A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) was born in Gaza, and moved to Makkah when he was two years old.  He went to Madina, and was as a student of Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Malik ibn Anas ( r.a. ), who was very impressed with this young student.  He was also known for writing poetry.   Imam ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) said, “When my heart was hardened, and my courses constrained; I made my hope a stairway to Your Forgiveness.  My sins burdened me heavily, but when I measured it by Your Forgiveness, Lord, Your Forgiveness was Greater.”   Imam ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) said, “Whoever slanders to you about others, will slander about you.  And whoever reports to you, will soon report about you.”   Imam ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) said, “Knowledge is that which benefits, not that which is memorised.”   Imam ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) said, “Let not your tongue mention the shame of another, for you yourself are cov...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ What is the view of the 4 major a’immah of fiqh on Sufism? ”   Sufism, otherwise known as taswawwuf , or ‘irfan , is the field of spirituality, one of the religious sciences.   It is neither a distinct sect, nor can it be divorced from Islam.   A Sufi is a master of this field of the religious science.   A practitioner of Sufism is not actually a Sufi, any more than any person who studies fiqh , jurisprudence, is automatically a faqih , jurist.   Almost every major scholar of Sunni Islam either subscribes to some of the doctrines of taswawwuf , or had teachers who did.   In effect, they were almost all Sufis.   The founder of the Maliki madzhab , Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Malik ibn Anas ( r.a. ) said, “Whoever practices taswawwuf without learning shari’ah corrupts his faith, while whoever learns shari’ah without practicing taswawwuf corrupts himself. ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ Is stoning for adultery a part of Islam? ”   The Qur’an does not mention rajm , stoning, as a penalty at all.   It Prescribes 100 lashes for zina, adultery:   سُوۡرَةُ النُّور ٱلزَّانِيَةُ وَٱلزَّانِى فَٱجۡلِدُواْ كُلَّ وَٲحِدٍ۬ مِّنۡہُمَا مِاْئَةَ جَلۡدَةٍ۬‌ۖ وَلَا تَأۡخُذۡكُم بِہِمَا رَأۡفَةٌ۬ فِى دِينِ ٱللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمۡ تُؤۡمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلۡيَوۡمِ ٱلۡأَخِرِ‌ۖ وَلۡيَشۡہَدۡ عَذَابَہُمَا طَآٮِٕفَةٌ۬ مِّنَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ (٢)   The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication ― flog each of them with a hundred stripes: let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter Prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the believers witness their punishment. (Surah an-Nur:2)   The supporters of rajm have tried to justify it by saying that the Qur’anic punishment of 100 lashes is for the case of an unmarried person....

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is adapted and extracted from “ Biographies of Some of the Aswhab al-Wujuh in the Shafi’i Madzhab .”   The Aswhab al-Wujuh are the scholars who developed and transmitted the Shafi’i madzhab from the time of the immediate students of Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ), circa 200 AH, to the time of Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali ( r.a. ), circa 500 AH.   Thereafter there was a pressing need for recension of all this development into a single body of work.   This task was met by Imam Abu al-Qasim ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Muhammad ar-Rafi’i ( r.a. ) and Imam Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi ( r.a. ), who became known as the Shaykhayn in the madzhab .   The first of these Aswhab al-Wujuh was Imam Abu Ya’qub Yusuf ibn Yahya al-Buwayti ( r.a. ).   He was the successor the Imam ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ), and accounted his greatest student.   Those who knew him de...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   It is said that once, Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) was challenged to a debate by a Christian ruler and he accepted it.   The debate was to take place by a river.   Imam ash-Shafi’i’s ( r.a. ) students accompanied him, whilst the Christians were represented by three hundred of the king’s scholars.   Imam ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) arrived on one side of the river and the Christians arrived on the other.   The Christians then said Imam ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) should come to their side of the river to debate, and the students of Imam ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) argued that the Christians should come to the Muslims side.   Imam ash-Shafi’i ( r.a. ) resolved this by walking atop of the river, laid his sajadah down, and said, “Let us meet here, in the middle, and deliberate.”   At this, the Christians were amazed and said the shahadah .   When the news reached the Christian king, he remarked “...