fiqh

Time to add your favourite fiqh moments. I'll start:

Nizari Missionary Dr Abualy A. Aziz ("Missionary" is a traditional title: da'i) writes in his elucidation on the Nizari Ismaili Imami Shi'i tariqah that when one enters the prayer hall for services and greets the door-person with "Hai zindah!" (i.e. "he is alive", the Gujarati translation of "Allahu l-Hayyu", one of the 99 Beautiful Names), this is equivalent to having donated an elephant to charity.

I just love that someone somewhere once said, "Oh, but that is just like donating AN ELEPHANT to charity!"

Promoted to the front page

If I'd been in an actual classroom, I would have walked out in protest. But as this is an online class, I'm trying to distract myself in the hope that I'll be able to listen without wanting to scream at my computer. The insanity being peddled as fiqh sets my teeth on edge sometimes, and it makes me even crazier when it's insanity I paid to hear.

The Common Ground News Service posted this series back in 2006 and it's worth looking at.

Special Series: Ijtihad: Interpreting Islamic Law - 2006

Anyone who knows me knows I am the rukhsa queen.  It isn't too hard to keep within the boundaries of Islamic Law if you know where to look for a ruling that works for you.  Seriously.  That is what the Law is there for, to make your life easy within the boundaries of the divine will.  I'm a Sunni, but I gladly take rukhsas from the Shia.  If you got a rukhsa, baby, I'm buying!

I got a little worried about the Islamic propriety of all this wrasslin' stuff I've been up to.  I mean there's a lot of touching going on.  Even though I wear two jog bras and a couple of t-shirts, the men do not wear cups as if not protecting their genitals is somehow more manly.  There is this one move called a "schoolboy."  It requires me to lie on the floor behind my partner and wind my hand through his legs so that the back of my hand is touching his upper thigh.  You know what I also have to wind by to get there, eh hem.  Why can't these guys wear cups!? 

The photo is of Randy Orton.  Now my classmates do not look like this (after all Randy is a TV Wrasslin' Star on Steroids) and they wear shorts instead of little trunks, but I think the photo nicely illustrates my dilemma.

So I contacted Ayatullah Arman, a wrestling fan and self-styled Marja` taqlid in Australia for a fatwa on the matter.  If he keeps up fatwas like this, I'm liable to go back to him with all my scandalous problems!

OK Ilan killed the personal ads idea, so I shan't be playing auntie for anyone on PI.org. I still think we should have a discussion on progressive Muslims finding mates that are spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually compatible (among other things). Marriage isn't the same as it was when our grandparents were getting hitched, and for those of us who have multifaith families, we've got several traditions/forms of baggage to handle. Let's talk about love, people!

My new PI.org name is Fashion Mujahid. I plan to offer something on the Fashion Jihad in a bit, I'm thinking something along the lines of selecting one's best colors. Stay tuned, and be beautiful to yourself.