Thread by @WazirChangezi

The fact that you require an App to work out the direction of the Qiblah (and prayer time) speaks volumes of the lack of general Muslim literacy imo, and the crisis of the modern world. God gave us the sky, sun, moon, stars and shade — these are things He swears by in the Quran.

Man is illiterate and ignorant. He is no longer fascinated with Nature and God’s creation; his marvel is at the creation of fellow humans like the latest gadgets. He takes Nature for granted and is happy to plunder and destroy her resources to his end.

Islam & God’s law are universal, they transcend Time and Space, account for all possible scenarios, inc. what to do when direction is unknown and observation of natural phenomena is not possible. The objections and flak I’m receiving only prove my initial post re literacy.

You don’t think the juristic method can answer scenarios like what to do when underground or in space or far away on another planet? Alhamdulillah for our jurists who answered such questions and the juristic method which they developed and bequeathed to us.

With it, we too can compute responses in the same way they did.

One of the first books you studied in the traditional Dars e Nizami was Sharh Chigmani (شرح چغمني) in the science of علم الهيئة, which looks at working out time, space and distance. One of my elders would often lament how moderns don’t even know the name, let alone the science.

And in your first book of Fiqh like Panipatti’s Ma-La-Buddha-Minhu (see pics) you were taught how to make a sun-dial and make sense of it and other matters related to prayer times. I won’t even bother talking about the Astrolabe!

Some clarifications since this has started to blow up!

1. I was born and have lived pretty much all of my life in a non-Muslim country (UK).

2. My observation was two fold, one had to do with religious literacy, the second re the modern world, esp consumer culture.

3. For those of you saying why don’t I get off Twitter and teach, educate fellow Muslims: I’ve been teaching as early as 2006, formally teaching since 2010.

Re 2: where the main contention seems to be, let’s start with the basic Q: am I opposed to technology? Not necessarily, however, there is a *process* which the Shariah (divine law) stipulated and which is universal. If this is not followed properly, then yes I’m opposed.

There is precedent for this. The Quran says, “enter the houses from the doors!” And the Hadith states, “whoever interprets the Quran exercising person judgement is wrong even if the conclusion is right!” — both pieces of evidence highlight process.

When using modern alternatives, which I’m not opposed to per se, there are trade offs and ethical concerns we should account for.

Take the example of taps.

Ever since we have become accustomed to taps when making wudhu we’ve traded in two things (and poss. more): ii) wastage of water and ii) standing up after wudhu and drinking the remaining water in your vessel. This water is considered as holy as ZamZam.

Many scholars talked about how washing cleansed the outer body and drinking the left over water cleansed the inner. — we’ve lost this altogether.

To reiterate: Apps, clocks & calendars are fine, but they’ve taken away our connection with Nature; the very code in which the Quran spoke and our elder experienced.

Every year we end up squabbling over the moon and some folks can’t differentiate the ‘birth of the crescent’ and its visibility. Not forgetting the Prophet said, “fast Ramadan upon *seeing* the crescent and break (the month) upon seeing it.” — and not when the crescent is born.

On this topic the Hadith of Ibn Abbas, “we are an illiterate people” is relevant, i.e. we have our own standards and criteria.

To continue, with Apps the layman will seldom make ijtihad :)

The lay Muslim has been asked to exercise personal judgement/discretion and investigate in the absence of certainty re the direction of the Qiblah. This is called Taharri.

To be clear, the divine law states: If layman made Taharri & his conclusion led him to estimate Qiblah in the completely wrong direction, his prayer is valid. Even if someone came & told him after prayer (you prayed in wrong direction) his prayer is still done. No need to repeat.

This is because God is well and truly direction less, He is the Creator of direction. He is above not in the literal physical-geographical sense. Additionally, he made ijtihad.

God makes it clear in the Quran when He makes mention of changing the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Makkah, “To Allah belongs the East & West, so whichever direction you turn to there is God.” (2:115)

Re the latter part of point no.2: corporations and big businesses do not care about your faith and choices; they care about monies and influence. Just because Asda, Tesco, Next, Debenhams are selling Muslim clothing/items on Eid or Ramdhan doesn’t mean they’re Muslim now.

Just because your local KFC is Halal doesn’t mean Colonel Sanders has been on 40 days and is part of your local Sufi Tariqah (facial hair is misleading, I know).

They’re whatever sells & brings the profits in. If anything, in true imperial spirit, those profits are probably being used against you. It’s an attempt to tap into the billion pound Muslim market & price out mainly small scale faithful businesses.

Your Tasbihs are made in China, as are your prayer mats and thawbs. Your Ghutra is made in the North of England. The bottled water you’re drinking is probably stolen; those delectable dates your mosque is feeding you or your grocer is selling are from “the only democracy in ME.”

So don’t be surprised if your Nashid artist turns out to be an Atheist; your Hijabi model ends up taking her Hijab off or your Ertugrul actor turns out to be a Republican. It’s this that prompted my tweet in the first place. Peace out.

Irony of ironies: I’m advocating ijtihad for the layman in the few places where they are legit to do so, all whilst I get laypeoples insisting on Taqlid here too. Oh well. Have a great day folks.