Explaining Islam in Light of the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ‎)

Registering an Incorrect Birth Date

Question My son was born on 21st March 2001. I intend to register his name in the Muncipal Committee on 21st March 2003. Is it justified religiously? Answer If you intend to register the date of birth as 21st March 2003 then what you intend to do is to make a false statement in an […]

Reason for Prohibiting Gambling/Lottery

Question Can you please explain the “Hikma” of the Qur’an for prohibiting Gambling/Lottery and other forms of similar practices and the ways it applies to present societies of the world. Answer The Shari`ah has prohibited all kinds of financial transactions in which anyone or more of the parties involved in the transaction gains any amount […]

Imagining the Rewards in the Hereafter…

Question What is the ruling regarding seeing the aurah ((i.e., private parts.)) of women in virtual form e.g. in TV, magazines, computer graphics, cartoons, etc. Is it the same as for seeing real women? To help me lower my gaze when coming across attractive women, especially when they dress provocatively, I find it helpful to […]

Is Our Iman Complete Without Good Deeds?

Question If the practical application of our beliefs is not according to our beliefs or faiths, in other sense our deeds are not according to our beliefs, can we claim that we are a Muslim? Is our belief or Iman complete with out doing good deeds? Answer True and complete knowledge about a given phenomenon […]

What Should be Done About Youthful Weakness?

Question I visit your website frequently and I have to say that I am truly impressed by the vigor and eloquence of your intellectual approach to Islam. You are a very intelligent scholar and writer, and I suspect that even in your young days you excelled. But, at least according to my observations, most young […]

Regarding Illness and Sins

Question It is often said that whenever we fall sick God in turn helps us loose our sins. It is also said that any one who dies after a pro longed illness or a painful death is to have lost a lot of his sins. Is there any such thing for a fact that for […]

Regarding Promises

Question What is the definition of promise in Islam? Consider two examples: My wife asked me when I am going to finish my Ph.D. I told her Insha Allah by end of 2001. When I have not finished by then, she says I have broken my promise. I told her that she cannot consider it […]

What is ‘Zulm’?

Question What is the correct definition of Zulm? How can I be sure that what I am doing to others is not Zulm? Answer Zulm (lit: injustice, wrongfully depriving someone of his legal and moral rights), from a moral perspective, means to wrongfully take something for oneself or grant it to another person, and to, […]

Are We to Give to All Those Who Ask?

Question Both the Qur’an and the Bible state that we should give freely to all those who ask (Qur’an 2: 177; Matthew 5: 42). Thus, whenever I have been asked by someone (usually beggars or other needy people), I have given something of my wealth. But my parents have objected to this, arguing that I […]

Regarding a Verse of Surah Al-Falaq

Question Muhammad Ali gives an interesting translation of verse 4 in Surah Falaq as “And from the evil of those that cast (evil suggestions) in firm resolutions.”  This is a more general description as compared to other translators, who normally translate it as “And from those that blow over knots”.  His translation is also derived […]