Yasir Qadhi – Q&A How can we defend the Islamic zabihah halal slaughter in France
AI: Summary ©
The French government is considering new legislation to ban Halal slaughterhouses by name, but Halal slaughterhouses will be enforced. The speakers emphasize the importance of scientific research to determine which methods are more painful and dangerous. They stress the need for mobilization to support political causes and strengthen community. The speakers also discuss the importance of maintaining healthy health and expenses, particularly for elderly parents. They stress the need for transparency in the decision to avoid wasting money and find a reasonable and affordable cost to cover one's salaries. They also discuss the use of Zworked and the importance of finding a reasonable and affordable cost to cover one's salaries.
AI: Summary ©
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Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. While early he also be a woman, whether Ahmedabad today is our q&a Tuesday. So let us begin. Our first email comes from France. Brother Amir says that the French government has announced that it will ban Halal slaughter soon. And they say that it is true cruel. And so he is asking that, how can we defend the Islamic manner of slaughter, that it is not actually cruel? And also he's asking for any advice regarding this ban.
Now, firstly, this is of course, a time sensitive question. That is why I'm answering this ahead of the queue. France has just announced that they're going to ban now here we have to be a little bit accurate. Our brother Omar said that they're going to ban Halal slaughter, and I did some research and I contacted you know, some of my colleagues and friends in France to be more precise. And the French government has not announced that it's going to ban Halal slaughter in those words, however, what they have announced is that they're going to enforce a sanitary restrictions and a new procedure on slaughterhouses. And there's going to be a long list of things of them is that you
cannot electrocute the animal that sorry that you must act electrically, the animal sorry, they're gonna ban not electric, the double negative there. So the Muslim slaughterhouses did not use electrocution on chickens. And France wants to implement an EU wide edict which says that it is more humane to stun the animal to stun the chicken and then to execute it. So they have a long list of conditions that they're going to enforce. And these conditions will disproportionately affect Muslim owned, you know, the Bihar producing factories, and therefore, it is being presented as a halal ban. Now, technically, as I said, it is not a halal meat ban, it is an enforcement of a long list of
policies. But the Muslim owners seem to be the ones that will take the brunt of those policies. Now, this might be an innocent gesture, such that we should say, Oh, well, this is just them implementing their their version of what they think is more humane. But you see, our shady AI tells us that we should have trust an oven or good thoughts. In the general norm. That is what we're supposed to do. However, when there is a track record of hostility, when there is an entire long resume of one legislation after another that is aimed to almost criminalize really the religion of Islam. In this particular case, we're not told to be naive. And even though I would not call it a halal ban,
because that's not technically accurate, I think that it is fair to say that we should be highly suspicious of this move coming at this time from this particular, you know, country and government. Because the reality is that this nation state has manifested its deep seated hatred of the religion of Islam for many, many decades. And this is now becoming exponentially worse. And so there's very little room left for us to have personally been to think positive thoughts against this particular nation. You know, a number of academic studies have shown that I just checked myself today, a number of academic studies have shown that France along with Austria, and one or two other European
countries are amongst the worst Islamophobic countries in all of the Western world, and perhaps even the entire globe. And the amount of racism that our Muslim brothers and sisters face in France is something that we Americans and Canadians and Australians, really, we don't even understand, you know, from birth, not even from birth from before birth, the ghettoization of the North African Muslim populations, and then the discrimination against them at every single stage of life, from their education to their positions at university because again, this is all something that is free over there as a socialist, you know, type of a democracy where everybody should get a slug, but your
name and your background and your hijab is going to speak volumes about which position you get, and where you are hired or not hired and where you can even rent and not rent. It's nothing in law, but in practice, there is a second class citizenship from the beginning to the
And and that is why this new law that is coming, really, it is highly suspicious. And we need to look at this ban in the context of an ongoing campaign to demonize everything from the hijab to so many masajid have been shut down in the wake of the, the the sad and the tragic killing, and we are condemned that, but it is a lone person that did that, and you take it out on an entire community. And we say that this is very, very suspicious that you know, these laws are going to target primarily Muslim practices, you know, this, it's not something they don't know, and for them to bring about the set of laws and to put them in, by the way, even though this particular bill does
not mention the word halal and whatnot. However, in the last few years, a number of French members of parliament have raised potential bills to ban Halal slaughter by name. And so in the wake of all of this, we now come to this new bill here. And we have to say that it is highly, highly suspicious. And it reeks of Islamophobia, even though there's no word in there that we can pinpoint. So we have to say this as a beginning. The second point is that our brother asks that what is to be done with the claim that it is inhumane to slaughter an animal without electrocuting it, right, because again,
the notion of stunning is something that many European countries in many Western countries think it is the moral thing to do. And so for chickens, they will immerse chickens in very hot, almost boiling water that has a dosage of electric current running in it. And so the chickens become stunned, and they're knocked unconscious, and then there, then they are basically slaughtered by machine. And when it comes to a goat, and when it comes to cows, and other such a livestock, then the studying process involves typically a bolt gun, which is taken to the head, and it basically releases a Dart or a metal cylinder that goes into the brain of the cow, and then comes back. And so
it is completely stunned and falls to the ground. And in our Shadia, we frown upon these practices, we do not think that this is good to do. And we do this for two reasons. Firstly, because we feel that this is more painful to the animal than the actual slaughtering, we feel that this is torture. And then secondly, and this is the more big bigger problem as well is that through studying such animals, a percentage of them might actually die. And so if you're going to cut off the head of a chicken, after it is dead, there is no point in slaughtering the chicken, it is considered to be dead meat or carry on or Mater. It doesn't matter if you say Bismillah and you use a sharp knife and
you cut off the When the chicken is already dead, or the cow if it is stunned and it dies. It doesn't matter what procedure you do that is dead meat, you might as well just bank something, we might as roast just you know the biller road kill is the equivalent, the same thing, you know, an animal that dies because the car accidentally hits it, versus an animal that has been electrocuted and died. It is the same thing. We are not allowed to eat such animals, we have to have an animal that is sacrificed properly, and the blood is gushing out. So the animal must be alive now. They accused us of being inhumane. And the response to this is that there has not been any documented
study and survey scientific survey that demonstrates that either of these two is more humane to the best of my knowledge. And I again, look this up. I've done this research a number of years ago. And I've also done this to answer this question as well. And the the predominant opinion is that we do not know which of the two methods I'm being very fair here. Now, I personally believe that sacrificing with a sharp instrument, and slaughtering via the jugular vein is more humane, and it is less painful. But I'm talking about in the scholarly scientific community that is not religious, they're doing both of these surveys. And what conclusions they have reached is that it is
indefinite, we do not know for sure which of these two is less painful or more painful? And of course, how can they know that? How can you assess the pain of an animal? How is it possible to see which one is more painful? So in reality, scientifically, we actually do not know in a number of medical surveys have been done, and there appears to be no conclusive answer. And one thing that people don't take into account is that the slaughtering of animals is a messy and * business no matter how you go about it. And that is why many people are going vegan or vegetarian because they don't believe that, you know, there is a higher being they don't believe that that higher being has
allowed us you see we as Muslims, we have an ethical hierarchy, we as Muslims, we have the moral license
From the creator himself, literally Allah azza wa jal says I created these animals for you right that that ahead did not come they are halal for you Sahara Allah calm, he has made them subjugated to you Karuna mean who you're eating from them. So the Quran is very clear that Allah has given us the moral authority to sacrifice these animals if we do it in a proper and humane manner. Now, if you don't believe in in religion, then obviously, it is possible for you to derive that the whole process is so vulgar, and so evil. So I'm going to become a vegetarian, and I can see where they're coming from Hamdulillah we don't need to go down that route. We are a religion that believes in the
permissibility of eating meat. Now, if you're going to believe that you're going to if you believe that eating meat is permissible, then there's going to be a messy procedure, there's going to be a * procedure, there is no easy way around it, you're going to have to slaughter the animal one way or the other. And so the criminalization or the demonization of the Muslim slaughtering is the height of hypocrisy when they themselves are doing similar things. The only difference as we said, is that a stunning and if you read so many newspaper reports and articles, oh, they take a sharp knife and they cut the jugular vein, okay, how do you kill the animal even after it is slaughtered?
What do you do, you also take a sharp knife and you cut it, the only difference is, a percentage of your animals are dead, whereas for us there is no percentage that is dead. Now, from a technical standpoint, this is my third point here. From a technical standpoint, purely from a short a perspective, the stunning of an animal is mcru. It is not in and of itself going to make the animal haram it is mcru. It is discouraged, we should not do this. However, if this ban is taking place, which appears the bill has already been passed, and within a month, and this is why the timing is so suspect, because it is coinciding with the month of Ramadan. So again, you know, it's a very
sinister motivation and people and agenda and timing, everything checks, the boxes really have a deep seated hatred of our faith. And that's something that we seek Allah's refuge and protection. But if or when this ban goes into effect, just to be technical here, even if it is required to stun the animal, as long as the animal is alive, when it is slaughtered, it will be highlighted from an Islamic perspective. Therefore, if this law will be enforced, then I asked the Muslim butcher, how slaughterhouses the abbatoirs that are there to monitor and make sure that the animal is still alive, the heart is beating, as long as the animal is alive, when the the jugular is cut, then the
animal will be considered halaal. So you say Bismillah, you use a sharp instrument, and you cut the jugular while the animal is alive, and that will be constituted a valid slaughter. Now the problem again comes the percentage of death. And that's really why that's really why we do not like these types of, of shocking of the animals, because this electrocution, it does cause some of the animals to die. And that is something that is very problematic for us. Now, we also have to point out that here are the the you know, the government is telling us that this is inhumane, and they're telling us that it is something that is going to cause pain to the animal. And you know, this is Quranic
methodology, that sometimes this is a deep point here, sometimes it is allowed to attack the messenger of the you know, the messenger, of course, I don't mean to talk about the Prophet, the messenger means the person coming to you with a you know, with some idea, you can also attack the credibility of the person, sometimes you can do this right, depending on the context, and sometimes you should concentrate only on the arguments of the person that is bringing forth. Now, in this case, we have full authority to point out the sheer hypocrisy of the French people for claiming that they want to preserve human sorry, animal rights and human rights, animal rights, and to prevent
pain when one of the main exports of one of the most inhumane animal products in the world is France itself. Now, perhaps many of you watching this are not aware. So I apologize, I'm going to have to be a little bit graphic, but this is something that needs to be done to point out the double standards and the hypocrisy of this group that is saying that our procedure is inhumane and painful, even as they themselves are known across the world for one particular animal product. That is the height of inhumanity. So much so that there have been decrees from animal organizations across the globe from PETA and from even United Nations councils that what not to attempt to ban this item.
What item is this? It is
Something that I'm assuming many of us are not aware of. It is called a foie gras foie gras. It's a French term that means fatty liver. Now what is foie gras? Foie gras is the liver of a duck. Now what is wrong with eating of the liver of a duck? Well, nothing you can eat the liver of a duck, the duck is hella, if you slaughter it, you can eat the liver of the duck. But you see, this particular liver that is marketed and that is sold de France is the number one export an entire globe by the way, and more than around 20 tons of the product. Now, I cannot even imagine how many hundreds of 1000s of birds that must be 20 tons of the profit of the number one exporter in the globe of this
product is France. Now how do you produce this, this product, you tie a duck down, you put it put them in a cage, and then you force feed the duck, you shove a pipe probably the villa down its neck all the way to its stomach. So it is literally just a pipe that is coming all the way out. And then you pump two to three pounds of food every single day for many, many, many weeks. You pump food in continuously two and a half pounds of grain and fat. You just keep on pumping it in. And in the process, the animal is going to become bloated and bloated and bloated. The animal will not be able to walk it is stuck in one place. It is however the biller in its own excrement for weeks on end,
and you just keep on force feeding, what's going to happen, the organs will collapse. And the liver will basically burst internally, it's going to become 10 times its normal size. And so right when the animal is at the verge of death, then you will slaughter it, the liver will be super, you know soft and gorged and that is called foie gras. This, this procedure is so inhumane that it has been banned in several European countries in Austria, in the Czech Republic in Denmark and Finland, in Germany, in Italy, in Norway, Poland. Even in the United Kingdom, you cannot buy this product because of the inhumanity that is done on this particular product. And yet France is by far and
large, the number one producer and exporter because it is a French cuisine item of foie gras. And as I said more than 20,000 tonnes just imagine that 20,000 tonnes of foie gras is sold to other countries around the globe. And this needs to be said here. So now they're going to come and tell us that our procedures are inhumane when this is the national delicacy of this land. And that's why we cannot help but say there seems to be a clear double standard. This is reeking of your traditional French hypocrisy. And this needs to be said, nonetheless, when all is said and done, what can we do? And with this, I conclude this question, what can be done? Well, the specifics of what you need to
do, I can't answer you. I'm sitting in America, I do not know the ins and outs of what is the best procedure, how to mobilize the community, what types of non violent pressure because we must use non violent pressure, we must use non violent pressure protests, letters, to politicians letters to the editor, economic pressure on specific, you know, politicians or whatever they're spreading this type of hate. Muslims need to mobilize I have said this so many times that, given the circumstances we're living in, you know, the Muslim communities cannot afford to be apolitical and just living in their houses and not getting a vote. This is their own system. And France has the highest concentration of
Muslims in the Western world. Paris, I have been told is 20% 15 to 20%. Muslim background, how can you let these politicians go unchallenged? When 1/5 of your city, you know, is of a particular heritage and background and you're all wanting to eat? Or at least you wanting to have the permissibility of halal meat? How can you just sit and do nothing, mobilize gather together will put pressure on politicians that are anti Muslim, and support politicians that are gonna give you your rights that are guaranteed by the law and also form alliances with other groups, in particular, the Jewish communities as well. And this is something that again, the irony of ironies, we might
disagree with many of the people of the Jewish background because of the political situation in Israel and Palestine. And that's a valid disagreement, but when it comes to rituals, and when it comes to many of the practices, we are very similar and there's much to be gained by cooperating with them against those that hate the both of us because statistics have shown over and over again, that those that are Islamophobic are also anti semitic. They lumped the two of us together and last
typically affect both of our communities. So if they were to enforce this, then in reality, it will also affect the Jewish community. And that is why it is so important that we do form alliances for these political causes. And we agree to disagree, we definitely do not, you know, condone what is going on in Palestine and whatnot. But this is a separate issue. And for the greater good of both of the communities, we need to work together, because in some states and lands in Europe, they have tried to ban you know, children's circumcision or boy circumcision to try to ban you know, halal and kosher. And so we are all on the same side when it comes to these types of practices. And the Sharia
allows us as our profit system did form alliances and loyalties with people of Makkah, who are not upon our faith, but they were standing for truth and justice. They were standing for the freedoms of the Muslims to worship. And I have given many talks on this in my Siraj, you know, Multilib, an ID or butadiene, others, the Muslims had no problem forming alliances with them, and taking their help and getting their advice and helping them back indirectly as well as a prophecy some explicitly praised multiman other instances in the Sierra that it has spoken about. So the bottom line that I cannot tell you specifically what to do, I don't know, you know, the realities of your particular
country, but generically speaking, your community leaders and your activist, you know, should ally themselves with your forward thinking or ADAMA, and then see what can be done as a community to try to stop this, this ban taking into effect and worst case scenario, as I said, that, in the meantime, you can implement these laws and the meat will still be halal, as long as you make sure that the animal is alive when the slaughter takes place. And Allah subhanaw taala knows best.
Our next question, I have a question, a questioner who asked to be anonymous, who says that they are a group of siblings, and they have an elderly father, who is married to their stepmother. So they have a stepmother and an elderly father. And now the elderly father has reached a state where he's not able to take care of himself, and the children are stepping in to help and to take care of the father. But it requires high maintenance, there's a lot of money involved to take care of doctors and have visits and whatnot. And while the father does have a good amount of money saved up, the step mother is insisting that since it is their father, the children's father, and they are all
adults, that they should take the tabs they should finance, the upkeep and that she should basically get to enjoy or maintain the money and be in charge of the money because the father is no longer mentally capable of managing the money. And so there is a tussle between his wife who is the stepmother of the children, and between the biological children. And the question is, therefore, whose responsibility is it financially to take care of this gentleman? Should this gentleman's money be the primary resource? Or do the adult male children who are all working? They all have their families, they are all having an income, is it requirement for them? Now, the answer to this
question, there are multiple aspects. There's a legal aspect, there's an emotional aspect, there's a religious aspect, all of these are intertwined together, I'm not going to really go down the emotional or the Ersan aspect, emotionally speaking, you know, the, the emotions involved here. It's not simplistic that you quote, law. And that's it. It is very clear to me reading this question that your family needs to sit down and discuss the underlying issues, you know, the, the your stepmother, who has been married to your father, I'm assuming for many, many years, or however many years that she is no stranger to the family, she is a part of your father's life, you, of course, are the
biological children. So these are underlying issues that need to be discussed maybe in the presence of to arbitration, you know, members of the that you can use as arbitrators, but it needs to be discussed, it's not just a legal verdict that is going to that is going to be brought about. And of course, there is no denying that this needs to be said as well. That taking care of an elderly parent, is of the greatest good deeds that you can possibly do. So my encouragement to all of you is to never, ever give up no matter what happens. Be encouraged that you are doing one of the greatest good deeds imaginable. And whoever is taking care however, they're taking care, your efforts are not
going to waste how wherever the money is coming from your efforts are not going to waste if it so happens that you will end up spending some money. Don't even think about it in the sense religiously, I'm telling you that Allah azza wa jal will indeed reward you and although this is the precursor to the technical and the legal answer, because I don't think it is fair to jump to the technical and skip over the emotional regardless of what happens he is your father and take care of them to the best of your ability. Now, technically speaking, I
A person's maintenance a person's upkeep a person's bills, a person's expenses, primarily falls on his own wealth, okay? That's the whole purpose it is his money. So who else is more entitled to it than he himself after all, he earned it, it's his money now that he is in need of it, then technically speaking, his money is the first resource that should be done for anything that is necessary or reasonable. And I'm sure that Insha Allah, Allah, we all can agree to what is reasonable, obviously, we don't want anything frivolous, but anything that will make life more comfortable, any equipment, any doctor's visits, that you know, are part of the routine that must be
done that are culturally accepted to be done in his and medically in his situation, all of these expenses will first and foremost come from his own pocket and his own bank account. And that is why in our Sharia, when a person passes away, who pays for the funeral, it is in fact the person's wealth before even any will or will see you before any inheritance, even before any debts are paid to anybody who owes them. The first thing that you do is you take the expenses of your own funeral, his own funeral from his own wealth, this is Allah's beautiful, shady, a beautiful, you know, shed is so simple, so straightforward that the person earned his money, he needs to pay for his own
burial. And then you start with the debts and the will see you and they will author all of this is going to come after you have taken care of his own funeral. If this is the case of his funeral, what do you think when he's alive? What do you think of his medical? What do you think of the maintenance expenses, and therefore, the the the primary obligation is upon the person's own wealth and his wife or the stepmother of the children does not have the Islamic right to stop the money being spent on him? Because again, I'm taking you at face value that the money is being spent on him for his maintenance and upkeep. If that is the case, technically, there is simply no question that she
cannot say I want the money and I want to do this and that and I want to live more comfortably. That's when she she will be maintained. Yes, her residence and her you know, room and board and her you know, expenses of living. But as long as there is money in the bank account that he owns, there's wealth that is being accrued or that is still there, then he will be taken care of from that wealth. And the children are not obliged to give anything of their whatnot. Obviously, religiously speaking, if they do, Allah shall reward them. And if any one of them volunteers, Allah azza wa jal will give them back more, that's good, but until his own money runs out, they are not legally
obliged, the minute that his money runs out, if he does not have enough and they're not able to take care of then in this case, the biological children will all come together and they will decide who can give how much and they will collectively it is a collective obligation and the rich will give according to his means, and the one that is not so rich will give according to his means, but they all must share and they must come to a mutually agreed upon conclusion, that how much will be given by each person. So the inheritors will financially take care. Inherited meaning once he passes away there is a group called the inheritors right the water though, they will take care but that is only
going to happen after his own wealth has completely seized otherwise. Until that point in time, no one has the right to come between his wealth and his own maintenance Subhanallah it's his money, he needs to be taken care of. And therefore his money will be the primary money that will be used to take care of his own needs. As long as it is done with metal roof with something that is acceptable and in case there is a clash between what is acceptable or not. So bring together family and friends and discuss you know which option which medical procedure which thing and within mutual consultation in sha Allah Allah, you will find a solution to this and Allah subhanho wa Taala knows best.
Our next question because Ramadan is coming up I took about one or two questions about the fasting and also about the Zakat we're going to be coming to that as well. Sister Cena or Sena from Albania mashallah emails. And she says that she suffers from a particular chronic disease or issue and she needs ready regular medication every few hours, she must take medication. Otherwise, there's a severe backlash and Ramadan is coming up. And there is a sublingual tablet, a tablet that you put under the tongue that you can use. She doesn't have to ingest the regular logic medication is ingesting, but there is an alternative that you can put under the tongue. And she says if she does
not take this medication, she will not be able to fast. So what should she do? Should she take this medication under the tongue? Or Should she pick a Farah and will this break the fast or not? Now this
goes back to a much longer issue, I have actually given a longer detailed lecture about the fasting. But today's question is specifically about this issue. And the question really is what breaks the fast in terms of ingestion? What breaks the fast? Is it something that goes into the bloodstream? Or is it something that goes, you know, into the throat? Or is it a nourishing substance that goes into the bloodstream or the throat, all of these are various interpretations of the of the fuqaha. And this is a controversy that existed even before and with the advent of modernity. And with the advent of drips, and with you know, syringes and giving medication of different ways than obviously, the
discussion has been compounded. However, if you look at the actions of this hub, it does seem to be that they understood that something that goes in the mouth, but not into the throat, that that does not break the fast. And it is authentically reported that a number of companions would maybe taste the food. And that's why many books are filled, allow the cook who is under a lot of pressure, you know, to taste the food while fasting, and it's not going to break the fast or a mother of the sahaba. And you know, in those days, when there was a two year old or a one year old, you know, how are you going to give food to them, you know, we don't do this anymore. But what they will do, they
will take a date or something and chew it a little bit, and then become soft, and they give it to that child because they didn't have the baby food, right. So they will chew a little bit and then give it to that child. Now they will do this while they were fasting. And they didn't consider it to break the fast. And so from this, so many of our modern scholars have said and this is the fifth fret, we're given by image monofocal Islami, which is the global field Council following the Muslim World League, which is one of the largest field councils of the globe. Today, I'll measure my field called Islami, they gave a fatwa in a detailed session that they had about these issues. And if it
was published, you can find it online. And they said that and I quote from the fatwa medicines that are placed under the tongue, do not break the fast so long as one avoid swallowing anything, and nothing reaches the throat, okay, so you have to be super careful that you put it under the tongue. And until it dissolves, you do not you know, put anything inside of your mouth. Once it dissolves, then you may wash your mouth with water and then spit it out so that there's no remnants left. But putting medication under the tongue, or the technical term. sublingual is something that does not break the fast and it is something that is allowed. So you may fast and you may take this medication
and Allah subhanaw taala knows best.
Our next question is actually a lot of questions are being sent about zakaat because Ramadan is the time that people give zakat. And so I will answer some of these questions simultaneously in one long session. And that will be the end of our session for today. By the way, before I begin, please do realize that I have many videos on the cat online. And also I'm getting a lot of questions about retirement plans and 401k. I just gave an entire hour long lecture a few months ago about the various opinions and about which position that you know we're adopting at the field council. So you can look at that video. And all of the questions have been answered how to calculate the cost. All
of this is there I have multiple videos and other people have other videos online. But there are certain issues that I think it is good to bring up. So sister, saya Saya, or Syrah asks whether zakat can be given to foundations that are doing generic research, like cancer, or like other medical research that is beneficial to all of mankind? And the answer to this is that, of course, these are very good projects. And there is no question that anybody who's involved with them, or finances them for the sake of Allah and for the sake of benefiting mankind, that they're doing a lot of good. And there is no question that we should give our charity to all such good projects that are
welfare based that are medical research, there's no cure cancer, these are all good projects to give our sadaqa to however, Zakat is a higher level and it is a sacred Amana or trust and that is why the cat has a much more restricted list and in the Surah, Surah Toba we learn of the eight categories of Zika you can look them up and on any basic Facebook There are eight categories of Zika and these eight categories are restricted these are the only ones we can give the cat to and therefore, research foundations no matter how good of a work that they are doing, that they do not come under the so Allah subhanaw taala says in the Masada Koto, Lil Fukuhara a while Messiah keen for Cora and
Moroccan so the cat can be given to fatigue and miskeen and fatigue is somebody who does not have enough even to live a bare minimal lifestyle like a homeless person. And miskeen is somebody who he might have just
Bear amount but not enough to sustain a healthy to sustain what is considered to be, you know, a poverty line, let's say right so below the poverty line would be Miskin and even below that like a very extreme poverty This is 40. So Allah says both fatigue and miskeen, you can give Zika in the muscle to qualify Kurosaki will Amylin Allah and the people that are in charge of distribution. Now in those days, there was an entire committee of Zika, there was an entire branch of the government of Zika. And of course, you're gonna have people traveling the land collecting Zika, distributing Zika, they have to have salaries, they're doing a job here. And by the way, this therefore means
that in our times, it is completely permissible for zakat organizations that are collecting the guy and distributing it, that what is reasonable, the problem comes down it is unreasonable, but what is reasonable can be taken as a percentage and the salaries of the employees because at the end of the day, how do you expect the cat to reach the furthest nether regions of the world without there being a chain of people that are cooperating together to get that sick cat over there? How can that be given to refugee camps in the hearts of some, you know, war ravaged zones without there being people that are doing this that are flying in there that are living there that are driving in that are
setting up infrastructure, you need to pay them for their salaries. So this Hamelin Allah can be used in our times for charities Now there must be an Islamic board that supervises and that uses that which is reasonable, anything that is reasonable expense, we and the problem of unfortunately, is that sometimes it becomes unreasonable. And most Muslim charities they have a percentage whether it's 8%, or 10%, or 12%. You know, some have even a little bit more than this. And you know, all of this insha Allah Allah, it is permissible as long as it's a reasonable figure, and everybody is getting paid fair wage, by the way, just to be technical here, you don't have to get below the
minimum wage, and you don't have to be the would, if somebody is qualified, and he be getting X amount outside of the Zakat organization. Now he works for this zakat organization, he may get what he is qualified for, if he brings that quality to the table, right, you pay for what you get. So anyway, this is the will Ahmedinejad. The fourth is more or less vertical row boom. And these are in the days of early Islam. There were people who were threats to Islam, or there were people that were new converts and their Iman wasn't strong. And so if the state gave them some money, a leader, you know, something that is an enemy of Islam, you gave them some money, they might actually say, okay,
you know what, we're not going to attack you. Okay, so the process of did this in a battle of her name, and it is something that has definitely allowed for the leaders for the, the khalifa to do in our time, there is no such thing. So that goes out of the way. Well, I need to add one more level warfare Rickerby. And for those that are slaves, they can be freed with Zika. Again, this does not exist. Well, Heidi Mina, those that are in debt, so those that have a legitimate debt. So somebody's attempt, and this is you have to see what is it a foolish person? Or was it a person that really, you know, he tried and whatever happened happened as simple example, for example, somebody thought
that he could run a business and he was qualified, otherwise he opened, you know, halal restaurants or whatever. And it just so happened, let's say the economy crashed, let's say the COVID crises happened, right. And now the restaurant had to shut down. He's in severe debt. Now he owns his house, he has his car that he's you but he's now in severe debt. And it was a legitimate he was qualified by the law it happened in happen. So this is now the person in debt that a reasonable amount of your zakat can be given to this person. And webinars, webinars, webinars, Sybil that we have started with the CBD law and the CBD law. Of course, this is where a huge controversy occurs.
And we'll come to this in the next question. So in the way of Allah subhanho wa taala. So, these are the categories that are mentioned womanist submit is the Wayfair. So the one that does not have access to his wealth, and then PCB dilla so these are the eight categories and of course, in our times, primarily, Zakat is given to the first two categories and that is for Korra and Moroccan bottom line, there is no Xikar to research institutions, you should give sadaqa you should give charity to all good projects, but Zakat is a higher level and you need to restrict it.
This leads me to the next question directly and that is Brother walk costs emails from New York and he says
whether the cards can be given to build a masjid in western lands, so I just went over in the previous question, the eight categories of Zika and I mentioned one of them being Wolfie Sabby Lilla and in the way of Allah okay. Now, what does in the way of Allah mean? The majority of our dilemma past and present, have said that this is restricted to a law
legitimate, you know, defense of the Muslim lands that involves military expenses. So what FISA be the law is the military branch of an actual Islamic land in which the land must be defended, in which the land must be defended against any attacks and threats. And so how are you going to finance this in the pre modern times? So a portion of zakat, one of the eight categories was considered to be well feed sebelah and this is the predominant position past and present. However, since the beginning of time, there has been another interpretation that why no doubt the military branch of an Islamic land definitely deserves to be financed. However, the Quran doesn't say the military branch.
The Quran says we're feasibility law. And so the position of quite a few aroma and in fact, Fakhruddin raazi in his famous serial Cubby, he mentioned this that while I'm an avoider I love the holy war PCB de la la ug will Kosala Kulu Rosati for the hardened manner Nakatsuka fellow feet of Siri and valid for quite a number jars will slaughter for so Ducati la Jimmy I will do Heidi Mintek fina motor will be in our Sony where Mr. Little misogyny they are Nicola Jota Adolphe Sybilla. I'm gonna translate the whole I mentioned the whole Arabic so that you understand this is not something that is new for Cardinal Razi, who died in 610 Hijiri. He says that the wording of the Quran with
visa vie de la is open enough to allow for more than just military expenditure. And that is why alcohol another great scholar that is essential earlier than him, alcohol mentioned from a number of scholars that you may give zakat in all areas that is good, such as and then he has a such as this, for example, he says, the tech phenol Mota, so spending on the funerals of people that cannot afford to pay their funerals, or to make the masajid running, so you spending the money on the masjid, why? Because we're fee Sebby, the law he Mountfield cool. It encompasses all of these things. So there is another opinion that what he said be the law can be used for other than military expenditure of an
Islamic state. And this is the position of many of the film councils of the world today, including the famous Chicago Qaradawi, including the European Council of film, which in which they said in a position that is published on their on their website, that we're FISA bidding law can include anything that is for the benefit of the OMA. And that includes, even for example,
teaching people about Islam, teaching non Muslims about Islam, because this is the modern version of, you know, basically back then they would have to spend money on the military and an art as we need to spend money on the intellectual brains, we need to spend money on the tongue and on the pen and on publications and pamphlets on on Dawa and they also included in this that massages in non Muslim lands in particular because their fatwa was meant for non Muslim nuns that massage it is meant to preserve the Eman of the Muslims. So this is a benefit that goes back to the entire community. So this is a photo from the European Council and shareholder Qaradawi. As for here in
America, the American Muslim jurists association or Amager, they had a middle position which is something that I'm very sympathetic to so um, has a fatwa on their website in which they say that the default is that you should not give the cat to the massage it and that you strive your utmost to find alternative funds from from other sources to finance the masjid so general charity in South Africa and called the you may get a loan, non interest. So a committee member says I'll give you 100,000 loan and you pay it back over a few years. And so this is my loan unto you. So this is also allowed. However, I'm just says that in exceptional circumstances, case by case basis, when other
sources are simply not possible, then this may be permitted to use the cost money for the purchase or the acquisition or the maintenance of the question. And I like this fatwa. It is a fatwa that is reasonable given the realities of the world that we live in. We do not open the door we say the default is that zakat cannot be used for the misogyny and that's the photo we give as the default. Now somebody comes this is over Hold on a sec. If we you know, let me give you an example. And this has happened again, because we are in America like we know these types of things all the time that sometimes a previous board might have done a very unwise thing of taking a loan from the bank, you
know, to get the masjid okay, they followed there for that hour.
have not. And now they are they have to pay back a large amount every single year. If they don't pay that money back, right, if they don't pay that money back the bank, the bank will confiscate the masjid, or another realistic scenario. And again, I have seen this myself, if this happened in a particular city that I visited, that the community did not have a message, it actually went to this community in in one of the smaller cities of New York, New York state, New York. So the people outside of America should know New York as a city. And New York is also a state and the state of New York has lots of beautiful small cities and villages and whatnot. So I visited one of these, and
they did not have a functioning Masjid over there. And there was, they were collecting funds for the longest time, and a particular church was shutting down. And it was ideal purpose built, you just had to make some modifications changes do that, you know, it's their nice big hall prime location. And the owners of the church were willing to negotiate and give them a good deal. But they did not have that amount. I forgot how much it was, maybe it was 500,000, whatever it was, it was a good deal. They said, here's the cash offer below the price, we want to give it to another community that is going to worship rather than give it to a building or whatnot. So they were good people, they
wanted actually to give it to another religious group. And they were happy that Muslims are going to buy it, but they wanted to sell cash. And the offer that they had was very good. But the Muslim community did not have the funds. And they asked in this particular case, we tried, we tried, we tried, nobody's going to come and write us a check of half a million. Can we open this door of Zakat, and in their particular case, Amarula? Ma said yes. Okay, you may take the cut for your particular circumstance, because it's too good of a deal. You don't have a masjid. Now you're getting this message. So for the time being, if you cannot find called Hassan, if you cannot find
sadaqa, you tried to do a nationwide campaign, you're not getting it. Because you see a lot of people, they, they say Why don't you just do a campaign Subhanallah every single city in North America, every single masjid, in the western lands, it pretty much is struggling, and they're trying to figure out how to gain funds. It's not as if, you know, there's like a surplus of people wanting to give. So we have to be reasonable. And I liked I'm just fatwa in that it has a middle ground here. And that middle ground case by case basis. So if your community is in dire situations, reach out to a scholar that you trust, or a group of scholars, ask them to look into your affairs and to
then see, do you qualify for that exception or not? The default though, is you do not open this door and you only use sadhaka for the massage. And for all of the other things. However, even by the way, I'm gonna give the footwear that during the COVID crises that if the masjid cannot maintain, because again, a lot of massage were getting shut down. And I actually remember I did an appeal on Facebook because I heard so many Imams you know we're struggling to get food on their table or with a biller, their communities could not even pay them their salaries when the COVID crisis began, but like this was an injustice and in this time, and in this reality, these are people that have dedicated their
lives for Islam for teaching your children the Quran now when they need you the most Hello as you turn your back on them, sorry, there's no there's no donations coming in. No, in these dire circumstances we have to think outside the box and be realized that yes, indeed, what the European Council and shall Qaradawi and others are saying has a modicum of sense factored in a Razzie mentioned this before that all of these are feasibility law in some way. You are operating in the way of Allah for Allah bringing people to Allah subhana wa Tala, the masjid and people giving Dawa and doing things that are benefiting to the OMA, how can this not be overall feasability law and so
I would say if there is a need that opened this door, otherwise, the default is we try our best to stick with the majority position and that is that Zakat is not allowed for massage and Allah azza wa jal knows best. Final question we have for today very short and sweet and simple. And this is from our own community here in Plano, brother Khalid from our own masjid and community here, brother Khalid asks that he wants my advice about where to give zakat to should he gives the cat to local charities should he gives the cat to overseas charities, just so generic advice. And the response to this is that, you know, we need to think about this from a modern lens, you know, some of them are
they have they do have some position that Xikar should only be given locally and you do not give you know, in any foreign land until you have distributed all locally. And culturally speaking, we Muslims of North America have the opposite problem where we don't give anything locally and we send everything overseas. So culturally, we have this mindset that the cat should not be given locally, even though nobody says this film wise. And what I feel is that there should be a healthy diversity we have to be realistic
As the world is now globally connected, and there are crises that are so painful, and Allah has blessed, generally speaking, the Muslims of the western hemisphere of the Western world to have surplus of zakat, Al Hamdulillah, Al Hamdulillah, and large charities, organizations are based in England and in Canada and in Australia and in America, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars of charity are given to refugees around the world, I myself have seen firsthand, I'm involved with a number of charities and I have traveled to refugee camps around the globe. I have traveled to Syrian refugees in Turkey, I've traveled to Palestinian refugees, I've traveled to other places, you know,
Kashmir and and the orphans over there. And subhanAllah I have seen firsthand that, you know, firstly, the surplus of wealth in the western lands and secondly, more more value for your money $1, you know, in, in Kashmir is much more powerful, you know, than $1 over here. So I have no hesitation in saying yes, we should send zakat to projects overseas that are healthy. However, however, however, make sure that we don't send it all over there. Our problem is that culturally speaking, we tend to not think about local Zika. And that's a problem. We also have to realize our family and extended family has helped over us. So we all might have cousins or second cousins or a distant
relative that is poor, impoverished, whether they're back home, we might have you know, somebody that's a widow in the family or somebody that you know, a single lady with children, and she doesn't have a source of income. And these are our extended relatives. So what my suggestion is, and it's not fair to just a suggestion is have three categories in mind. 1/3 of your zakat should go for your extended family or friends and acquaintances 1/3 in your immediate circle and 1/3 for your community that are poor, go to any masjid and ask them do you have as a guide for local people okay, majority of massage massage in our Masjid here in East Plano. We have a separate zakat fund for the Muslims
of Dallas who cannot pay rent, there are refugees here there are people that need help any large Masjid will have as a cat section to it. So tell them I want this for the local people of zakat. So 1/3 should be for local, right so 1/3 family wherever they are, if you have some distant cousin, you know back home that needs to cut 1/3 Family 1/3 Local and 1/3 find projects that are in need, you have refugees, you have Burma, you know Subhan Allah today, I read that there was a massive fire in a Burmese refugee camp and 10s of 1000s of people are homeless Subhanallah you know, a little bit of money that we sent will go a long way over there, how can we not help our brothers and sisters out
the people of that region cannot afford to sponsor those hundreds of 1000s of refugees, but at hamdulillah many of us if we come together and I know of organizations that are you know, specific niche based me personally, I love niche based charities, groups of people, small groups, they started in their own home and they have direct contacts with their extended relatives and family and they're sending the money directly there their small, low key do these types of projects and of course, the large charities are also doing a lot of good work and each one has a positive thing. So in shallow data, this is my generic advice in the end of the day, whichever one you give to it's all
headed and legit and good but you asked my advice and this is my advice. 1/3 family and friends, meaning those who are needing Of course 1/3 Local, find them yourself or go to your masjid and 1/3 International, you know charities and causes and may Allah subhanho wa Taala accept from all of us with that inshallah I will see you all next week to Zack maloca Sarah Manik Maura Tula who bought a couch
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