Mustafa Khattab – Canada Eh
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And I bay witness that Muhammad salallahu alayhi
wa sallam peace be upon him, is the
seal of the prophets and the final messenger
to all of humanity.
Whoever Allah
guides, there is none to misguide, and whoever
Allah
leaves to astray, there is none to guide
arayat.
Mortgage So,
I always get questions about
our stay in Canada, or Muslim presence in
North America, or in Europe in general, and
some of these questions are very frequent, I
get them every week after salatul Jum'ah, and
sometimes on a daily basis. So questions like,
is it permissible for Muslims to stay in
a non Muslim country?
Legitimate question, and I have to give the
is. And sometimes they cite a hadith, like
hadith in Nabi's
It's an authentic hadith,
so what is the answer to this? The
Prophet
says, In this hadith, I am free, or
I have nothing to do with any Muslim
who lives with a kuffar. For example, The
hadith is authentic, but the understanding
is not correct.
So we have to go into the details.
This is a common question that I get.
The second question is about insurance.
3rd one is about credit cards. The 4th
is about mortgage, which I almost get every
day after every salah.
And 5,
the question about organ donations.
And I get this question for everyone who
is going to get their driver's license, because
normally they get the form, are you willing
to donate your organs,
after you leave this world? So these are
some of the 5 points, some of the
questions I get, and I'll try my best
inshallah to answer them very quick.
A couple of points before I give you
the answers.
Number 1,
So the couple of points before we start,
number 1, when there is an issue
that is related to Muslims life in the
West, in North America and Europe,
I wouldn't ask someone who lives 10000, 15
miles away, who has never been out of
their country because the situation is different.
And everyone knows the story of Imam Shafi'i,
when he was living in Iraq, he used
to give certain fatwas, then when he moved
to Egypt, he changed some of his fatwas,
his own fatwas, because the situation and circumstances
are different.
So you don't ask someone who lives there
about issues,
relevant only to our lives here. So for
example, I wouldn't ask someone who is living
there
about
car insurance,
or about mortgage, because this is not an
issue there, it's an issue here.
So, these issues are dealt with in what
they call, Firkh Al Atamiath Al Muslima, the
Firkh of Muslim minorities, which is a different
branch of Firkh,
slightly different from the traditional fiqh of Imam
Abu Harifa, Shafi'i, Malik and Ahmad. This is
a different,
approach and a different style of fatwa.
The second thing is that I'm just reporting
to you some of the fatawah that have
been issued by,
fatwa councils in America and in Europe. So
these are not my fatwas, and everyone knows
that it's not nice to shoot the imam
of tasalatul Jama'at. Right? So I'm just delivering
the message, they're not my fatwas.
Here we go. The first one,
is it haram to live in the lands
of non Muslims?
Or what they say, some say, Ardu Kufa.
Right? And they narrate the hadith of the
Prophet SAW Alaihi Wasallam that I mentioned,
I'm free or I have nothing to do
with a Muslim who lives with a Kufa.
Of course, they have also to mention the
ayah from Surah Nisa,
Surah number 4, Ayah 9797,
which deals with the same issue.
So this ayah of Surah Nisa Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says, that when the malaika
take the souls of those who have been
wronging themselves,
and the malaika will say, what was wrong
with you? What's your problem? They say,
we couldn't, you know, we're living a difficult
life.
So the malaika will say, was the land
of Allah not spacious enough for you to
migrate in?
Jahannam is there for them, what a horrible
fate. So this ayah and this hadith, they
have something to do together.
They deal together with the same issue.
For someone to give a fatwa in this,
topic or in this issue, you have to
understand
how the rulings are made, and we know
that from Sharia.
There is a general ruling and a specific
ruling.
For example,
when the Quran talks about dealing with non
Muslims kindly,
and fairly,
and graciously,
This is a general ruling, it applies to
all non Muslims,
but when it says in some Ayat you
can find them,
this is a specific ruling if they attack
you. So this is general, and this is
specific.
When, for example, we say that reading the
Quran is Habada,
this is the general ruling, but if I
say that reading the Quran is Haram,
this is specific ruling. Why? It applies to
certain situations. For example,
if we are bringing salat of Jumana,
and one brother or one sister will sit
in the back and read the Mus'haf, and
doesn't pray with us.
How do you,
you know, classify
or rule, the issue, or basically the ruling
then you will issue on his Qur'a of
the Qur'an, and not praying with us Jum'ah.
Haram.
If someone reads Qur'an in the washroom,
what do you call that? Haram. So there
is a general ruling and a specific ruling.
So the specific ruling,
the Ayah and the Hadith, the Ayah Surah
Alissa and the Hadith of the Prophet salAllahu
alaihi wasalam is specific,
and they came at a time
right after the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam left
Mecca and he went to Madinah because they
couldn't practice in Mecca, but some Muslims in
Mecca, they were not willing to make Hajjrah.
They stayed in Mecca, but they couldn't pray,
they couldn't do a bada,
they couldn't live a dignifying or a decent
life, so the Prophet
made this hadith in relation to this group.
They were not able to practice Islam, they
were not able to live an honorable life,
and this is why the Prophet made this
hadith, and this ayah and Surah Alissa was
revealed.
So the ruling in sharia is, if you
live in a land
where you are able to practice your religion
freely, if you want to grow a beard,
no problem. If your wife wants to wear
hijab, alhamdulillah. If you want to build a
masjid or go to a masjid, no problem.
And you live with Izzah with dignity,
and no one is persecuting you, no one
is abusing you, no one is throwing you
in jail.
This sounds like Muslim countries, like, I know
in some places if you have a beard
and you go to the masjid frequently,
there's a problem with you, you end up
in jail. I know stories, and I know
places, and I I don't want to share
the names with you, but these things happen
in Muslim countries.
Some of the Alama and the Haafi Madham,
they say, they make a distinction between Ardu
Islam and Darul Kufr. And of course all
these terminologies
didn't exist at the time of the Prophet
SAW. They existed at the time of Imam
Ibn Tayeem,
Imam,
Ibn Taymiyyah and the other scholars at the
time when the Crusaders were coming from Europe
to attack Muslim lands, when the Tartars,
were coming from Asia to attack Muslim lands,
and Baghdad, and they killed so many Muslims,
so the Ulema at the time had to
make the distinction
to protect Muslims.
But these distinctions, or these terminologies were not
used at the time of the Prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam. Some in the hannahim alham,
they say,
any country
where you are able to practice your religion
freely,
you are totally protected,
you can practice your Islam, you can eat
Haram,
you can live a dignified life, no one
is attacking you or your family because of
your beer or your hijab,
then this is the land of Muslims, even
if the people are kuffar, and even if
sharia is not applied.
And this applies to Canada here, and they
say that if you live in a land
where you are abused, if you grow a
beer or you go to the masjid, you
have a problem,
your daughter cannot go to school because she
wears hijab,
and you don't live a dignified life because
you are Muslim,
this is a land of Kufr even if
the people are Muslim.
So this is the distinction, so we have
to keep this in mind. There's a particular
Muslim country,
a few years ago, before the revolution, the
Arab Spring,
and this country is in North Africa.
When it comes to Ramadan, you can't just
go and pray tarawih in any masjid, you
have to have a card, you have to
have a license,
And you have to go to the masjid
next to your house. You don't just if
I don't like the imam here, I'm gonna
go to Isna, or I'm gonna go to
say the Khadija. No. You have to pray
to the masjid next to your house, even
if you don't like the imam. No. You
have to go there. And they say,
the Imam has to make sure that all
the people behind him have cards. If they
don't have cards, they go home. This happens
in a Muslim country. Or happened. It used
to happen a few years ago. In some
places, if your daughter has hijab,
she can't go.
Like, Turkey at the time of the secularists,
if your daughter has hijab, she can't go
to to to school,
and the same thing happened in Tunisia.
And as I said in some Muslim countries,
if you have a beard, if you go
to the masjid, you will be in trouble
in Muslim countries. Now alhamdulillah, in this country,
we are protected by law. Even Justin Trudeau
cannot stop me from building a masjid, or
from going to the masjid, or wearing a
beard, or wife from wearing a hijab. If
he does something like this, I can take
him to court. And I thank Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala that we're living in Canada because
elsewhere, in some other places,
Muslim and non Muslim countries, Muslims are living
a difficult time.
In some places, some administrations,
there are building walls, and now they're talking
about banning all Muslims from coming in,
and stopping immigrants, and refugees, Syrian refugees from
coming, and stopping Muslims altogether from entering the
country. And in the same week they are
talking about banning Muslims from coming.
In Canada,
a Somali
refugee, brother Ahmed Hussein from Toronto
was appointed as the minister of immigration.
And last year, when justice in Toronto came,
sister Maryam Mosif from Afghanistan was appointed as
the minister
of democratic institutions. 2 Muslim ministers in the
cabinet.
Right? So this is a good place for
Muslims to live.
If you want to live a dignified life
as a Muslim, no one would be able
to stop you in this life, Alhamdulillah. But
those who think
that they're not able to live a dignified
life, or cannot practice their religion, or they
are losing their kids,
then in this case you can move to
a Muslim country.
And your choices are not
very many, they are limited. If you think
about going to Iraq,
big problem.
Syria, big problem. Libya, big problem. Yemen, big
problem.
Where are you gonna go? If you find
a place where you are able to live
a better life as a Muslim, then you
should go. If you can't,
then alhamdulillah, this is a good land, and
alhamdulillah, we are welcome here. But we need
to work together as a Muslim community, and
we need to help each other, we need
to learn from the Chinese,
the Italians, the Ukrainians, and the Jews, and
many others. They help each other, and this
is why they are successful.
Yes. Alhamdulillah, we have made some strides,
some successes,
but we are not
successful to the fullest like these groups because
we are not one hand, we're not helping
each other.
Our voices are not heard because we don't
speak for ourselves.
And this is a different topic, we'll talk
about this inshaAllah some other time. So this
is the first ruling, it is permissible inshaAllah
to live in this land. It's a beautiful
country, we are protected,
we live in dignity and izzah, alhamdulillah, so
no problem with living here.
The second question is about insurance. Is it
halal to get insurance? So I'm gonna give
you the general ruling, then I'm gonna get
into the specifics.
Generally,
and before I forget,
when you take the Fatwa, you take from
the Council of Imams
or Anja, which is in the US, it's
the highest Fatwa Council in North America, or
from the European Council of Ifta, they have
scholars like Salih Asawi, they take Fatwa from,
like, Sheikh Al Taradawi.
You have for example here locally, doctor Muhammad
Abbari Naddawi, the head of the Council of
Imams. These are locals, and they live with
us, and they know our problems.
So the general ruling in Sharia, before I
get into the specifics,
generally insurance is haram.
Why?
Because one of the two sides, you and
the insurance company,
one of you
will suffer financial losses.
1 of the 2. Now, say for example,
I'm with a company,
and I pay them on a monthly basis
for 10 years,
and there's not a circumstance
where I was in an accident, or I
have a problem, so they keep taking money
from me, and I'm not getting anything back.
Nothing.
In some cases, you get the insurance,
health insurance, whatever. I stay with them for
1 week, 2 weeks,
and I have a major health problem. I
go to the hospital, a surgery, $35,000
and I paid only $20.
So one of the 2 will suffer financial
losses. So this is the general ruling in
Sharia. However,
there are some specifics.
They say, for example, if this insurance
is obligated by law, then you should have
it. There's no other way. I cannot drive
a car in Canada, or in the US,
or Europe without car insurance.
Then in Sharia, this is acceptable.
If you work somewhere,
and they say that life insurance, if you
work in a camp or a dangerous job,
and they say that life insurance is an
obligation, you cannot get a contract without it,
get it. Alhamdulillah. It's acceptable,
and they say in this case you get
the minimum one, you don't get the fancy
one. Right? Now, it's acceptable in Sharia because
it's obligated by law.
The same thing applies to a credit card.
Generally in Sharia,
the contract is not valid because it has
a shunted facet,
and an acceptable condition, which is, if you
don't pay within 3 weeks or 4 weeks,
you'll pay,
fine or niba, and this is not acceptable
in Sharia.
So this is a general ruling. The specific
ruling is
So the specific ruling is,
it be it has become very difficult for
a lot of people to live in this
country without having a credit card. Cannot do
business, cannot buy or sell through certain,
services without a credit card.
And subhanAllah, when I first came, I was
against credit cards, and but every time I
wanted to buy something or do something
that required a credit card, I couldn't use
my debit.
You have to have credit. I would call
a friend of mine, can I please give
you a credit card?
Right? And they give you the name, they
give you the information,
and if something happened, the Internet was down,
you have to call them twice, give me
the information, get
And to ask someone
for their credit card number and their,
this sensitive information is just like asking, what's
your mother's name? Like, it's very sensitive thing.
And people are not comfortable when you keep
asking them for credit card information.
So the scholars say, in this case, and
this is like a fatwa from Anja,
the highest fatwa organization in North America, you
can get it,
use it,
but don't buy stuff that you don't need,
and don't live beyond your means. Live according
to your means. Alhamdulillah.
But if you get it, you need it
for your business, make sure you pay before
the deadline for the Riba. Right? After 3
weeks, 4 weeks, they charge you interest. Make
sure you pay this, and just a small
trick, you can talk to your bank, and
they can do auto pay.
Before the deadline for Riba, the bank can
automatically take the money from your bank account
and put it to pay the credit.
Otherwise,
if you delay and you pay,
interest on the money, this will affect your
credit score, and you'll be in trouble if
you want to start a business, or rent
a house, or buy a house. So do
the automatic pay through your bank, and just
relax because the bank will take the money
automatically
from for for your credit card from your
own money.
No problem in this case. So this is
the general ruling, in this case, Wala Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
In case of our insurance, before I forget,
they say if you have a medical condition,
and you are not able to pay the
expenses, they say, in this case, you can't
get health,
insurance because there is a need in this
case.
Number 4
is mortgage.
And for a mortgage you need a whole
month to cover the whole issue, but I
tried to answer very quickly, InshaAllah.
I cannot give you a blanket or universal
fatwa in the issue of mortgage. The ulama
have been fighting, there are different fatwas, and
so on and so forth.
The general ruling is,
when it comes to issues related to our
lives here, new issues like mortgage,
what if someone, you need 2 people are
married, and the wife accepts Islam first, what
happens, and so on and so forth, and
organ donations.
There are always three approaches,
generally.
The first one is haram no matter what.
This is one way.
The other way is
halal
no matter what. This is another approach. The
third one, which I like is halal if,
haram if.
It's conditional.
So the scholars give you some conditions, if
they apply to you, it becomes haram. If
they don't apply to you, it becomes haram.
So when it comes to mortgage,
and again every case and every situation is
different, we are not all the same, we
have different situations, we have different circumstances.
The fatwa, the most comprehensive fatwa in the
field,
and every time this question comes to the
Council of Imams, a member of the Council,
or it goes to Anja in North America
or Europe, they always refer to Fatwa of
doctor Al Karbaw.
In his book, it's called the Fiqh of
Muslim Minorities in the West. If you want
to read the Fatwa in Arabi or English,
you can download the book, Google,
book
of
Fatah of Muslim Minorities, or Fatah Al Ataliat
al Muslima,
doctor Qaradawi, PDF, and he will download the
book in Arabic English, go to the last
chapter, it's a long Fatah of about 70,
80 pages, he gives the opinion of those
who say Haram, the the opinion of those
who say halal no matter what. And his
opinion is halal if, haram if. He gives
you about 7 conditions,
try to apply them to your life and
see if it's acceptable or not.
And if the conditions apply to you, you
buy one house for you and your family,
you don't buy a mansion or a palace,
you don't buy 2, 3 homes, use 1
to make money and to pay the No.
He says, you get it according to your
needs, but make sure that the, the conditions
apply to you. Some people, they take one
line, just one line from the 70, 80
pages, and they say the Sheikh said it's
halal. You have to take the whole fatwa,
and you have to read every word, and
in this case inshallah,
you would be informed to make a decision.
Try first, if you don't have the financial
capacity to buy a house, start with rent.
What's wrong with that? If you think the
rent is too much for you, or no
one is willing to, rent the house because
you have many kids, you will have a
low credit score,
then look for Muslim organizations that provide,
that can finance the project.
But if you think this is not an
option for you, then read the fatwa to
make sure that the conditions apply to you.
We ask Allah
We're gonna kindly ask you to move forward
because the people are waiting outside.
The last ruling for today
is organ donations.
Can I donate organs during my life or
after my death?
And it doesn't really matter if I donate
the organ or
donate blood or organs to a Muslim or
a non Muslim.
So, again, the three approaches apply. Some say
haram, some say halal, and some say halal
ida, haram ida. Halal if, haram
if.
My approach is halal, if, haram, if. Generally,
generally,
donating organs to help people and save lives
is acceptable in sharia because we said before
that sharia have 5 objectives.
To protect life,
to protect faith, to protect dignity and honor,
to protect
money,
and the capacity to think. And this is
why in sharia there are punishments for violating
any of these 5. These are the 5
objectives of sharia. So to protect life, there
is punishment for killing someone or injuring someone.
To protect the capacity to think, there's punishment
for drinking alcohol.
To protect dignity and honor, there's punishment for
zina, and for accusing people of adultery, and
so on and so forth. Money,
is punishment for theft, and so on and
so forth. So protecting
life
is a priority in sharia. If you are
able to donate blood or an organ to
save someone's life, it doesn't matter if the
person is Muslim or non Muslim, this is
acceptable,
and the scholars say there are two conditions.
Number 1,
you don't do it for money. Because some
people, you read stories about people from China,
from Korea,
they sell their kidney, or in Oregon just
to buy an iPhone 6, or to buy
a tablet, or a, you know, an iPad.
People do this for money.
You cannot do this because your organs are
not actually yours. This is a gift from
Allah, and eventually it will go back to
him. You cannot sell it, you cannot lease
it, or rent it. Right? It belongs to
Allah. You will lend it to someone to
use it to save the life, but eventually
it will go back to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. The second condition,
if you want to donate, make sure, if
you want to donate during your life, inshallah,
that you make the tasks to make sure
that, for example,
you're not going to donate an organ that
is the only organ in your body. Like
for example, I can't donate my heart
because I have only 1. If I donate
it, I will die. So this is not
acceptable.
But if you donate an organ like a
kidney,
I'm not very good at math and science,
but my understanding is you have 2 kidneys
and 1 liver. So if you have 2
parts of your kidney, you can't donate 1,
and you can't still function by the other,
but make sure when you donate 1, the
other one is actually functioning.
Because if you do not donate the functioning
one and the other one is not working,
as soon as you donate it, you will
die. Janaza.
So in this case, make sure it is
actually functioning, you'll take money for it, and
these are the two conditions for someone to
donate their organs. And this is during someone's
life.
After life,
some of the scholars say it is permissible
to donate after someone's life. Some say, no,
you can't because it is not halal to
mess with someone's body
after their death, because the body should be
respected after somebody's death.
Because what they do in some cases, they
open,
and oh we don't need this, they throw
it, no we need this, they take it.
So it's up to you. The two conditions
apply. If you want to donate your organs
after you leave this world, Alhamdulillah, to save
someone's life, if you feel like
your body should be respected and protected, and
you came to this world in 1 piece,
and you want to beat Allah in 1
piece, khalas, this is up to you. The
2 opinions are there. We ask Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, to bless this country, and we
ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to keep us
safe and dignified in this land, and we
ask Allah to give us a to Islam
and Muslims, to forgive our sins, accept our
good deeds.