Eid Mubarak!
Monday, 20 August 2018
Saturday, 7 July 2018
Transgender question
Someone asked this question on a forum and this post includes the response I gave. Please note I am not a scholar so this is an answer to the question- it is not a "fatwa". I wrote my response as a lay Muslim using Islamic references from the Quran as a yardstick instead of society's ever changing inconsistent and/or hypocritical values that the questioner was hoping for.
Question: I know of this one transgender man (meaning he was originally female and became male) got kicked out of the local mosque. He prayed with the men, and he looked very much like any of the other men there, but he made the mistake of telling the imam he was trans, and the imam basically said either he dressed as a woman and wore hijab and prayed with the women, or he couldn't come back. Now what's right about that? Doesn't he have as much right to pray with the men as anyone else? I mean, for all intents and purposes, he is a man. And now, what should he do since he can't go back to being female (and doesn't want to anyway) about praying at the mosque, where he was basically discriminated against? Please let me know what you think this guy should do. Thanks all!
Answer: On the one hand you say (in subsequent posts that) this individual has a mental illness called Gender Identity Disorder, on the other you call the person "he". So do you think the person is a delusional female trying to impersonate a man by injecting hormones and playing dress up? Or do you want us all to ignore the commands of Allah (swt) regarding separating men and women during prayers (and how Allah created and defined us as male and female) and contribute to the problem by actively encouraging the delusion ourselves? Those are the options.
There's so much more I can say about this. What does Allah (swt) tell us in the Quran? That Allah (swt) loves those who are repentant and those who are thankful for what He gives them. What does the Quran say that Allah (swt) hates? It tells us that the people who are wrong are those who believe in falsehood, those who are arrogant and those who are ungrateful of the favours Allah has given them. So isn't it wrong to be ungrateful for being born with the skin colour Allah gave us? Isn't it wrong to be ungrateful for growing up to be shorter than the height we want to be? Isn't it ingratitude to be blessed with a fully functioning normal nose to breathe with and yet wish to change the way Allah shaped it via plastic surgery? If Allah (swt) meant for her to be a man, He would've created her as a male. Yet she is so ungrateful for the way Allah (swt) created her, that she attempts to change the creation of Allah (swt) into the opposite identity of the one He gave her- as if to pretend that Allah made a mistake nauzobillah and she knows better. What could be more arrogant than persisting in living out her fantasy and insisting that the rest of the local Muslim community comply with what she wants rather than following Allah's (swt) commands inside a masjid?
Disdaining ungratefully Our gifts and giving themselves up to (worldly) enjoyment! But soon will they know (TMQ 29 v66)
And Allah has made for you from yourselves mates and has made for you from your mates sons and daughters and grandchildren and provided for you sustenance of the best: will they then believe in vain things and be ungrateful for Allah's favours? (TMQ 16:72)
Truly man is, to his Lord, ungrateful (TMQ 100:06)
We are told time and time again that when we live with a roof over our heads with our families and have food to eat then we should remember this as Allah's favour upon us and when we go through hardships in the dunya then we should show sabr and have the resilience to patiently persevere through it and we'd be rebuked for using our hardships as an excuse for expressing ingratitude to Allah. Our Prophets (as) Yaqub (Jacob) and Ayub (Job) had far greater reason to feel let down than any of us. Yaqub was separated from his most beloved son Yusuf (Joseph) and told he was dead which caused him to be so grief stricken that he became blind and yet he only expressed his sorrow to Allah (swt) knowing that Allah has the right to give and take and never using his grief as an excuse to turn away from the right path. Ayub (as) was blighted by a terrible illness that lasted for several years, his children died, his community rejected him and his wife left him to fend for himself, yet in spite of his difficulties, his imaan never wavered; he never used the way Allah (swt) made him as an excuse to turn away from the straight path or pretend that he was "trans-healthy" when he was sick or "trans-female" when he's male.
O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed Allah is Knowing and Acquainted (TMQ 49:13)
So it is Allah who created the male and female. Who does she think she is that she can deny such a thing? Indeed Allah is Knowing, so does she as a Muslim think Allah knows better as to which is which or that she knows better?
Question: I know of this one transgender man (meaning he was originally female and became male) got kicked out of the local mosque. He prayed with the men, and he looked very much like any of the other men there, but he made the mistake of telling the imam he was trans, and the imam basically said either he dressed as a woman and wore hijab and prayed with the women, or he couldn't come back. Now what's right about that? Doesn't he have as much right to pray with the men as anyone else? I mean, for all intents and purposes, he is a man. And now, what should he do since he can't go back to being female (and doesn't want to anyway) about praying at the mosque, where he was basically discriminated against? Please let me know what you think this guy should do. Thanks all!
Answer: On the one hand you say (in subsequent posts that) this individual has a mental illness called Gender Identity Disorder, on the other you call the person "he". So do you think the person is a delusional female trying to impersonate a man by injecting hormones and playing dress up? Or do you want us all to ignore the commands of Allah (swt) regarding separating men and women during prayers (and how Allah created and defined us as male and female) and contribute to the problem by actively encouraging the delusion ourselves? Those are the options.
There's so much more I can say about this. What does Allah (swt) tell us in the Quran? That Allah (swt) loves those who are repentant and those who are thankful for what He gives them. What does the Quran say that Allah (swt) hates? It tells us that the people who are wrong are those who believe in falsehood, those who are arrogant and those who are ungrateful of the favours Allah has given them. So isn't it wrong to be ungrateful for being born with the skin colour Allah gave us? Isn't it wrong to be ungrateful for growing up to be shorter than the height we want to be? Isn't it ingratitude to be blessed with a fully functioning normal nose to breathe with and yet wish to change the way Allah shaped it via plastic surgery? If Allah (swt) meant for her to be a man, He would've created her as a male. Yet she is so ungrateful for the way Allah (swt) created her, that she attempts to change the creation of Allah (swt) into the opposite identity of the one He gave her- as if to pretend that Allah made a mistake nauzobillah and she knows better. What could be more arrogant than persisting in living out her fantasy and insisting that the rest of the local Muslim community comply with what she wants rather than following Allah's (swt) commands inside a masjid?
Disdaining ungratefully Our gifts and giving themselves up to (worldly) enjoyment! But soon will they know (TMQ 29 v66)
And Allah has made for you from yourselves mates and has made for you from your mates sons and daughters and grandchildren and provided for you sustenance of the best: will they then believe in vain things and be ungrateful for Allah's favours? (TMQ 16:72)
Truly man is, to his Lord, ungrateful (TMQ 100:06)
We are told time and time again that when we live with a roof over our heads with our families and have food to eat then we should remember this as Allah's favour upon us and when we go through hardships in the dunya then we should show sabr and have the resilience to patiently persevere through it and we'd be rebuked for using our hardships as an excuse for expressing ingratitude to Allah. Our Prophets (as) Yaqub (Jacob) and Ayub (Job) had far greater reason to feel let down than any of us. Yaqub was separated from his most beloved son Yusuf (Joseph) and told he was dead which caused him to be so grief stricken that he became blind and yet he only expressed his sorrow to Allah (swt) knowing that Allah has the right to give and take and never using his grief as an excuse to turn away from the right path. Ayub (as) was blighted by a terrible illness that lasted for several years, his children died, his community rejected him and his wife left him to fend for himself, yet in spite of his difficulties, his imaan never wavered; he never used the way Allah (swt) made him as an excuse to turn away from the straight path or pretend that he was "trans-healthy" when he was sick or "trans-female" when he's male.
O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed Allah is Knowing and Acquainted (TMQ 49:13)
So it is Allah who created the male and female. Who does she think she is that she can deny such a thing? Indeed Allah is Knowing, so does she as a Muslim think Allah knows better as to which is which or that she knows better?
Thursday, 25 August 2016
Friday, 15 July 2016
Is "Humanity" becoming the new shirk?
Without wishing to speak ill of the dead or trivialise the numerous achievements of the late Abdul Sattar Edhi, at the same time, I cannot turn a blind eye to this latest trend of influencing Muslims away from Islam and to this new deity people call "humanity". It's reached a point where even Muslim charities veer away from the old language of "give what you can for the sake of Allah" to the current language of "give what you can for the sake of humanity".
There is a deliberate attempt to use distancing language, language that distances the Muslims from Islam and instead places a greater emphasis on moral/ethical/humanitarian achievements as the measure of goodness instead of Islam. This is part of a larger global secular attack on Islam. I am not accusing Edhi of being part of a conspiracy to secularise Muslims as many Muslims (even practising ones) have fallen into this trap inadvertently. I ask that Allah (swt) accepts and rewards Edhi for his many many good deeds and forgives the bad and does not allow the bad to become a source of misguidance for others- ameen.
Whilst I readily admit that compassion for other human beings is consistent with and integral to Islam, I also cannot deny that the statement attributed to the late Edhi "No religion is higher than humanity" is a statement that has no basis in Islam and the implications of that statement come dangerously close to shirk because it can be interpreted as placing another set of values above Islam. I realise many will say "that is not what Edhi meant"- perhaps that is not what he meant, but that is what he said and that is what it is taken to mean by many and that cannot be ignored. Besides, no one is above being corrected no matter how numerous their good deeds are as apart from the Prophets (as), no human being is infallible. Also, doesn't Allah's (swt) statement in Surah Asr "Verily mankind is in loss" use the term "mankind" to refer to what is otherwise known as "humanity"? So on the one hand, we're supposed to accept that no religion is higher than humanity, when in fact Allah (swt) is telling us that humanity are at a loss EXCEPT for those who believe and do good deeds etc. So Allah (swt) is placing belief, good deeds and calling for sabr as the one thing that will save humanity and prevent it from being at a loss whilst there are people who call themselves Muslims out there saying no religion higher than humanity.
Allah (swt) knows best what Edhi's intentions were behind this statement, whether he meant it or whether it was mistranslated or taken out of context by modernists, but what I have witnessed is how many Muslims have taken this statement and are running with it as an endorsement of placing "humanity" above everything else, including deen as the ultimate criteria to ascertain the difference between right and wrong, just like how many naïve, ignorant or secular Muslims take the kufr criteria of human rights because they have not been taught about its inherent contradiction with Islam.
There is a deliberate attempt to use distancing language, language that distances the Muslims from Islam and instead places a greater emphasis on moral/ethical/humanitarian achievements as the measure of goodness instead of Islam. This is part of a larger global secular attack on Islam. I am not accusing Edhi of being part of a conspiracy to secularise Muslims as many Muslims (even practising ones) have fallen into this trap inadvertently. I ask that Allah (swt) accepts and rewards Edhi for his many many good deeds and forgives the bad and does not allow the bad to become a source of misguidance for others- ameen.
Whilst I readily admit that compassion for other human beings is consistent with and integral to Islam, I also cannot deny that the statement attributed to the late Edhi "No religion is higher than humanity" is a statement that has no basis in Islam and the implications of that statement come dangerously close to shirk because it can be interpreted as placing another set of values above Islam. I realise many will say "that is not what Edhi meant"- perhaps that is not what he meant, but that is what he said and that is what it is taken to mean by many and that cannot be ignored. Besides, no one is above being corrected no matter how numerous their good deeds are as apart from the Prophets (as), no human being is infallible. Also, doesn't Allah's (swt) statement in Surah Asr "Verily mankind is in loss" use the term "mankind" to refer to what is otherwise known as "humanity"? So on the one hand, we're supposed to accept that no religion is higher than humanity, when in fact Allah (swt) is telling us that humanity are at a loss EXCEPT for those who believe and do good deeds etc. So Allah (swt) is placing belief, good deeds and calling for sabr as the one thing that will save humanity and prevent it from being at a loss whilst there are people who call themselves Muslims out there saying no religion higher than humanity.
Allah (swt) knows best what Edhi's intentions were behind this statement, whether he meant it or whether it was mistranslated or taken out of context by modernists, but what I have witnessed is how many Muslims have taken this statement and are running with it as an endorsement of placing "humanity" above everything else, including deen as the ultimate criteria to ascertain the difference between right and wrong, just like how many naïve, ignorant or secular Muslims take the kufr criteria of human rights because they have not been taught about its inherent contradiction with Islam.
Wednesday, 6 July 2016
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
White privilege
This post gives a little glimpse that shows only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to silencing voices of non white minorities. A white person can complain about injustice and wrongdoing and it's viewed as a white person complaining about injustice and wrongdoing but when a non white person does the same thing, that person "has a chip on her shoulder" or "needs to get over it" or that old chestnut "if you don't like it then go back to where you bloody well came from".
Thursday, 16 June 2016
How the sellout Muslim talks
Just like you
I'm a Muslim, but I'm just like you
Please accept me like I'm one of you
I drink alcohol, just like you
I am American, through and through
I sing and dance, just like you
Heading for hell? Me too!
You love gays? I'm gay too!
I use the loo, just like you
God forbids it? I'll do that too
Whatever it takes to be like you
I'm a Muslim, but I'm just like you
Please accept me like I'm one of you
(I wrote "Just like you" in response to the video below)
https://www.facebook.com/refinery29/videos/10154314657067922/
I'm a Muslim, but I'm just like you
Please accept me like I'm one of you
I drink alcohol, just like you
I am American, through and through
I sing and dance, just like you
Heading for hell? Me too!
You love gays? I'm gay too!
I use the loo, just like you
God forbids it? I'll do that too
Whatever it takes to be like you
I'm a Muslim, but I'm just like you
Please accept me like I'm one of you
(I wrote "Just like you" in response to the video below)
https://www.facebook.com/refinery29/videos/10154314657067922/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)