Fatwas Part Seventy

Issued by: Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, translated by: Ahmed Fathy

We Never Get Involved in Politics

Published in January 14, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … Why have you written that it is very wrong if Quranists would participate in political secular parties in their countries? … Thank you …    

Answer:

 Political parties, secular or not, seek to reach power; their members must please and flatter people by lying to them. Quranists cannot do that; their reformist views about religion and their preaching the Quranic Truth provoke the ire of most people; Quranists must seek only to please their Lord God. Thus, what may please the masses may incur the wrath of God; what pleases God might infuriate the masses. We, and all of our fellow Quranists, can never compromise. Hence, it is better that all Quranists avoid getting involved in the political life in their respective countries; they should better invest their time in preaching Quranism to please God, without having any political ends or desiring any transient, worldly gains.  

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The Religion of Blasphemous Singing

Published in January 14, 2018

Question: …  Dear Sir, … I've read your view/fatwa about religious singing as a sin and as a prohibited practice in Islam, especially singing the Quranic verses; yet, I tend to think that this type of singing (or poetry) is OK when it aims at glorifying the Lord God without deifying mortals (Muhammad, etc.) and without propagating Sunnite-Sufi myths; what do you think?  … Thank you …  

Answer:

 Your view is not correct; supplicating, glorifying, and remembering God must be done in fear within piety and low voices (indeed, this applies to all acts of worship); this cannot be achieved by singing at all. To consider singing as an act of worship is very insulting to God and to the Quran. Sufi-Sunnite singing is a blasphemy that pertains to earthly, man-made religions that turn the Truth into mere jests, playing, and loud singing. Please wait for our episode about this topic within our YouTube show "Quranic Moments".

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The Genuine Gospel

Published in January 14, 2018

Question: …  Dear Sir, … Why do Muslims consider the the Gospel as a lost book among other lost scriptures? My Christian friends assert to me that the Bible (i.e., both the New Testament and the Old Testament) contains no mention of Muhammad at all; how come, then, that the Gospel predicts the advent of Muhammad as per 61:6? Where is the genuine Gospel, then? Is it now part of the New Testament of not? … Thank you …

Answer:

 The genuine Gospel (and the genuine Torah) existed in Arabia during Muhammad's lifetime; we infer this from the Quranic verses that command the People of the Book in Arabia (i.e., the Israelites and Christians) to apply and adhere to their scriptures (see the Quranic Chapter 5) and from other verses about how the Torah and the Gospel predict the Quran and Muhammad; see 61:6 and 7:157. The Romans and the Byzantines had their own clergymen who prohibited the circulation of the real Gospel and any biographies of Jesus that contradict the chosen (and contradictory) ones inside the New Testament. There are no traces at all of the genuine Gospel inside the Bible. You can read more studies and criticism about the Bible within cyberspace and within books written by Arabs and non-Arabs.

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Mutual Consent

Published in January 15, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … I shall never understand why extramarital (straight or gay) sex among singles is deemed as a sin in Islam, since it is done based on mutual consent of two (or more) persons! … Thank you …    

Answer:

 Mutual consent in Islam is only regarding marriage contracts and trade dealings and is never concerning sins of any type. Sins are specified clearly in the Quran; some sins have penalties in this world and the next one, and some other sins are punished only in the Hereafter. The penalty of flogging for adultery (within a given Quran-based country that applies real Islam [i.e., Quranism]) cannot be applied when the sinners declare their repentance in public.

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Thieves and Murderers

Published in January 15, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … Regarding the Quran and human rights, is stealing money from people equal to murdering people? … If not, why? … Thank you …      

Answer:

 Murder is not equal to stealing; thieves and murderers should require repentance and feel the vital need of it, and yet, thieves can return the stolen money/goods, but murderers cannot restore life to their victims. Murderers must either be put to death in retribution after a fair trial or to pay Diyya money for the family of the murdered person(s) within repentance in public. Thieves must declare their repentance in public after restoring stolen money. As for repentance in terms of the heart in both cases of murderers and thieves, it entails adherence to piety for the rest of their lives and to atone for the grave sins by performing many good deeds that would replace the bad ones. Thus, piety means monotheistic faith and performing many good deeds within the fear of our Lord God. 

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Islam Contains No Rituals

Published in January 15, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … Is it OK as far as Islam is concerned to say that prayers, fasting, pilgrimage, etc. are (rituals)? … Thank you …      

Answer:

  No. The term "ritual(s)" is never mentioned in the Quran at all. Islam contains acts of worship based on piety and addressing God directly without mediators of any type. This is in contrast to earthly, man-made religions that focus on uniforms, clergymen and their ranks and money, overt signs of religiosity, rituals, rites, feasts, celebrations, festivals, ceremonials, 'saints', and instituting cardinals, popes, sheikhs,...etc. 

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Paying Zakat for Poor Relatives and Kinsmen

Published in January 16, 2018

Question:  … Dear Sir, …  Is it OK to pay zakat money from my salary to my poor relatives instead of poor persons whom I do not know? … Thank you …         

Answer:

 This is obligatory in the Quran, especially for poor orphans: "They ask you what they should give. Say, "Whatever charity you give is for the parents, and the relatives, and the orphans, and the poor, and the wayfarer. Whatever good you do, God is aware of it." (2:215)

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Rulings of Ignoramuses vs. Quranic Sharia rulings

Published in January 16, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … Sunnite sheikhs in my country insist on prohibiting the resorting to secular courts to get one's rights! They insist on reviving religious courts of the Middle-Ages! Are secular, man-made laws against Islam, then?! What do you think? … Thank you …   

Answer:

 Those ignoramuses know nothing about the Quran and its sharia laws; they merely parrot centuries-old Sunnite books of heritage and traditions that contradict the Quran. Religious courts are backward phenomenon of the past based on whims and desires of judges, and if revived now, they will never cope with the modern world of today. The worst courts ever exist now inside the KSA; Wahabi courts apply the Hanbali Wahabi sharia laws of Satan that make one lose one's rights, under the pretext of applying God's sharia laws! What an outright lie and a flagrant falsehood! Of course, the unjust and cowardly Saudi judges remain silent regarding the crimes and injustices of the Al-Saud family members. Man-made laws are OK when citizens in a given society agree to apply them. You, and everyone else, has the right to hire a lawyer and seek your rights within secular courts. 

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Cheese and Pigs

Published in January 16, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … Why Sunnites, especially Wahabis, insist on prohibiting selling, touching, owning, buying, & rearing pigs?! They even prohibit consuming products like cheeses, gelatin, etc. if lard is part of the ingredients! I suppose we are told in the Quran not to consume flesh of pigs; that's all, right? … Thank you …   

Answer:

 You are right; Wahabis and Sunnites invent religious laws of their own that have nothing to do with Islam. The only prohibited thing about pigs/swines/boars is to eating their flesh cooked in whatever ways. It is OK to consume products like gelatin, cheeses, etc. that contain lard. This applies to the use of any pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, and medicine/drugs that contain lard or parts of pigs' bodies. It is OK and permissible as well to sell, buy, & rear pigs and to touch them and own them as pets. Sadly, Sunnites and Sufis allow prohibited food (and slaughtered animals) offered at 'holy' mausoleums for saints/allies/gods within Sufi celebrations and feasts.      

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We Have Been Mistaken

Published in January 17, 2018

Question: …  Dear Sir, … I admire very much your great episodes of your YouTube show titled ''Quranic Moments''; yet, I've noticed that you have made some mistakes in pronouncing certain words in some Quranic verses; besides, you have inadvertently mentioned some Quranic verses wrongly as belonging to certain Quranic Chapters, whereas they actually belong to some other Quranic Chapters, and such wrong quotation/citation is not typical of you. In one episode, I tend to think that you've misunderstood the verse.....as it means....... … Thank you …      

Answer:

 Thank you, dear brother Dr. Hisham Al-Saeedi, for your email; it seems that our memory sometimes fail us as we draw nearer to the age of 70. Please go on showing to us any unintentional mistakes in our videos and our writings. We implore God to forgive us for these mistakes and to inspire our mind and tongue to think and utter the truth and what is right.

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Poverty and Education

Published in January 18, 2018

Question: …  Dear Sir, … Is it OK to donate charity money or zakat for school pupils and university students who come from impecunious families and cannot afford expenses of education? … What about those who have joined the Azharite education that teaches the Sunnite Wahabi religion?! … Thank you …        

Answer:

 In general, it is perfectly right to donate charity money, alms, or zakat money for the needy of all types (the poor, the ill, the hungry, etc.), and they include those families who cannot afford to educate their offspring. Yet, we tend to think that you should NOT help students who join the Azharite schools and university as they are being taught to spread and preach the polytheistic region of Satan; you must NOT help in things against God and His Quranic Message, unless the Azharite university student is an impecunious Quranist who specializes in heritage while aiming to prove, within peaceful, intellectual jihad, how the Sunnite religion contradicts the Quran. Of course, you can help pupils of secular, public schools and students who study in secular, public universities in Egypt within all fields: medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, history, sociology, philosophy, economy, literature, languages, translation, IT, engineering, psychology, psychiatry, etc. 

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A Question of Inheritance (1)

Published in January 18, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … My paternal aunt died; she has no children; my late father was her only brother from their late mother, but she had half-brothers and half-sisters from her father's side only (i.e., their mother was not hers nor my father's)… Would myself and my brothers have inheritance shares from her money or not? … Thank you …

Answer:

 No; you and your brothers have no shares at all. The inheritance shares in that case are distributed to your deceased aunt's half-brothers and half-sisters only; the male receives the equivalent of the share of two females.

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A Question of Inheritance (2)

Published in January 18, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … A dead man is survived by his wife and three daughters as well as one brother, one sister, one half-sister, and three half-brothers. How the inheritance shares are to be distributed, then? … Thank you …    

Answer:

 The three daughters should inherit two-thirds of the money; the wife should inherited 1/8 of the money. The half-brothers, brother, half-sister, and sister inherit the rest of the money within the Quranic rule that the male receives the equivalent of the share of two females.

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Preserving Food Items

Published in January 19, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … Is preserving food items in salt or sugar permissible or prohibited in Islam? I mean pickles, salted fish/meat, etc. … Thank you …

Answer:

 We have mentioned before that no one must add anything to the Quranic list of prohibited food items, which are few exceptions. Any items never mentioned in the Quran as prohibited are permissible, of course.

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Not Impure

Published in January 19, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … Are any fluids coming from a man's penis (e.g., seminal fluid and pre-ejaculate fluid) deemed impure in Islam? … Thank you …      

Answer:

 Nothing about this is mentioned in the Quran; such notions of impurity are Talmudic and never Islamic; what renders someone impure in the figurative sense is polytheism; any physical uncleanliness can be removed normally by water, without any ritualistic or religious sense.

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Vaginal Fluids

Published in January 19, 2018

Question: … Dear Sir, … I've grown too tired of having to perform complete ablution on a daily basis; fatwas issued by Saudi sheikhs assert that vaginal fluids of all types entails performing complete ablution! I'm obsessed with checking myself daily, and many times I had to be absent from work! What do you think? … Thank you … 

Answer:

 Nothing in the Quran is mentioned about women's performing complete ablution because of any vaginal fluids. Such useless fiqh rules are Talmudic ones aiming to demean and belittle women and to accuse them of being impure 'by nature', apart from other nonsensical patriarchal, misogynist myths. Any physical uncleanliness can be removed normally by water, without any ritualistic or religious sense.

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About the Verse 16:8

Published in October 2, 2013

Question: …  Dear Sir, … What does this verse mean: "..And He creates what you do not know." (16:8)?… Thank you …

Answer:

 This verse refers to the fact that the creation process goes on within the life-cycles and that it is directly linked to death; human-body cells die and new ones are created; this is why your body as a child differs from that of you as an adult. "He brings the living out of the dead, and He brings the dead out of the living..." (30:19). When one dies, one's body decomposes and turns into elements that enrich the soil and this applies to dead animals and plants. The life-cycle of stars that turn into black holes is another example of 16:8. The verse 16:8 refers also to unseen ethereal Barsakh beings like angels, Jinn, and devils and undiscovered species of creatures within our physical world in ocean bottoms and in nature in general. Please ponder deeply on these verses: "Your Lord is the All-Knowing Creator." (15:86); "Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them? Certainly. He is the Supreme All-Knowing Creator. His command, when He wills a thing, is to say to it, "Be," and it comes to be. So glory be to Him in whose hand is Sovereignty over everything, and to Him you will be returned." (36:81-83); "The command of God has come, so do not rush it. Glory be to Him; exalted above what they associate. He sends down the angels with the Spirit by His command, upon whom He wills of His servants: "Give warning that there is no God but Me, and fear Me in piety." He created the heavens and the earth with justice. He is exalted above the polytheism they practice. He created the human being from a drop of fluid, yet he becomes an open adversary. And the livestock - He created them for you. In them are warmth and benefits for you, and of them you eat. And there is beauty in them for you, when you bring them home, and when you drive them to pasture. And they carry your loads to territory you could not have reached without great hardship. Your Lord is Clement and Merciful. And the horses, and the mules, and the donkeys - for you to ride, and for luxury. And He creates what you do not know." (16:1-8). As always, God says nothing but the Absolute Truth.

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An Arabian Jewish Tribe Massacred?!

Published in April 6, 2007

Question: …  Dear Sir, … Some biographies/narratives of Muhammad claim that Muhammad killed off Jewish captives of oneArabian Jewish tribe after they surrendered and stopped fighting! Is that true?!  … Thank you …    

Answer:

  Such false narratives and biographies are fabricated during the Abbasid Era – 200 years after the death of Muhammad – in order to establish pretexts and backgrounds for the Shiite-Sunnite conflict and political struggles against Al-Khawarij and other rebels. The only history of Muhammad is found exclusively in the Quran. The bad habit of putting captives to death has begun by the Umayyads and their vizier Al-Hajaj Ibn Youssef; this brutality needed oral hadiths and narratives to support it during the Umayyad Era; such hadiths/narratives have been written down during the Abbasid Era. Such falsehoods contradict the Quran, and pondering the Quranic story of Muhammad refutes such myths. We assert here briefly that fighting in the Quran is ONLY for the sake of self-defense endeavors (see 2:190 and 2:194); fighting stops when aggressors/attackers stop their aggression and adhere to peace (see 9:6 and 4:94). Thus, these legislative rules are never compatible with the brutal, atrocious savagery of killing captives or POWs, typical of the Abbasids and the Umayyads. God has urged the early believers to set captives free as part of kindness and in return for other believing captives held by their enemies and never in return for money (see 8:70 and 47:4). There is no Quranic command about putting captives to death. Islamic legislations urge caring for strangers and released captives and slaves set free by giving them food and charity-money (see 9:61, 2:216, 59:7, 76:8, and 8:41). Thus, the devilish Sunnite fiqh and Sunnite narratives of Satan have nothing to do with real Islam, which is ONLY the Quran. Real Islam needs those who strive to show and elucidate its Quranic facts to refute those Wahabi evildoers who seek power in Egypt and elsewhere by spreading Sunnite lies to deceive people.       

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About Inheritance Shares of Women

Published in November 16, 2014

Question: … Dear Sir, … About inheritance rules for women, I feel confused about 4:11 and 4:176, and I'm sure there is no contradiction between both verses, but is there a difference or not between progeny/children as inheritors and males/females as inheritors?… Thank you …  

Answer:

  You are confused because in the verse 4:11, the Arabic word for "children" include both males and females: "God instructs you regarding your children: The male receives the equivalent of the share of two females..." (4:11). Thus, we are to understand the meanings of Quranic terms as per their contexts of words and verses before and after it. As for the verse 4:176, it is about the case when the deceased person has no children at all, and his/her siblings inherit the money: "They ask you for a ruling. Say, "God gives you a ruling concerning the person who has neither parents nor children." If a man dies, and leaves no children, and he had a sister, she receives one-half of what he leaves. And he inherits from her if she leaves no children. But if there are two sisters, they receive two-thirds of what he leaves. If the siblings are men and women, the male receives the share of two females." God makes things clear for you, lest you err. God is Aware of everything." (4:176).

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Only What he Strives for

Published in January 3, 2011

Question: … Dear Sir, … I feel puzzled by your view, expressed in many articles, that durable charities (e.g., schools, hospitals, etc. built to serve the poor) will avail nothing to dead persons who have performed them during their lifetime after they died as their rewards are recorded in their Books of Deeds by angels only once … After one dies, one's durable charities goes on to serve the poor; why this would not be recorded by angels, then?! By the way, I infer that their rewards goes on (after they die and go to Barsakh) from the verse 36:12. Likewise, those who authored books to misguide people, their books go on performing this evil task for centuries after their death after their souls went to Barsakh; thus, more sins should be added to their Books of Deeds by angels, and I infer this from the verse 16:25. … What do you think now of what I assert in my email message here? …Thank you …        

Answer:

  Thank you for your very good question. God says in the Quran: "And that the human being attains only what he strives for. And that his endeavors will be witnessed." (53:39-40); "It is We who revive the dead; and We write down what they have forwarded, and their traces. We have tallied all things in a Clear Record." (36:12); "So let them carry their loads complete on the Day of Resurrection, and some of the loads of those they misguided without knowledge. Evil is what they carry." (16:25). The phrase (and their traces) in 36:12 is not something separate from what precedes it; rather, it explains the preceding phrase, and this means that the words (traces) and (forwarded) refer to one thing: deeds of the mortal human beings during their lifetime before their death. This is asserted and explained further in 53:39-40, and this means that one's deeds will be the basis of being judged on the Last Day, apart from one's beliefs. All human beings will see their good deeds and bad ones before the good, repentant people will obtain God's pardon and enter into Paradise: "On that Day, the people will emerge in droves, to be shown their works. Whoever has done an atom's weight of good will see it. And whoever has done an atom's weight of evil will see it." (99:6-8). One's endeavors/traces during one's lifetime include one's deeds, words, beliefs, and thoughts. One's dead body will decompose and turn into dust, and one's soul will return to the Barsakh realm from which it originally came, but one's deeds are recorded by angels in books, and the deeds will be woven into new eternal bodies for both Hell-dwellers and Paradise-dwellers, as we have mentioned in our book titled "There Are Two Bodies For Every Soul". Human beings choose their deeds freely in this transient world; bad deeds like establishing a night-club or a brothel make its owners as sinners if they die without repentance; yet, their books of deeds are closed when they die; they never go on having sins recorded in these books since the brothel/night-club outlives them. Those who built a charity hospital get rewarded and this good deed is recorded by angels in their books of deeds; yet, their books of deeds are closed when they die; they never go on having rewards recorded in these books since the charity hospital outlives them. Thus, recorded deeds in the books of deeds are sealed and closed forever when people die, and no one can add more deeds to these books or delete/remove some other deeds from them. The evil sinners upon their death will see angels of death telling them about their fate in Hell; they scream in vain to have a second chance, and upon resurrection on the Last Day, they will assume they have slept for a day or part of a day. The good believers upon their death will see angels of death telling them about their reward in Paradise. As for 16:25, the misguiding people will have burdens of those ones misguided by them during their lifetime and not of those misguided after the death of misguiding people who spread falsehoods; e.g., Al-Bokhary will not have burdens of misguided ones reading his book now; he carries burdens of those misguided by him during his lifetime. This is why the verse 16:25 uses the present simple tense and not the past simple tense.