in the name of Allah the beneficent the
most merciful I'd like to welcome you
your viewers to our program in the light
of
Islam May Allah's peace and blessings be
on each and every one of you as you all
know this program is dedicated to you
the
viewers it is the means of answering
your questions questions that you have
which you can't find anybody around you
to answer for you
uh queries discussions comments you we
are perfectly happy to receive any of
them and we will try to answer them to
the the best of our abilities anyway
let's carry on to some more questions uh
from Fahad uh Fahad writes
in please give us your views on the
practice of mutilating women in East
Africa is it legal or muah or what
well mutilating women meaning
circumcision of women I guess uh genital
mutilation and this is also in Egypt
practiced in
Sudan what does Islam say about it well
of course Islam is opposed to it the
practice as it is
done in uh these countries is in fact
mutilation and Islam is is
100% uh opposed to it it is harmful to
the women so many women you know die in
the process huge infections you know all
kinds of devastating
consequences uh does Islam support or
allow female circumcision
yes but in a very limited or at in a
very at a very limited scale Prophet
wasallam found women in Medina doing
this and he told them to be very uh
Limited in their practice taking only a
small you know portion from the end of
the quorus this is all that is really
permissible from the Islamic perspective
so it has no more impact on the feelings
of the woman than uh circumcision of the
male has to the male this is the basic
uh practice which is permissible in
Islam
now as we said what is going on in Egypt
and Sudan and other West African
countries uh this is something inherited
from pre-islamic times uh which involved
an extreme view of trying to ensure the
uh virginity of the woman involved this
is Extreme approach to it and Islam as I
said because of the harm which comes
from all of this practice mutilation gal
mutilation Islam prohibits it
uh our next
question um which is
from uh brother Muhammad Ali he writes
saying what is the Islamic ruling on
slavery how many rights do slaves in
Islam have and the slavery in Islam the
same as
slavery uh which developed in the
west well
Islamic ruling on
slavery is
that people are
not on their own able or allowed or
permitted to capture anybody else and
make them your slave you know this is
the normal route how people made slaves
they were
captured forces of some countries moved
into other countries captured people and
turned them into
slaves Islam doesn't permit this you
know fighting slave War where people are
just fighting to capture chunks of other
populations and turning them into slaves
this is not from Islamic the Islamic way
if some Muslims were involved in it
historically at some points in time they
did it wrongly it's not from Islam
now
the principle of slavery itself does
Islam cancel it prohibit it whatever no
it does not cancel it where there is
benefit in the society from it Islam
will permit it where it is harmful it
will not permit it but it's something
which existed all around the world Islam
didn't introduce
it they were not the first to do it what
Islam did was it modified it something
like polygamy polygamy existed Islam
didn't invent it it modified it so
slavery came under a series of laws from
the prophet s wasallam designed
to put that person who is in a position
of slavery in a respectable position in
the society relatively acceptable
position in the society uh that their
rights were preserved and also it put in
the law part of the distribution of zaka
is to free the slaves so it was geared
it was set up in such a way is to remove
slav from the society but where there
were
circumstances where that was the the
best option then Islam permitted it to
take place for example in those days
when they fought enemy populations that
were cap captured or enemy soldiers that
were captured what do they do with these
people uh the other socities maybe they
jail them maybe they kill them whatever
in Islam okay you're not going to be
killing people left and right in this
regard where people have surrendered
you've taken their countries or their
areas or whatever then those people what
Islam did did was they brought those
that were captured in battle to the
Muslim Community and put them in the
positions of slaves within different
families in the Muslim Community so it
became a means of absorbing these people
now into the uh fabric of the Muslim
Society a man who has a saave girl and a
saave girl gives birth to a child for
him that child is automatically free she
cannot be sold and that way she is
absorbed into the society into the
family children the numbers of Muslims
are increased raised as children as the
son of the master carrying his name and
everything else so uh what Islam did was
it
regulated and it removed from the system
of slavery the basic harms that existed
there where a master was free to do
anything with a slave you could mutilate
them they could kill them you could do
anything Islam did not permit that those
who harmed their slaves would be
themselves harmed and the wasallam told
people do not call him my slave forbade
the use of Abdi you know which is my
slave or amti my female slave they were
not they were prohibited from using
these terms better to sayami my young
man uh you know my young woman these
things jarti you know these things were
used instead of the term my slave girl
my slave male right so Islam tried to
uh regular regulate it or regulate it
regularize it you know add principles
which would protect the rights of people
involved Etc and it tried to eliminate
eliminate it through the process of
distribution of zaka freeing people and
it also gave the slave the right to earn
his own
Freedom what is known as mkataba where
the slave makes a request for seeking
his own Freedom he works uh outside of
of the work for his master he works on
the side and he sells whatever products
he has or does whatever he does he gains
money he's able to buy his own Freedom
that's something which was uh unheard of
in other societies where a slave could
actually become free and exist within
the society Islam promoted that and
furthermore what you find is that some
of the leading Scholars of the first
generation were former slaves when we
look into the books of Hadith the Hadith
which are conveyed to us most of the
people were who conveyed it were former
slaves slaves of Scholars from among the
sahabah or the their slaves who became
themselves knowledgeable who became free
and taught you know furthermore if we
look at the Abbasid era Empire you find
the majority of the Abbasid rulers were
the sons of former slaves slave girls
you know so
uh the idea that the ruler of a country
was the the son of a slave girl is
something incons you know you could not
consider it in other societies where
slaver existed a slave as a slave as a
slave can never be anything but a slave
can never rise to be anything you know
beyond that status of servitude whereas
from the Islamic perspective it was a
means of absorbing
populations and it did not stop people
from rising and becoming leading
Scholars leading figures and even rulers
of
countries
um question
from Aisha she
writes we know that music or singing is
a part of the I of the yahood and the
nasara that's the Jews and the
Christians one of their evidences is
taken from the Psalms
we we we say we believe in the books of
prophet David how do we recognize this
uh from a DA perspective how can we be
opposed to music and there were prophets
known for the their music you know in
fact the prophet wasallam spoke about
the flute of Da
David
well we can simply
say that
music in Islam was prohibited in
particular
forms music which is just the voice
accompanied by the duff or a hand drum
type instrument is permissible in
Islam uh times of Celebration the eids
ETC marriages it's
permissible now folk singing Etc where
people get together families get
together or the tribe or whatever the
men may sing and dance women amongst
themselves and dances this is
permissible also but now what we look at
when we look at
modern uh music and its use we find that
it is mostly corrupt and where you know
the rock bands have been brought into
churches and this is supposed to be now
worship of God where people are involved
in all kinds of you know music and dance
and song and this kind of thing of
course this is now evil this is satanic
you know
this is not from Allah it distracts
people from the worship of Allah where
they may feel this this sense of of um
spirituality or whatever from the music
Etc but the reality is that it's not
true spirituality me what they're
experiencing are probably things from
the Jin not from
Allah so Islam the Islamic
position with regards to those texts
which refer back to earlier prophets
that it may have been permissible for
that Prophet at the time and later on
prohibited you know proh prohibitions
and uh permissions have gone through
different phases even during the life of
the Prophet M wasallam you know certain
things were initially prohibited to a
certain level and then it was increased
prohibition was increased As Time passed
so
um we don't look at it as an excuse or a
principle by which now we open up the
door for any kind of
music now the next question which is
from uh sister Samina she writes and
says what is the Islamic position on
birth control pills is it haram or is it
mcru birth control
pills well birth control pills you know
which are really if you take them as
conception control there stopping
conception
as long as there's no harm to the male
or the female then it is permissible
right Islam permits it but where there
is harm if it's birth control means uh
you're killing fetuses and things like
this then we would say it's not
permissible
islamically it could be
Haram um the idea of limiting one's
children than only having one and a half
children if possible
where this is looked at as a kind of
Ideal where par we don't look at big
families anymore as being good it's
looked at as a liability it's not as
harmful to the society Etc so people
tend to cut things down to Basics uh one
child one and a half children two
children Max now this attitude of course
islamically is not good Prophet mammam
encouraged us to have as many children
as we can you know so there's a general
encouragement for increasing the numbers
of
Muslims um we should also mention that
if there is harm coming from the birth
control pill if it's established that
it's going to cause cervical cancer for
the women or you know a variety of other
things then islamically it would not be
permissible also okay we have a um
question on
inheritance now this question was
directed to
us by uh
Talib he said uh
inheritance uh what is the ruling on a
Muslim child inheriting monies from an
insurance policy of a non-muslim parent
at the same at the time of the parent's
death
um inheriting monies from an insurance
policy of course insurance policies as
they exist in the western system are not
permissively
islamically um so to take wealth from
that would be not permissible but
depends on the program you see some of
these may be connected to jobs where the
job provides a certain amount the
certain amount is taken from the salary
of the um worker and this is given back
to them in the end as some kind of
benefit so in this way this type of um
this type of
insurance would be acceptable
islamically as long as the interest
element is excluded because really all
of these practices will have a degree of
interest in them so you P you can work
out the percentage that the interest
plays in the overall uh funds of the
company and then from your funds
whatever you receive in salary Etc it
should be purified of that amount of
money should be given to some needy uh
circumstances emergency circumstances or
it may be given to do some Community
beneficial produ projects like building
toilets for a bathroom for a school
Muslim school or Master Etc you know
something which is not looked at as
being Pleasant uh those that's the area
basically where women uh May that's the
area basically where such money
uh which are from interest maybe given
in order to uh get rid of it it
shouldn't be given to an individual
personally uh as a means of Charity
because it is
filth the next
question which is
from uh
sister Khadijah she
writes what do you think of Muslim women
who play so much emphasis on hijab but
do not
pray like Malay women but also other
communities of Muslim women who don't
dare go out in public without hijab but
all but neglect
Salah turning the hijab into a costume
it would include men doing so
also well of course this is something
abhorent it's
hypocritical it is
where a person is seeking uh the
pleasure of others admiration of others
externally with some religious act you
know it is religiously an obligation on
women to cover themselves so if a person
covers themselves not because they're
doing it to please Allah but to please
people then it becomes a form of R you
know a form of showing off which whose
consequence is very serious if it's the
main uh religion of of the person then
they become disbelievers if it is an
occasional act that they've done then
this destroys the value of the Deeds
that they've
done so um the rights of prayer they
should be learned should be taught
strongly taught but at the same time the
hijab should also be taught you know
because some people go to the Other
Extreme where they say you know better
to pray leave the hijab you know it
doesn't matter hijab is not so important
Etc most it's important that they pray
put the hijab on when you're praying but
after that you know you can you can't
whatever but in both cases really
they're turning hijab into a kind of
costume to be used at a particular
circumstance to get certain things done
or to get the admiration of others to
win confidence in others Etc so this uh
mode or this way is not a good way it is
rejected by Islam and we should not
imitate the non-muslims in their dress
or their Customs as long as they go
against Islamic teachings Etc with that
de viewers would' like to thank you for
being with us in this segment of our
program I should mention to you that you
may write in your questions to in the
light of Islam PO Box 111 charer or you
may Fox them in to my office in charer
06
5323
724 or you may email them to me at in
the light of
Islam at Bilal philips.com with that
dear viewers we'd like to thank you for
being with us in this segment of the
program in the light of Islam and we
hope that you'll continue to follow the
program as it unfolds throughout the
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year