Fatwas: Part Fourteen

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

Prayers of Eclipse

Published in March 21, 2015

Question: … Are there really any special Islamic prayers performed in times of eclipse of the sun? … Thank you …

Answer:

  We do believe that such fabrication has nothing to do with Islam; rather, it is related to worship of the sun and planets in pagan religions.

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Found Money

Published in June 23, 2014

Question:  … I have found a large sum of money, and I tried to find its owner but I could not, am I permitted to have it for myself? … Thank you …

Answer:

  Of course not; this is not your money to spend; honesty entails to submit this sum of money to the local authorities. Imagine the case if you lost something precious or a large sum of money that is yours, would be happy if someone else would find it and spend it as if it were their own?

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Do Not Spy on One Another

Published in January 11, 2017

Question: … Am I permitted to enter someone's house to search for something in their absence without prior permission? … Thank you for your time …

Answer:

   Of course not; this is spying, which is prohibited in the Quran: "O you who believe! Avoid most suspicion-some suspicion is sinful. And do not spy on one another, nor backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would detest it. So remain mindful of God. God is Most Relenting, Most Merciful." (49:12).

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From Tehran, Iran

Published in April 30, 2014

Question: … Peace be with you … I'm an Iranian from Tehran, and I used to be a Shiite who reads Shiite and Sunnite books to ponder on the Quran, but now I am a Quranist thanks to you, Sir, … God bless you, Sir, for your intellectual endeavors to refute the evil myths of Wahabism and the Shiite myths … I would like to write articles on your website … 

Answer:

   Thank you, and you are very welcome to contact us and write articles on our website within our shared points of view as far as the Quran is concerned.

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Test Result

Published in December 23, 2011

Question: … Upon the moment of dying, when angels take one's soul, one sees one's fate in either Hell of Paradise, right? This final result is shown to the dying person, and then details of this result are shown on the Day of Judgment, right? What do you think? Have I got this right? … Thank you …

Answer:

   You are right; a student enters a test, and the results show if this student has flunked the test or passed the test successfully, to see if the student will move on to the next level or be expelled from school. This is like a human being's fate upon dying; angels who take the soul announce the fate waiting for this dead person, Hell or Paradise as per deeds and faith, and the application and fulfillment of this announcement is on the Day of Judgment.   

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Marry Her

Published in September 17, 2015

Question:  … I am a Muslim man, and my Christian girlfriend got pregnant from me and delivered a baby boy, but we are not married … What am I supposed to do? Any advice? … Thank you …

Answer:

    We advise you to get married to her, and both of you should repent this way. She must intend to repent just as you are willing to repent, and you can get married after she passes days of her period, and you should pay her a dowry and sign the marriage contract in the presence of at least two witnesses to announce and proclaim the marriage in a legal way in Islam. Your son deserves to live between his parents within a family that provides for him tender and loving care and protection. 

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Muhammad's Parents

Published in May 22, 2013

Question: … Are Prophet Muhammad's parents going to Hell because they died before his receiving the divine revelation of the Quran, and therefore they were not Muslims? What do you think? …

Answer:

  God says in the Quran: "…nor do We ever punish until We have sent a messenger." (17:15).

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A Quranist Wife

Published in March 8, 2015

Question: … Peace be with you, Sir … I am an Algerian man and I would like to marry a Quranist woman, do you know any Quranists in Algeria? Can you help me in that respect? I hate to waste my time in getting married to a Sunnite woman; Sunnites in my country will never accept to marry their daughters off to a Quranist man … Or shall I marry any women who has other faith as long as she respects my choice of religion as I will respect hers? Any advice? … Thank you …  

Answer:

  One's religion is never an obstacle or a condition within any legal marriage within Islam; what should be more important to you is to find a good wife who would live peacefully within a settled married life without interfering in the faith of her husband, and you are not to interfere in her choice of faith as well. Both of you should deal kindly, lovingly, and respectfully with each other. Stay away from fanatic and extremist Sunnite women; this is our advice to you. We do not know any particular people in Algeria to make them contact you. Look for a wife carefully, and we do believe that many good civilized women are also looking for settling in a good marriage with a good husband. We wish you all the best in your quest for a good wife.   

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We Hope So

Published in October 24, 2014

Question:  Peace be with you, Sir, … I do believe that your videos, books, and articles should be translated into French (by me or by others) so that I send them to my friends … I'm one of the francophone Amazigh, and Arabic is not my first foreign language … I was about to become an atheist because of hadiths, if it had not been for you writings and videos … I take pride in being a Quranist … You website must be multilingual to show real Islam to the whole world … Thank you …

Answer:

  We thank you very much, and you can translate if you possibly have time and ability to do so. Ma God bless and reward you. Hopefully, we would like to have the means to have multilingual pages translating our archive into many languages, but we need the help of true noble Muslims to do so; can you send us any contacts of those who can help us for the sake of great Islam? Thank you again.  

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Blessed Land

Published in April 6, 2007

Question: … God says in the Quran: "And We delivered him, and Lot, to the land that We blessed for all people." (21:71), where is this land to which this verse refer? What do you personally think of that? … Thank you …

Answer:

  As per the Quran, lands which are described in the Quranic text as blessed are Palestine, Sinai, and Mecca, the city houses the Kaaba, God's House.

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Fish in Paradise

Published in November 5, 2016

Question: … Are there any fish in the food of Paradise dwellers? Will rivers of Paradise contain any fish? … Thank you …

Answer:

  The Quran describes food and pleasures of Paradise dwellers in a figurative way using metaphors and similes, as our limited minds can never imagine the bliss of Paradise. "No soul knows what eye's delight awaits them-a reward for what they used to do." (32:17).

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Toys for Kids

Published in January 13, 2017

Question: … A relative of mine has rebuked me for buying toys for my kids that contain images of rainbows, claiming that such images is a motto for homosexuals, and he told me that it is prohibited in Islam to buy such toys … I find him an extremist and I see that I have not committed a sin … What do you think? Thank you …   

Answer:

  You are absolutely right; prohibition in Islam is not for mortals, for it is God's right in the Quran. Anything that is not prohibited in the Quran is of course permissible. It is a bad habit that people  who adhere to earthly, man-made, fabricated religions to violate God's right of legislation by prohibiting the permitted and legal things and to allow and permit the illicit and prohibited items; for instance, many of them prohibit music and singing while allowing massacring the innocent in the name of jihad!

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Criticizing the Old Testament!

Published in January 10, 2017

Question: … Dear Sir, … Reading your series of articles about Prophet Muhammad in an imaginary talk-show in the CNN, I got an idea or a suggestion for you … Why do not you begin to criticize and correct the Old Testament? And possibly the New Testament later on? Why do not you use the Quran to see what verses are true in the Bible and what are not?  I do believe this is possible by using the Quranic verses as a criterion; e.g., the Torah can be scrutinized to discern where Muhammad is mentioned in it, as per the Quran; see 7:157-159… I think you are the one able to do this. God bless you …     

Answer:

     Thank you our brother, and we assert here the following points:

1- It is not within our domain of knowledge and specialty to 'reform' creeds of others, especially People of the Book (Jews + Christians); therefore, it is not for us to 'correct' the Bible, and it is useless to do so. It is enough for us what we suffer in our endeavor to reform the Muhammadans who abandoned their Quran.

2- We believe that People of the Book now of modern times do not have a divine book protected against distortion; many Western thinkers and authors have written extensively to cast doubts on the Bible. They assert in their writings differences in style, primitive notions and content, and naivety and low style of language/diction in the Bible. Yet, when people in the West discarded the Bible and  clergymen, they made great discoveries and scientific advancement. In contrast, the Muhammadans have discarded the Quran and remained  at war with one another in disputes over hadiths and fiqh. Some people of the West control the planet as we know it, and they unwittingly apply the Quranic command of roaming the earth, without their reading or believing in the Quran. The Muhammadans never believe in the Quran, however spread its copies everywhere. Evidence: suffering of Quranists like us when we preach the basic notion of returning to the Quran to reform Arabs/Muhammadans who claim to be 'Muslims'.

3-  As for our series of articles about the virtual CNN talk-show hosting Muhammad, it will be compiled in a book form once it is finished; we try to be as neutral and objective as possible when we tackle the contradictions and differences between the Old Testament and the Quran in relation to stories of prophets and to legislation. We hope that once this book is done, the Anglophone would take great interest in reading it, after Mr. Ahmed Fathy would translate it into English. May God come to our aid.               

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CNN and Prophet Muhammad

Published in January 9, 2017

Question: … I would like to be permitted to express my admiration for your series of articles about the CNN talk-show hosting Prophet Muhammad, but I must be allowed to pose a pivotal question … Why do you ascribe your own views and opinions about Quranic verses to Prophet Muhammad?! You are thus ascribing to him certain views, but you object to hadiths/narratives ascribed to him, right? Well, you do the same like Sunnites when you ascribe views to him in this series of articles, right?! Now, what have you got to say about that?! …   

Answer:

   Actually, we have replied to such a query inside these articles, but we repeat our reply here briefly:

1- This series of articles are virtual; we imagine that Muhammad comes to a second life in the 21^st century, and we assert this in the first article of this series. The title "Muhammad talking to the CNN" shows this very clearly.

2- We imagine this talk between Muhammad and the TV presenter to assert another fact as well: what was uttered by Muhammad is human talk and does not represent Islam at all; rather, his talk represents mere views, as Islam is represented only by the Quranic verses. Any ponderings of them are mere human views that are never infallible and can be discussed, corrected, or refuted, uttered or written by Muhammad or any other mortals.  

3- All which is ascribed to Muhammad (hadiths, Sirah, etc.) are man-made, fabricated narratives; they are not part of Islam because they might be true or false. Only those who deify Muhammad assume that narratives ascribed to him (two centuries after his death!) are true and part of Islam. Our writings, especially this series of articles about Muhammad talking to the CNN, aim at smashing and debunking such deification of mortals and of any man-made narratives. Those who feel angry about this series of articles should rectify their faith tenets, if they really are Quran-believing Muslims, or Quranists.  

4- Lastly, the pivotal question is like this: what would happen if Muhammad come back in our modern time? Those who deify him will deny his being a mere human being who roamed streets, entered markets, and ate food. The reason: they worship and believe in an imaginary character of Muhammad as an immortal deity, and they deny his real character mentioned only in the Quran. Those polytheists who worship Muhammad as a deity will assume his 'second coming' in clouds and heavenly processions of angels. They cannot imagine him as a human being eating, drinking, and wearing clothes like the rest of us. Indeed, we should not care about how he looked like; we should focus only on the message he conveyed to us from God to pass it to all humanity: the Quran. In fact, our series of articles assert this point, and we present an overview of Islam in a simple style, by asserting how it contradicts the Old Testament which is a man-made narrative, by adopting a neutral, objective manner of compare-and-contrast, to assert that the Quran is NEVER authored by anyone or by Muhammad, as it is God's Word. This is another message addressed to those who believe in the Old Testament.         

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We Are Never a Shiite, Nor Would be One Day

Published in January 8, 2017

Question: … Dear Sir, … I take pride in being a Quranist, and I admire your writings even if I disagree with some of them … I do agree that Middle-Ages authors (like Al-Bokhary and his likes) have committed the crime distorting Islam … Thank you for guiding me to God once again; your writings answered many of my questions … I feel as if I read the Quran for the first time because of you … I laugh when I remember the days when I used to believe and memorize the so-called hadiths … But I wanna ask you about your paying little – if any – attention to refuting Shiite religion … Your focus is mainly on refuting Sunnite Wahabism, maybe because this is dominant culture in Egypt … Why do not you criticize Shiite notions in separate articles and books? … I am afraid some might think you are a Shiite who does not declare it to criticize Wahabism … I think all of us need your views in that respect … Thank you …     

Answer:

  God bless you, our son, and guide you and us to His righteous path. Your guidance is from God, not anyone, because you choose to be guided by the Quran and God grants more guidance to those who wish ardently to be guided through the Quran only. This is your choice, and you owe us nothing in that respect. God the Praiseworthy is to be thanked for it, not ourselves; so be thankful to Him.

  In our peaceful intellectual endeavor or jihad, we have begun in the 1970s to debunk Sufism and prove how it contradicts the Quran, and many of our books prove this. We later on have done the same with the Sunnite religion and its current Wahabi version, because it is more dangerous and causes terrorism and massacres. Meanwhile, we have found no spare time to read Shiite books to refute them in the same manner as we have written extensively about Sufi and Sunnite religions. Yet, we have refuted many Shiite notions and tenets en passant in our writings about debunking Sufism. Indeed, many Shiites attacked and criticized us for our books published on our website that (partially) tackled their creed notions in the earthly, man-made, fabricated Shiite religion that some assume it is part of Islam: "Al-Sayed Al-Badawi between Truth and Myth", "Karbala Massacre", and "The Unspoken-of History of the Pre-Umayyad 'Righteous' Caliphs". Some Shiites sent us hate-mail because we attacked their supreme deity, the caliph Ali, and many Shiite notions. Hence, it is very unlikely that anyone might accuse us of being a Shiite; we are a Quranist and cannot be anything else. We repeat here that Islam in terms of demeanor is peaceful and non-violent behavior regardless of faith (Muhammadans, atheists, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, etc.), and differences in faith will be settled by God on the Day of Judgment. Disbelief in terms of behavior is aggression, massacring, and violence against the innocent, peaceful ones in the name of religion. Hence, Wahabism is disbelief both in terms of behavior and in terms of its polytheistic faith. Most Muhammadans are peaceful, whether they are Shiites, Sufis, or Sunnites, but some of the Sunnites might turn violent and might commit terrorist acts if they convert to Wahabism. It is funny that some Wahabis have accused us of being a Shiite because of our virulent attacks on Wahabism. Some Shiite friends stopped contacting us and forgot all about friendship with us because of our above-mentioned books. We, Quranists, never deify or sanctify things, items, or mortals; we believe in the One God, Allah, with no partners or associates alongside with Him, the Only God deserving worship and sanctification. Real believers in God should never worship mortals like Muhammad, Ali, Hussein, imams, clergymen, etc. as all human beings will be judged on the Day of Resurrection; God will never accept the faith of those who worship mortals (prophets and others) beside Him.                     

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The Tree and Glorification

Published in January 12, 2017

Question: … Dear Dr. Mansour, … What was the type of the tree that God prohibited Adam and Eve from eating its fruit? Another question is why utterings like ''Praised be the Lord'' and ''May God be glorified'' should be uttered daily like parrots without thinking? What is the use of this type of glorification of God that seemed to me as meaningless? Are not the rest of acts of worship and good deeds enough?! … What do you think? … Thank you …

Answer:

1- The Quran does not mention the type of the tree of the forbidden fruit; in religion, we should never tackle or think of issues never mentioned in the Quran, as God has chosen not to focus on such details, and He has chosen to make them unknown to us. The ancient Muhammadans who authored traditional books committed this sin of talking about the unknown while discarding the Quran, and their laughter-inducing myths have distorted Islam.

2- The vast majority of the Muhammadans no longer glorify God, and some do this absentmindedly with their tongues and not their hearts, and this makes them appear like parrots as you say. Once Muhammad's name is mentioned they wholeheartedly utter praises of him, in an act of worship better than acts of worship offered to God.

3- Glorification of God is a religious duty mentioned and urged in the Quran; it must be done wholeheartedly in piety and in the fear of God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and senses, but most people forget about this religious duty. God tells us about the best times of performing this act of worship; in most times of the day actually as much as one can, and the five daily prayers involve glorification of God, in piety and reverence. "…and celebrate the praises of your Lord before the rising of the sun, and before its setting. And during the hours of the night glorify Him, and at the borders of the day, that you may be satisfied." (20:130); "…and proclaim the praise of your Lord evening and morning." (40:55); "…and proclaim the praises of your Lord before the rising of the sun, and before sunset. And glorify Him during the night, and at the end of devotions." (50:39-40);  "…and proclaim the praises of your Lord when you arise. And glorify Him during the night, and at the receding of the stars." (53:48-49).  

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The Time Appointed

Published in March 23, 2015

Question: … Dear Dr. Mansour, … What is meant by ''the time appointed'' mentioned in the Quran? appointed by who and to whom? Who will be waited in that time and why? … Thank you for your time …

Answer:

  This term refers to the Day of Judgment, also known as the Day of Resurrection and the Last Day. Those are synonymous terms in the Quranic text. It is the time appointed by God and revealed to all of us through the Quran. All of us are waited to attend this day, unwillingly, and this is why judgment of people (and jinn and devils, even Satan) is postponed to that Last Day. This is discerned from the following verses: "He said, "Then get out of here, for you are an outcast". "And the curse will be upon you until the Day of Judgment." He said, "My Lord, reprieve me until the Day they are resurrected." He said, "You are of those reprieved." "Until the Day of the time appointed."" (15:34-38); "He said, "Then get out of here! You are an outcast! And My curse will be upon you until the Day of Judgment." He said, "Lord, defer me until the Day they are resurrected." He said, "You are one of those deferred. Until the Day of the Time Appointed."" (38:77-81).   

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Dr. M. Shahrour

Published in February 16, 2011

Question: … Dear Sir, … What is your opinion about Quranist studies of Dr. Muhammad Shahrour? I tend to think his ponderings of the Quran are mostly good and contemporary, and he rejects hadiths just as you do … But he has different definitions and notions from your school of thought … Is he an asset for Quranists worldwide? What do you think? … Thank you …      

Answer:

  Actually, we have not read a single word of Dr. Shahrour or any other writers who are nearer to our school of Quranism, because we dedicate our whole time to our intellectual project to complete our books and articles, and we have no spare time at all to anything else.   

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Germany and Quranists

Published in September 20, 2013

Question: … Peace be with you … I live in Berlin, and I need to get in contact with your IQC branches/mosques there to learn more about Quranism and to know Quranist friends … Thank you for making us learn about true Islam on your website …   

Answer:

   We have no branches at all anywhere, and we know no one in particular in Germany, but we think there are some Quranists in Germany, and we hope they will contact you by commenting on our website to express their wish to get in touch with you. 

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Do We Own Our Bodies?

Published in March 13, 2013

Question: … Dear Sir, … A Tunisian girl posted her photo online stark naked, stressing that her body is owned by her alone and she is free to do with it whatever she likes. In Islam, do we own our bodies? What do you think? 

Answer:

   Of course, no doubt that one owns one's body, and this is test and an ordeal, part of the test of life; the human soul controls the human body freely. The test is as follows: would we be chaste or promiscuous, use our bodies in good or bad ways? The result of this test will be in the Hereafter, and we are given free choice in this worldly life. Will we obey or disobey God? Hell waits for disobedient  ones and Paradise is for the pious, obedient ones, as far as deeds and what we do with our bodies are concerned.