Double negatives are a no-no

Apart from being annoying (I use this word quite a lot these days don't I?) trying to figure out double negatives, why are they wrong? I mean grammatically?

Adab al Mufrad Notes (4)

DATE: 25/05/07 to 01/06/07

Hadtih/athar: "Abu Hurayra said: "A man came to the Prophet (sal Allahu 'alaiyhi wa sallam) and said, ‘Messenger of Allah, I have relatives with whom I maintain connections while they cut me off. I am good to them while they are bad to me, they behave towards me like fools while I am forbearing towards them.’ The Prophet (sal Allahu 'alaiyhi wa sallam) said, ‘If things are as you say have said, it is as if you were putting hot ashes on them* and you will not lack a supporter against them from Allah as long as you continue to do that.’"

*i.e. it will cause them harm if they continue with their behaviour but will not harm you as it will result in their humiliation and you will gain respect in this world and the Hereafter.

Reported by Muslim also. Saheeh isnad and matn.

Ibn Abi Hatim in the chain. Faqih from the tabi’ tabi’in. Known to be as knowledgeable as Imam Malik who himself said "if there is a people and among them is Ibn Abi Hatim, they will be protected." Imam Malik not known for over-praising and exaggerating; known for being austere and serious. He was probably referring to Imam Ibn Abi Hatim’s taqwa, being a wali of Allah, rather than knowledge and qada.

Man knows what he’s doing is obligatory. He’s not approaching the Prophet (sal Allahu 'alaiyhi wa sallam) to be excused from it, he wants to know what he (sal Allahu 'alaiyhi wa sallam) has to say about the matter. The behaviour of his relatives akin to their own punishment. His good treatment and their bad treatment in return is like humiliation for them. Essence of maintaining kinship is difficulty, not what is easy and nice.

Repayment of good with mere neutrality is shameful. But replacement of good with bad is evil.

"If it is as you said" – allows for another side to the story, possibility of reality not being the mentioned scenario. In fatwa-seeking always a hidden side mufti doesn’t know hence he should be careful and prudent when giving verdicts. REAL men of knowledge past and present shied away from giving fatwa whereas many of us rush to give our opinion in deen matters. Should be cautious rather than hasty.

Lesson for general mass: speak and convey news and information in balanced, just and accurate manner.

"Putting hot ashes" – causing someone to get punished. Should he and others like him then not continue god treatment? No as they themselves are the cause for their own punishment. Statement following it encourages the man to continue if his good behaviour.

"He's not romantic enough..."

I've heard this myself and I know a lot of wives would say this about their husbands. But what does being romantic mean? Being showered with jewellery, perfumes and other gifts? Chocolates and flowers? Scented candles? Walks along the beach? Being serenaded? I think many sisters equate the concept of romance with all or most of the above hence the complaint "he's not romantic enough". Or, some of us may be OK with him not doing the above and not being "romantic" because we too are not "romantic".

I think romance is necessary is a marriage. But I would definitely not equate the above examples with romance, otherwise let's face it, we're doomed to a marriage full of misery and disappointment or at least ungratefulness to our husband because we simply do not recognise he is romantic in his own way. For a lot of men it's difficult to express mushy emotions and gestures typically "romantic" (like the examples above) will be even more difficult to do to express their feelings because it won't come naturally to them. Now I love chocolate. And candles. Flowers are OK but I'm not too fussed about them. And hey, who doesn't like gifts in general? But I don't like them because I'm "romantic", I just like them! Some sisters don't like chocolate (it's true, weird sure but true) and would prefer fresh fruit. Hence it would be a more romantic gesture if their husband bought them fresh blueberries instead.

My point is romance isn't restricted to these material things. To me romantic is thinking of your wife/husbands needs and desires, and striving to make them happy. It's anything that shows you love them and care for them. "Romantic" is a husband agreeing to move to another city because his wife wants to complete her degree in a good university there. "Romantic" is a wife saying to her husband who is suffering from a bad fever "I'd rather this pain was in me rather than see you suffer". "Romantic" is a husband going home early after work instead of socialising with friends because he wants to spend time with his wife. "Romantic" is a wife sending random txts messages saying "I Love You". "Romantic" is a husband getting a hot water bottle for his wife when she suffers from her monthly cramps. It's helping your husband/wife finish his/her work so you can spend quality time together once the work is done. It is ANYTHING that shows that you love your spouse and care for him/her. If we have this attitude rather than the one restricted to flowers and chocolate etc, we'd be be much more appreciative of our spouse and the romantic things they do which go unnoticed by us because we're too hung up on the fact that "it's been ages since he bought me Lindor" or "I can't remember the last time he said sweet mushy things to me" or "He's never bought me flowers!"

Things that really annoy me

1. Girly girls "lol"ling all over the place. NO-ONE WANTS TO KNOW YOU JUST "LOL"LED! Especially men.
2. Girls knocking men just for the heck of it and men knocking girls just for the heck of it.
3. Girls who eat like rabbits when they don't even need to diet.

*Relieved sigh*

That feels so much better.

True, false or "it depends"?

I didn't get through most of the stuff I wanted to. Some new sisters came to the circle including some recent reverts masha'Allah and the introductions took up a bit of time. I'm gonna finish it next week insha'Allah but I'll put the true/false questions up now and put the answers in next time insha'Allah. Anyone's welcome to have a go or ask me further about them if they're unable to attend the circle.

1. Zakah is for the poor only.
2. Zakah is an annual charity.
3. Zakah is 2.5% of all wealth.
4. Zakah was made obligatory is Makkah, not later on in Madinah.
5. No-one can be forced to give zakah.
6. People in the UK don’t really need zakah; the real poor are in "third world" countries.
7. Slaves don’t have to pay zakah.
8. Children don’t have to pay zakah.
9. The mentally deficient do not have to pay zakah.
10. Those in debt do not have to pay zakah.
11. There is no zakah to be paid on inheritance money.
12. If I give zakah to a charity and they lose it or give it to the wrong person I have to re-pay that zakah.
13. If wealth has been in your possession for a solar year and above the nisab, zakah is obligatory.
14. The nisab is fixed and doesn’t change from year to year.
15. Anyone who doesn’t pay zakah has apostated.
16. Zakah is only obligatory on some luxuries, not the necessities or essentials of life.
17. All types of agricultural produce have zakah levied on them.
18. If I buy a car with the intention of selling it but use it in the meantime before a good price is offered, I have to pay zakah if a year passes.
19. If I buy a car with the intention to use it but also intend if a good price is offered I will consider selling it, I have to pay zakah if a year passes.
20. If I put my house up for sale and thus it is on the market, I have to pay zakah on the selling value after the hawl passes even if it hasn’t been sold yet and even if I’m still living in it or renting it out.
21. If I have a business I have to pay zakah on my profits as well as the value of my stock, if a year passes and it is above the nisab.
22. One should combine the value of all their wealth – jewellery, cash in hand, cash in the bank, income from rent, inheritance money, antiques, cattle etc and then work our the overall zakah.
23. Zakah money can be used to aid poor people to get married.
24. Zakah is not obligatory on wealth that has been earned in a haram way.
25. If you did not pay zakah on your wealth when you were not practising you should estimate how much you should have paid and pay it.
26. Zakah does not have to be paid on money that is being saved for e.g. marriage, hajj.
27. On salaries, we should deduct taxes, national insurance etc and then work out how much zakah on due.
28. If I’ve lent someone money I pay zakah on that money only if and when I have it back.

Zakah - an intro

At the Sisters circle in Makki masjid, Longsight, Manchester I did part of the circle on zakah. I based it all on what I learnt at AlKauthar's Price of Salvation a month ago. Here are some of the notes. We did some interactive activities too but I left them out in these notes. Because I didn't cover all of the stuff, I'm finishing it off tomorrow insha'Allah. I'll type up the remainding notes tomorrow too insha'Allah.




INTRODUCTION
Zakah is a pillar of Islam. The general attitude towards zakah is that people avoid learning about it more than they avoid the other pillars of Islam; it seems too technical, too mathematical, too complicated, "irrelevant to me specifically" and so on. Thus people exert their efforts studying fiqh of salah, how to perform the rites of hajj, what the correct ‘aqeedah is, related Ramadan issues every year yet zakah is left out. Some may even argue that a pillar of Islam should be simple and straightforward but rather, precisely because it is a pillar upon which Islam is built that it is detailed and vast. There is a huge amount of misinformation about zakah and ignorance about such an important aspect of out deen should be removed. There are many wealth related issues for Muslims are affected with either directly and indirectly – e.g. riba, haram earnings or working in institutes involved in haram, new types of wealth that didn’t exist during the Prophet‘s (sal Allahu 'alaiyhi wa sallam) lifetime, pensions, taxes, poverty and Muslims need to know how zakah applies to these. Also learning about zakah gives us an understanding of financial and social responsibility in Islam and the role of the Islamic authorities as well as the general masses with regards to this.


DEFINITION
Zakah comes from the word zakaa which literally means to increase and grow. Linguistically means blessing, increase, purity and rectification. The legal meaning is it is an obligatory charity that is due annually.


THE RULING AND ORIGIN
The scholars are in consensus that zakah is obligatory but they differ on who zakah is obligatory on.


BASIC FACTS RELATED TO ZAKAH
Nisab means the minimum amount of wealth one has before zakah becomes obligatory.

Hawl means the lunar year that has to pass before zakah becomes obligatory.

There are different types of "wealth" – cash, precious metals, minerals, livestock, agricultural produce.

The goals of the shari'ah with regards to zakah is to give from our wealth to the poor without becoming poor or experiencing difficulty in the process. We can see that zakah is obligatory only on wealth that has the ability to grow and increase and on wealth that is considered above and beyond our needs.

Wealth is anything that people can gather, collect and benefit from and like to own.

Certain types of wealth did not have value in the time of the Prophet (sal Allahu 'alaiyhi wa sallam) e.g. diamonds, paper money.

Paper money used to be attached to gold and silver. However in reality this attachement doesn’t exist anymore hence the nisab for money is that which is more suitable for the poor i.e. nisab which is less, which is silver. The nisab of pure gold is 85g and the nisab of pure silver is 595g. Hence at the time of printing the nisab of money is approximately 207 pounds 30p.

Adab al Mufrad Notes (3)

More adab al mufrad notes. Sorry to give them all at once but I procrastinated.

DATE: 18/05/07 and 25/05/07

Hadith/athar: Ibn Abbas said (about the verses): "Give the relative his due, and the needy and the traveller and squander not (thy wealth) in wantonness. Lo! The squanderers were ever the brothers of devils, and the devil was ever ingrate to his Lord. But if thou turn away from them, seeking mercy from thy Lord, for which thou hopest, then speak unto them a reasonable word. And let not thy hand be chained to thy neck nor open it with a complete opening, lest thou sit down rebuked, denuded." (17:26-29) "He begins by commanding the most pressing of the obligatory dues and He directs man to the best action if he has something – by His saying – ‘Give the relative his due and the needy and the traveller.’ Likewise He teaches man how he should excuse himself if he has nothing – by His saying – ‘If you turn away from them seeking the mercy from your Lord that you are hoping for, then speak gentle words to them.’ In the form of a good promise. ‘Do not keep your hand chained to your neck’ (like a miser that you do not give anything at all) ‘nor outspread it altogether so you sit reproached…’ (that means if you give everything, those who come to you later will find you empty and reproach you) ‘denuded’. (Ibn Abbas) said, that means: The person to whom you gave everything has denuded you.

Weak chain, has unknown person in it. But less strict in accepting/rejecting because it is athar not hadith. Scholars didn’t say whole thing is weak i.e. statement itself is sound.

Ayah tells us what one should do with money – (i) give it to relative, needy and traveller. (ii) If there’s no money to give, make promise that if you have money you’ll give it to them (iii) don’t be miserly or extravagant.

Ayah uses word "qurba" – close relatives.

The word "haqqahu" (due/right) implies reference to zakah whereas the word "aati" (give) is only used referring to sadaqah. Stipulated zakah recipients don’t include relatives. If ayat taken to refer to zakah it emphasises right of relative over other fuqara/masakeen (extremely poor/poor) and travellers if relative comes under these categories too. If taken to mean sadaqah also demonstrated right of relatives over others. Either way, relative comes before other needy people.

Wrong attitude to believe giving money to relative is a favour to them; doing so is merely giving them their right.

"Seeking mercy" – hoping for what Allah provides you with. What you have and can spend is attached to Allah who gives and takes as He wills to all of creation.

"Mercy from your Lord" – not our right. May not even deserve it.

"Hope for" – not guaranteed, shouldn’t expect it.

"Say gentle words" – not whinge, be rude, insult etc. Not sufficient to say "sorry don’t have any". Rather make a promise that if you have money insha’Allah you will give it. Qur'an teaches the highest moral in this aspect.

"Tied to neck" – analogy of a prisoner who is chained. Cannot move hands e.g. reach into pockets. Incapacitated. Ayah almost telling us not to act as though we have our hands tied when we don’t.

Also telling us not to place ourselves in trouble and difficulty yet Qur'an always starts with miserliness. Reflects most prominent problem – extravagance in giving in charity not as common.

"Rebuked" – blameworthy, no-one’s fault but your own, irresponsible with own wealth.

"Denuded" – Arabic word includes meanings of trapped, tired out, destitute. The one whom you wanted to help has left you in that state.

Subtle lessons to be learnt from Imam Bukhari’s choice of narrators. Ibn Abbas – could have chosen other narrators but he chose the cream of the crop as far as mufassireen are concerned. Ijma’ of scholars that tafsir of Qur'an by sahabah comes first. Example for us to choose only the best for our deen, no matter how difficult or how convenient other options are. Often choose best for dunya matters e.g. best doctor, school etc but deen more deserving.