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Showing posts from September, 2012

Riba and Currency Exchange (Sarf)

Unfortunately in this secular age often Muslims do not seek to learn the Shariah rules properly before engaging in actions thus fall into sin for not learning the rule before acting and secondly run the risk of falling into the kaba'ir sins like riba . The following chapter from the excellent work,  'The Economic System in Islam' by Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani elaborates the Islamic rules of currency exchange. Riba and Currency Exchange ( Sarf ) riba (interest/usury) is the practice of taking property (or anything that serves as a medium of exchange) for another property of the same type unequally. The money exchange ( Sarf ) is the practice of taking a property for another property from gold and silver of the same type equally, or of two different types equally or unequally. The exchange can only take place in trade, as for usury, it can only happen in a trade ( bay’u ) transaction, in a loan ( qardh ) or in a Salam (advance sale or forward buying). Trading

Charlie Hebdo and French Government Islamophobia

By Dr. Reza Pankhurst September 27, 2012 After the reaction to the anti-Islam film “The Innocence of Muslims”, it was only a matter of time before the next deliberate provocation added fuel to the fire. The French magazine  Charlie Hebdo  duly obliged, last week  publishing cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad  on September 19 in what was considered by many Muslims worldwide as a further gratuitous affront to Islam. The magazine has previously engaged in incitement, when last year it printed offensive cartoons ridiculing Islam while then announcing that its edition would be guest-edited by the Prophet Mohammad, leading to its  office being firebombed in November 2011 . In this instance, the French government responded quickly, understanding that in the context of protests against foreign embassies across the World French interests abroad could be threatened. A number of French embassies across the Middle East were duly closed over the last weekend, and  the French Prime Minist

Freedom of Speech: An Islamic Perspective

Umm Ibtihal No Muslim can ever bear the insult of the beloved Prophet of Islam (saw). It is therefore hardly surprising that the recent film attacking the honour of the Prophet (saw) has drawn escalating outrage from Muslims all over the world.  To add fuel to the fire, a French magazine has now published some extremely derogatory caricatures of the Prophet (saw). Those defending such actions claim they are upholding freedom of speech; and freedom of speech can never be curbed regardless of the consequences. The grossly hypocritical nature of this elusive concept is however quite apparent for all to see.  Europe, for instance, imposes legal and social limits on freedom of expression; publication of anti-Semitic cartoons would almost everywhere be liable to legal prosecution. In some of the European countries it is against the law to say that Hitler did not murder millions of Jews. But, it appears that it is quite acceptable to ridicule Islam and the Messenger of Allah (saw)

Q&A: On Price Fixing by Sheikh Ata' Abu Rashta

The following is the translation of an Arabic Q&A from the  website of Sheikh Ata' Abu Rashta .     Question: We know that it is forbidden for the ruler to fix the price of commodities for the people because the Prophet (saw) said: " Indeed Allah is the Creator, the Restrainer, the Reliever, the Provider and the One Who fixes the prices, I wish to meet Allah in such a state that nobody claims that I have done any wrong to him either in his blood or his money " as narrated by Ahmad. He (saw) also said: " Whoever strives to increase the cost (of products) for Muslims, Allah, the Exalted, will seat him in the center of the Fire on the Day of Resurrection. "   narrated by Ahmad. Hence the question is: if some traders in any region fix the price of any commodity, for instance the rice traders assembled and agreed among themselves upon selling the rice to the people (other) traders on a fixed price; so in such a case, fixing the price of this commodity

The flags and banners of the Khilafah

Today we find a multitude of flags in the Muslim world. These have been carefully designed with colours and symbols to represent characteristics of the nation state. In Islam, we have not been given a choice concerning what type of flag we use even down to the colour. The shariah has specified the type of official flag the Khilafah will use and therefore we cannot deviate from this. Furthermore, we cannot wave flags that represent concepts which are against Islam such as nationalism and division of Muslim lands. The article below is taken from the book " Institutions of State in the Khilafah " by Hizb ut-Tahrir. The State has flags (Alwiyah) and banners (Rayat) as deduced from the flags and banners of the first Islamic State, which the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم established in al-Medina al-Munawwarah. These will be as follows: Definition of the Flag and Banner The flag and banner, are linguistically called alam. Al-Qamus al-Muhit mentions under the root

Reproducing Western Popular Culture in the Native Tongue of Muslim Lands

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Reproducing Western Popular Culture in the Native Tongue of Muslim Lands: The Latest Style of Importing Corrosive Capitalist Liberal Ideas to the Region The influx of Liberal Secular Culture in the Muslim Lands from popular movies and dramas series that are ‘dubbed' into the local languages is a well-established style of infiltrating Muslim societies with values and ideals that undermine Islamic morals. The availability of contracts and licences to reproduce well known formats such as ‘American Idol', ‘Big Brother' and ‘Britains got Talent' (known as ‘Arab Idol' ‘The Boss or Al-Ra'is' and ‘Arabs got Talent in the Middle East) is nothing new. However the failure of certain formats in the Muslim world, such as ‘Big Brother', have highlighted the need for greater cultural adaption of some of these shows in order to ensure longevity and secure the personal allegiance of the viewers in any given country. Whilst many of these sh