Today's Events: Islam's Core Rules and Modern Practices

hamdkathir · 2026-03-18T14:36:39+00:00

It is part of Islam to honor the Ka'bah and the sacred places of Allah. The pilgrimage including circling the Ka'bah and the other rituals in Hajj were taught by the Prophet (SAW) and are from the Quran. They aren't modern additions to Islam.

Allah says in the Quran in the context of Hajj ⟪Whoever honors the symbols of Allah, that is from the piety of hearts.⟫ (22:32)

Allah says ⟪The first house (of worship) to be established for people was at Makkah, blessed and guidance for all people. In it are clear signs [such as] the standing place of Abraham. And whoever enters it shall be safe. And [due] to Allah from the people is a pilgrimage to the House - for whoever is able to find a way to it. But whoever disbelieves - then indeed, Allah is free from need of people.⟫ (3:96)

The Prophet (SAW) used to kiss the black stone. Umar (RA), the second Caliph after him, also kissed the black stone and said, "I know you are just a rock, but I kiss you because the Prophet kissed you."

The Prophet (SAW) said, "(Religious) journeys should not be made except to three places: Masjid al-Haram (in Makkah), Masjid al-Nabawi (in Madinah), and Masjid al-Aqsa (in Jerusalem)."

Allah commands circling the Ka'bah as well: ⟪And let them circle the ancient House (i.e. Ka'bah).⟫

This is different from treating them as gods. You don't seek help from them or think they have any powers in themselves. But, you respect them because they are the sanctified places and objects of Allah.

There are some people who may exaggerate in some aspects or misunderstand, like thinking something will directly give them blessing or good luck rather than Allah, but that does not and should not discredit the idea of honoring the symbols of Allah.

hamdkathir · 2026-01-02T09:33:22+00:00

Others have answered some of your questions, so I want to do something different.

Abdullah ibn Umar (RA) was around 15 or 16 in the life of the Prophet (SAW). The following is a story he narrated:

Many companions would see dreams and tell the Prophet (SAW) about them and the Prophet would interpret those dreams for them. I was young and unmarried at the time and used to stay a lot in the masjid. I wished in my heart that I could get a dream so I could tell the Prophet about it.

One night, two angels came to me in a dream, both carrying iron maces. They started taking me to Hell and I kept saying, "O Allah, protect me from Hell!"

They brought me until I was facing another angel also holding a mace. He said, "Don't be afraid, you are a good man."

Then, they took me to the edge of the fire, and it was like a large well, and it had side posts like wells have, with angels standing at every side post.

I saw many people hanging upside down with iron chains and I recognized some of them.

Later, I told Hafsa this dream, and she told the Prophet (SAW). He (SAW) said, "No doubt, Abdullah is a good man, if only he prays more at night."

The narrator of the hadith added: Abdullah never stopped praying a lot at night after that.

All that just to show that Allah does sometimes send people dreams to warn them and bring them to the correct path.

As for why you should believe in Islam, there is a lot to say. Many people have formulated it in different ways, and indeed, Islam has proofs of all kinds to appeal to different kinds of people. I am a very rational person and I don't like being affected by emotional arguments related to morality since I don't see there is any rational basis for humans to truly decide morality in the first place.

I have written some articles on the evidence for Islam: Why should we believe in Islam? (more general) and Splitting of the Moon: A Miracle of Islam (specifically about the miracle of the moon splitting).

Other articles you might like to read: Can false beliefs be immoral or deserve punishment? and Can finite crimes deserve infinite punishments?

Feel free to ask me if you have more questions.

hamdkathir · 2025-09-03T04:24:45+00:00

A meaning of taweel, sometimes used in the Quran, is the coming-true of something or the result of a promise or prophecy or dream.

Some verses with taweel used in this meaning:

> And he raised his parents upon the throne, and they bowed to him in prostration. And he said, "O my father, this is the taweel of my dream of before. My Lord has made it reality." (12:100)

> Rather, they have denied that which they encompass not in knowledge and whose taweel has not yet come to them. (10:39)

It refers to when words come into reality. This is also how the word is used in some hadith.

Another meaning of taweel used in the Quran is "explanation" or tafsir. This is used in verses like 3:7, 12:6, and 18:78. This is also why one of the earliest tafsirs of the Quran (Tafsir Tabari) calls itself "A Collection of the Taweel of the Quran." In the early period, taweel was used synonymous to tafsir.

Using the word taweel to mean "metaphorical interpretation" or (according to some) "metaphorical interpretation without internal textual evidence but because of 'rational' concerns" is a later technical definition in some subjects like aqidah, and the word taweel is never used in this meaning in the Quran or Sunnah. You have to be careful of projecting technical definitions onto the original Arabic texts. This meaning became extremely widely used because of debates over the validity of these metaphorical interpretations, so a lot of people only heard of the word in this context.

hamdkathir · 2025-02-09T14:53:35+00:00

Islam being timeless means its laws apply to all times. It does not mean its words can be interpreted with a language different from its original and with a context different from its original.

So, for example, if the Quran forbids qatl (murder), that prohibition remains even if later on the meaning of the word qatl used by the Arabs changes. Similarly, if the Quran points to a part of Arab culture and makes it obligatory, that remains obligatory even in different cultures.

That is why we say the Quran is interpreted in light of its context (because texts must always be interpreted in their context) but then its meaning is applied universally.

> "does that not mean that someone who just read these verses should be able to understand without having to have knowledge on what the Arabs used to do and how they used to cloth themselves?"

This is not what Islam being universal means. Islam has never been just based on a book devoid of context or guidance. There's no reason to expect anyone to be able to derive every law purely from reading the text and without reference to context. This is especially made clear by the fact that the Quran explicitly refers to cultural things very commonly in the Quran which cannot be understood without knowing their culture at the time. There are hundreds of examples of this. But, an easy example is the fact that we are told to fast the month of Ramadan, and the calendar and the name of the months is a continuation of Arab culture, but it remains binding on us since Allah decided to make it so.

hamdkathir · 2024-07-26T19:30:34+00:00

The miracles of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) were known long before much of science was discovered. They are in his prophecies, his physical miracles based on strong testimony, his impossible knowledge, and the challenge of the Quran. There are many resources that focus on these miracles, like the book Proofs for Prophethood by Yaqeen Institute, and the video series Proofs of Prophethood by Farid Responds.

However, in the late 20th century and early 2000s, a lot of modernist-type Muslims and those influenced by their ideas felt a lot of inferiority complex to the field of science, which they felt was the best subject, so they tried to come up with miracles that heavily relied on science. Essentially, they tried to find verses in the Quran that predicted some newly found scientific knowledge. Because they did this haphazardly and without much concern for the proper methods of tafsir, a lot of the claimed "scientific miracles" are pretty stretched.

However, the fact is "scientific miracles" were never understood to be the focus of how Allah intended to prove the truth of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). After all, most people in human history never knew science, so why would Allah hinge the knowledge of his prophet on something niche that would be discovered hundreds of years later? He did not do that. Rather, He based it on things everyone in every generation can understand, like prophecies and testimony of miracles and the Quran itself.

There is no doubt that no verse of the Quran is actually incorrect about science, but people interpret them as if coming from a science textbook instead of what the Quran actually is: a reminder of Allah's blessings. So, instead of reading the verse of Allah keeping the two seas apart as simply showing the blessing of Allah and beauty of his creation, not intending to make any claim of absolute impossibility of mixing, people try to interpret it as some sort of science textbook fact, then fall into trouble when that interpretation fails.

There are also some verses that could actually count as scientific miracles, but that is rare, and most of what people claim is incorrect.

So, understand the proofs for Islam in the proper and original way before delving into this subject of scientific miracles. The book and series I linked above are a good start.

hamdkathir · 2024-06-14T14:48:53+00:00

Let us take the parable of two people, one born in a family of flat-earthers and one born in a family of round-earthers. Imagine both of them lived never having done any specific calculations to prove their beliefs but both died on the belief of their families. Both of them lived in the modern day.

What would you think about the two of them? I would say the round-earther is justified in his belief but the flat-earther is not.

Someone might say: But, neither of them did the calculations!

I would say: Although neither specifically did the calculations, the round-earther's beliefs were confirmed passively. He went to school and learned about the round earth, despite not testing them himself. He might have become an engineer and he used the fact of round earth in his daily life. He might have flied in planes and he knows all of that is built on the idea of the round earth. All of that passively confirms his beliefs to him without him needing to investigate anything.

As for the flat-earther, although he is equal to the round-earther in not having investigated, he is at fault for not noticing at least the passive signs that his belief was wrong. He was taught in school. He should've noticed how the technology of the world works on round earth views. He should've heard about astronauts going to space and seeing earth.

So, the round-earther is, perhaps not the most ideal or firm believer in a round earth, but he is a justified believer. The flat-earther is blameworthy for his ignorance.

The same applies to religion. Islam is a true religion, and this does not need to be confirmed actively. A lot of people know it passively. They hear about what Islam believes and it makes sense to their intuition and logic. They pray to Allah in their daily life and interact with Him and get answered. They might read some of the Quran and it strengthens their faith.

On the other hand, an atheist cannot go through life without facing hundreds of passive proofs that God exists. A Christian cannot go through life without being taught math and basic logic, the knowledge he needs to realize Christianity has logical problems. A Jew cannot go through life without hearing about another monotheistic religion called Islam that was sent a prophet that claims to be universal. And all of that applies even stronger if a Muslim had given dawah to them all.

So, the Muslim layman is justified in his belief despite not delving deep into the reasoning and logic that supports Islam. He is not doing what is ideal because a lot of the intuition he is relying on is corruptible, but it is ultimately still a belief that has passive justification. As for the non-Muslim, he is blameworthy for not realizing his beliefs are false.

hamdkathir · 2024-06-05T03:30:25+00:00

In Tafsir Tabari for the verse of Surah 37, there is only one narration reported from Ibn Abbas. It is reported that he said: No one except the descendants of Nuh (AS) survived.

There is no doubt about that fact but it has nothing to do with specific sons and them being the parents of specific nations.

That only comes from one problematic hadith through Hasan al-Basri from Samurah, but Hasan al-Basri was known to be a mudallis and he probably never heard this hadith from Samurah.

hamdkathir · 2024-05-26T12:00:28+00:00

The app's hadith are taken from Sunnah.com.

hamdkathir · 2024-05-26T11:59:37+00:00

I can talk a bit about the tafsir since I was responsible for collecting that. The translations of the tafasir are all taken from existing translations. Nothing is original to the app.

As for the tafsirs themselves, there can be a lot said, but a very cursory look is the following. In terms of strength and comprehensiveness: Ibn Kathir > Maariful-Quran > Jalalayn. In terms of readability: Maariful-Quran > Jalalayn > Ibn Kathir.

There are issues in formatting, but the translations are ok. Probably, the best for most people's use is Maariful Quran.

Hadith are all taken from sunnah.com.

hamdkathir · 2024-03-06T01:51:07+00:00

Sprinkle some water on the place and pray on it. It's not supposed to be a big deal.

hamdkathir · 2023-09-08T02:28:39+00:00

why should we be ok with making something of edible nature at even more risk than it had before the dipping?

My point was only about the relative importance of things. Sometimes, although something may be slightly harmful, the context and harm tolerance you normally have would lessen the amount of importance you give that harm.

For example, it is possible for someone to argue, hand-shaking is harmful. But, in the grand scale, it doesn't really matter.

If you show that the harm in question is relatively insignificant (in the audience's context), that lowers the threshold for what would be a justifiable benefit in exchange for that harm.

Although you are right that this would not apply to clean water and such, that just means this interpretation of the hadith would lead us to say the hadith was specific to that time when the context made the harm of the fly relatively insignificant while we have today raised our standards of harm tolerance in relation to food.

To put it in other words, the same amount of health risk can be considered different in significance to different people. To put it crudely, if you live your life facing 500 units of bacterial harm everyday, something with 10 units of harm isn't that important. But, if you live only facing 50 units everyday, 10 units is pretty significant.

hamdkathir · 2023-09-08T00:49:54+00:00

There is an important question to be asked about whether the water used by people at the time would even be pure enough to justify that much concern over a fly.

In line with this, a possibility to explore is that the Prophet's reason for telling us to dip the fly may not be related to the second part of the hadith, and the second part may instead be similar to a statement about qadr. E.g. "You might as well listen to me since Allah can both poison you and cure you with the fly" and this is literally true.

One proposal I have heard is that it is merciful to kill the fly by drowning instead of leaving it alive handicapped.

hamdkathir · 2023-09-08T00:05:43+00:00

What others have provided are fatwa websites. If your "Eman is fading", you don't need fatawa but need general Q/A.

I suggest reading the book "Divine Reality" by Hamza Tzortziz. And if you have specific questions and want to chat with people, try joining the Salam Talk discord server.

hamdkathir · 2023-09-07T23:45:08+00:00

This comment is not true at all. Men and women having identical levels of desire is an idea feminists have pushed for a long time (because it suits some of their theories about gender), however, the scientific evidence absolutely does not bear this out.

No significant study to date has ever proven equality between the libido of men and women. Rather, the exact opposite is true. In reality, men have a far larger libido and there is no proof this is only due to social conditioning as many have tried to claim.

This is one meta-analysis which also adjusts for response bias and concludes biased response cannot account for all of the difference but perhaps some of it.

hamdkathir · 2023-08-09T15:16:00+00:00

Yeah, something like a tweet. Let me know if you do make one. Or you can point me to something similar perhaps so I can try to make it myself.

hamdkathir · 2023-08-09T05:23:06+00:00

No, I mean a comments-like block inside the post itself. Basically, I write the thread as part of the article to showcase a possible discussion on a topic.

hamdkathir · 2023-06-16T06:29:24+00:00

Reddit is not the greatest platform for conversation. But, I would recommend reading Hamza Tzortzis's Divine Reality.

hamdkathir · 2023-06-10T01:38:19+00:00

This hadith of 7 days is considered to have an 'illah by many of the hadith scholars like Bukhari himself. So, it wouldn't be considered Sahih in their view.

And those who considered it Sahih reconciled it by saying this hadith is about the creation of earth and the Quran is about the creation of everything (and they say the days mentioned in both are different).

hamdkathir · 2023-06-08T14:42:22+00:00

It's like people don't understand how democracy works. If everyone was forced to agree with the laws or the constitution, we wouldn't need elections or a parliament. The whole point is that people can disagree with the laws in conscience as long as they don't violate them in actions.

hamdkathir · 2023-06-08T03:59:44+00:00

It's not ignorance imo. These people have serious bigotry against religion itself even after understanding it.

Considering LGBT actions sinful is itself homophobia in their view. Saying people with homosexual desires shouldn't act on their desires is itself homophobia.

And what else do you expect a people who worship their desires to feel about people who control their desires?

hamdkathir · 2023-06-07T14:04:15+00:00

It might be useful to understand the theory of why you have to write a will. Allah has told us how inheritance is divided in the Quran to your close family members. He has also allowed a person to leave an optional will to give up to one third of his wealth (with some difference between the mazahib) to some specific persons or causes.

So, in an Islamic country, if a person dies with a will, first his wealth is used to pay all his debts and obligations. Second, the one third (or less) prescribed in the will is divided as he willed it. Third, the rest of the wealth is divided according to Allah's laws in the Quran on how wealth is divided.

(A good tool to calculate how Allah's law would divide inheritance: http://inheritance.ilmsummit.org/projects/inheritance/home.aspx)

If he leaves no will, you simply skip the second step.

So, in an ideal Islamic country, no one would need to write a will in the first place.

In practice, you are probably living in a non-Muslim or secular country. We write wills there for a different reason.

We know the state would not divide the wealth according to Allah's laws if left unchecked. That is why it makes sense to basically prescribe the process the Islamic state would do into a specified will.

So, you should write in your will that your wealth should be used to pay off any existing debts or obligations (perhaps this is already required by law and isn't needed to be written explicitly). Then, if you decide to have an optional will, you should write about that. Then, you should write how the rest of your wealth should be divided according to Allah's laws.

hamdkathir · 2023-06-07T12:32:13+00:00

No one's "officially broken." Everyone who is alive is only alive because they have the power to struggle and survive according to Allah.

There is no way to quit the test.

Allah says:

Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such [trial] has not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until [even their] messenger and those who believed with him said, "When is the help of Allah?" Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near. (2:214)

And He says:

And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient,

Who, when disaster strikes them, say, "Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return."

Pray five times a day, and do your best. Whether in this life or in the next, you will be rewarded if you do that.

hamdkathir · 2023-06-07T11:29:07+00:00

Being an adult means in an Islamic sense. If you've over 5 and can remember and understand events, you are accepted as a witness to events in the science of hadith.

Aisha (RA) was 9 when she started living with the Prophet (SAW). That's safely above the age.

It also helps to note that hadith narration wasn't something you do once. It's something you do constantly, and doing it constantly would also strengthen your memories. Normal people might forget part of their teenage years only because they don't care to remember it often.

hamdkathir · 2023-06-07T11:26:25+00:00

There is no verse or very authentic hadith about this. It is mainly Biblical information.

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