Akram Nadwi – Weekly Q&A 23-01-2025

AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of following laws and privacy, avoiding disrespectful behavior, and following laws. They also touch on the topic of the Prophetipping of Jesus and the importance of providing evidence in religion to make decisions. The segment ends with a discussion of lottery prize and the importance of community development in society. The speakers emphasize the need for people to respect privacy and turn to Him to make the best decisions.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem As-salātu wa
s-salāmu ʿalá ashrafu l-anbiyā' wa-l
-mursalīn Sayyidinā Muḥammadin ﷺ ʿalá alayhi wa-sallam
ʿalá alayhi wa-sahbihi ajmaʿīn Amma ba'd, we're
all here.
Shaykh Akram, jazakallahu khayr for your time, Shaykh,
for the weekly Q&A session.
So I'm going to get straight into it
and start with the first question.
So the first question we have is about
marriage.
Can you display the question on the screen
as well?
The question is, is it permissible to let
your father or others pay for your mahr
if one cannot afford a mahr themselves?
Does it indicate unworthiness for marrying that certain
person?
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem So as we
know, one of the conditions of the marriage
is that there must be mahr.
It is not really obligatory that the mahr
must be from the income of the husband
or from his own savings.
So anybody from the family, they can help.
But one should make very clear their status
to the girl because in the future, you're
going to look after her and provide accommodation
expenses.
So if you don't have enough money, it
will always be a problem.
Sometimes what happens is when your parents help
you for a longer period, they put like
a, you know, remind the favour to the
girl and she always feels inferior.
So if it just happens one thing, that
your father pays mahr, but later on in
your life, you provide your wife accommodation expenses,
then I don't think there's any harm.
But if you can't afford the marriage, then
you should make it very clear to the
girl.
If she wants, that's fine, she doesn't want,
then it's up to her, but you have
to make it clear.
The next question is from Farooq Fahad and
it's about financial provision.
Is my financial provision predestined?
You know, everything in this world is predestined.
Everything, whatever we say, whatever we do, it's
all decided by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He knows everything, He does everything.
But what we need to do is we
have to find out His commands.
We are His slaves, we have to obey
Him.
You know, it doesn't matter what He writes,
what He doesn't write, what matters is what
His commands.
So, you know, your financial thing, how much
money you get, how much you're going to
eat and drink, it's all written.
But your command of Allah is that you
look for the provision in this world and
eat halal food and avoid the haram food.
This is command, so you have to follow
the command.
How both works together, Allah knows the best.
So, we should not be worried what Allah
does.
We should be worried what we do.
If we are right, then Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will change our condition.
So, always think that in this certain matter,
what Allah's command.
Then follow that, that's all.
You don't need more than that.
A question from Abdullah.
Salam Sheikh.
So, on the issue of gender interactions in
women liberation, there seems to be a difference
amongst Muslims.
So, in the subcontinent, in the Indian subcontinent,
people seem to be more strict but more
moderate in the rest of the countries like
Egypt and Malaysia.
Do you think there's a reason behind this?
You know, religion is from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And religion always needs to be understood properly
and then practiced upon.
That's why it's always important to understand everything.
Go back to the sources, understand what Allah
commands, what the messenger commands, and then act
upon it.
But what happens in a very religious community
that people start religion with understanding and thinking
and then after that, what they do, they
start religion with understanding and then after that,
it becomes like habit and culture and then
they keep out of convenience.
They hide many things from their own society,
from their own habit, from their family.
So, then religion comes with many, many things.
So, for example, people find it easier if
the women stay at home, they don't study,
they don't learn.
Sometimes people think it is easier to control
them and sometimes people think it is good
for their piety.
Sometimes they think there must be somebody who
can look after the house, the elderly people,
the weak people.
So, then after generation, that becomes the habit
and then women think their role is just
to be at home.
So, in India and many places really, many
things became the culture of the people, people's
liking and disliking, habits of the family, all
these became part of the religion and that
is where the harm has come.
So, it is important for us to go
back to the sources and do things that
are actually right, not what the culture says,
what the parents say, what anybody else says.
And that is why you have to ask
the question, that you people are teaching this
thing, let us go back to the society
of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in Medina.
What did he do?
How were the women in Medina?
The women in Medina, they used to do
businesses, they used to go for war, fighting,
jihad, horse riding and so many things, travelling.
Everything that men do, women have been doing
in Arab world and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam approved that, he does not mind that.
So, to bring Islam to your own culture,
that is a very bad manner.
The way is to reform your culture and
go back to the original sources, to the
city of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when
he arrived and how he acted upon.
So, another question, Sheikh.
Someone who does business and trade is asking,
are there any books you recommend about Islamic
finance and trade or anything where they could
learn more about Islamic finance?
You know, the thing really, there are so
many mixed things.
People have made something like Islamic finance and
many of these things which actually I don't
approve.
So, I would say the best thing is
to read the books of Hadith where there
is a Kitab al-Buyur, the chapter of
buying and selling.
So, many principles are there.
As long as your business doesn't have any
interest, usually you don't have any gambling, you
don't have cheating, deceiving, you know, these main
things.
Then most of the time, you know, your
financial matters, you follow the law of the
country, wherever you are, what the custom is,
what legally is approved, follow that.
But keep in mind that, you know, you
have to avoid interest and gambling and what
we call gharar.
Gharar means where people, you know, don't have
a clear, proper idea of what they're selling
or what they're buying.
So, something like that, if you keep in
mind, most of the time, inshallah, your business
will be fine.
Hello?
Apologies.
Another question from Abdullah Sheikh, which is about
the mothers of the believers.
Why did they take Niqab as an obligatory
practice or why was it obligatory upon the
mothers of the believers?
You know, the thing is not Niqab, actually.
This is not Niqab.
Actually, once Aisha was in Niqab and the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam recognized her.
So, he asked her, Oh, Aisha, why you
are in Niqab?
So, Niqab is not obligatory.
But what was obligatory for them was to
cover their face.
And the reason was because they are mothers
of the believers.
So, like they are, you know, wives of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and he
is the master, he is the leader.
And people have more desire, you know, for
the wives of the one who is a
king or, you know, a master.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam's house
was visited by the hypocrites, by everybody.
So, Allah does not want any bad intention
to come to the mind of the people
when they see the wives of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So, that's why it became more strict for
them because for more desire.
And they are like mothers.
So, people have to respect them.
And house of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam was not restricted for only good believers.
Anybody can come to.
Very often hypocrites used to come.
So, that's why the rules for the covering
of the face became more strict for the
wives of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
But still they did not have niqab.
What they used to do, they used to
go outside uncovering their face.
When somebody passes by who is not Muharram,
they will cover their face by the part
of the cloak that they are wearing.
But not niqab.
Interesting.
Jazakallah khair.
This question is about Kitab al-Tawheed.
So, should Kitab al-Tawheed be banned?
I think there might be a background to
this because for a period of time in
Syria, Kitab al-Tawheed I think was banned
for a while.
He is saying here that Sheikh Yusuf al
-Qaradawi said that Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab is
a reviver in the Arabian Peninsula.
Could scholars be wrong about him?
I did not read actually the Kitab al
-Tawheed of Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab.
But I never found any criticism against it.
I don't know why the book needs to
be banned.
And Muslims don't need to ban anything.
People should have good freedom of scholarship.
Somebody's ideas and views are different from you.
So, learn how to respect it and bring
your own opinion.
There have always been differences of opinion in
the past as well between Malik and Abu
Hanifa, Shafi'i and Muhammad.
But they did not ban anybody's book.
You can express your difference.
It's a good and healthy scholarship and discussion
going on.
So, if there is something people don't agree
with Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab, there is
no harm to have their own ideas and
teach it.
But banning something intellectual is a very bad
manner really.
It makes communities very narrow and they become
prejudiced.
Then they basically lose their respect and tolerance.
It should not ever happen.
We should allow the people.
Like Islam, most people like to write their
books.
So, people don't agree with them but they
still did not ban their books.
Things will continue.
Scholarship continues.
You should not ban anything.
Just before we go into the next question,
I wanted to mention that with As-Salam,
there is an upcoming Islamic Heritage tour of
Uzbekistan where there will be a 10-day
tour.
Actually, 9 or 11 days depending on which
package one is to choose.
With Sheikh Akram Nadwi.
We are going to start the tour.
It is a 5-city tour starting in
Takshent and then moving on to Bukhara, Samarkand,
Khiva and ending in Termez for those who
want to stay for the duration.
The options are either 9 days or 11
days.
InshaAllah, we will all be there to benefit
from the knowledge of Sheikh Akram.
There will be plenty of activities and great
sohbah and people to be around.
For whoever is interested, please do make sure
you book because there are limited spaces left.
JazakAllah khair.
Another question about calamities.
This one is anonymous.
Some calamities that befall us is from Allah
SWT and it is His mercy.
But some calamities befall us because of our
bad deeds so if a calamity befalls us
is it due to our bad deeds or
is it Rahmah from Allah SWT?
I think this is the question.
The thing is in this world how the
events go we cannot know by certainty.
The way Allah has made it believers should
always turn to Allah SWT.
If anything goes wrong always think it must
be because of our sin and that we
don't behave properly.
Maybe our Lord is not happy with us.
So turn to Him and make dua.
Every time when Allah sends a calamity or
any problem, any hardship the intention is to
make your Iman weaker.
To make you turn to Allah SWT.
It's not Allah's love to make you suffer.
Allah wants you to turn to Him.
So if you think this has come with
nothing to do with me then you lose
the purpose of the hardship and problem.
So always understand that's why the Prophet ﷺ
he is sinless, no sin.
But whenever any sun eclipse happens even moon
eclipse, any problem he will turn to Allah
SWT.
He makes the prayer, long Salah.
So that's how the good people are.
Good people when they see any problem they
turn to Allah SWT.
They ask Him to forgive.
But it is because of our sin or
something else Allah wants.
He knows the best.
Our duty is to turn to Him to
ask Him to forgive.
It all actually helps us and makes us
clean and turn to Allah SWT.
Insha'Allah.
Another question.
Salaam Alaikum Sheikh from Said.
Salaam Alaikum Sheikh.
Is the physical barrier between men and women
or religious gathering an ideal?
As in is it something we should attempt
to practice?
If not, how would you respond to those
saying that the Prophet ﷺ did not have
such a setup at the time?
Islam does not have any barrier between men
and women.
But it's what Allah has made very clear.
When women come outside they have to cover
their body properly.
And also men should cover their body properly.
And when they come they should have Taqwa.
Fear of Allah SWT.
Respect of each other.
That's how the campaigns have been.
But we never find any example of any
barrier between men and women in the prayer
or in the classroom or in the learning
and teaching.
But people need to respect everybody.
They used to go for Hajj.
Even Tawaf you see so much mixing.
But there never has been a barrier between
men doing Tawaf and women doing Tawaf.
So this barrier idea is a new idea.
The way is to develop Taqwa and fear
of Allah in the society.
And if somebody is not wearing the proper
decent clothes then you can advise the people.
Don't be harsh because people have different cultures.
If you advise them InshaAllah in the future
they will respect you.
But I don't advise people unnecessarily to force
a barrier.
Unless you think really there is a need
or women themselves want a barrier for any
reason.
It's not haram to have a barrier.
It's allowed if you want.
But it's not a religious requirement to have
a barrier.
JazakAllah Khair.
Before we go into the next question we'll
have two more questions.
But before that I just wanted to talk
about an upcoming short course with the Salam.
It's going to be with Dr. Sohaib Saeed
and it's an in-depth seminar that is
going to look at certain overlooked perspectives or
underrated perspectives in the Tafsir traditions.
And it's going to look at case studies
from Surah Al-Baqarah and it's going to
delve into the alternative interpretations from scholars like
Ibn Taymiyyah and Abu Muslim al-Isfahani.
So the deadline to sign up to this
or the deadline to sign up with the
early bird discount is coming up.
It's on the 25th of January and the
course starts on Saturday the 8th of February.
So I would encourage everyone who hasn't signed
up yet and is interested in looking at
Tafsir and different opinions in Tafsir to sign
up.
Moving on from that let's go on to
the next question.
This one should be a quick one.
What is the difference between Ummah, Qawm and
Qariyat?
Each of them is mentioned in different places
in the Shia Sharia.
Qawm means people people who are together.
It could be tribal people people of a
tribe.
There are also Qawm.
So any society like Qawm there's Qawm.
And Qariyat is a town or city where
the people live.
So Qariyat is always actually population.
Like Makkah al-Mukarramah is a Qariyat where
the people live.
So just people are not called Qariyat.
Qariyat will be always in the context of
a place, a city, a town.
Qariyat is the people who live proper settlement.
Like people who are Bedouin they move.
So where they live it's not called Qariyat
because it's not proper settlement.
So Qariyat is a place which gathers the
people.
Gathering of the people proper residence so they
live there.
So that's Qariyat.
Ummah is a concept developed in Islam later
on which means people who follow the same
religion and same leader.
So that's one Ummah.
So basically Muslims are supposed to unite behind
the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet
and one Ameer one single Khalifa one single
Ameer.
So it makes them an Ummah.
But if people are divided around Madhhabs and
schools and many things and they hate each
other.
Like somebody asks question can we ban the
book of Muhammad even as Wahab.
If these things are there we really harm
the Ummah.
Whenever Muslims support sectarian ideas or schools or
Madhhab they basically make the Ummah weaker.
The strength of the Ummah is that you
make your minor differences unimportant.
You can express them you can write about
them but always think really what is the
most important common things between all the believers.
We are united about them.
That's what should be our concern not the
minor issues.
Another question this one is from Dilwah Ali.
Question is is it considered gambling in Islam
to participate in lotteries?
Like those on Facebook for example where you
buy something and it enters you in a
competition to win a Umrah or at shops
where you buy something and then you enter
a competition and you can win a big
prize.
Is that considered gambling or not?
These are the money where you spend money
and you get profit by chance.
It is not buying or selling.
Like buying there is profit but you get
what you buy you pay a price which
is agreed upon.
But here what is happening if you are
buying something and expecting that you get a
ticket for Umrah among 1,000 people or
10,000 people one person will be selected
two people will be selected you are buying
the item.
So basically you are not paying the price
for that item you are also paying the
money for something we don't know really one
person will get.
So that is called gambling.
All lotteries that happen in the world all
of them are gambling and Islam does not
approve anything like that.
Because these things are going to harmful to
the business.
What Allah wants is people do business properly
you know you buy things and you sell
things and that how you know communities develop
and that how the financial matters becomes better
and better and better and that how the
community so that is right way Halal way
is that you maybe you provide your services
that I am a teacher or I am
a you know this service and you get
money for that so at least there is
a contribution to the society.
People who do gambling they don't contribute anything
to the society you know this actually wrong
habit then many people depend on this chances
which you know not right we have to
get money by your effort you make effort
you sell something or sell your services or
some ability then you get money anyway so
the question that you ask about this Hajj
Umrah you know all lotteries and gambling it
is haram.
JazakAllah A question from Yasin Samara so the
question is can the experiences of companions and
righteous people ever be used for evidence or
as evidence in the religion um should it
should we allow it to make our opinion
or change our opinion on the topic um
so should that be what guides us?
Oh just a minute let me think about
the question can experiences of so I think
it means I am a sahaba no no
the thing is you know religion basically is
the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam you know practice of the
companions or righteous people they can be used
as support but not as evidence the meaning
for example is like you know you learn
that Quran said the prayer should be with
khushu Qadaful harum uminoon alladheenuhum fis salati wa
khashioon and then you have stories of the
companions and pious people how they used to
pray with khushu that's fine because the real
command is in your practice based on the
Quran and these things are like support similarly
you know about zakat about anything in the
community you know you base the ruling on
the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and then you use other
people's saying you know as support then no
harm that is what Bukhari has done in
his Sahih so he base he make he
bases all the you know teachings on the
Quran and the sound Sunnah of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam then after that he also
uses sayings of the Sahaba Tabi'een and
the Ulama and the practices as support but
he never bases any ruling on saying of
Umar or the Abu Bakr or people like
that you know he just uses them as
support so that was should be the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam the only one who is
Masoom protected he cannot do mistake if he
did any mistake Allah has corrected him but
after that anyway even the Sahaba they can
do mistake though their mistakes compared to later
people is very very very very few but
still they can do mistake so that why
you know Allah says in Quran if you
have any dispute then refer to Allah and
his messenger so that that was the source
the source is the Quran and the Sunnah
and other people's practices and their sayings they
only should be used for support but not
to rely on them not as evidence Jazakallah
so just a follow up question really on
the gambling question on the lottery question if
a person is to contribute to charity or
to society through charitable donation and they win
a prize so maybe they contribute a small
amount and they win a large prize does
that also count as lottery or yeah any
money that you get by chance by giving
some money then it is all gambling but
if people give you prize for example you
know those people who serve their communities I'm
going to select among them the best person
and I give them prize that's fine as
long as it's not from your money if
you do not contribute the money and you
get a prize that's fine that prize is
fine so for example you know two people
are racing and you say you know you
are third person you say among these two
people whoever wins the race I will give
him one thousand pounds that's fine that's a
prize award but if these two people they
give money you know one thousand each and
they say between us whoever wins get all
two thousand pounds that's gambling that's not allowed
so to always understand if people contribute any
money they cannot get the prize if they
get that's gambling but if they don't contribute
anything third party contributes other people contribute and
they only get if they win that's fine
that's a prize award respect that's fine that
can be allowed JazakAllah Khair one final question
about tahajjud so the right way to offer
tahajjud is it like any regular two rak
'ah prayer and is it allowed is it
possible to recite any shorter shorter surah or
do you have to recite longer surahs no
tahajjud can be just two rak'ah and
it could be any surah you can read
I can't do your time if you have
time more time you read more and more
and tahajjud should be after isha between isha
until fajr time you can do tahajjud anytime
but the best thing is that after isha
you sleep and then wake up late night
before fajr that is the best time for
tahajjud but tahajjud can be done also after
isha especially you know in the summer in
in these countries where the night is very
very short so sometimes cannot people cannot wake
up late night so they can do tahajjud
after isha JazakAllah Khair Sheikh we'll end there
and and we'll meet again soon inshallah next
week with a new Q&A please keep
sending us your questions and see you next
week JazakAllah Khair Fareed Walaikum Assalam wa rahmatullah
wa barakatuh you