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Friday 23 December 2011

Is there gender equality in Islam?

                                                                                                                                    
All Praises is due to Allah. We ask him to bless our noble prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and we thank Allah for sending us a flawless scripture of truth. 


One major question always arises to Muslims on the subject of gender equality in Islam and with a lot of thought and study of the subject I feel qualified to answer this question. I will start with a summary of the rites of women today and then discuss the rites of women in Pre-Islamic Arabia in another article inshallah. 


First of all I want to point out here is that men and woman are not the same, anybody who has studied biology even for the first year knows that there is a big difference between men and women. Islam does not preach this idea of gender equality we preach something much bigger and better than that and that's equity (fairness) whats right for a man and whats right for a woman. 


The rites of men and the rites of women are different because their different, they have been created differently by Allah. And who is to know and understand what an individual persons needs are then the one who created them in the first place and it is Allah, who sent down instructions so that everyone gets their proper rites, not equal rites but equity rites. I will give you an example of this. Men and women are not the same when it comes to business or work, quite simply because women don't have the physical capability to go out there and do some of the things men can do, on the other hand there are many things women can do that men can't do having babies is one of them! Also women are able to tolerate a lot more pain specially through labor and childbirth no man could ever be able to do that. 


Also men and women are different in their emotional makeup their thinking and the way they approach ideas, doesn't mean to say ones wrong and ones right but there is a difference and Allah has explained everything to us through Islam.




When we consider the shahada men and women must both accept that there is no God but Allah and  we are going to do what he wants us to do on his terms and Muhammad is the messenger (peace be upon him). Then after that comes salah 5 daily preys a day however women on their monthly cycle don't have to pray and further more she does not have to make them up why? Because Allah knows what he created and does not want her doing that then, she can pray in her heart.


When it comes to hajj the pilgrimage both men and women are required to do it, however women don't perform hajj when there on their monthly cycle. The zakat is however the same between the two sexes. 

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Signs of the Day of Judgement


What are the signs and what do they mean?


We are told by our beloved prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that before man wakes up in the resurrection there will be signs leading up to the resurrection when we see these signs The Day of Judgment will shortly follow. I have listed only a handful of these signs. We have minor signs followed by major signs. May Allah make us aware of these signs, may Allah guide us. Much of the Judeo-Christian teaching regarding these signs are based on frequent reinterpretations of vague Scripture. Whereas the signs enumerated by Islamic sources are quite clear and concrete, with little, if any, room for interpretation. In addition, the vastness of the material available within the Islamic tradition points to the finality of Allah's Message. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the Last Messenger sent to humanity, said that Allah has never sent a messenger who did not warn his people about al-Masih ad-Dajjal (the AntiChrist). And it only follows that Allah would give the Last Messenger the most information relating to this subject, as his followers will be the ones experiencing these signs.

Minor signs 


1. The disappearance of knowledge and the appearance of ignorance (Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Majah, & Ahmad)


2.  Books/writing will be widespread and (religious) knowledge will be low (Ahmad)


3. Adultery and fornication will be prevalent (The Prophet, peace be upon him, said that this has never happened without new diseases befalling the people, which their ancestors had not known.) (Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Majah, & Al-Haythami)

3. When fornication becomes widespread among your leaders (The Prophet, peace be upon him, said that this will happen when the people stop forbidding evil) (Ibn Majah)

4. Women will outnumber men......eventually every 50 women for 1 man (Bukhari, Muslim, & Ahmad)

5. Killing, killing, killing (Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Majah, & Ahmad)

6. The nations of the earth will gather against the Muslims like hungry people going to sit down to a table full of food. This will occur when the Muslims are large in number, but "like the foam of the sea".

7. Children will be foul (at-Tabarani, al-Hakim)

8. When a man obeys his wife and disobeys his mother; and treats his friend kindly while shunning his father (at-Tirmidhi)

9. People will claim to follow the Qur'an but will reject hadith & sunnah (Abu Dawood)

10. Time will pass rapidly (Bukhari, Muslim, & Ahmad)

11. A man will pass by a grave and wish that he was in their place (Bukhari)

12. The conquest of Constantinople by the Muslims (Ahmad)

13. When the bedouins (Arabs) begin to compete with each other  in the construction of taller buildings (Bukhari)

14. When men lie with men and women lie with women (Al-Haythami)

15. Men will begin to look like women and women will begin to look like men


16. The Muslim conquest of Jerusalem.


Major signs 



Although they appear here in no particular order, it is important to point out that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said that these last, major signs will follow each other like pearls falling off of a necklace...




1. Masih ad-Dajjal (The AntiChrist) The Antichrist (al-masih al-dajjal, the false christ) will appear, with all his tools of deception, and be an immense trial. He will be followed by 70,000 Jews from Isfahan (present-day Iran).



2. The appearance of Masih al-Isa (Jesus Christ), the son of Mary (peace be upon him)

3. Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog)

4. The destruction of the Kabah and the recovery of its treasure

5.  The wind will take the souls of the believers

6. The rising of the sun from the west

7. Three blasts of the trumpet (fear & terror, death, resurrection)

8. Three major landslides (one in the East, one in the West, and one on the Arabian peninsula)

9. Emergence of the Beast

10. The fire will drive the people to their final gathering place

"Are they waiting for anything except the Hour, to come to them suddenly? But its Signs have already come!" (Al-Qur’an, Surah Muhammad)