“I want the new model car! I don’t want the old one.”

Supposedly this is how some people think that women (including Muslim women) behave when they see a new one. This would be funny or amusing if this was just a satire but consider the following excerpt, which is straight out of the archives of Islam-qa.

8 – It causes fitnah to flourish because women – by their nature – like to make themselves look good with clothing etc. Do you not see how attached they are to fashion? Every time a new fashion appears they throw away what they have and rush to buy the new things, even if it is worse than what they have. Do you not see the adornments that they hang on their walls? In the same way – or perhaps more so – with the cars that they drive, whenever a new model appears they will give up the first for the new one.

Now if somone wants to defend this argument by using the context card then I suggest that you read the complete fatwa which consists of many conclusions which are not supported by the premises. I think that I speak for the vast majority of Muslim men and women (and even non-Muslim ones) that women do not usually behave like that but then again what can you say about a fatwa coming from a society when men and women do not interact even WITHIN the bounds of the sharia.

Aauthentic English

Now some of you might saay thaat there is no such thing aas aauthentic English, which we aall know is the laanguaage of the kuffaar. This is paartiaaly true but let me reiteraate that it is permissible to use this laanguaage to spreaad the word of the aauthentic Sheikh (Ibn Taayimmiyaah who else?). However before we can use this laanguaage we must purify this laanguaage and aauthenticize it and it does not taake much to aauthticize this laanguaage. Aall thaat is needed is the proper use of vovels in the laanguaage to distinguish us from the people of innovation and from the kuffaar. Remember don't hang out with the haraam people.

Being like non-Arabs is Makrooh!

To be fair IT is not as narrow minded or rigid as many of his suppoters make him to be but there are times he goes over board. Thus an example of such behavior is where is goes on to declare that, "Being like non-Arabs is Makrooh!" For those who are not familiar with Arabic and Islamic terms, the word Makrooh means disliked. Now if you a student of post-colonial studies and the word Arab is subsituted with the word European then you would cry, "Imperialism!" We can give Sheikh IT the benefit of the doubt but the fact remains that it does sound like at least borderline imperialism. People now a days worry about the end of cultural diversity in the Muslim world, well here is one instance from where the people who want to make the Ummah a homogenous bunch get their theoretical argument. Here is the except from the text written by the grand Sheikh IT himself. (By the way it is taken from an "aauthentic" site: http://muttaqun.com/arabic.html Its authentic with two a's mind it.)

As for becoming accustomed to talking to one another in a language other than Arabic, which is the symbol of Islaam and the language of the Qur‘aan, so that this becomes a habit in the land, with one’s family and household members, with one’s friends, in the marketplace, when addressing government representatives or authority figures or when speaking to people of knowledge, undoubtedly this is makrooh (disliked), because it involves being like the non-Arabs, which is makrooh, as stated previously.

Charting the lost innovations of Islam

I found this link posted on a Salafi blog, it is so ironic – Salafis mournign the lost innovations of Islam. Innovations, Get it?

Why we must not remain quiet

The following, although an excerpt from a Salafi site, tells us the reason why we must not remain quiet when facing Salafi misarguments. (Not all of their arguments are misarguments by the way.)

When some people mentioned to IMAAM AHMED IBN HANBAL {rahim'ullah} that they felt uneasy about critising people he replied," If I were to remain silent, how would the ignorant masses know truth from falsehood?"

Yes indeed. It is ironicthat one finds the quote on a Salafi site.

The divsions in “true” and “truer” Islaam (That’s Islam with two a’s, mind it)

The good folks at Higher Criticism point out the reasons behind divisions and subdivsions within the Salafi in a relatively short amount of time. It seems that it has something to do with their methodology. Here is an excerpt.

Neo-Salafism has no coherent fiqh of its own- it bypasses the orthodox madhhabs (Schools of Thought)- and has only the most basic and anthropomorphic theology. Like Protestantism, it is fluid and tends to produce divisions and sub-divisions. According to Saudi Sheikh Abd Al-Muhsin Al-'Abikan, one of the reasons for this is the habit of Salafist teachers to condemn "the adherence to the legacy of jurisprudence (taqlid)" in young Muslims. The preservation of legible streams of law, after all, asserts a kind of orthodoxy and hence, unity. Other Salafist movements enjoin their members to derive Shariah (Islamic law) from the Koran and ahadith (sayings of the Prophet) by themselves.

Check out the whole article at their site.

On the Al-Maghrib Institute

The people over at the Al-Maghrib Institute claim that they do not like to use labels and thus only liked to be called Muslims. Their rector Mr. Al Sahreef is usually portrayed as hip salafi but the problem is that in almost all the issues the positions espoused by the institute are salafi positions.Here is an expose of the Al-maghrib Institute by Yursil of the Mind, body and soul blog.

http://www.yursil.com/blog/2006/03/al-maghrib-boycott/

The institute claims to be moderate and we can believe their words except in the case of Anti-semitism where at least one of the persons over there has made such statements. More on this soon. 

The Categorical Imperative

We will not be talking about Immaneul Kant's categorical imperative (besides Philosophy is haram anyway!) instead we shall be talking about the categories in this blog (subject to additions in the future.)

Everything is Haram: If one were to believe one of those extremist Sheikhs then everything would be haram. This will be a list of seemingly harmless things which are marked either haram, makrooh or as bidaah by some "scholars."

Hip Salafi?: One of those soft spoken salafis who claim to build bridges but have a hidden agenda as evident in their "other" speeches.

IT but not info Tech: Who is this IT, one might ask. It is none other than the grand big huge Sheikh – yes you guessed it – Shekih-ul-"Islaam" Ibn Tayimmiyah (that's Islam with two a's. Mind it.) We at BvI do not like to be judgemental but some of IT follower's make him as big as a prophet.

The "Magic" Kingdom: There is only one magic kingdom you know and Mickey mouse is not in it.

The "Islamic" Re-public: This might seem a little out of place on this site but time and again the Salafis have been wrongly attacked (yes there is such a thing!) by some of the people from the "Islamic" re-public ruled by the equally grand big huge rehbars. You will see some "gems" from the other side of the Gulf just to be fair.

"Fantastic" Fatwa: Whenever there is a magic kingdom there will surely be fantastic fatwas. You get the idea, right.

Bidaah vs. Innovation

The Arabic word Bidah (Bidaah in authentic Islamic English, mind you?) is usually translated as innovation in English. This can be quite embarrasing given that innovation really means something else in English and usually has positive connotations. Hence top 25 innovations of 2005 might give nightmares to a Salafi but is really harmless. One of the biggest problem with the salafis is that they broadly define bidaah and then accuse any person of indulging in it who does not agree with them. Taken to the extreme one might end up with reasoning like, "No people alive today were alive at the time of the pious ancestors and thus all of them should be eradicated!" You get the idea.

Now back to the English word innovation. It is said that the Muslim world was much more inventive and open minded in its hey day i.e., the Muslims were innovative back then and are not so any more. Get it? This is Innovation vs. Bidaah. Now for all of you literal minded people let me make it clear that I do recogonize that different negative bidaah have crept in the practices of Muslims in different parts of the world but everything is not a bidaah.