Suhaib Webb – Fiqh & Fatwa – Part One- Two Challenges Facing Fiqh Practitioners in the U.S

Suhaib Webb
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The importance of sharia and the negative consequences of sharia, including false assumptions and false predictions, are discussed. Sharia is built upon recognized customs and practices, but it is not a recognized culture. The segment also touches on the negative consequences of sharia, including false assumptions and false predictions, and how it impacts behavior and income. The speaker emphasizes the importance of moral depravity and the need for behaviors and behaviors to achieve success.

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			Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
		
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			A few days ago I put an article
		
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			up on Substack that talks about evaluating the
		
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			growth of Islamic law at a practical level,
		
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			not an abstract level in the United States
		
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			over the last 10 years, what I've seen
		
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			traveling almost like everywhere in the United States
		
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			and examining what's going on as well as
		
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			fielding questions and listening to people and talking
		
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			to practitioners of Islamic law in the United
		
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			States of America.
		
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			And I noted that I had two real
		
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			serious concerns.
		
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			The first concern is the inability for American
		
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			Muslim scholars to self-validate and the inability
		
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			for many within the religious circles to validate
		
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			those scholars.
		
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			What I mean by that is everyone's kind
		
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			of looking in their rearview mirror, like I
		
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			went to Azhar, I was at Dar al
		
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			-Iftar, those things are very important to me,
		
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			but at the end of the day, I
		
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			trust like local practitioners of fiqh and fatwa
		
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			here to give the right answer than say
		
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			over there.
		
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			An incident happened to me around 15 years
		
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			ago, I was traveling with a mufti who
		
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			I was studying with and we were in
		
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			Chicago and a question came to me and
		
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			I can't remember this question subhanAllah for the
		
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			life of me, and I went to him
		
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			and asked him and he said to me,
		
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			why did we train you?
		
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			Like why are you here asking you this?
		
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			You need to figure this out for yourself.
		
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			You know your people better than we do.
		
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			And that of course is not to reinforce
		
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			some kind of nativism or anything like that,
		
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			we definitely want to partner and cooperate with
		
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			people overseas and benefit from scholars and the
		
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			academic presence of councils overseas, but there may
		
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			be times where American Muslims have to make
		
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			calls, scholarship, in ways that differ with overseas
		
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			simply because the situations are different.
		
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			That takes me to the second concern and
		
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			that is the reliance on classical fiqh manuals,
		
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			especially in the areas of mu'malat in day
		
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			-to-day dealings and the customs that generated
		
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			those answers to answer particular needs within the
		
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			context.
		
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			I'm speaking to where I live, United States
		
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			of America.
		
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			Imam al-Qarafi in Farooq, he says that
		
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			you know any like fatwa that is rooted
		
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			in a custom can change if that custom
		
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			changes.
		
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			Imam Ibn Qayyim talks about this in Al
		
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			-Anwaqqain, he talks about this also in the
		
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			in Al-Turuq Al-Hukumiyah, you know that
		
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			that these kind of particular changes demand not
		
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			simply holding on to texts which are answering
		
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			particulars from centuries ago, but are taking into
		
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			consideration the situation at hand.
		
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			And that's really the job of the faqih.
		
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			I mean you can tell me all day
		
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			long what we accomplished in Andalus, but I
		
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			want to know what you're accomplishing now.
		
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			Like we can live in an abstract romanticized
		
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			sort of sense of success, but if we're
		
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			failing to serve the people in front of
		
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			us and generate answers that show the value
		
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			and life of the sharia, we not only
		
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			risk losing the broader non-Muslims, but we
		
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			also risk failing to model the value of
		
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			Islam for Muslims.
		
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			So that's the second concern and there's some
		
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			quotes, I have the article in front of
		
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			me here, you know by scholars that sort
		
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			of address this, you know Imam al-Shatibi
		
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			says sharia is built upon the recognition of
		
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			people's customs when needed and practices as long
		
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			as they align with its objectives, as long
		
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			as those customs align with the objectives of
		
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			sharia and do not you know contradict the
		
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			foundations of Islam.
		
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			And I mentioned earlier al-Qarafi al-Farooq
		
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			volume four page nine has this really powerful
		
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			statement a religious opinion based on custom changes
		
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			when the custom changes.
		
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			So what I'm getting at is no doubt
		
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			I believe that taqlid in acts of worship
		
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			is central, but I believe in the areas
		
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			of mu'malat this is where day-to-day
		
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			actions, where jurists, practitioners of fiqh, scholars, fiqh
		
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			councils have to come together and begin to
		
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			answer the questions of the day because there's
		
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			a great statement al-Qarafi said it as
		
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			well as Ibn Qayyim is very similar that
		
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			says you know sticking to those classical texts
		
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			is a failure to appreciate the true intent
		
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			of the law, the way of the salaf,
		
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			the way of the jurist in fact is
		
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			going to lead people astray, is trying to
		
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			fit two puzzle pieces that don't work.
		
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			One of the areas that I think we
		
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			may be failing to address and to sort
		
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			of explain to people why certain fatwas are
		
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			the way they are, there's like eight parameters
		
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			that impact fatwa right and one of them
		
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			is moral depravity.
		
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			Now Amr ibn Abdulaziz a famous statement he
		
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			says new rulings will be introduced for people
		
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			in proportion to the corruption they introduce.
		
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			So the ruling is going to take into
		
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			consideration because it's not only about enforcing the
		
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			good at times the job of the mufti
		
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			could be to mitigate evil, like to step
		
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			in and stop greater evil and greater harm
		
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			from happening.
		
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			There's a great example of this we know
		
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			that Imam Atik radiyallahu anhu had different opinions
		
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			for people based on their geographical areas like
		
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			if a person came from a place where
		
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			people are known to be liars, if a
		
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			person came from a place where people were
		
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			known to be not upright in certain ways
		
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			the answer may change it may even be
		
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			more difficult it may be like a disciplined
		
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			answer that creates a sense of like you
		
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			know sternness or it may be dispensation just
		
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			because that person's surrounded by certain challenges that
		
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			are impossible for them to escape.
		
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			We also find the Prophet ﷺ in the
		
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			hadith related by Imam Abu Dawood, Imam al
		
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			-Ayni mentions this when the young man asked
		
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			him can I kiss my wife while fasting
		
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			he says no the old man he says
		
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			yes right two different realities happening in this
		
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			situation two different situations happening that demand same
		
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			question different answer.
		
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			When people will come to the Prophet ﷺ
		
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			some say ayoo a'mal al-afdal what's the
		
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			best action I can do the answer is
		
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			different as Asha'at if he mentions and
		
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			al-muwathaqat because that person's ability and needs
		
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			and situations are different.
		
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			We're not talking about the fundamentals of Islam
		
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			here we're talking about those things that sort
		
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			of animate and bring a cadence to Islam
		
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			that impact people individually or even communally but
		
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			we're not talking about salah and hajj and
		
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			fasting of course we're talking about other things
		
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			the periphery here so let's be careful fatwa
		
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			not sharia is the word I'm using.
		
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			A great example of this is Imam Abu
		
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			Hanifa who you know he actually allowed the
		
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			family of the Prophet ﷺ to receive zakah.
		
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			Why?
		
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			Because in his time that institution had become
		
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			so corrupted that they could no longer rely
		
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			on the state to take care of them
		
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			so here we see Sayyidina Imam Abu Hanifa
		
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			taking into consideration the moral depravity the institutional
		
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			failure to issue a fatwa.
		
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			We find also for example in Surat al
		
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			-Tawbah verse 91 right Allah says that there's
		
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			no blame on the benefactor.
		
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			Benefactor are those people like I go somewhere
		
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			to get something fixed and they ask someone
		
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			to like hold that garment for me or
		
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			I go somewhere to to have something handled
		
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			and between it the service that I paid
		
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			for there's there's someone who's handling that for
		
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			that service.
		
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			That person like let's say I have a
		
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			new garment and I take it to a
		
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			tailor and somehow that garment has a problem
		
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			right it goes back to the one who
		
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			made the garment not the tailor in the
		
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			ideal situation okay based on this verse.
		
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			Imam Abu Hanifa he changed his opinion on
		
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			this and he noted that the moral integrity
		
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			of the people the benefactors in his age
		
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			service providers would be a great way to
		
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			understand this their religious commitment and their piety
		
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			had decreased so the craftsmen and the laborers
		
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			so if I hire someone to fix my
		
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			house and something happens in the house right
		
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			that at that time people begin to use
		
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			this verse in a way that undermined what
		
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			the verse was trying to accomplish the goal
		
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			of the verse was masaleh because generally benefactors
		
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			are bringing good so I wanted to open
		
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			the door for benefactors these people unfortunately began
		
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			to use it for the opposite right and
		
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			take advantage of people so Sayyidina Imam Abu
		
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			Hanifa he issues the fatwa that no these
		
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			people are actually liable for things that happen
		
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			in this situation which would seem like he
		
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			actually is contradicting the Quran but he's not
		
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			he's actually affirming the overarching goal of the
		
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			Quran which is to bring benefit so now
		
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			craftsmen and now laborers construction workers and others
		
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			they can be held accountable because Imam Abu
		
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			Hanifa is not sticking to the apparent meaning
		
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			of the text but the implicit meaning of
		
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			the text to affirm the broader goal of
		
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			Islam which is to bring benefit the point
		
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			here is he takes into consideration the moral
		
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			condition of the people in order to what
		
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			we say tell the youth right to offer
		
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			a change that sticks to the not the
		
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			letter of the law if you will but
		
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			the meaning of the law we find the
		
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			prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam he took into consideration
		
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			people when he came after conquering Mecca alhamdulillah
		
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			a non-violent you know if you will
		
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			conquering and he says to Sayyidina Aisha is
		
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			related by America in the Muwatta if it
		
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			wasn't that your people had just become Muslim
		
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			I would order that the Kaaba is destroyed
		
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			and rebuilt on its original foundations you know
		
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			Imam Anowi reflecting on this and it's also
		
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			related by Imam Muslim he says like here's
		
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			a great example of not doing something to
		
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			achieve something greater not doing something good to
		
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			achieve a greater good uh sallallahu alayhi wasallam
		
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			I experienced something like this a few years
		
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			ago we know that the methamphetamine epidemic in
		
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			this country has gone insane Oxycontin was destroying
		
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			people for years and I was asked by
		
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			Muslims who are clinicians about the practice of
		
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			medic medication assisted recovery or MAR or what's
		
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			called a harm reduction where a person is
		
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			given an intoxicant which is less dangerous less
		
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			addictive but slowly weeds them off more addictive
		
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			opiates and so on and so forth and
		
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			my answer was that that is allowed if
		
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			done under the supervision of medical professionals because
		
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			the overarching good is greater than just allowing
		
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			people to continue to use these devastating narcotics
		
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			which are opioids which are impacting their family
		
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			their wealth their community many times it's targeting
		
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			certain races in this country absence of parents
		
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			absence of fathers statistics show what all this
		
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			does so the overarching good would be under
		
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			medical supervision to help wean people off those
		
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			dangerous narcotics with the hope of a full
		
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			recovery I say that and feel free to
		
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			differ not a problem to show like how
		
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			we have to be number one self-validating
		
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			amongst ourselves oftentimes I see Muslims they have
		
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			great scholars in their community in America but
		
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			they ignore them or they're not aware of
		
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			them or they even ask I want to
		
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			study this subject I'm like but you have
		
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			this guy in your city they're they're completely
		
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			unaware of that person number two is the
		
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			bravery needed to push in and provide answers
		
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			for today not yesterday we can all be
		
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			brave in classical texts we can all be
		
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			brave in the arguments that happened centuries ago
		
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			but the people have a need for the
		
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			beauty the light and mercy and discipline of
		
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			the sharia and to mute the khitab of
		
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			Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in that metaphoric
		
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			sense means that you're no longer someone who's
		
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			working in and importantly my experience is that
		
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			when we push in in these scenarios and
		
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			we attempt that we have bravery to be
		
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			wrong or to be right when we push
		
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			in we show people the true value of
		
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			Islam the beauty of Islam that impacts not
		
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			only Muslims but also brings solutions for non
		
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			-Muslims so public practitioners of fiqh in America
		
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			fiqh if they intend to do it right
		
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			must be brave enough to serve the people
		
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			and work together I always encourage people to
		
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			think about like working with other practitioners not
		
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			going it alone I'm on two fiqh councils
		
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			I think it's important that that happens and
		
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			also to push beyond just simply looking at
		
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			things from the past especially when it's related
		
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			to mu'malat but answering questions for today in
		
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			the future