Fatwas: Part Thirty-One

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

Praying with Shoes On

Published in March 19, 2017

Question: …  Dear Sir, … Could I perform prayers while having my shoes on in my working place? … Thank you …     

Answer:            

  This is OK anywhere anytime.

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Disbeliever in Terms of Faith

Published in March 18, 2017

Question: …  Dear Sir, … … What do you think about those who believe only in the Quran and disbelieve in all hadiths, and yet, they believe in the myth that some Quranic verses replace the commands in other verses? … What do you think of those who claim they are 'Quranists' but they perform three prayers daily instead of five? … Thank you for your time …  

Answer:

   All these types of people you mention are disbelievers in terms of faith and beliefs if they die while adhering to such false notions, and God is the Only One to judge them on the Last Day. As regarding people, we care only for their being believers in terms of demeanor; i.e., adhering to peaceful behavior toward all peaceful people, regardless of their faith and beliefs.  

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Wrong Expressions

Published in March 19, 2017

Question: … Dear Sir, … I tend to think that there are certain wrong expressions commonly used by people, including you, Dr. Mansour … For instance,  the phrase ''the advent of Islam in the 7^th century A.D.''; it is wrong because as per the Quran, Islam is God's religion revealed to all prophets and messengers from Adam to Muhammad, each in their different tongues conveying but one clear message: (There is no God but Allah) … I think it is better to say instead "the revelation of the Quran in the 7^th century A.D."… Could you tell me about other wrong expressions and phrases that emerged within the eras of caliphs … Thank you …      

Answer:

 You are absolutely right; God bless you. One needs to be accurate and precise in the choice of diction and terminologies as per what would reflect our Quranist school of thought and to adhere to them; yet, sometimes old and frequently used terminologies and phrases would appear within our articles and books before and after we decide and define our stances regarding certain topics. Of course, in our older books and articles in the 1980s and 1990s, we have undergone gradual stages of intellectual changes as we have been developing our Quranist thought and using the Quran as the sole criterion to judge religious traditions, fiqh notions, history events and accounts of the Muhammadans, etc. Such gradual stages of change in our intellectual route within Quranist line of thought are reflected in terminologies used in our previous writings, and we have corrected many terminologies and expressions in later writings in the 2000s and beyond. For instance, we no longer use the expression (the four wise caliphs) but write instead (the four pre-Umayyad caliphs), and instead of writing the term (Muslims), we use the term (Muhammadan s) to refer to Sunnites, Sufis, and Shiites. We no longer use the term (Islamic conquests), as such conquests were crimes that violated the Quranic sharia, and we write instead (the Arab conquests). Thank you, dear son, for your good question.        

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Backbiting

Published in March 18, 2017

Question: … Dear Sir, … Is it OK and are we allowed to backbite non-Muslims? Does the Quranic command against backbiting in 49:12 confined to prohibiting backbiting of believers/Muslims? … Thank you for your time…     

Answer:

   The Quranic commands in 49:11-12 are addressed to all believers/Muslims in terms of peaceful behavior and demeanor of non-violence when dealing with all people, and NOT in terms of faith and beliefs. Therefore, peaceful disbelievers in and rejecters of the Quran are not to be backbitten at all (e.g., Muhammadans, atheists, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, etc.), since they are not aggressive and never fight, terrorize, or massacre others in the name of any religion. "O you who believe! No people shall ridicule other people, for they may be better than they. Nor shall any women ridicule other women, for they may be better than they. Nor shall you slander one another, nor shall you insult one another with names. Evil is the return to wickedness after having attained faith. Whoever does not repent-these are the wrongdoers.  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." (49:11-12).     

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The Right to Issue Legislations

Published in August 13, 2015

Question: … Dear Sir, … Who has the right, in your view, to issue legislations within Islam? … Thank you …    

Answer:

    God is the Only Legislator in Islam (Quranism), as per many Quranic verses; yet, there is a margin left for Quran-believing people to legislate (but NOT in the performance of acts of worship) within worldly dealings within the higher moralistic values of the Quran (justice, charity, equality, fairness, etc.). God says in the Quran: " Or is it that they have partners who litigate for them religious laws never authorized by God?..." (42:21). This means that there are laws authorized by God; these that apply justice. All divine, celestial messages were revealed so that people would uphold justice: "We sent Our messengers with the clear proofs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, that humanity may uphold justice..." (57:25). Part of applying justice is the room left by god to people to legislate and issue laws that provide justice for all, within higher Quranic values of fairness, equality, charity, peace, mercy, freedoms, etc. Moreover, application of all Quranic commands rely on achieving justice as per what is known to be equitable and fair within a given society as per its norms and mores and so that injustices are  stopped and prevented. Hence, laws are needed to regulate application of justice, especially within courts by judges. More details are provided in our book published on our website titled "The Judicial Authority between Islam and the Muhammadans".

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Terminologies of the Modern Age

Published in May 28, 2012

Question: … Dear Sir, … I'm a new Quranist, and I just wonder about the fact that the more I read your articles, I notice your usage of modern terms never mentioned explicitly in the Quran, such as "direct democracy", "general freedoms", "human rights", "Quranic methodology", "Quranic terminology", etc. … Why do not you use the Quranic words and terms verbatim which you claim to be having the same meanings like the new modern terms? … Thank you and God bless you …    

Answer:

  A Quranist researcher must be a mediator or a medium between the Quranic tongue/language and the language/tongue of the dominant culture of our modern age by using modern terminology that indicate the meanings he/she has gleaned from Quranic terms. This is what we have been doing for the last 40 years. In addition, there is a huge difference in the semantic levels of the terms of the Arabic tongue as opposed to the terminology of the Quranic tongue, and we are exploring this and we have found many results; please read more on our website archive to get the picture. For instance, the Quranic term (Shura) is easier to understand if you translate it into the term that will give its real meaning: direct democracy. We are also correcting the wrong sense and corrupt notions ascribed to some Quranic terms by Middle-Ages Muhammadan authors. Hence, the work of real researchers is to show, elucidate, and shed light on the precious gems of ideas within the Quranic verses in a language that would be understood by most readers of today's world.   

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Asking for Help

Published in March 20, 2017

Question:  … Dear Dr. Mansour, … I'm your Egyptian friend Abdel-Halim, 72 years old, if you remember me, I live in 4211N. 2nd Rd, #2, Arlington, VA, 22203, USA, and as you know, I cannot return to Egypt for political reasons, since I left it in 2002 because of my writings as a journalist and author of books that did not appeal to the Mubarak regime at the time  … If you remember, I work in Migration and Refugee Service (MRS), in return for 520 $ a month, and I have no medical insurance … I need your financial help, because I suffer a very bad health and surgical operations are required but I am impecunious … I'm very seriously ill at my old age since 2015, and no one is willing to help me … Sadly, the hospitals refuse to help me and people in them have dealt harshly with me and mocked me by telling me to get back to my home country! What happened to the friendly Americans?! … The number of my treatment card is 250120,  and some people at the hospitals (in VA and Maryland) warned me that it will not be renewed … I feel very shocked and depressed  … What shall I do now? … Thank you …      

Answer:

  Dear Mr. Abdel-Halim, your letter indeed wrings our heart and I publish it here so that any person who can help you would reach you. We ourselves cannot help you as we have no money; you know we offer help as much as we can, but even we ourselves have no medical insurance. We ourselves fear getting seriously ill someday while having no money to pay for bills of hospitals. We implore the Lord God daily to grant us calm, sudden death without short or long periods of illness so that we would not suffer humiliation in hospitals because we are impecunious. We implore God for your sake, and for the sake of all the ill ones, to grant you speedy recovery.    

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Familial Strife

Published in March 20, 2017

Question: … Dear Sir, … After working for years and establishing a good business in the USA, I handed over my business and my factory to my three grown-up sons and decided to retire in peace and thought about returning to Egypt, my homeland … Yet, my three sons have treated me harshly in my old age and this could not be imagined by me in my worst nightmares; the first of them beat me severely, the second wrote checks in my name and stole thousands of $ from my bank account, and the third threw me out of the factory! My Egyptian wife, their mother, sided with them against me … When I've decided to divorce her, I discovered that I cannot afford it as American laws give her the right to get half of my possessions and wealth … I've decided to sell everything off and return to Egypt where they could not discover my whereabouts, so as to punish them  by preventing them to inherit me after my death … But what stopped me is that I fear God … I'm about 70 years old and I wanna live in peace away from troubles caused by my wife and sons and I never wanna see their faces ever again after they humiliated me … I fear God will punish me if I deprive them from inheriting me … I must add that before I got rich, my wife helped me by giving me her inheritance share from her parents to be added to the capital of my business … What shall I do? Any advice? … Thank you …   

Answer:

  As long as you are alive, your money is yours and one cannot have one's money and possessions bequeathed as an inheritance during one's lifetime; this is possible only after one's death. As long as you are alive, you have the right to do anything you choose freely with your own money, but from the religious point of view, you have to be fair with your sons and wife by making sure they have their shares when they inherit your money and possessions, or what is left from them upon your decease.  Do not prevent them or deprive them from inheriting your money by squandering it all or writing a will to donate all of it and take hiding elsewhere for the rest of your life. Of course, you have the right to divorce your wife if you like and you have the right to restore your factory and business and run it yourself instead of your three sons. You have the right to return back to Egypt anytime you like and no one has the right to prevent you from exercising such rights. We advise you to settle all your debts, give your wife her due share of your wealth, and to return back to Egypt with the rest of your money, if you like. If your wife wants to catch up with you in Egypt, please accept her into your residence in Egypt willingly, because both of you are in the old age, when you will certainly need each other's company and tender loving care.   

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Digital Miracles of the Quran

Published in July 8, 2009

Question: … Dear Sir, … My name is…from Iran, and I'm a Quranist from a Sunnite minority background there, which prevents newspapers there from publishing my articles about digital miracles in the Quranic text, especially about the relation between order of Quranic Chapters and their names … My discovers include… … … … … Could you allow me to publish articles on your website? … Thank you …    

Answer:

 Thank you, dear son, but we ourselves are not specialized in this field; one of our fellow Quranist and a dear Egyptian-Canadian friend writes many articles about the digital miracles of the Quran, on our Arabic section of our website, and he is the one to decide if your writings you have attached to us are fit for publication or not. We will send them to him and inform you later of his opinion. God bless and protect you.

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What Sharia?!

Published in July 21, 2009

Question: …  Dear Sir, … I must beg to be allowed to say this to you: I'm utterly surprised and shocked when I  read about your objection of the Article No. 2 of the current Egyptian Constitution that makes the Islamic sharia the main source of issuing legislations and you demand to change this article to make human rights and international charters as the main source instead … As a Quranist thinker, how could you refuse the divine sharia of God and prefer to it a West product like charters and human rights? … Could you explain this stance of yours further to me? …Thank you …      

Answer:

 Dear brother, you are still a novice in our website and have not yet read our entire archive; let us tell you briefly that Article No. 2 refers to the Wahabi Sunnite Salafist sharia and NOT to the Quran-only-based Islamic sharia. Sunnite Wahabism contradicts the Quran and we have proven this in hundreds of articles and tens of books published on our website. One of our main ideas is that human rights and charters of that type in the West are the nearest human writings that follow the Quranic higher ethical and moralistic values. The Salafist Wahabi Sunnite sharia and those preachers who advocate applying it immediately have nothing to do with real Islam (the Quran alone); and they raise empty mottoes and banners to seek power and seize it in the nearest chance possible from the Mubarak regime by deceiving the gullible masses to make them accept their Wahabi theocracy later on. Salafist Wahabi Sunnite sharia of Satan was behind the assassination attempts against free thinkers, writers, secular figures in Egypt, and some of them were assassinated already in the last two decades. Even Quranists in Egypt were persecuted and many of them lost their jobs and were incarcerated (including ourselves) in the 1980s by the Mubarak regime urged by Wahabi Saudi influence. Salafist Wahabi Sunnite sharia of Satan is being spread all over Egyptian cities and villages, all over the Arab world, and within the communities of the Muhammadans in the West countries. This is a veritable danger insidiously infiltrating the globe while being sponsored by the KSA money. The KSA will never cease to try to turn Egypt into another Somalia or Afghanistan! The cursed Wahabism has nothing to do with the Quranic sharia legislations applied by Muhammad in the Yathreb city-state before his death. Salafism is anachronistic and its followers who seek power in Egypt has no real reform programs on any level. Besides, manipulation of any religion for the sake of achieving political ambitions is very insulting to God and to religion. Obscurantist fanatic Salafists and Wahabis cannot possibly have the time (nor the brains) to theorize any religious reform (like Quranists do actually); the bigoted extremist Wahabis (Salafists + jihadists + the MB) in Egypt, who worship the KSA and its money, are busy backbiting and slandering  the Mubarak military regime to replace it one day in the future by their horrid Middle-Ages tyrannical theocracy and they are indeed aggressive polytheists who discard the Quran and deify the forefathers who established and authored Sunnite 'holy' tomes and volumes. Purifying their mind using Quranism is quite impossible: now, and they are beyond reform after they spend millions and many decades in corruption and sins by insulting God and Islam: "…God does not foster the efforts of the corrupt people." (10:81). Besides, the Salafist Wahabi trends in the Arab world make the gullible masses vent their anger regarding corruption by inventing conspiracy theories that the USA and Israel are the cause of all Arab problems. Indeed, Wahabi mosques in the USA propagate hate speech and form a generation of time-bombs and suicide attackers that will emerge soon enough in the future; mark our words. The Saudi influence is destroying everything and spreading corruption on the earth. Sunnite sharia of the Abbasid Era does not fit Egypt in the 21^st century! It is insulting to accuse God's sharia in the Quran of being lacking and to consider writings of the Middle-Ages theologians and scholars as part of 'Islamic' sharia laws. "Or is it that they have partners who litigate for them religious laws never authorized by God? …" (42:21). Backwardness and degeneration of such eras of caliphates has tarnished the image of Islam; one has to make a clear distinct barrier between behaviors of the Muhammadans past and present and Quranic sharia laws. Let us not forget that the KSA established its Wahabi agents in Egypt and the Arab world to spread Wahabism as if it were 'real' Islam to replace the peaceful Sunnite Sufism spread in the first decades of the 20^th century. The KSA established the terrorist MB organization in Egypt and allowed it to infiltrate the Arab world; the terrorist MB now has headquarters all over the globe. Let us not forget that the terrorist MB assassinated president Sadat and wreaked havoc in Sudan until now. Please find more about blood-thirsty Wahabis by reading our book (in English) titled "The Wahabi Opposition Movements in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Twentieth Century" found on this link:                

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=85

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Sharia of Ibn Taymiyya

Published in March 21, 2017

Question: …  Dear Sir, … There is a person who holds views similar to yours, such as refuting the notion of intercession of prophets (and the so-called 'saints') and refusing to sanctify and deify mortals, but this person holds other views contrary to yours, such as putting rejecters of the Quran, who have forsaken Islam, to death and refusing to allow Muslim women marry non-Muslim men … Does this stance makes this person a non-Quranist? … Thank you …         

Answer:

  Certainly, he or she is not a Quranist at all; Quranists are peaceful people who never accept putting any one to death, except in retribution for murder. Even in the case of committing murder, putting the murderer to death can be prevented if diyya is paid to relatives and family of the killed person (diyya: money paid for the family of the victim of manslaughter; see 4:92 and 2:178).  Go prohibits the murder of any innocent person that never committed murder; see 6:151, 17:33, and 25:68. This is within real Islam (Quranism) and its Quranic sharia. As for the sharia of the Ibn Hanbal doctrine scholar Ibn Taymiyya, for instance, it entails putting to death those who merely hold different views than his, and those include all Sufis and Shiites and most Sunnites who disagree with him! Ibn Taymiyya deemed them as heretics and hypocrites whose 'repentance' would never be accepted and must be put to death! We refer you to our recent articles for more details.

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Respect Is Not Sanctification  

Published in March 21, 2017

Question: … Dear Sir, … I was wondering about is it OK or not to stand up to receive and greet someone coming to greet me or to bow to him/her. Is it prohibited sanctification of persons?!  … Thank you …

Answer:

   It is not sanctification at all; it is not prohibited that human beings show mutual respect for one another on equal footing, by bowing or standing up when greeting one another. Of course, one is to treat with respect the elderly ones, especially one's parents. What is really prohibited is to sanctify and/or deify mortals (alive ones or entombed ones), and to worship at mausoleums by prostrating and kneeling etc. before the entombed so-called 'saints' who are believed by the gullible masses (influenced by Sufism) to have powers to control life and the universe. 

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O Aunt! O Uncle!

Published in March 22, 2017

Question: … Dear Sir, … Within dealing with people daily in our rural area, we call any old female as ''Aunt'' and any older male as ''Uncle'' out of respect, but they are not any relatives of ours … Is this OK as far as the Quranic sharia is concerned? … Thank you …     

Answer:

  It is OK; this does not violate the Quranic sharia, because peaceful believers are brethren, and such endearment terms you mention are part of showing respect and charitable affection verbally among people.  

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We Have Answered This Question Before

Published in March 22, 2017

Question: …  Dear Sir, … At our village, people have put boxes of collecting donations in every mosque to be spent on the needs of the houses of worship … Is this OK? What do you think? … Thank you …   

Answer:

  We have answered this question before; we refer you to our article (in English) titled "When One Buys Eternity in Hell with One's Own Money" found on this link:

 http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=16022

We assert here briefly that those who spend their money to repel people away from God's Path (i.e., the Quran) by spending them on harmful mosques are using their money to enter into Hell for eternity. It is almost impossible to find any mosque on the surface of the earth that is NOT harmful one that spread polytheism; they insist on remembering God within these mosques alongside with names of mortals (prophets and the so-called 'saints'), especially mentioning the name of Muhammad in the call to prayers (and Shiites add the name of Ali with Muhammadan and God). the real mosques that dedicated only to the remembrance of God and His Name are almost nonexistent, and spending on them or on establishing one of them is jihad for God's cause with money.     

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Ibn Maja and Workers

Published in March 22, 2017

Question: … Dear Sir, … I know you never believe in any hadiths at all, but what is your opinion of  the hadith ascribed to Prophet Muhammad mentioned in the book of the scholar Ibn Maja bout giving workers their daily fees before their sweat dry on their heads … Thank you …     

Answer:

   Ibn Maja was a Persian person who has nothing to do with Prophet Muhammad, and he was separated from Muhammad in terms of location (thousands of miles) and era (at least two centuries), and this means that all hadiths that he ascribes to Muhammad in his book are definitely falsehoods that he authored himself. Please read our book on refuting hadiths and their series of narrators. Even if apparently the texts of hadiths seem 'good', this does not change the fact that Muhammad never uttered such narratives and that he had nothing to do with hadiths, as he never left us anything but the Quran inspired to him by God. Consequently, hadiths are never part of Islam at all. As for the meaning of the silly hadith you quote from the book of Ibn Maja, it is an illogical and laughter-inducing hadith; what if the workers did not perspire? Shall people never give them any fees? Would people wait for workers' sweat to dry so that they confiscate their fees? Would people go to Hell if they pay workers in advance or days later or using bank checks? All hadiths, without any exceptions, are silly and nonsensical as you see.             

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Turning Aside in Contempt

Published in August 24, 2016

Question: … Dear Sir, … Could you please explain to me the Quranic verse 22:9, especially the first half of it? What does it mean exactly in your Quranist opinion? … Thank you  …  

Answer:

  God says in the Quran "And among the people is he who argues about God without knowledge, or guidance, or an enlightening scripture. Turning aside in contempt, to lead away from the path of God. He will have humiliation in this world, and on the Day of Resurrection We will make him taste the agony of burning." (22:8-9). This means that the first half of the verse 22:9 refers to the body of the human being that turn aside in rejection and contempt of God's scripture that is discarded and rejected in haughtiness and arrogance by ignoramuses who insist on arguing about God and religion without any celestial message or guidance from God by spreading lies and falsehoods instead.

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Whoever Thinks 

Published in May 22, 2015

Question: …  Dear Sir, … Could you please, Sir, shed more light on the Quranic verse 22:15? … Thank you …    

Answer:

  Let us examine the local context of 22:15 to be able to understand it better; the context of 22:15  tackles types of people as per their stances toward the Quranic Truth. Some people argues about God without guidance of scripture conveyed by God and those misguided ones will reside in Hell for eternity in case of not repenting before they die. Some other people have little faith and belief in God, and they are among the losers on the Last Day in case of not repenting before they die. Some others are true and sinecure in their faith and belief in God, and He will lend them victory during their lifetime and make them enter Paradise for eternity in the Hereafter. There are some disbelievers who protest against this and argue that God will never lend victory to people in this world and the next, and God refutes their view in a sarcastic tone in 22:15 by defying them to ascend to heaven to relieve their spite and vent their fury. We infer here that no one can escape from God in this world and the next and that all people will face results of their deeds during their lifetime and in the Hereafter. God lends victory eventually to the sincere believers and punish the evildoers and disbelievers: "Most surely We will support Our messengers and those who believe, in this life, and on the Day the witnesses arise. The Day when their excuses will not profit the wrongdoers, and the curse will be upon them, and they will have the Home of Misery." (40:51-52). Now, read slowly the verses and ponder upon them after the explanation we provided above: "And among the people is he who argues about God without knowledge, or guidance, or an enlightening scripture. Turning aside in contempt, to lead away from the path of God. He will have humiliation in this world, and on the Day of Resurrection We will make him taste the agony of burning. That is for what your hands have advanced, and because God is not unjust to the servants. And among the people is he who worships God on edge. When something good comes his way, he is content with it. But when an ordeal strikes him, he makes a turnaround. He loses this world and the next. That is the obvious loss. He invokes, instead of God, what can neither harm him nor benefit him. That is the far straying. He invokes one whose harm is closer than his benefit. What a miserable master. What a miserable companion. God will admit those who believe and do righteous deeds into Gardens beneath which rivers flow. God does whatever He wills. Whoever thinks that God will not help him in this life and in the Hereafter-let him turn to heaven, then sever, and see if his cunning eliminates what enrages him." (22:8-15)

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Revelation of the Quran

Published in March 3, 2008

Question: …  Dear Sir, … Regarding the Quranic verses 25:32, 2:118, and 29:50, was the Quran revealed to Prophet Muhammad gradually or wholly? What are the differences between "Verses" and "Signs/Miracles", as both have one Arabic term in the Quranic text? … Could you please explain this to me… Thank you for your time …     

Answer:

  The last divine, celestial message of God (i.e., the Quran) was revealed to Muhammad in two ways: wholly inspired in his heart at Mount Al-Tur in Sinai, and he was commanded to reveal verses gradually to people on certain occasions during his ministry in Mecca and Yathreb. More details about this are found on our book on the Night-Journey which is the same as the Night of Decree. We assert here briefly to you that our argument here about how the Quran was inspired to Muhammad is asserted within the Quranic Chapter 97 and the first verses of the Quranic Chapter 53. Other verses supporting our view are as follows: "We have revealed it on a Blessed Night-We have warned." (44:3); "Praised be the Lord God, who revealed the Book to His servant, and allowed in it no distortion." (18:1). Other verses assert the fact that after inspiring Muhammad  with the Quran wholly inside his heart, Muhammad intermittently told verses to his people as per certain occasions as per God's commands while telling Muhammad not to voice any verse unless told by Go to do so: "A Quran which We unfolded gradually, that you may recite to the people over time. And We revealed it in stages." (17:106); "…Do not be hasty with the Quran before its inspiration to you is concluded, and say, "My Lord, increase me in knowledge."" (20:114). It is noteworthy in 20:114 that the number of the verse is 114, which is the number of all of the Quranic chapters. This verse was revealed before the Quranic revelation from God ended. God is behind the order of all verses and chapters of the Quran and undertakes the mission of protecting the text against any distortion till the end of days: "Do not wag your tongue with it, to hurry on with it. Upon Us is its collection and its recitation. Then, when We have recited it, follow its recitation. Then upon Us is its explanation." (75:16-19). This means that the Quranic verses explain one another. The Quranic Chapter 25 tells us how the disbelievers mocked Muhammad for not telling them the Quran wholly at once and how Muhammad was commanded to tell certain verses as per certain occasions: "Those who disbelieve say, "Why was the Quran not revealed to him at once?" Thus in order to strengthen your heart thereby, and We revealed it in stages." (25:32).         

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About Fasting

Published in June 19, 2015

Question: … Dear Sir, … Reading your book on fasting, I didn't find answers to my question: what if someone deliberately eats after the dawn prayers before daybreak? Sunnite views on this issue are dubious and vague. What is your own opinion? … Thank you …    

Answer:

    Those of both genders who eat (or have sex with spouses) deliberately after the dawn prayers before daybreak have breached and corrupted their fast and cannot continue fasting that day. Let us remember that the Quran is addressing believers of both genders. We never agree with those who claim one can eat and drink until daybreak; fasting begins once the dawn prayers call (i.e. Azan) is heard. We are fortunate to be able to have technology to know in advance the timing of dawn prayers; we do not have to follow 2:187 in relation to gazing at the sky to witness dawn. Of course, those who accidentally eat or drink after dawn (not realizing that the break of dawn has arrived) are forgiven and are to go on with fasting that day until sunset. "… There is no blame on you if you err therein, barring what your hearts premeditates…" (33:5). We refer you to our article in our online archive about timing of fasting and breaking the fast during Ramadan.    

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David, Goliath, and Talut

Published in March 10, 2012

Question: … Dear Sir, … We thank you for telling us the fact that Quranic stories of prophets are never source for sharia legislations in Islam, regarding your recent article about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba … But I still have a question: I know that jihad fighting is allowed only in cases of self-defense, but does this apply to the story of King Talut (a.k.a. Saul, in the Old Testament in the Bible), David, and Goliath within the verses 2:246-251? … Was their jihad fighting for self-defense or was it an aggressive war to occupy the land of Canaan?! … Thank you for taking up some of your time to answer me …   

Answer:

 Apart from the fact that the Quranic stories of prophets are never source for sharia legislations in Islam (Quranism), we assert here that the Quranic stories in general do not mention much details that may answer our questions, because these stories are aimed for inferring morals and drawing lessons about faith tenets and facts and wisdom of God. We assure readers here that within all of the Quranic stories of prophets, upholding justice is the higher and supreme value, because applying justice is the aim of all celestial, divine messages and scriptures as per 57:25; God commands all people to adhere to justice and charity as per 16:90. Hence, all details of God's Quranic sharia legislations aim at achieving justice. All Quranic stories mainly revolve round justice as well. God intentionally omits details of such stories; the moral and lessons drawn are the focus all the time. Accordingly, we can say that the story of Talut, David, and Goliath was within self-defense jihad war and NEVER an aggressive war. History of Goliath as a tyrant makes us expect that he might have begun aggression and violence against the Israelites at the time or tried to persecute them. Please never mind the Old Testament; it has nothing to do with the Quran.