anyhow he
wishes in the west you hear of cases a
man dies and he leaves all his money to
his
dog or his Canary you know this is not
uncommon
and the people who are disposing of the
will are required to look after that dog
you know
and his
descendants
right with the wealth of the family even
though he's got a wife he's got kids
everything but they can be deprived
completely Islamic law
ensures that the
man's uh
descendants get their
right this is this is a point in and of
itself a point which we need to keep in
mind
meaning that what when we are dealing
with issues of inheritance we should not
just be in a defensive position we're
just trying to defend why Islam yes we
can explain from a defensive point
why but that should not be all we should
also recognize that Islam has uh a
progressive you know uh proactive
approach to Human Society
Islam brought in the inheritance laws
principles which the West is in need of
even
today even today because God has
prescribed who should receive when that
person dies and a human being doesn't
have a right to play with
that the lives of animals are not
important than more important than human
lives now it's not to say
that the person who is leaving behind
wealth cannot give away some of that
wealth to
others than those who are specifically
prescribed it's not to say
that but it is limited onethird of his
wealth or her
wealth they may dispose of in the sense
that they can give it to people who
would not normally inherit people who
would not normally inherit meaning
ants distant relatives friends Etc they
can give up to onethird of the wealth
for them but give to dogs cats canaries
no in this case where uh the law would
see a person doing something like that
it would step in even in that onethird
area it would step in because this is
obviously somebody who's demented you
know their whole system of
understanding life and people and rights
and these kind of things are lost
they've got something upside down here
so yes you have a dog okay we look after
your dog but we're not giving you the
dog's inh inheritance right well you
have to give that inheritance take it to
the state or whatever we not allow it to
be disposed in that kind of a
way the um other area which commonly
comes up uh for those who have some
knowledge of uh Muslim Muslim practices
and laws is the area of two witnesses
you know where Allah mentions in the
Quran that uh if you can't find two fa
male Witnesses you may take a male and
two females that's in Surah Al
Bak verse 282 so it's there two female
Witnesses being equal to one male
Witness
but Allah explains there why so that if
one of them makes a mistake the other
one can remind her so it is again an
issue of
context an issue of the context of the
society what is the norm for male female
relations in a uh economic relations in
a society because this is in terms of
contracts right legal
contracts what is the norm is the norm
that men and women are out working doing
the same kind of work or is it the norm
that the man is out and work working and
the woman looks after the home the norm
is that the man is working and the woman
looks after the home that's the norm
around the world even till today the
vast majority of people in the world
today are not like what we see here in
the West in the UK US Canada so on so
where women are out working just like
men that's not the norm this is an
abnormal circumstance which only
happened after world World War
I and was affirmed after World War II
prior to that that was not a Norm at all
that was
abnormal so the the point that we that
we need to raise here is the that the
Islamic law covers the norm for society
in that normal society where the man is
involved in business Etc outside the
home he's familiar with economic
dealings you know numbers and all these
kind of things he's dealing with on a
constant basis so if uh he has to
witness in a contract to remember what
took place is much easier for him
whereas for a woman who is normally in
the home taking care of the children Etc
not that familiar with business dealings
Etc then in her context it would be
easier for her to forget so having two
women so that one may remind the other
is a reasonable principle so that's the
context but from Islamic perspective
Islamic law if the woman is in an area
which is her spe
specialization for example the area of
breastfeeding this is her specialization
if a woman gives
witness she comes to you and your wife
and says listen I breastfed both of
you her single witness is enough to end
your
marriage her single witness is enough to
end your marriage and it happened in the
time of the prophet wasallam a man came
to the prophet wasallam and complained
he said you know doesn't such a woman
who was a former slave you know so she
was from the lower segment of the
society she's telling us now that you
know she breastfed the both of us you
know should I just end my marriage based
on this person's witness Prophet wasam
said how can you question it when she
said it
finish of course I mean there's a
context here it doesn't mean anybody
comes out of the woodwork
and just tells you hey you know you and
your
husband I breastfed both of you nobody
knows her she's not known to the family
no no obviously there's a context she is
around she's known to the family etc etc
you know so the context is there where
she could definitely have done it so
where there is a supporting context then
such statements are taken as sufficient
evidence to end a marriage and you have
children by that marriage what happens
they are still your children they're
still known to be your children but your
marriage is an
olded the man is still responsible to
raise and look after those children and
they may remain with the woman or go
back to the man depending on uh their
age and the decisions of the court and
the
children those are the main issues
related to
women
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I embraced Islam about 10 years ago
while attending University in London
what I observed at
church was a situation of uh what I
could basically describe as
confusion we were being taught that God
was a man who came down to the
Earth who preached who ate food who
slept was stuck on a cross and
killed and yet he was God but yet he was
the son of
God he was a man but yet he was not a
man he was divine yet he was
human so growing up with this
confused concept it was only a matter of
time before I rejected
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Christianity or to be more accurate
rejected the belief that man could come
down that God sorry that God could come
down to the Earth and become a
man I was always a person who believed
in the higher
power and always believe that there was
something more out there something more
to life than just living eating sleeping
and
dying and if I was asked do I believe in
God meaning do I believe
in something that created us something
that knows us something that cares for
us something that will bring us back to
life then I would answer
yes at middle school which is sort of
aged 10
to
13 we had a school trip to the Masid to
a mosque a local
mosque and it made an impact to me even
at that
age I can't really
explain what was being taught at that
time
but I felt a a special kind of closeness
or a feeling that I was at home in this
building that I wanted to to stay there
and learn some
more it was a short visit
and we soon went back to school and had
discussions about our various religious
beliefs but going to the mosque for that
first time in my
life made an impression upon me soon
after Middle School we went on to Roman
Catholic School not because
of a personal belief that we went there
as Catholics or Christians or whatever
it was just because I went there my
parents sent me there to get a better
education that I would than at a state
school and it was there that my mind
really started to
question the trinitarian concept of God
again how is it that man could
be God and God could be man how can he
be one in three and three in one this is
an ultimate
confusion I rejected this to a point
where when we had communion a Roman
Catholic communion where you would go up
to the priest and he would hand you a
wafer of this wafer was supposed to
represent the body of Christ and he
would actually say the body of Christ be
upon you and we would take this wafer
and eat it and that we would drink a cup
of wine which would represent the blood
of Christ so now I was thinking the body
of Christ the blood of Christ what is
this Christianity
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cannibalism so this was kind of
abhorent and also I couldn't understand
the whole ritual of the smoke and the
incense and the the reading of the
Liturgy in
Latin and I think in my final
year we attended a a church
mass in the church which was just down
the road from my
school and then a few years later when I
returned uh to my city I found out that
this very same church had now become a
mosque and I was soon to realize later
that I was going to pray in
there once I got to
University there was one year when it
was
Ramadan and some Muslims had thank you
some Muslims had invited
me to come and break fast with them now
although I didn't fast that day I did go
down and partake of the ifar
meal and it was through their sort of
generosity and explaining to me little
things which they knew that kind of
Switched light on inside my
head it was at uh a table a dow table
which they had in the common
room that I was given some
leaflets and some booklets and one book
was going to change my life entirely
forever it was a book called towards
understanding
Islam by
uh Mali
in this book towards understanding Islam
were clear concise arguments about the
Oneness and uniqueness of God clear
concise arguments about what is a Muslim
clear concise arguments about what is
disbelief clear concise
arguments and this is something which
struck me and every day I would read
this on the train going in at lunchtime
coming home and for about a week I read
this
book and then one evening I said to
myself this is it this is what I've
always believed all my life this is the
truth I read the shahada on the page and
just kept on repeating it over and over
and over to myself and I was convinced
and I said this is it I'm now a
Muslim alhamd
that was 10 years ago and alhamdulillah
I don't know
what Allah saw within me to guide me to
Islam
but I'm so grateful so happy to be given
the honor and indeed it is an honor to
prostrate before him to recite his words
before him and to have hope in him to
have love of him to have fear in
him and to inshallah God
willing be of the Believers and to die
as Muslim and to be raised as a Muslim
to see his face for of their
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judgment okay um onto our topic of
uh
concerning Muslims being
identified as uh being
bloodthirsty especially because of their
practice
on you know Gathering up small animals
and cutting their necks you know this
West that has this great concern about
animal rights today which uh becom even
greater than their concern about human
rights uh
they uh
specify or they have you know attacked
Muslims uh because of this practice
especially in France uh where the
um especially in France where um some
years back Bridget
BAU uh had uh taken up the cause of the
sheep and the goats you know that were
being slaughtered you know in the
thousands by French Muslims
on and had made some abusive remarks
regarding Muslims and there was a court
case and everything else uh you know
this became sort of an internationally
known situation and we know that um in
America too it's it's there I remember
there was some years back there was a
front page
uh New York Times uh article where they
had this photograph uh of police
breaking into this um uh Muslim man's
home right this uh Algerian Muslim you
know who was living in h New York and um
the neighbors used to see him go out and
bring a live chicken into his home you
know and then they wouldn't hear
anything more about the chicken right
you know regularly once a week he would
come and bring a live Chicken in his
home right and they suspected that he
was killing the chicken in his home so
they made a plan with the SPCA the
society for the prevention of cruelty to
animals you know
to time when he's going when he comes
back because of course it's not illegal
to bring the live Chicken in your home
but what you do in the home that's
what's illegal right so they waited
until he got back with his chicken in
his home and they you know brought the
police and they kicked in his door they
kicked in his door and um uh rushed into
to his kitchen and caught him you know
there with the knife in his hand and the
chicken you know and they they had the
photograph of them catching his hand
with the knife and the chicken and
they're taking away the chicken you know
and this was uh fun Page News you know
they saved the chicken from this
horrible end right and of course the
image of Muslims you know cutting the
necks of chickens in their kitchen sinks
and stuff you know raise the um general
impression of us being bloodthirsty type
individuals so uh if this issue arises
and it sometimes comes up in da I mean
we can easily clarify for them that the
U method of Slaughter Islamic method of
Slaughter which involves cutting the
neck of the animal uh while it is alive
actually relieves the animal of pain it
is a much more humane way of killing the
animal than the methods that the West
has developed which they think is more
Humane they say we kill the animals we
cut their neck next when they're
unconscious you know and of course if
you're unconscious technically you're
not going to feel pain right so they say
that is more Humane but we say to them
how do you make them
unconscious that is the point because
the main two methods one is
electrocution this is a very painful way
to go into unconsciousness imagine being
electrocuted so much you went
unconscious right and then you cut your
neck what is the what is the benefit of
cutting your neck at that point and
relieving you when you had to apply so
much pain or the other method which they
call the dead bolt method we have a gun
with a bolt in it it doesn't fire a
bullet but a a metal bolt comes out and
it springloaded comes back in which they
use for bigger animals like cows and
goats and they put the gun by the head
and they fire this bolt hits the animal
in the head it goes unconscious yeah
they swing it up and cut the neck
without any problems but we say to them
that is like somebody taking a cricket
bat right and smacking you on the side
of your head when you went unconscious
then they cut your neck are they doing
you a favor no I mean that blow to your
head is so painful I mean we say this is
not more Humane at all and tests have
been done in
Germany uh concerning uh the slaughter
of animals showing that in fact cutting
the necks whilst the animal is alive the
animal doesn't even realize it there is
no they put cardiac uh points on the
animals and tested them when they were
cutting the necks this was some
experiments which were done in Germany
by Muslim doctors German doctors so the
point is that it is a much more humane
way of taking the life of the animal
because the knife is supposed to be
extremely sharp and the animal doesn't
necessarily feel it just like a razor
blade you can cut yourself with a razor
blade without even realizing it because
it's so sharp and it's the same way the
fact that the animal kicks its legs and
these kind of things these are just
bodily reactions it doesn't what you're
cutting off the blood to the brain right
and the animal goes naturally into
unconsciousness and dies
easily you know the other point related
to that
is Islam being spread by the sword right
the the image the common image I know
before I became a Muslim the image I had
of Islam was you know the Arab riding in
off the desert on his camel right the
sword in one hand the curved sword and
the Quran in the other hand this was the
typical image right and um that is the
general image which is promoted by the
media Etc but of of course
realities uh show otherwise yes Muslim
armies did go into Egypt into North
Africa into Syria into these areas some
partly into India Etc however the vast
majority of people who came to Islam did
not come to Islam as a result of
military
Invasion the people were not forced into
Islam the Pope the current pope about 3
years ago he made a public apology to
the world for what previous generations
of Christians had done in terms of
forcing their religion on the people
they know from their history that they
did force people into is into
Christianity but from our history we
don't have that it's not to say it may
not have happened in some cases under
some circumstances but as a norm no we
know the largest Muslim country today
Indonesia 200 plus million Muslims no
muslim soldiers went there
so we know it is it is not conquest by
or Islam was not forced on people
through the sword we know Muslims ruled
Spain for 700 years and when the Muslims
were driven out of Spain and they would
not allow a single Muslim to remain in
Spain Jews driven out along with
them the vast majority of Spaniard had
not become
Muslims many did but the vast majority
didn't if they were forcing people there
would not have remained any Christians
in Spain after 700 years of rule and
look at India Muslims ruled India for
over a thousand
years and the vast majority of Indians
remained Hindus they were not forced
into Islam so there is enough historical
evidence to prove that this claim is
false so we point out that Islam I mean
besides the fact that Allah clearly
states in the Quran there's no
compulsion in religion besides that fact
the realities historical realities
indicate that Islam spread by peaceful
means and not by the
sword