Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Attractiveness
Al-Ahzab (The Confederates) - Chapter 33: Verse 59 (partial)

"O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters as well as also all (other) believing women that they should draw over themselves some of their outer garments (when in public): this will be more conducive to being recognized (as decent women) and not annoyed."

The social role of women requires mixing with men. Islam does not permit any discrimination between men and women, nor does it advocate a segregation between them as it may be widely understood because of cultural practices or views. What Islam forbids actually is that a man and a woman cannot stay together in seclusion and privacy (khalwa), if they are not married to each other and a sexual relation between them is possible. But men and women as individual and groups can meet in public. Modesty is required in the outdoor dress of both Muslim women and men. However, there is no specific uniformed dress recommended for a Muslim woman. Purda, chadoura, abaya, quftan or hayek are local fashions preferred by women in different places and may be changed in any time according to the change of taste. These designs or fashions should not violate the basic and permanent requirements of an Islamic dress. The Quran underlines such requirements for a woman's dress in the verse above.

Islam allows any dress that fulfills the required modesty for a decent woman, and the creativity of fashion designers has to combine elegancy and modesty in a woman's dresses since one does not negate the other. The attractiveness and respectability of a woman — the same as of a man — are due to one's personality as a whole, with all intellectual and psychological dimensions, and not to what is exposed of one's body. It is against the human dignity and equality to focus on the physical attraction of a woman in her social performance with men. In an open society, a fair assessment of the merits of an individual (male or female) should consider the whole personality and one's commitment to and fulfillment of the moral and social responsibilities toward one another and toward the society as a whole, as men and women all are awliya of each other in enjoying the doing of what is right and forbidding the doing of what is wrong.

Compiled From:
"Muslim Women - The Family and The Society" - Fathi Osman

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Double Standard

In the Shariah of Islam the haram has universal applicability; here there is no such thing as that which is prohibited to a non-Arab but permitted to an Arab, nor anything which is restricted to a Black but allowed to a White. For in Islam there are no privileged classes or individuals who, in the name of religion, can do whatever they please according to their whims. Muslims do not have any privilege of making something haram for others while it is lawful for themselves; this cannot be, for truly Allah is the Lord of all, and the Shariah of Islam is the guide for all. Whatever Allah has legislated through His Shariah is lawful for all human beings and whatever He has prohibited is prohibited to all human beings until the Day of Resurrection.

As an example, stealing is equally haram for the Muslim and the non-Muslim; the punishment for it is the same, regardless of the family or the origin of the thief. The Prophet (peace be on him) firmly enforced this rule, proclaiming, "By Allah, if Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, were to steal, I would have her hand cut off." (Reported by al-Bukhari)

The tendency to use a double standard, one for one's "brother" and another for a "foreigner" or outsider, is a characteristic of primitive ethics. It can never be ascribed to a divinely revealed religion, for high morality — that is, true morality — is distinguishable by its universality and comprehensiveness and by its lack of a double standard. The distinction between us and primitive peoples is not in the existence or absence of a moral code but in the enlargement of the area of its application.

Compiled From:
"The Lawful and The Prohibited in Islam" - Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, pp. 29, 30

Blindspot!

Provenance of the Quran

Prophet Muhammad reportedly received his first revelation in the year 610 CE. Thereafter, revelations continued on an episodic basis until the close of his life in 632 CE. As such, the Quran can be said to have an earthly birth during the years 610 through 632 CE. Throughout these 22 years, the companions of Prophet Muhammad listened to his recitations of the revelations, memorized them, and wrote them down on stones, palm leaves, and whatever other writing surface on which they could lay their hands. Those companions who successfully memorized the entire Quran were known as "Hafez".

Upon the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632 CE, Abu Bakr was chosen as the first Caliph of Islam. Approximately a year later, i.e. circa 633 CE, Abu Bakr appointed Zayd ibn Thabit to produce a written copy of the entire Quran, as revealed to Prophet Muhammad by Allah. Zayd ibn Thabit, himself an Hafez, and one who had served as the principle secretary to the Prophet produced a complete copy of the Quran just about a year after the demise of the Prophet. Zayd completed this task by using: his own memorization of the entire set of revelations, as well as those of other Hafez; and the available written fragments of the revelations.

This single, authenticated copy of the Quran was preserved dearly by Abu Bakr until his death in 634 CE. Soon thereafter, the possession passed to Umar ibn Al-Khattab, the second Caliph of Islam. Umar entrusted this copy of the Quran to his daughter, Hafsah, who was one of the widows of Prophet Muhammad. After Umar's death in 644 CE, the third Caliph of Islam, Uthman ibn Affan, directed Zayd ibn Thabit to utilize the copy of the Quran that had been entrusted to Hafsah, and to make a final recension of the Quran. This final recension consisted primarily of standardizing minor differences in dialect among the various Arab-speaking Muslims of the time.

Within the Quran, there are divisions into Surat (chapters) and Ayat (signs or verses). Further, with some degree of accuracy, one can separate the Quran into earlier revelations and later revelations, into revelations received at Makkah and revelations received at Madinah, and into content areas such as sacred history, community rules and laws, and instruction on the proper belief in and worship of Allah. Nonetheless, the Quran remains a single, unitary book of revelation, i.e., a verbatim recording of Muhammad's recitation of the revelations he received.

It is thus clear that the Quran is a single document, representing a single source, which is dependent only on the revelations received by Muhammad. There has been no cut-and-paste compiling, layering of diverse material from different times, or editorial re-writes or redactionistic revisions of the Quran. In this regard, the provenance of the Quran as tracing solely to the Prophet Muhammad is historically indisputable. Whether or not Muhammad's statements of received revelation are seen by contemporary readers as being divine revelations from Allah through Jibril is a religious verdict. However, the strictly historical verdict is unambiguously clear. The provenance of the Quran traces only to Prophet Muhammad.

Compiled From:
"The Cross & The Crescent" - Jerald Dirks, pp. 45, 46