in Koran and Hadith, or the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad, on a specific issue. However, it is not an edict or a law, and Muslims are not bound to follow it.

“Fatwa is a religious opinion coming from a scholar, who is qualified to give an opinion on a matter,” Jamal Badawi, professor of religious studies at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, N.S, told CBC News. “It is like any law, people can choose to follow it or disobey it — just a moral authority.”

Why are fatwas issued? What purpose do they serve?

A fatwa could be issued on any matter, says Badawi, from a difficult problem of law to an everyday issue. “It could be fatwa on how to pray, what kind of charity that you should pay, how to fast,” he says. And, some fatwas are prompted by current events, says Badawi.

“When there are events of that magnitude that affect a larger number of people, this sometimes is a good justification for an Islamic scholar or council of scholars to come forward in order to remove any misunderstanding, and misconception,” he says.

Fatwas serve two purposes, according to Badawi, who is also a member of the European Council of Fatwa and Research. He says fatwas bring awareness about an issue and “clarify the true image image of Islam in the minds of the public.”

Although fatwas are not law, Muslims may follow them, depending on their comfort level, says freelance journalist Zuhair Kashmeri.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/islam/fatwa.html

 

 

Sources:

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503543916

 

 http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503545700

2008
10/11
CATEGORY
Islamic Thoughts
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