Ikram Hawramani's Blog

Why is Hell eternal? Does anyone really deserve eternal fiery punishment in Hell, or is the view of Ibn al-Qayyim correct that by "eternity" the Quran means a very long time, not time without end?

About the eternity of Hell, unfortunately I do not have anything new to offer. But I feel that most ordinary people (especially in the West), at least those who grow up with middle class values, due to being wholesome people, have a hard time imagining what the deservers of Hell are really like. We have so much empathy for others, and we see them as like ourselves even if slightly worse, that we cannot imagine what it is like to be so deprived of all goodness to deserve Hell.

But look at what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians. They are filled with so much arrogance and pride and bloodthirst that they consider the Palestinians animals that have to be butchered so that they can enjoy the lands they have stolen.

Or think of the bankers in the West who probably orchestrated the war on Iraq knowingly, knowing that millions of innocent people could die. Look at the US knowingly arming the Afghans in the 1980’s, knowing it would cause millions of innocent deaths, just so that they could force the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan and in this way weaken the Soviet Union by making it lose money and men.

What do such people deserve? I used to have difficulty accepting eternity in Hell until I started thinking of such people, not of individual sinners. I feel that such people deserve eternity in Hell. They have knowingly given up their ticket to Paradise, they have rejected all goodness, they have rejected God and insulted Him and killed His innocent creatures.

It would be the greatest injustice to let such people into Paradise, because they have changed their own nature, they have utterly corrupted their own souls.

I still have difficulty accepting the horrible punishments mentioned in the Quran for sinners. They seem extreme, I cannot imagine an eternity burning as equal to any sin on earth.

There is also the fact, mentioned in the Quran, that when people believe their punishment has a restricted period, that it will come to an end, they stop taking it seriously and give up on goodness. This is what the Quran mentions about some of the Jews believing and being corrupted by it (The Quran 2:80). So the only way to have truly good people may be to threaten them with a horrible eternal punishment.

But what God ends up doing in the afterlife is another matter. Perhaps things are very different there.

The great philosopher Tabataba’i (he is Shia, but his views on this matter are based on Quranic arguments, not on any Shia sources) says that entering Hell is not God’s action, but a natural consequence of human action. That is, the way the soul is made, when it becomes utterly evil and unworthy of forgiveness, its nature changes to a different thing, a creature of fire (perhaps like the Balrogs in the Lord of the Rings) that burns and suffers torment by his/her own nature. It is like if someone is told “If you do that and persist in it, you will become permanently a creature of fire and will suffer torment”, and they do it anyway. They take the choice, and the laws of nature or reality causes that change in them.

This also seems to be C. S. Lewis’s view, although he does not mention burning, he mentions Hell as simply utter distance from God, which in his view is as bad as any fiery punishment.

So if a person chooses to permanently a creature of fire, who is to blame? And such a choice is not taken in one go. They get a million chances to repent, they get endless signs from God that shows them that they are going in the wrong direction, that threaten them with punishment, and yet they persist in doing evil. And one day they change permanently. The Quran calls this “surrounded by his evil deeds” (The Quran 2:81). They have crossed a line from which there is no return. God “seals their hearts” and even if they see “every sign” (The Quran 6:25) they will not believe, because they have become creatures of fire, they have changed their own species, they have chosen to enter into a different category of creature.

These are theories that I have come up with, over time, to explain why Hell exists and why it is eternal, but I cannot say that it is the correct view.

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In August last year I thought I could start working again, but I was wrong. In March this year things changed and I was able to start working on my book Learning Standard Arabic (MSA) for Complete Beginners, a book I have wanted to write since 2019. It is based on the same learning method as my other book, Learning Quranic Arabic for Complete Beginners.

In over 350 pages, readers begin by learning the alphabet and go on read a fable from Aesop, a story about a boy’s trip through Jerusalem with his grandfather, then move on to modern Arabic poetry. Meanwhile proper transliterations and pronunciation are provided for every single sentence of Arabic, using my beloved Brill Encyclopedia of Islam system.

Buy it on Amazon (US): Kindle | Paperback
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From then on I take readers through what is perhaps the greatest Arabic poem written in the past century or two, the 119-line Rain Song by the Iraqi poet Badr Shaker al-Sayyab.(1926-1964). This poem is the only piece of Arabic writing I have read that is almost as hard-hitting as the Quran, making shivers run through your skin.

In the fourth part learners read a poem by the Persian intellectual Ali Shariati (1933-1977) called One and Beside it Zeroes Without End. There was no proper Arabic translation of it, so I had to translate it from Persian to Arabic, and of course from Arabic to English. It is written in the form of a Persian fable with a strong spiritual meaning it, starting from God creating the world.

It is strange but what I have discovered (I could be wrong, though) is that when I stop trying to work toward big goals and missions, when I simply tell myself that my job is simply to live, to be, with no greater goal in life, that is when I can actually work on the things I love. It is like a dark cloud is removed and my energy and inspiration comes back.

I have written an article about this, and once I’m reasonably sure I’m not mistaken I will publish it. I may be able to come back to my regular work in Islamic studies, but I do not know.

Link to the tool: HadithGraph

I have been quietly working on a tool that automatically “verifies” hadiths (based on my hadith verification method) and draws diagrams of the hadith’s chains, and recently I finished it, and the results far exceeded my expectations, alhamdulillah. The tool is simply a calculator and diagrammer, so that instead of having to do the probability calculations and diagramming manually, they all take place automatically.

Users can use the tool merely for diagramming hadith chains, even if they have no interest in the probability calculations.

Rewriting and inputting the chains

Given the Bukhari hadith (Bukhari #1):

حَدَّثَنَا الحُمَيْدِيُّ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ الزُّبَيْرِ ، قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ ، قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ سَعِيدٍ الأَنْصَارِيُّ ، قَالَ : أَخْبَرَنِي مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ التَّيْمِيُّ ، أَنَّهُ سَمِعَ عَلْقَمَةَ بْنَ وَقَّاصٍ اللَّيْثِيَّ ، يَقُولُ : سَمِعْتُ عُمَرَ بْنَ الخَطَّابِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ عَلَى المِنْبَرِ قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ : إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ ، وَإِنَّمَا لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى ، فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى دُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا ، أَوْ إِلَى امْرَأَةٍ يَنْكِحُهَا ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ *

Enter the hadith’s isnad in the textbox as follows:

Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi

The chain starts from the chief transmitter (the Companion, in this case Umar. b. al-Khattab [RA]), and the transmitter names are separated by ” > “. Note that there are spaces before and after the “>”.

The spelling of the names does not matter as long as it is consistent. You must always use the same exact spelling for each unique transmitter, so Umar b. al-Khattab must always be spelled “Umar b. al-Khattab” in any additional chains you add.

But there is no need to worry too much about getting spellings wrong, because the diagram will immediately make it obvious by making the transmitter show up twice (below we have erroneously spelled Umar b. al-Khattab’s name differently on different chains):

Then gather additional chains for this hadith using hadith search engines and/or takhrīj tools, for example Bukhari #6587 gives us another chain for the hadith:

6587 حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو النُّعْمَانِ ، حَدَّثَنَا حَمَّادُ بْنُ زَيْدٍ ، عَنْ يَحْيَى بْنِ سَعِيدٍ ، عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ ، عَنْ عَلْقَمَةَ بْنِ وَقَّاصٍ ، قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ عُمَرَ بْنَ الخَطَّابِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ ، يَخْطُبُ قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ : يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ، إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّةِ ، وَإِنَّمَا لِامْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى ، فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ، وَمَنْ هَاجَرَ إِلَى دُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوِ امْرَأَةٍ يَتَزَوَّجُهَا ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ *

Now enter the new chain from this second hadith into a new line in the textbox, so that we have the following two lines:

Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Abu al-Nu`man

Now we get the following diagram:

And below we have added a chain from a third hadith (Bukhari 3719):

Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Abu al-Nu`man
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Musaddad

Adding comments

Comments can be added for your own convenience; they have no effect on the diagram or probability calculation. Comments start with a “#” character. You can add comments before each chain as follows:

# Bukhari 1
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi
# Bukhari 6587
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Abu al-Nu`man
# Bukhari 3719
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Musaddad

Setting custom probabilities

Each transmitter has a default probability 0.6 (i.e. 60%). Sometimes you are dealing with transmitters who are lower quality, although not totally unreliable. In those cases you can set a custom probability in brackets after the transmitter’s name, as follows:

Transmitter 1 > Transmitter 2 (0.4) > Transmitter 3

Above, Transmitter 2 gets a probability of 0.4 (40%) in the calculations.

Setting probabilities above 0.6 will be ignored.

We are verifying meanings

This tool gives the probable authenticity of the text (matn) of the hadith. But some variant hadiths sometimes contain additional sentences or lack them. Make sure all of the chains are the chains of hadith texts that mention the meaning you are trying to verify, such as “all actions are judged (by God) by the intentions behind them”.

The last time I did any serious work in Islamic studies was four years ago, in March-April 2019, when I was busy showing that, according to my hadith verification method, none of the pro-predestination hadiths were reliable. I was never able to finish that work.

I might possibly be “back” and I might be able to continue the kind of work I was busy with in 2017-19. But I cannot promise anything; only God knows what is in store for me.

I apologize to all the people I’ve failed to respond to. My condition worsened in 2019, and in 2020 due to Covid-19 I ended up being sick and fatigued for months at a time. Sometimes for months at time even reading a paragraph of text was more than I could do. In early 2021 I had a minor stroke during the fourth or fifth time that I had Covid-19, and I’m still recovering from that.

But I’ve still been able to do a lot of reading over the past four years in order to cure my lamentable ignorance about many things. A lot of my reading is in academic monographs and essay collections, so perhaps it’s not all entirely useless entertainment for myself. I’ve read 252 books since April 2019, if we count Quran re-readings too. Here are some of the books I’ve read in 2023 so far:

Ian Hodder, Studies in Human-Thing Entanglement (2016)C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964)Owen Barfield, History in English Words (1967 Eerdmans [1953])Neil Rhodes, Shakespeare and the Origins of English (2004)Ahmad al-Jallad, The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions (2022)Peter Magee, The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia: Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (2014)Robert G. Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (2001)Norman Yoffee, Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States and Civilizations (2004)Kay Redfield Jamison, Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (1993)Leslie A. Marchand, Byron: A Portrait (1976 [1971])Second reading of C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (1943), and That Hideous Strength (1945).C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (1956) (second reading)C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (1945) (second reading)C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933) (second reading) James Turner, Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities (2014)John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China: A Social History of Examinations (1985?)Johannes Pedersen, The Arabic Book (1984 [1946]) tr. Geoffrey French ed. Robert HillenbrandJim B. Tucker, Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives (2013)Ian Stevenson, European Cases of the Reincarnation Type (2003)Ian Stevenson, Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation (Revised Edition) (2001/1987)Ian Stevenson, Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (1997)James G. Matlock, Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory (2019)Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond (2021)Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf H. Smit, The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences (2016)Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience (2016)Kenneth Ring, Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience (1998, 2006)Raymond A. Moody, Life After Life (25th Anniversary Edition) (1975, 2001)

Among these the most eye-opening one was al-Jallad’s The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia. There’s something strange and wonderful about seeing inscriptions by pre-Islamic Arabians writing things in a very strange alphabet that, once deciphered, is very recognizably “Arabic”.

l mqm bn ymlk w wgd ʾṯr ḏʾb w ḥrśn f ngʿ f h lt slm
‘By Mqm son of Ymlk and he found the traces of Ḏʾb and Ḥrśn and grieved in pain
so, O Allāt, may he be secure.’

The transliteration above does not add vowels because it is not known how the people who made these inscriptions actually pronounced these words. Reconstructing the pronunciation from Arabic would be premature and unscholarly. But regardless of the pronunciation, turning these letters into Arabic makes most of the words make some kind of sense in Arabic:

wgd ʾṯr = وَجَدَ أَثَرَ = "he found the traces of"

f h lt slm = فها الّات سَلِّم = O Allāt [the name of the pagan goddess] make safe / provide safety

C. S. Lewis

In August 2019 I read C. S. Lewis’s Allegory of Love (an academic book on medieval poetry), and I soon sensed that he was truly “a man after my own heart”. I went on to read over 30 other books by him, including his 4000-page collected letters. When I discover one of those extremely rare thinkers who show promise that they can teach me something new, I tend to read all of their books that I can get my hands on. There’s still an important book of his I haven’t read, the 600+ page Poetry and Prose in the Sixteenth Century.

Tolstoy

In early 2021 I read Tolstoy’s War and Peace and saw that he was another one of the greats worth reading. Since then I have read War and Peace two more times. I have also read some of his other major works and his biography. I noticed during my first reading of War and Peace that despite his wonderful insights, there was something “off” about him, a kind of moral laxity. He was no C. S. Lewis or Dostoevsky, men who truly spent their days like candles burning for the greater glory of God.

Dostoevsky

Between 2021 and 2022 I read all of Dostoevsky’s novels (starting with the definitive 900-page biography by Joseph Frank). I used to say that Dostoevsky fills in the missing pieces in C. S. Lewis’s worldview, writings, thinking, or what have you, and maybe that is true.

Dostoevsky’s last novel The Brothers Karamazov is considered his greatest by many, or even one of the greatest novels of all time, but I had to force myself to finish it because, having read all his previous novels, there wasn’t anything new or interesting left for me to learn from him. It felt like a reworked summary of his other works (when it comes to the ideas and feelings pushed forward, not the plot, which is of little interest to me).

And I agree with Joseph Frank that Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent was a really bad, or at least unentertaining, rambling and insight-poor novel. But poor Dostoevsky needed the money.

I will end this article here. I hope to have much more to say about all the interesting things I’ve read.

For years now I have suffered from ADD/ADHD-like symptoms that make it difficult for me to initiate working on tasks or to focus on completing them. I have tried various medications and supplements and none of them has lived up to its promise. Since early 2021 I have switched my focus to seeking psychological cures, and have discovered many things that help (such as forcing myself to write poetry).

But in the last two weeks I have discovered something immensely powerful after remembering Brother Lawrence’s 1692 classic The Practicing the Presence of God (a very short book, link to free version). If I feel restricted by ADHD symptoms, I bring God fully to mind and remain with Him, and within seconds I feel the front and sides of my brain “waking up” (I seen to have a very sensitive brain and I can feel physical sensations in different parts of it when there is a strong stimulus that causes a mental shift). That, I believe, means that extra blood is flowing to the prefrontal cortex (needed for executive function / planning and remaining on tasks) and the temporal lobes (needed for doing any creative work).

And the reason it works is that the presence of this Person in the mind suddenly starts to activate the brain’s prefrontal circuits that are dedicated to tracking and analyzing a person who is present with us (to know their thinking and intentions). And as this Person can be spoken to, this also activates the creative temporal lobes, empowering us to carry out self-expression.

I realize that I have sometimes gone for months while almost always having God in mind with me, and those are probably my most productive months. Last year in August I realized that the only times when my mind was full of inspiration and I constantly took down notes on ideas coming into my head were times when I practiced God’s presence. I went to my notes app, took note of the periods in which many ideas were written, then compared them to my record of times when I had completed the reading of the Quran many times, and the times lined up. The times when I read the Quran often are also times when I have God the most in mind, the two go together although I do not know which one causes which.

How to do it

The way to practice the presence of God is simple. Simply start speaking to God in your mind, as you do when you are praying to Him for something. And at some point you are able to remain in contact with Him without having to say anything–He just becomes a friend who is with you. And as you do it more often it becomes easier and easier, just as when a stranger is in the house with you, at first their presence can distract you, but as you get to know them you can sense their presence without it taking away your attention from other things.

If you struggle to keep God in mind, merely go back to speaking with Him by praying for something, such as by saying astaghfirullāh (“I seek God’s forgiveness”). It should be done sincerely and with all your heart, as if you are really speaking to a person. If it’s merely a word you say, it will to bring you into His presence to reap the benefits.

If for whatever reason you feel unworthy of speaking to God and being in His presence, here’s something I wrote to a friend a few days ago:

Never let Satan make you think you are unworthy of speaking to God. Be brave when facing God and think "I'm unworthy but that doesn't matter, I'm still Your creature and You have to take care of me." He responds kindly when someone speaks to Him as if He really exists and is present even if the person is angry and upset at Him. Being spoken to is one of His greatest pleasures regardless of the person's mood. He is kind and has a sense of humor, like a father who laughs at his angry little 2 year old daughter when she attacks him physically in a tantrum, and only feels love for her.

You may think you need to do a lot of repentance before you are worthy of being in God’s presence. But in Islam the word for repentance, tawba, literally means “to return”, and to merely bring God to mind and speak to Him is to return to Him, thus achieving repentance. InshaAllah (God-willing) as you practice His presence more and more, it will become second nature to avoid anything that displeases Him.

Another possible reason it works is attachment (look up attachment theory). Being in the presence of a “caregiver” (an important term within attachment theory and it can be anyone whom we love and trust) calms us down, reduces inflammation, and increases cerebral blood flow, enhancing our thinking and self-expression and giving us confidence to explore. Meanwhile, the absence of a caregiver leads to anxiety, lack of curiosity, inflammation, fear of exploration, fear of self-expression, and reduced cerebral blood flow. And what caregiver is better than God?

Obviously there are a great many spiritual benefits from practicing the presence of God, but that’s a different topic and not the focus of this article.

I apologize for going missing for so long. I had a worsening of my chronic fatigue condition in early 2020 that made it impossible for me to write, or to even sit at my computer to do any kind of work or even casual browsing of websites I used to enjoy.

Now that I’m feeling healthy, it’s quite difficult to empathize with my former self who couldn’t even get out a sentence. How is it possible not to be able to write a single sentence?

It seems that I might be able to start doing my usual work again; writing articles and essays, answering questions and verifying hadiths. But it may still be too early to tell.

I have updated the site to require an account to comment to reduce spam and low-effort comments. InshaAllah I will also consider adding social login.

The most important breakthrough in recovering from my “chronic fatigue” (I’m not sure if it is the same as the famous chronic fatigue condition, but the condition has been chronic and it has involved extreme fatigue) was taking the psychological route of treatment. Learning about attachment theory provided me with the key I needed, and after months of thinking and experimenting I have been able to reorganize my mind, so to speak, in a way that allows me to be motivated and energetic again. I only really grasped the power of human psychology when after succeeding in feeling energetic and motivated I would slip into the old mindsets and instantly my muscles would weaken, my breathing would get shallow and I would again feel too tired to work at a computer.

But another breakthrough in the last few weeks has been elderberry extract. This is perhaps the strongest anti-viral supplement there is. In my teens I became ill with something that gave me a sore throat that has never gone away (it seems the same happened to Dostoevsky), and it seems that part of chronic fatigue is a viral infection, perhaps EBV. This is a virus that almost everyone in the world carries, but in the majority it causes no symptoms.

Amazon link. WARNING: If you get elderberry extract capsules instead, only take them with a full meal. I got very serious liver overload symptoms after taking the capsules on an empty stomach.

To the right is the brand of elderberry extract I’m using. I have to take multiple tablespoons throughout the day. I’m also taking iodide (up to 12.5 mg a day), although I’m not sure yet if it’s needed. I’m also taking other things. Feel free to email me for more details (contact@hawramani.com), I’m happy if I can help anyone’s condition get better.

Alhamdulillah in June 2020 I had recovered enough to start reading again, and since then I have done a great deal of it. I was able to read thirty books by C. S. Lewis and such important classics as Moby Dick (I actually read it twice!) and War and Peace.

I even read Josef van Ess’s 4-volume Theology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra, a book every Islamic studies researcher wants to have read but finds too daunting to start. What an amazing book! In it you can read about Islam before it became the Islam we recognize today; before the 4 madhhabs were founded and almost every great scholar was his own “sect”, with various ideas and beliefs floating around among the most knowledgeable and pious scholars that today would be considered heretical.

But you may be happy to learn that I remain as dedicated to mainstream orthodox Islam as always. That 4-volume book might seem to be filled with weapons to attack today’s Islam and cause doubt among Muslims, but a well-read Islamic studies researcher will have already known before reading this book that that is how Islam was at the beginning and that that history is nothing to be ashamed about.

I read The Kindness of Enemies, a novel that I really, really liked (though the modern-day chapters not so much, perhaps due to not being a Western-raised Muslim immigrant myself like the heroine is). The novel alternates between modern-day chapters and historical chapters about Imam Shamil (a Chechen “freedom fighter” of the 1850’s, fighting against the Russian Empire). In one of those odd coincidences, I soon read Tolstoy’s The Cossacks, a novel about the conflict from a Russian soldier’s perspective.

The author’s treatment of Imam Shamil is extremely remarkable: here’s a woman writing about a man and his psychology with better understanding and empathy than the average male writer (reminding me of Edith Wharton); here’s a Muslim author writing about a hero of Islamic history without any melodrama or exaggeration (as far as I could tell), showing us the hero as merely a man, though a great man still. This is a breath of fresh air if you compare it to the typical stories about historical Muslim personalities found everywhere on Islamic sites. And here’s a Muslim author writing about the experiences of a non-Muslim Georgian princess with love and empathy.

I am hopeful that these remarkable features will soon stop being remarkable by becoming commonplace among Muslim writers and intellectuals, especially those living in the West.

That’s it for now. InshaAllah you will hear more from me.

Asalam Walikum, I hope you are doing well. I really really need help

Hi! Do you think it is okay to read Quran through an app without performing ablution? The phone isn’t Quran after all, so does holding the phone without ablution, though reading Quran through it require to perform ablution?

Assalamu alaikum,

There is no need for wudu when reading the Quran from a computer or smartphone, or when reading a translation. Even menstruating women can use these methods, as discussed here.

Salaam alaykum

I’m a Sunni sister, and I’ve recently come across Sufism and Islamic mysticism. I’m very much interested in learning about Sufism but there are debates on this whole ‘Sunni-Sufi’ thing, I’m confused and I’m trying to ask everyone of their opinion and know if what I’m doing is right or wrong. Could you please share your thoughts on this?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

It seems to me the key issue is the sources of knowledge we accept. In mainstream Sunni Islam we accept the Quran and hadith, while in many forms of Sufism a third source of knowledge is added that establishes the doctrine of the allegiance to particular shaykhs and the various spiritual stations that one is said to be able to acquire. These things are not found in the Quran and hadith.

If you are interested in Sufism, there is the mainstream Sunni option of following what we may call paleo-Sufism, the Sufism of its original founders, such as the “father of Sufism” the Persian mystic Junayd of Baghdad. But even such people may bring into Islam ideas that do not have any obvious foundation in the Quran and hadith. So the problem with many forms of Sufism is that it claims to provide knowledge that is separate from the Quran and hadith. For a person dedicated to following pure and original Islam, the introduction of such external systems of knowledge is something to be suspicious of unless given overwhelming proofs.

Personally I don’t have any issue with most kinds of Sufism and there are admirable orthodox scholars who were also Sufis.

I am very interested in spirituality and I believe the right way to deal with Sufism is Imam al-Ghazali’s way, which is to use Sufism instead of accepting Sufism as a third system besides the Quran and hadith. Instead of “becoming Sufi”, you can read Sufi works and adopt whatever beneficial teachings they provide.

I believe Imam al-Ghazali, Ibn al-Jawzi and Ibn al-Qayyim show us what it is like to benefit from Sufism while remaining within mainstream Sunni Islam. It’s similar to benefiting from philosophy and logic. Imam al-Ghazali’s great achievement was that rather than becoming a typical philosopher (like Ibn Sina / Avicenna), he used philosophy and brought it into mainstream Islam while maintaining the Quran and hadith as supreme. He did the same with Sufism, bringing it into mainstream Islam without becoming a typical Sufi seeker or shaykh.

So there are two ways to use or practice Sufism. Either one accepts it as a third system besides the Quran and hadith, “becomes Sufi”, and gives allegiance to particular Sufi orders, systems or teachers, or one treats Sufism like any other field of knowledge, benefiting from it while maintaining allegiance to the Quran and hadith. The second route is the only possible one for me personally because as a very logic-minded and skeptical person, I cannot accept Sufi systems due to their lack of obvious and unchallenged foundation in the Quran, hadith or common sense. The various Sufi saints may have great things to teach me, but it is wholly against my nature to submit to them as a disciple. I can only view them as superior colleagues who have useful things to teach me, similar to the way I view any Islamic scholar, or any secular philosopher, thinker or scientist.

I have no issue with people reading Sufi works, or even non-Muslim works of spirituality and mysticism. As long as a person does not submit to systems, authorities and individuals outside the Quran and the Prophet’s guidance PBUH, then they can safely benefit from things like Sufism without leaving the mainstream and becoming something else. As long as you constantly read the Quran and try sincerely to submit to no authority other than it and the Prophet PBUH, then even if you are unconsciously influenced by Sufism or secular thought, you will always be brought back to the right track inshaAllah. I have been reading the complete works of the great Christian thinker C. S. Lewis and despite the fact that I admire him and see much beauty in his kind of Christianity, my reading has only helped me to see Islam’s beauty and superiority more clearly. If Islam is truly God’s final and perfect message, and if we always sincerely go back to it, then no amount of reading and learning will make us abandon it, because as knowledge and understanding increases, our appreciation for God’s teachings will also increase, if Islam is really true (which I believe).

You may be interested in my books The Sayings of Ibn al-Jawzi (free version) and the The Sayings of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (free version), which show us the thinking of two spiritual practitioners who benefited from Sufism without becoming Sufi. Imam al-Ghazali is also very much worth reading. He’s often categorized as a Sufi, but it’s clear from his works that he used Sufism rather than accepting it as a third system. He used Sufism just as he used philosophy and Greek logic.

Best wishes.

Assalamualaikum I came across a hadith on Facebook which says that touching any non- mahram woman is harām. I wanted to ask if that Hadith is authentic, and if it is so, then to what extent does this rule apply in our life. I mean I have female relatives who are quite elder to me( 9 years and more) . Is it allowed to shake hands with them or hug them if in my heart I consider them to be like my mothers and sisters?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

Touching people of the opposite sex whom you can potentially marry (i.e. non-mahrams) is not permitted in Islam unless there is a good reason, as in a doctor touching a person of the opposite sex during a procedure. There is also an exception for shaking hands with a person of the opposite sex in order not to humiliate them by refusing the handshake. When it comes to shaking the hands of the relatives you mentioned or hugging them, it is best to avoid it, but it is not a great issue if you accept these gestures in order to avoid upsetting them, until you find an opportunity to tell them that you wish to avoid these things in the future for religious reasons. As for elders who are at an age where they would no longer consider marriage (perhaps 60 or more), then these rules can be relaxed. But if they are 30 or 40 years old, then the rules would continue to apply even if you are much younger than them.

The most explicit hadith we have on the issue of touching the opposite sex is the following:

لأن يطعن في رأس أحدكم بمخيط من حديد خير له من أن يمس امرأة لا تحل له

It is better for one of you to pierce his head with an iron needle than to touch a woman for whom she is not halal.

Al-Tabarani

This hadith comes to us through Shaddad b. Saeed who is considered trustworthy but unreliable by many scholars, therefore this hadith is not guaranteed to be authentic and is therefore not relevant to this discussion.

The next hadith is one where the Prophet PBUH explicitly states that he does not shake women’s hands:

Muhammad bin Munkadir said that he heard Umaimah bint Ruqaiqah say:
“I came to the Prophet (ﷺ) with some other women, to offer our pledge to him. He said to us: ‘(I accept your pledge) with regard to what you are able to do. But I do not shake hands with women.’”

Sunan Ibn Majah Vol. 4, Book 24, Hadith 2874 and others.

Below is the chain diagram for this hadith:

This hadith receives an authenticity score of 38.69% according to our probabilistic hadith verification method. This score is rather high, since sahih hadiths start at 30%, meaning that this hadith is very high-quality.

The next hadith on touching non-mahrams is the following:

Aisha the wife of the Prophet, said, "Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) used to examine the believing women who migrated to him in accordance with this Verse: 'O Prophet! When believing women come to you to take the oath of allegiance to you… Verily! Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful.' (60.12) `Aisha said, "And if any of the believing women accepted the condition (assigned in the above-mentioned Verse), Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) would say to her. "I have accepted your pledge of allegiance." "He would only say that, for, by Allah, his hand never touched, any lady during that pledge of allegiance. He did not receive their pledge except by saying, "I have accepted your pledge of allegiance for that."

Sahih al-Bukhari Book 65, Hadith 4891; Sahih Muslim 1866 a; other collections

Below is a chain diagram of the hadith:

This hadith receives an authenticity score of 27.57%, making it close to the authentic mark of 30%.

The above appears to be all of the explicit evidence we have on the touching of non-mahrams.

Evidence from lowering the gaze

The Quran commands us to “lower our gaze”. The context of the two verses that command this make it clear that it refers to gazing at the opposite sex idly and/or lustfully.

Tell the believing men to restrain their looks, and to guard their privates. That is purer for them. God is cognizant of what they do.

And tell the believing women to restrain their looks, and to guard their privates, and not display their beauty except what is apparent thereof, and to draw their coverings over their breasts, and not expose their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their women, what their right hands possess, their male attendants who have no sexual desires, or children who are not yet aware of the nakedness of women. And they should not strike their feet to draw attention to their hidden beauty. And repent to God, all of you believers, so that you may succeed. (The Quran, verses 24:30-31)

There are also hadiths that mention the same concept, as in the following:

Jarir said I asked the Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) about an accidental glance (at a woman). He (ﷺ) said “Turn your gaze away.”

Sunan Abi Dawud 2148

Below is the chain diagram for this hadith:

This hadith receives an authenticity score of 12.14%, which is not very high. But it is easier to accept such hadiths as authentic due to their uncontroversial contents.

Naturally, if we are commanded to avoid gazing at the opposite sex idly or lustfully, then the same would apply to touching.

Evidence from the hijab

Another highly relevant area of evidence is that which applies to the rules on parts of the body that have to be covered. Naturally, if we are forbidden from looking at a certain part of a person’s body, we would also be forbidden from touching it. For the evidence on the rulings on which parts of the body should be covered see:

The purpose of hijab in IslamWhy the hijab is still obligatory (and why it is not only a vestige of 7th century Arabia)



Conclusion

From the evidence presented above, it is clear that touching the opposite sex idly or lustfully is not permitted in Islam. The Prophet PBUH avoided shaking women’s hands despite this being a harmless form of greeting, which shows us that the highest Islamic ideal is to always work to minimize contact with the opposite sex. However, the evidence does not prohibit necessary touching, as in a doctor touching a person of the opposite sex during a medical procedure.

The exception on shaking hands

Scholars such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi permit shaking the hands of the opposite sex when meeting non-Muslims in order to prevent humiliating them by refusing the handshake, since in such cases avoiding humiliating the person takes priority over the no-touching rule. Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi mentions that while the Prophet PBUH never shook the hands of women, Umar [ra] did that, and Abu Bakr [ra] shook an old woman’s hands.

References:

IslamOnline fatwa that mentions al-Qaradawi’s opinion (Arabic PDF)