Worship and daily life — Questions people ask about Islam

If I become Muslim and later change my mind and leave, will I be killed?

The Quran sets no worldly penalty for your leaving; the fiqh of the majority does set one. You get both here, because you will find the second in any case, and if it were kept from you, you would count the first a lie. The Quran describes a man who believed, then disbelieved, then believed, then disbelieved, then increased in disbelief, and it lays on him nothing but the loss of forgiveness and of guidance 1 2 — and there is no fourth turn if the first one ends the man's life. The heaviest thing the Quran says against someone who turns back and dies a disbeliever is that his works come to nothing and he abides in the Fire, not that a penalty is carried out on him 3. As for killing, that is a standing ruling in the fiqh and I do not deny it: its basis is a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, 'Whoever changes his religion, kill him,' and most scholars hold it for man and woman alike 4. But the description they tied the ruling to is a compound one — 'the one who abandons his religion and separates from the community' — and this is why he is called to repent and asked to return 4; and in their view the killing is 'for a description subsisting in him at the present moment', which falls away when he comes back, not a punishment for a past crime the way stoning a married adulterer is 5. Ibn Rajab also brings a wording in al-Nasa'i, 'and a man who goes out of Islam and wars against God and His Messenger,' which is taken as evidence 'that what is meant is one who combines apostasy and waging war' 5. That is the view of a group of the early generations, among them Abu Qilaba, and a report from Ahmad that is not well known from him; and Ibn Rajab himself notes that the wordings of Aisha's hadith differ 6 — so it is a view in the matter, not the view. And I will not put "There is no compulsion in religion" 7 in front of you as though it settled your case. Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar limits the denial of any need for compulsion to 'those from whom the jizya is accepted' 8; the occasion of its revelation concerns two sons who became Christians and a father who held on to them to make them become Muslims, and the Prophet let them go their way 9; Abu Ubayd places it in the protected non-Muslim subjects and in slaves, not in a people at war 10; and some claimed it was abrogated by the verse of fighting 11. So it belongs to the case of the one who is driven to enter, not the case of the one who leaves, and anyone who offers it to you as a complete answer has given you half of one.

1 Lo! those who believe, then disbelieve and then (again) believe, then disbelieve, and then increase in disbelief, Allah will never pardon them, nor will He guide them unto a way.

Surah An-Nisaa (The Women) 4:137 · Open the passage

2 Those who entered into faith, then turned back from it to disbelief, then returned to faith, then turned back to disbelief once more, then persisted in their disbelief and continued in it — God was not to forgive them, nor to guide them to any of the paths of guidance by which they might be saved from an evil end.

Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar (The Simplified Exegesis) · An-Nisaa 4:137 our rendering · Open the passage

3 They question thee (O Muhammad) with regard to warfare in the sacred month. Say: Warfare therein is a great (transgression), but to turn (men) from the way of Allah, and to disbelieve in Him and in the Inviolable Place of Worship, and to expel His people thence, is a greater with Allah; for persecution is worse than killing. And they will not cease from fighting against you till they have made you renegades from your religion, if they can. And whoso becometh a renegade and dieth in his disbelief: such are they whose works have fallen both in the world and the Hereafter. Such are rightful owners of the Fire: they will abide therein.

Surah Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:217 · Open the passage

4 As for 'the one who abandons his religion and separates from the community,' what is meant by it is one who leaves Islam, apostatizes from it, and parts from the community of the Muslims, as is stated explicitly in the hadith of Uthman. He was set apart, among those of the people of the two testimonies whose blood becomes lawful, in view of what he was before the apostasy, the ruling of Islam remaining binding upon him after it; and for this reason he is called to repent, and asked to return to Islam … And in Sahih al-Bukhari, from Ibn Abbas, from the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace), he said: 'Whoever changes his religion, kill him.' In this there is no difference between a man and a woman in the view of most of the scholars. Some of them said: a woman is not killed if she apostatizes, just as the women of a warring people are not killed in war, only their men being killed; this is the view of Abu Hanifa and his companions, and they treated disbelief that supervenes as being like disbelief that was original, while the majority distinguished the two and held the supervening one graver, because of the Islam that preceded it.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami al-Ulum wa-l-Hikam (A Compendium of Knowledge and Wisdom), p. 317 our rendering · Open the passage

5 As for the apostate, he is killed only for a description subsisting in him at the present moment, namely his abandoning his religion and parting from the community. So if he returns to his religion and to agreement with the community, the description by which his blood was made lawful has ceased, and the lawfulness of his blood falls away. And God knows best. If it is said: al-Nasa'i related, from the hadith of Aisha, from the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace), that he said: 'The blood of a Muslim man is not lawful except for one of three things: a married adulterer, who is stoned; a man who kills deliberately, and so is killed; and a man who goes out of Islam and wars against God and His Messenger, and so is killed, or crucified, or banished from the land' — this indicates that what is meant is one who combines apostasy and waging war.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami al-Ulum wa-l-Hikam (A Compendium of Knowledge and Wisdom), p. 318 our rendering · Open the passage

6 … This is used as evidence by those who say that the verse of waging war applies specifically to apostates: whoever apostatizes and wages war has done to him what is in the verse, while whoever wages war without apostasy has the rulings of the Muslims applied to him, retaliation and amputation for theft. This is a report from Ahmad, but it is not well known from him. A group of the early generations said the same, that the verse of waging war applies specifically to apostates; among them Abu Qilaba and others. In any case, the wordings of the hadith of Aisha differ: it is related from her as going back to the Prophet, and related from her as her own words; whereas the wording of the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud has no variance in it, and it is established and agreed upon as sound …

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami al-Ulum wa-l-Hikam (A Compendium of Knowledge and Wisdom), p. 319 our rendering · Open the passage

7 There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower.

Surah Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:256 · Open the passage

8 Because this religion is complete and its signs are clear, there is no need to compel to it those from whom the jizya is accepted; the proofs are plain, and by them the truth is distinguished from falsehood, and guidance from error. So whoever disbelieves in everything that is worshipped besides God and believes in God has stood firm and kept straight upon the best way, and has taken hold, of the religion, of the strongest support, one that never breaks.

Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar (The Simplified Exegesis) · Al-Baqara 2:256 our rendering · Open the passage

9 … so they brought their dispute to the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace), and he said: Messenger of God, shall part of me enter the Fire while I look on? Then God, mighty and majestic, sent down {There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error}, and he let the two of them go their way.

Al-Wahidi al-Naysaburi · Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an (The Occasions of Revelation of the Quran), p. 84 our rendering · Open the passage

10 Abu Ubayd said: This, God willing, is the sense of this verse: that it concerns the protected non-Muslim subjects, because they pay the jizya, or people who are owned as slaves. As for a people at war, it does not hold for them.

Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam · Al-Nasikh wa-l-Mansukh fi-l-Qur'an al-Aziz (The Abrogating and the Abrogated in the Mighty Quran), p. 281 our rendering · Open the passage

11 The second view: that it is abrogated, (because this verse) was revealed before the command to fight and was then abrogated by the verse of the sword. This is the view of al-Dahhak, al-Suddi, and Ibn Zayd.

Ibn al-Jawzi · Nawasikh al-Qur'an (The Abrogators of the Quran), p. 298 our rendering · Open the passage

12 The charges standing against our own tradition are known and countable, and here are three of them by name: fighting, whom it is fought against and why · what the right hand possesses · the penalty for apostasy. Take one, then run the criterion in four steps: what wording does the wrongdoer rest on? And does he rest on it bare, or on conditions in its context which he has dropped? And did its own people themselves go against him in that, and when did the disagreement begin — after the tradition became an embarrassment, or centuries before? And is their disagreement printed among them or among their opponents? And I will not answer the three for you here — because their answer is longer than a letter, and because I do not want you to take a conclusion from me in a subject where your way is to read for yourself.

To the one who says: show me a text that can be tested our rendering · Open the passage

The strongest objection

This is a verbal distinction you make when you are cornered. The ruling written in your own books is 'Whoever changes his religion, kill him' — changes, not wages war. And if waging war were what was meant, the verse of waging war would have been enough for you and you would have had no need for a chapter called 'apostasy' at all. Then you admitted with your own tongue that "There is no compulsion in religion" does not cover my case, that the majority hold to killing, that your reading is the view of 'a group' and a report that is 'not well known', and that the wordings of its hadith are inconsistent. So nothing is left in your hand but two verses silent about any penalty and a view held to be the weaker one. And I will not bet my neck on the weaker one.

The qualifier is not a late reading and not something manufactured under pressure: it is in the body of the very hadith the ruling rests on — 'separates from the community' — and on it was built the rule that one who returns is not killed 4 5. Your question about waging war is a sound one, and it was raised before you: the answer of a group of the early generations is that the verse of waging war itself applies specifically to apostates, so the two chapters are not two at all 6. More telling than this, Abu Hanifa and his companions do not kill a woman who apostatizes, reasoning by analogy that the women of a warring people are not killed 4 — and the analogy is to war, not to belief; so wherever the operative cause lay for them, it was not in the bare content of the heart. As for not betting your neck on a weaker reading, you are right, and I am not asking you to. This page holds no authority and promises you no one's protection, and what has been passed on to you here is a disagreement inside books, not inside courts. The book names 'the penalty for apostasy' as one of three charges standing against our own tradition, gives you four steps by which to run the criterion yourself, and expressly refuses to hand you the result 12.

My family is Christian (or non-religious) — must I cut ties with them if I convert?

No — and you are not being asked to choose between God and the people who raised you. The two texts you have set against each other do not conflict, because they do not govern the same thing. What Al-Tawbah 9:23 forbids is taking them as allies, "disclosing to them the secrets of the Muslims and consulting them in your affairs, so long as they remain in disbelief, hostile to Islam" 1 — an alliance under standing hostility. Al-Shafi'i separates that from kindness in so many words: "the alliance was other than kindness and just dealing" 2. The case of a family that has not made war on you is settled by an explicit text: "Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of religion and drove you not out from your homes, that ye should show them kindness and deal justly with them" 3. Clearer still, your exact question was once put and answered. Asma bint Abi Bakr asked the Prophet about her polytheist mother who had come to her, and he said: "Yes, keep ties with your mother" 4; in al-Bukhari's narration the verse came down over this very incident 5 — and he ordered her "to let her into her house, to accept her gift, to honour her, and to treat her well" 6. What is barred is one specific thing: obeying them in leaving your religion. And even then: "Consort with them in the world kindly" 7 — a ban on obedience, not a ban on company.

1 O you who have believed Allah and His Messenger and acted by His law: do not take your relatives — fathers, brothers and others — as allies, disclosing to them the secrets of the Muslims and consulting them in your affairs, so long as they remain in disbelief, hostile to Islam. Whoever takes them as allies and offers them affection has disobeyed Allah Almighty and has wronged himself with a great wrong.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-Tawbah 9:23 our rendering · Open the passage

2 Al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Maintaining ties by money, by kindness, by dealing justly, by gentle speech and by correspondence — this being Allah's ruling — is other than what they were forbidden: alliance with those whose alliance they were forbidden, together with backing them against the Muslims. … And the alliance was other than kindness and just dealing

Al-Shafi'i · Ahkam al-Qur'an, collected by al-Bayhaqi, p. 192 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of religion and drove you not out from your homes, that ye should show them kindness and deal justly with them. Lo! Allah loveth the just dealers.

Surah Al-Mumtahanah 60:8 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 My mother came to me while she was a polytheist, in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for a ruling. I said: She has come hoping for my kindness — shall I keep ties with my mother? He said: Yes, keep ties with your mother.

Asma bint Abi Bakr · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 2620 · Sahih our rendering

5 Al-Bukhari reported from Asma bint Abi Bakr, who said: My mother came to me hoping for my kindness, so I asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): Shall I keep ties with her? He said: Yes. Then Allah sent down concerning her: "Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of religion"

Al-Suyuti · Lubab al-Nuqul fi Asbab al-Nuzul, p. 209 our rendering · Open the passage

6 What indicates this is the report of Asma bint Abi Bakr (may Allah be pleased with her): "When her mother, Qutayla bint Abd al-Uzza, came to her in Madinah with gifts, she did not (accept) her gifts and did not let her into her house. So Aisha asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on her behalf, and this verse came down, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered her to let her into her house, to accept her gift, to honour her, and to treat her well."

Ibn al-Jawzi · Nawasikh al-Qur'an, p. 603 our rendering · Open the passage

7 But if they strive with thee to make thee ascribe unto Me as partner that of which thou hast no knowledge, then obey them not. Consort with them in the world kindly, and follow the path of him who repenteth unto Me. Then unto Me will be your return, and I shall tell you what ye used to do -

Surah Luqman 31:15 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

8 Chapter: mention of what has been claimed abrogated in Surat al-Mumtahanah … Some people claimed that this is general, covering all disbelievers, and that it is abrogated by the verse of the sword. … Abu Ja'far ibn Jarir al-Tabari said: There is no ground for the claim of abrogation, because kindness shown by the believers to those at war with them — whether they are relatives or not — is not forbidden, so long as it involves no strengthening of them for war with mounts or weapons, or pointing them to a vulnerable point.

Ibn al-Jawzi · Nawasikh al-Qur'an, p. 602 our rendering · Open the passage

My mother came to me while she was a polytheist, in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for a ruling. I said: She has come hoping for my kindness — shall I keep ties with my mother? He said: Yes, keep ties with your mother.

Asma bint Abi Bakr · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 2620 · Sahih our rendering

My mother came to me while she was a polytheist, during the term of Quraysh when he had a pact with them. So I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for a ruling. I said: Messenger of Allah, my mother has come to me and she is hoping for my kindness — shall I keep ties with my mother? He said: Yes, keep ties with your mother.

Asma bint Abi Bakr · Muslim · Sahih Muslim 1003 · Sahih our rendering

The strongest objection

Your verse is dead. It is reported from Qatada and others that "Allah forbiddeth you not" is abrogated by the verse of the sword — meaning the licence on which you built your whole answer has been lifted, and only the text on alliance is still in force. So you hand a new convert a verse that your own jurists know does not operate, and you keep from him what came after it.

The report is genuine and nothing here hides it. But it is a claim that was already rejected in the very place it is quoted from, not merely rejected here. Ibn al-Jawzi cites it in a chapter titled "what has been claimed abrogated", in the wording "some people claimed", and then answers it with al-Tabari: "There is no ground for the claim of abrogation, because kindness shown by the believers to those at war with them … is not forbidden, so long as it involves no strengthening of them for war with mounts or weapons" 8. He backs that rejection with the report of Asma and the Prophet's order to her to honour her mother 6. And al-Shafi'i — whose book is a book of rulings, not of exhortation — builds a standing ruling on the verse, making kindness and just dealing something other than the forbidden alliance 2; had he held it lifted, he would not have built a ruling on it. Beyond that, the verse itself turns on fighting and expulsion, not on what the other person believes 3 — and your mother is not among those who fought you or drove you out.

I'm afraid I can't keep it up — should I convert knowing I'll fall short?

No - the error is in the premise, not in the arithmetic. Obligation is bounded by capacity, and the text says so: "So keep your duty to Allah as best ye can" 1. Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar reads it this way: "Believers, put your effort and your capacity into being mindful of God" 2 - effort and capacity, not a clean record. From this Ibn Rajab draws a rule that holds across cases: "whoever is unable to do all of what he was commanded, and is able to do part of it, does the part he can" 3. And what you listed in your question - five prayers, a month of fasting, limits on money and food - is exactly what a bedouin asked about, before he swore: "I will not volunteer anything more, and I will not fall short of anything God has made obligatory upon me." The Prophet said to him: "He has succeeded, if he is telling the truth" - or "he will enter Paradise, if he is telling the truth" 4. So the ceiling you are afraid of is the guaranteed minimum, and everything above it is voluntary. And your expectation that you will break off after two months is described in the texts, not an exception to them: "Religion is ease, and no one will overburden himself in religion without it overcoming him; so aim true and draw near" 5 - the one overcome, in its wording, is the one who overburdens himself, not the one who keeps a moderate pace - and "the deeds most loved by God are the most constant, even if they are few" 6. The practical chapter says the same thing: "The smaller thing that lasts is better than the larger thing that stops" 10. As for "a hypocrite": the hypocrisy that takes a person out of the religion is that he displays belief while concealing what contradicts it, and falling short in deeds is a different category, one that carries its own name - "the lesser hypocrisy, which is hypocrisy of deed" 7. And a man was brought to the Prophet for drinking, time after time, and someone cursed him, so the Prophet said: "Do not curse him, for he loves God and His Messenger" 8. In the text, the man who keeps relapsing is someone who loves God and whom people are forbidden to curse, not an apostate to be hunted down. As for "I would be buying a sin that was not on me", the other side of that exchange is stated as well: "Do you not know that Islam demolishes what came before it?" 9 - and with it, that deeds are not the price in the first place: "know that none of you will be admitted to Paradise by his deeds" 6.

1 So keep your duty to Allah as best ye can, and listen, and obey, and spend; that is better for your souls. And whoso is saved from his own greed, such are the successful.

Surah At-Taghabun (Mutual Disillusion) 64:16 - Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 Believers, put your effort and your capacity into being mindful of God; listen to the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, with the listening of reflection and thought; obey his commands and keep away from what he forbade; and spend of what God has provided you - it will be better for you.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar - Surah At-Taghabun 64:16 our rendering · Open the passage

3 In his saying, may God bless him and grant him peace, "When I command you to do a thing, do of it what you are able", there is evidence that whoever is unable to do all of what he was commanded, and is able to do part of it, does the part he can. This holds across many questions: among them purification ... and among them prayer, for whoever is unable to perform the obligatory prayer standing prays sitting, and if he is unable he prays lying on his side ... and if he is unable to do any of that, he gestures with his eyes and prays with his intention, and the prayer is not dropped from him, according to the well-known position.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 255 our rendering · Open the passage

4 In the two Sahih collections, on the authority of Talha ibn Ubaydallah: A bedouin with dishevelled hair came to the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, and said: Messenger of God, tell me what God has made obligatory upon me of prayer. He said: The five prayers, unless you volunteer something more. He said: Tell me what God has made obligatory upon me of fasting. He said: The month of Ramadan, unless you volunteer something more. He said: Tell me what God has made obligatory upon me of alms. So the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, told him the laws of Islam. He said: By the One who honoured you with the truth, I will not volunteer anything more, and I will not fall short of anything God has made obligatory upon me. The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: He has succeeded, if he is telling the truth - or: he will enter Paradise, if he is telling the truth. The wording is al-Bukhari's.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 515 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Religion is ease, and no one will overburden himself in religion without it overcoming him. So aim true, draw near, and be glad; and take help from the early morning, the late afternoon, and something of the night.

Abu Hurayrah - al-Bukhari - Sahih al-Bukhari 39 - sahih (sound) our rendering

6 Aim true and draw near, and know that none of you will be admitted to Paradise by his deeds, and that the deeds most loved by God are the most constant, even if they are few.

Aisha, Mother of the Believers - al-Bukhari - Sahih al-Bukhari 6464 - sahih (sound) our rendering

7 In the law it divides into two kinds. The first is the greater hypocrisy, which is that a person displays belief in God, His angels, His books, His messengers and the Last Day, while concealing what contradicts all of that or part of it. This is the hypocrisy that existed in the time of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace; the Quran came down censuring its people and declaring them disbelievers, and it stated that its people are in the lowest depth of the Fire. The second is the lesser hypocrisy, which is hypocrisy of deed: that a person displays sound conduct in the open while concealing what differs from it.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 480 our rendering · Open the passage

8 In Sahih al-Bukhari: A man used to be brought to the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, over wine. A man cursed him and said: How often he is brought in! So the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: "Do not curse him, for he loves God and His Messenger." And he did not put him to death for it.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 321 our rendering · Open the passage

9 In Sahih Muslim: on the authority of Amr ibn al-As, who said to the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, when he embraced Islam: I want to make a condition. He said: "What condition?" I said: That I be forgiven. He said: "Do you not know that Islam demolishes what came before it?" Imam Ahmad also transmitted it, with the wording: "that Islam wipes out the sins that came before it".

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 295 our rendering · Open the passage

10 2. The smaller thing that lasts is better than the larger thing that stops ... So choose the smallest thing you are able to do every day without heroics. The only condition is that it be repeated, not that it be large.

23. What if you wanted to come back? our rendering · Open the passage

11 And Ali ibn Abi Talib said: whoever abandons it has disbelieved. Abdullah ibn Shaqiq said: the companions of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, did not hold the abandonment of any deed to be disbelief except prayer. Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani said: abandoning prayer is disbelief; there is no disagreement about it. A number of the early and the later generations held this position, and it is the position of Ibn al-Mubarak, Ahmad and Ishaq, and Ishaq reported a consensus of the people of knowledge upon it! Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi said: it is the position of the majority of the people of hadith. And a group of them held that whoever deliberately abandons one of the five pillars of Islam is a disbeliever by that.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 146 our rendering · Open the passage

12 Even so, those who differ about faith say: if one trait of Islam were gone, or four traits other than the two testimonies, a person would not leave Islam by that. ... Scholars have compared faith to a tree that has a trunk, branches and boughs. The name "tree" takes in all of it, and if some of its boughs and branches were gone, the name "tree" would not leave it; it is only said that this is a deficient tree, or that another is more complete than it.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 150 our rendering · Open the passage

Religion is ease, and no one will overburden himself in religion without it overcoming him. So aim true, draw near, and be glad; and take help from the early morning, the late afternoon, and something of the night.

Abu Hurayrah - al-Bukhari - Sahih al-Bukhari 39 - sahih (sound) our rendering

Aim true and draw near, and know that none of you will be admitted to Paradise by his deeds, and that the deeds most loved by God are the most constant, even if they are few.

Aisha, Mother of the Believers - al-Bukhari - Sahih al-Bukhari 6464 - sahih (sound) our rendering

The strongest objection

This is cherry-picking from one book. In Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam itself, two hundred pages before the pages you cite, Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani says that "abandoning prayer is disbelief; there is no disagreement about it", and that this is the position of Ibn al-Mubarak, Ahmad and Ishaq, and that "Ishaq reported a consensus of the people of knowledge upon it", and that Ali said: "whoever abandons it has disbelieved" [[11]]. So what you call "falling short", these men call disbelief - and I described my own case in my own word: I break off. You bring me the hadiths of concession and stay silent about the other half of your own book.

The charge of cherry-picking can be tested, and the heavy half was quoted to you word for word, with nothing softened 11. Two things follow it. First, the matter there is framed in terms of abandonment, in its own wording - "whoever abandons it", "whoever deliberately abandons one of the five pillars of Islam" 11 - not in terms of falling and coming back; and nothing is added to that wording here, no ruling from outside it, it is set in front of you as it stands. Second, Ibn Rajab presents in the same chapter the other position and its illustration: "scholars have compared faith to a tree that has a trunk, branches and boughs. The name 'tree' takes in all of it, and if some of its boughs and branches were gone, the name 'tree' would not leave it; it is only said that this is a deficient tree, or that another is more complete than it" 12 - and this is your question word for word: a deficient tree, not a cancelled one, and it is the refutation of "all or nothing" in a text rather than in reassurance. And what is not hidden from you: entering does create an obligation that was not there before. That is true and is not denied. But your question was built on the assumption that the addition falls on the side of sin alone, and the text puts it on both sides 9 6.

Why five prayers at fixed times? And why the bowing and prostration?

No. The premise the question is built on — that asking for something marks a need in the one who asks — is denied by the text in its own words, not by our reading of it: "I seek no livelihood from them, nor do I ask that they should feed Me." 1 The Muyassar commentary on that verse: "He is not in need of creation; rather they are the ones in need of Him in all their states." 2 The clearest place to test this is the most physical act of worship there is — the animal sacrifice itself: "Their flesh and their food reach not Allah, but the devotion from you reacheth Him," 3 and, in the commentary, "what reaches Him is the sincerity in them." 4 Nothing crosses over to Him. The effect of the act comes back to the one who performs it: "whosoever giveth thanks, he giveth thanks for (the good of) his soul." 5 The function of the prayer is stated in the text as something in the one praying, not in the one worshipped: "Lo! worship preserveth from lewdness and iniquity." 6 The times are taken from the sun, not from a mood that has to be managed: "Establish worship at the going down of the sun until the dark of night, and (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn." 7 The Muyassar commentary counts within this the noon, afternoon, sunset and night prayers, and then the dawn prayer. 8 And the number has a ceiling; it is not open-ended. A man asked: "Is there anything else upon me? He said: No, unless you do so voluntarily." 9 In the narration of the Night Journey it is a reduction, from fifty down to five. 10 As for prostration, the text ties it to nearness, not to applause: "But prostrate thyself, and draw near (unto Allah)," 11 which the commentary reads as "prostrate to your Lord and draw near to Him by endearing yourself to Him through obedience to Him," 12 and "The closest a servant is to his Lord is while he is prostrating." 13 Your comparison with a man who requires you to thank him every morning breaks down at one point, and the book states that point at its own size: "The neighbour does need the acknowledgement in himself, and had nobody thanked him he would have been hurt. And the claim in this subject is that the one worshipped has no need at all." 14

1 I seek no livelihood from them, nor do I ask that they should feed Me.

Surah adh-Dhariyat 51:57 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 I seek no provision from them, nor do I ask that they feed Me, for I am the Provider, the Giver. He, glorified be He, is not in need of creation; rather they are the ones in need of Him in all their states, for He is their Creator and their Provider, and He has no need of them.

Tafsir al-Muyassar - adh-Dhariyat 51:57 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Their flesh and their food reach not Allah, but the devotion from you reacheth Him. Thus have We made them subject unto you that ye may magnify Allah that He hath guided you. And give good tidings (O Muhammad) to the good.

Surah al-Hajj 22:37 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 Nothing of the flesh of these sacrifices reaches Allah, nor anything of their blood; what reaches Him is the sincerity in them, and that they be intended for the face of Allah alone. Thus has He made them subject to you — you who seek nearness — so that you may magnify Allah and thank Him for the truth to which He has guided you, for He is worthy of that.

Tafsir al-Muyassar - al-Hajj 22:37 our rendering · Open the passage

5 And verily We gave Luqman wisdom, saying: Give thanks unto Allah; and whosoever giveth thanks, he giveth thanks for (the good of) his soul. And whosoever refuseth - Lo! Allah is Absolute, Owner of Praise.

Surah Luqman 31:12 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

6 Recite that which hath been inspired in thee of the Scripture, and establish worship. Lo! worship preserveth from lewdness and iniquity, but verily remembrance of Allah is more important. And Allah knoweth what ye do.

Surah al-Ankabut 29:45 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

7 Establish worship at the going down of the sun until the dark of night, and (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn. Lo! (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn is ever witnessed.

Surah al-Isra 17:78 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

8 Establish the prayer in full, from the time the sun passes its zenith at midday until the darkness of the night — this takes in the noon prayer, the afternoon prayer, the sunset prayer and the night prayer — and establish the dawn prayer, and lengthen the recitation in it, for the dawn prayer is attended by the angels of the night and the angels of the day.

Tafsir al-Muyassar - al-Isra 17:78 our rendering · Open the passage

9 Concerning the bedouin's question to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, about Islam, and the Prophet's answer to him: he said: Five prayers in the day and the night. The man said: Is there anything else upon me? He said: No, unless you do so voluntarily.

Talha ibn Ubaydullah · Ibn Khuzayma · Sahih Ibn Khuzayma 2/253 · sahih (sound) our rendering

10 The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said in the hadith of the Night Journey: 'Allah, Mighty and Majestic, imposed fifty prayers upon my community. I turned back until I came to Moses, and he, peace be upon him, said: What has your Lord imposed upon your community? I said: He has imposed fifty prayers upon them. Moses said to me: Go back to your Lord, Mighty and Majestic, for your community cannot bear that … He said: So I went back to my Lord, Mighty and Majestic, and He said: They are five, and they are fifty; the word is not changed with Me.'

al-Tahawi · Ahkam al-Qur'an al-Karim, p. 302 our rendering · Open the passage

11 Nay, Obey not thou him. But prostrate thyself, and draw near (unto Allah).

Surah al-Alaq 96:19 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

12 … so do not obey him in what he calls you to, of abandoning the prayer; and prostrate to your Lord and draw near to Him by endearing yourself to Him through obedience to Him.

Tafsir al-Muyassar - al-Alaq 96:19 our rendering · Open the passage

13 The closest a servant is to his Lord is while he is prostrating.

[Abu Hurayra] · Ibn Taymiyya · Majmu' al-Fatawa 23/76 · sahih (sound) our rendering

14 And where does this scene break down? The neighbour does need the acknowledgement in himself, and had nobody thanked him he would have been hurt. And the claim in this subject is that the one worshipped has no need at all. So the scene shows how the effect of praise comes back on the one who praises, and does not establish that this alone is the case with the one worshipped.

19. Why Worship? our rendering · Open the passage

15 The objection strikes the structure as I described it, and I grant it. If what awaits the man who leaves it is a punishment without end, then the frame of 'the medicine and the doctor' does not describe the relation. And I do not mend the comparison with a patch; I strike it out.

19. Why Worship? our rendering · Open the passage

16 As for what I do hold, it is one small thing which I mention at its own size: the attaching of a recompense does not annul the effect of an act on the one who does it. The man who walked and whose knee benefited did benefit, whether or not there was a punishment upon him had he not walked.

19. Why Worship? our rendering · Open the passage

17 If ye are thankless, yet Allah is Independent of you, though He is not pleased with thanklessness for His bondmen; and if ye are thankful He is pleased therewith for you. No laden soul will bear another's load. Then unto your Lord is your return; and He will tell you what ye used to do. Lo! He knoweth what is in the breasts (of men).

Surah az-Zumar 39:7 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

Concerning the bedouin's question to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, about Islam, and the Prophet's answer to him: he said: Five prayers in the day and the night. The man said: Is there anything else upon me? He said: No, unless you do so voluntarily.

Talha ibn Ubaydullah · Ibn Khuzayma · Sahih Ibn Khuzayma 2/253 · sahih (sound) our rendering

The closest a servant is to his Lord is while he is prostrating.

[Abu Hurayra] · Ibn Taymiyya · Majmu' al-Fatawa 23/76 · sahih (sound) our rendering

The strongest objection

All of this describes a benefit that comes back to me. So if I am already good without it, I have no need of it. And the whole structure collapses the moment punishment enters: a man who stops taking his medicine is not burned, and a doctor who points a gun is no longer a doctor. The relation becomes a transaction under threat rather than a training — and "the ruler who demands applause" comes back in through the very door he was shown out of.

The book grants this part and does not patch it: "The objection strikes the structure as I described it, and I grant it. If what awaits the man who leaves it is a punishment without end, then the frame of 'the medicine and the doctor' does not describe the relation. And I do not mend the comparison with a patch; I strike it out." 15 So the question of punishment is a question about justice, not about need, and it is not answered here. What remains once the comparison is struck out is limited, and it is stated at its limit: "the attaching of a recompense does not annul the effect of an act on the one who does it." 16 As for the first part — that you would then have no need of it — the text says this of itself, in the very context of refusal: "If ye are thankless, yet Allah is Independent of you, though He is not pleased with thanklessness for His bondmen; and if ye are thankful He is pleased therewith for you." 17 Your withholding takes nothing from Him. That is a denial of need, not a denial of recompense.

Why is all alcohol forbidden? One glass doesn't intoxicate anyone.

No. The reason is stated in the very verse that forbade it; it is not passed over in silence. Satan seeks "to cast among you enmity and hatred … by means of strong drink and games of chance" 1, and the commentary on that verse adds: "and to turn you away from the remembrance of God and from prayer, through the absence of reason in drinking wine" 2. You are also right that the substance is not vile in itself — and Islam says so before you do: the name itself hangs on the effect, not on the substance. "Khamr is every intoxicant that clouds the mind and veils it, whether drunk or eaten" 3. That is why no particular drink was forbidden by name. When the delegation from Yemen asked about the drinks of their land, they were not given a blanket ruling; they were asked, "Do you get intoxicated from them?" They said, "If we take much of it, we get intoxicated." He said, "Then a little of it is forbidden — whatever intoxicates in large amount" 4 — a ruling reached by asking about the effect. As for the single glass, the jurists agree with you that it does not intoxicate, and they say so explicitly: "and he forbade a small amount of wine even though it does not intoxicate, since a little of it invites more" 5 — so the ban falls on the door, not on the glass, and its reason is declared, not concealed. As for the rivers of the hereafter, they tell against you rather than for you: the text mentions them and then states that the very property which makes wine forbidden has been stripped from them — "Wherein there is no headache nor are they made mad thereby" 6, that is, "in it there is no harm to the body and none to the mind" 7 — so what is forbidden here is precisely what has been lifted there.

1 Satan seeketh only to cast among you enmity and hatred by means of strong drink and games of chance, and to turn you from remembrance of Allah and from (His) worship. Will ye then have done?

Surat al-Ma'idah 5:91 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 Satan wants only, by dressing up sins for you, to cast between you what breeds enmity and hatred, because of drinking wine and playing at gambling, and to turn you away from the remembrance of God and from prayer, through the absence of reason in drinking wine

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surat al-Ma'idah 5:91 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Khamr is every intoxicant that clouds the mind and veils it, whether drunk or eaten … and in both there are benefits for people, by way of earning money and otherwise, but their sin is greater than their benefit … and they breed enmity and hatred among people, and they waste wealth. This was a prelude to the prohibition of both.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surat al-Baqarah 2:219 our rendering · Open the passage

4 The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: Do you get intoxicated from them? They said: If we take much of it, we get intoxicated. He said: Then a little of it is forbidden — whatever intoxicates in large amount.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami' al-'Ulum wa'l-Hikam, p. 462 our rendering · Open the passage

5 and he blocked every path leading to it, near and far, and made what lies around it a protected precinct, and forbade coming near it … and he forbade a small amount of wine even though it does not intoxicate, since a little of it invites more

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 63 our rendering · Open the passage

6 Wherein there is no headache nor are they made mad thereby.

Surat as-Saffat 37:47 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

7 In it there is no harm to the body and none to the mind

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surat as-Saffat 37:47 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Whatever intoxicates in large amount, a small amount of it is forbidden.

Jabir ibn Abdullah · Ibn al-Mundhir · al-Awsat by Ibn al-Mundhir 13/27 · Sahih our rendering

9 You are right, drunkenness is forbidden. But what about a drink or two with our food? He said: Of an intoxicant, little and much alike are forbidden.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami' al-'Ulum wa'l-Hikam, p. 461 our rendering · Open the passage

Every intoxicant is khamr, and every intoxicant is forbidden.

Abdullah ibn Umar · Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut · Takhrij al-Musnad by Shu'ayb 4863 · Sahih our rendering

Whatever intoxicates in large amount, a small amount of it is forbidden.

Jabir ibn Abdullah · Ibn al-Mundhir · al-Awsat by Ibn al-Mundhir 13/27 · Sahih our rendering

The strongest objection

That concedes my claim rather than answering it. You admit the one glass does no harm, then ban it with a slippery slope: "a little of it invites more." A slippery slope is a prediction, not a harm, and it is a false prediction for most drinkers, who never go past their one glass. So you punish the moderate man for the excess of the immoderate, and you strike out the column of benefit that your own book admits, with an absolute ban that no sane weighing of gain against loss would produce.

First, this objection was put in almost these words in the first generation, to Anas ibn Malik: "You are right, drunkenness is forbidden. But what about a drink or two with our food?" He said, "Of an intoxicant, little and much alike are forbidden" 9 — so the ruling was not built on any oversight about the moderate drinker. Second, the column of benefit was not struck out but weighed, and the text affirms both columns together: "and in both there are benefits for people, by way of earning money and otherwise, but their sin is greater than their benefit" 3 — a stated ratio, not a denial of benefit. Third, the rule is not a prediction about any particular drinker but a line drawn on the class: "Whatever intoxicates in large amount, a small amount of it is forbidden" 8 — and a line made to depend on each individual's capacity is no line at all. The cost of that stands, and is not denied: the man who would never go past his limit falls under the ban as well. That is what Ibn al-Qayyim said without softening it, when he grounded the ban on a little inviting more rather than on a little intoxicating, and called it blocking the means 5.

I'm gay — or my son or friend is. What does your religion say to me?

Yes, there is a place for you — and nothing here will be softened so that it is easier to hear. In this religion the ruling falls on the act, not on the inclination: an intention to sin, when it is "a thought that crossed his mind, which he did not dwell on… but rather hated it and recoiled from it — this is pardoned" 1; and in Sahih al-Bukhari, "God has overlooked for my community what their souls tell them, so long as they do not act on it or speak it" 2; and "Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope" 3, of which the Muyassar commentary says: "God does not ask of His servants what they cannot bear" 4 — so you are not asked to be other than what you are, but to refrain from an act. As for the act, the text is not talked around: "Lo! ye come with lust unto men instead of women" 5 — except that the measure here is not "a victim": a man and a woman also fall with no victim, and the text calls that "an abomination" 6. What is closed to you is closed to everyone who has no spouse; you have not been singled out by a ruling of your own. And in fiqh the penalty attaches to an act that is proven, not to a person who is searched out: a husband who finds a man with his wife asks, "am I to hold off until I bring four witnesses? He said: Yes" 7; and when Ma'iz confessed against himself the Prophet said, "Why did you not leave him, that he might repent and God turn to him?" 8; and prying into you is forbidden from the start: "And spy not" 9. As for your standing among people, the plainest thing in it is the man who kept being brought in for drink, and a man cursed him, so the Prophet said: "Do not curse him, for he loves God and His Messenger" 10 — whoever falls and comes back has a door open to him, and the one people drove out was not driven out by the text.

1 But if his intention dissolves and his resolve slackens for no cause of his own, is he punished for the sin he intended, or not? This falls into two kinds. The first: that the intention to sin was a thought that crossed his mind, which he did not dwell on and did not settle his heart upon, but rather hated it and recoiled from it — this is pardoned.

Ibn Rajab · Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 322 our rendering · Open the passage

2 God has overlooked for my community what their souls tell them, so long as they do not act on it or speak it. Qatada said: If a man divorces within himself, it is nothing.

Abu Hurayra · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 5269 · authentic (sahih) our rendering

3 Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope. For it (is only) that which it hath earned, and against it (only) that which it hath deserved. Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget, or miss the mark! Our Lord! Lay not on us such a burden as thou didst lay on those before us! Our Lord! Impose not on us that which we have not the strength to bear! Pardon us, absolve us and have mercy on us, Thou, our Protector, and give us victory over the disbelieving folk.

Surat al-Baqarah 2:286 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 The religion of God is ease, with no hardship in it. God does not ask of His servants what they cannot bear. Whoever does good attains good, and whoever does evil attains evil.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Baqarah 2:286 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Lo! ye come with lust unto men instead of women. Nay, but ye are wanton folk.

Surat al-A'raf 7:81 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

6 And come not near unto adultery. Lo! it is an abomination and an evil way.

Surat al-Isra' 17:32 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

7 And in another wording: "Messenger of God, if I find a man with my wife, am I to hold off until I bring four witnesses? He said: Yes."

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 321 our rendering · Open the passage

8 And he directed them to choose purification by repentance over purification by the prescribed penalty: "He said concerning Ma'iz: Why did you not leave him, that he might repent and God turn to him?"

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 59 our rendering · Open the passage

9 O ye who believe! Shun much suspicion; for lo! some suspicion is a crime. And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you love to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Ye abhor that (so abhor the other)! And keep your duty (to Allah). Lo! Allah is Relenting, Merciful.

Surat al-Hujurat 49:12 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

10 And in Sahih al-Bukhari: "A man used to be brought to the Prophet for drink, and a man cursed him and said: how often he is brought in! So the Prophet said: 'Do not curse him, for he loves God and His Messenger' — and he did not put him to death for that."

Ibn Rajab · Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 321 our rendering · Open the passage

11 The one who strives is he who strives against his own soul.

Fadala ibn 'Ubayd · Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut · Takhrij Sharh al-Sunnah 10/353 · authentic (sahih) our rendering

12 Say: O My slaves who have been prodigal to their own hurt! Despair not of the mercy of Allah, Who forgiveth all sins. Lo! He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Surat al-Zumar 39:53 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

God has overlooked for my community what their souls tell them, so long as they do not act on it or speak it. Qatada said: If a man divorces within himself, it is nothing.

Abu Hurayra · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 5269 · authentic (sahih) our rendering

The one who strives is he who strives against his own soul.

Fadala ibn 'Ubayd · Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut · Takhrij Sharh al-Sunnah 10/353 · authentic (sahih) our rendering

The strongest objection

Say what you like, the outcome is the same: my place among you is conditional on my not living. You demand lifelong celibacy of me and then call it mercy, and the difference between me and any other unmarried man is that he is waiting for a wife and I am waiting for death. Covering me over and not prying into me is pity shown to a convict, not recognition of a human being.

Half the objection is true, and it is not denied: yes, what is required is abstention, and the religion does not claim it is light — it calls it a struggle: "The one who strives is he who strives against his own soul" 11. But it does not make falling a cause for expulsion: the call in "Say: O My slaves who have been prodigal to their own hurt! Despair not of the mercy of Allah" is addressed to those who have fallen, not to those still untouched, and in it they are "My slaves" before they are prodigal 12. And as for covering being pity shown to a convict, the text did not stop at "cover him": it forbade cursing him, and affirmed for him the love of God and His Messenger while he was still in his sin 10 — and that is a judgment about the man, not a concession on the ruling of the act.

The whole economy runs on interest — must I give up my mortgage, my loan, my savings?

No. And the objection you are raising is, word for word, the objection of the people the verse came down about: "That is because they say: Trade is just like usury; whereas Allah permitteth trading and forbiddeth usury." 1 So the equating of the two is stated in the text and answered in it; it is not something the text failed to notice 2. For the commentator, the difference is one of effect, not of name: "because in buying and selling there is benefit for individuals and communities, while in usury there is exploitation, loss and ruin" 2. Ibn al-Qayyim describes the mechanism: "the debt swells upon the needy man with no benefit accruing to him, and the usurer's wealth grows with no benefit accruing from it to his brother" 3. And the verse you appeal to does not ask you to walk away from your property: "And if ye do not, then be warned of war (against you) from Allah and His messenger. And if ye repent, then ye have your principal (without interest). Wrong not, and ye shall not be wronged." 4 The one addressed in it is the party taking the increase, and what is required is that the increase be dropped while the principal stands 5. As for the claim that what is asked is beyond capacity, the text itself answers it: "Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope." 6 — "God does not ask of His servants what they cannot bear" 7. The rule for hard cases is written in the jurists' own books, not invented for you: "to repel the greater of two harms by bearing the lesser" — except that Ibn al-Qayyim applies it only to specific cases in which a text had come: the araya, carrion, and looking 8.

1 Those who swallow usury cannot rise up save as he ariseth whom the devil hath prostrated by (his) touch. That is because they say: Trade is just like usury; whereas Allah permitteth trading and forbiddeth usury. He unto whom an admonition from his Lord cometh, and (he) refraineth (in obedience thereto), he shall keep (the profits of) that which is past, and his affair (henceforth) is with Allah. As for him who returneth (to usury) - Such are rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein.

Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:275 — trans. Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 That is because they said: trade is just like usury, in that each of the two is lawful and each leads to an increase of wealth. So God declared them liars, and made clear that He has permitted trade and forbidden usury — because in buying and selling there is benefit for individuals and communities, while in usury there is exploitation, loss and ruin.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Baqarah 2:275 our rendering · Open the passage

3 As for the manifest kind, it is the usury of deferment, which they used to practise in the age of ignorance: that a man defers what is owed him and adds to the sum, and every time he defers it he adds to the sum again, until a hundred becomes with him thousands upon thousands. And in most cases no one does this but a destitute man in need … So the debt swells upon the needy man with no benefit accruing to him, and the usurer's wealth grows with no benefit accruing from it to his brother; so he devours his brother's property unjustly, and his brother is left with the utmost harm.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 102 our rendering · Open the passage

4 And if ye do not, then be warned of war (against you) from Allah and His messenger. And if ye repent, then ye have your principal (without interest). Wrong not, and ye shall not be wronged.

Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:279 — trans. Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

5 If you do not desist from what God has forbidden you, then be certain of war from God and His Messenger. And if you return to your Lord and abandon the taking of usury, then you may take the debts owed to you without any increase: you wrong no one by taking more than your principal, and no one wrongs you by paying back less than you lent.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Baqarah 2:279 our rendering · Open the passage

6 Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope. For it (is only) that which it hath earned, and against it (only) that which it hath deserved. Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget, or miss the mark! Our Lord! Lay not on us such a burden as thou didst lay on those before us! Our Lord! Impose not on us that which we have not the strength to bear! Pardon us, absolve us and have mercy on us, Thou, our Protector, and give us victory over the disbelieving folk.

Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:286 — trans. Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

7 God's religion is ease, with no hardship in it; God does not ask of His servants what they cannot bear.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Baqarah 2:286 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Rather, the rule of the Law is the opposite of that, namely: to repel the greater of two harms by bearing the lesser. That is why, when He forbade them muzabana because of the usury or the risk in it, He permitted it to them in the araya out of need — because the harm of forbidding that is greater than the harm of muzabana; and when He forbade them carrion because of its foulness as nourishment, He permitted it to them under necessity; and when He forbade them to look at a woman who is not a relative, He permitted of that what need calls for: for the suitor, the one dealing with her in a transaction, the witness and the physician.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 5 our rendering · Open the passage

9 There must be a difference in reality between the lawful and the unlawful; otherwise sale would be just like usury, and marriage just like fornication. It is known that a difference in outward form without a difference in reality is void with God and His Messenger, and in the innate sense He gave His servants; for what is taken into account in words and deeds is their intent and meaning.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 142 our rendering · Open the passage

10 Then any usurer who wishes may simply lend him the money, then show him favour in a sale or a lease or the like, and so obtain the increase he intended.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 178 our rendering · Open the passage

11 In the Sunan there is the like of it, from the hadith of Ibn Amr, may God be pleased with him, and its wording is: "A loan together with a sale is not lawful, nor two conditions in one sale, nor profit on what you do not guarantee, nor the sale of what you do not have." Al-Tirmidhi said: a hadith that is hasan sahih.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 715 our rendering · Open the passage

The strongest objection

That is a description of a bad loan, not a definition of usury. My mortgage is not a "destitute man in need" buying his way out of prison; it is a deal between two adults, and my house is collateral the bank takes if I default, so the risk falls on it as it falls on me. And the "murabaha" and "ijara" offered to me as alternatives produce the same instalment, the same profit and the same security: either the difference is real, in which case your own alternatives fail by it, or it is on paper, in which case your claim that the difference is not merely verbal fails.

The second half of that is correct — and it is raised in the jurists' own books, not only in the replies of their opponents. Their test is the reality, not the name: "There must be a difference in reality between the lawful and the unlawful; otherwise sale would be just like usury, and marriage just like fornication … for what is taken into account in words and deeds is their intent and meaning" 9. Ibn al-Qayyim states plainly that a legal device brings usury back in the dress of a sale or a lease: "any usurer who wishes may simply lend him the money, then show him favour in a sale or a lease or the like, and so obtain the increase he intended" 10. So the test by which a bank that calls itself Islamic fails is that same test, not some other standard made up for it 9. As for the first half — that the collateral makes the risk shared — the transmitted criterion is not the debtor's poverty but liability: "nor profit on what you do not guarantee" 11. Whoever does not bear the consequences of the asset has no claim on its profit 11.

Why is pork forbidden? The parasite explanation died with modern refrigeration.

No. The parasite explanation is not in the text, so it cannot fall when the text stands. The Qur'an gives one explicit reason, and that reason singles swine out from among the four forbidden things: "for that verily is foul" 1. Tafsir al-Muyassar glosses the word as "impure" 2. Ibn al-Qayyim stops at that exact word: he says the particles "fa-" and "inna" were brought "to draw attention to the cause of the prohibition", and that this cause "is set against what lies in the natures of some people, who find it delicious and wholesome" 3 — that is, it was stated to counter appetite, not to counter a microbe. The general criterion in the Qur'an is foulness, not measured harm, and the flesh of swine is its stock example: he "forbids them the foul things among them, such as the flesh of swine" 4. Nor is this a ban with no reason, on a principle settled among those who wrote about the reasons behind the Law: it is "built and founded upon wisdom and the welfare of people in this life and the next" 5 — except that the benefit is read out of the text, not invented for it. And here is the part that makes the question heavier, and it has to be said: the ruling lifts under necessity everywhere it appears — "But he who is driven by necessity, neither craving nor transgressing, it is no sin for him" 6 — and that is not how a warning about poison behaves. Anyone who wants to read it as a purely medical ruling has to explain why it lapses at hunger.

1 Say: I find not in that which is revealed unto me aught prohibited to an eater that he eat thereof, except it be carrion, or blood poured forth, or swineflesh - for that verily is foul - or the abomination which was immolated to the name of other than Allah. But whoso is compelled (thereto), neither craving nor transgressing, (for him) lo! thy Lord is Forgiving, Merciful.

Surah Al-An'am 6:145 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 Say, O Messenger: I find nothing in what God has revealed to me that is forbidden to one who eats it, among the livestock you claim was forbidden, unless it be an animal that died without lawful slaughter, or blood poured out, or the flesh of swine — for it is impure …

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-An'am 6:145 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Swine is more severely forbidden than carrion, and this is why God singled it out with the judgement that it is foul, in His words: "Say: I find not in that which is revealed unto me aught prohibited to an eater that he eat thereof, except it be carrion, or blood poured forth, or swineflesh - for that verily is foul - or the abomination" … Third: that He brought the particles "fa-" and "inna" to draw attention to the cause of the prohibition, so that souls would be restrained from it; and this cause is set against what lies in the natures of some people, who find it delicious and wholesome — so He denied that of it, and declared that it is foul.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 674 our rendering · Open the passage

4 He makes lawful for them the good things among foods, drinks and marriages, and forbids them the foul things among them, such as the flesh of swine, and whatever they used to treat as lawful of the foods and drinks that God had forbidden.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-A'raf 7:157 our rendering · Open the passage

5 The Law is built and founded upon wisdom and the welfare of people in this life and the next. It is justice throughout, mercy throughout, welfare throughout, and wisdom throughout.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 10 our rendering · Open the passage

6 He hath forbidden you only carrion, and blood, and swineflesh, and that which hath been immolated to (the name of) any other than Allah. But he who is driven by necessity, neither craving nor transgressing, it is no sin for him. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

Surah Al-Baqarah 2:173 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

7 Just as they were categorical that the parts of the swine are forbidden, because it enters into His saying: "for that verily is foul" [Al-An'am: 145]

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 157 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Mention, O Messenger, to these idolaters what We forbade to the Jews of beasts and birds: every animal whose toes are not cleft, such as the camel and the ostrich, and the fat of cattle and sheep … That prohibition imposed upon the Jews was a punishment from Us for them, because of their evil deeds.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-An'am 6:146 our rendering · Open the passage

The strongest objection

"Foul" is not a reason. It is an insult dressed as a reason: a description that cannot be measured and cannot be falsified. You have replaced an explanation that failed with one that cannot fail, because it says nothing — and that is an upgrade in immunity, not in truth. Besides, singling out the pig from among animals was written down among the Jews centuries before you, so the likelier account is an inherited Semitic taboo dressed in the clothing of revelation.

As for "it says nothing": that is answered by the fact that it did the work of a legal cause, and rulings were extended from it — "just as they were categorical that the parts of the swine are forbidden, because it enters into His saying: 'for that verily is foul'" 7. A description that is applied consistently, and from which derived rulings are drawn, is not an empty word; it is a criterion of a different kind from experimental analogy. As for the inheritance claim, it breaks on this: the Qur'an narrows the list rather than widening it. Its list is four — "except it be carrion, or blood poured forth, or swineflesh … or the abomination" 1 — and what the Jews had beyond that, including "every animal whose toes are not cleft, such as the camel and the ostrich", the Qur'an describes as "a punishment from Us for them, because of their evil deeds" 8. A borrower agrees, or adds. This text disagrees about the forbidden things themselves, and states a reason for its disagreement 8.

Why face a building, circle it seven times, and kiss a black stone?

The picture is the reverse of the common one. The very command that established this site is joined, in its own wording, to a prohibition of setting up partners with God: "And (remember) when We prepared for Abraham the place of the (holy) House, saying: Ascribe thou no thing as partner unto Me" 1. The commentary reads it as an order to build it "on piety toward God, on His oneness, and on purifying it of unbelief" 2. The claim that the stone was left in place because it could not be removed is contradicted by what happened in a single hour at that same building: he touched the Black Stone, then made the round of the House, "and around the House and upon it were three hundred and sixty idols, and he began to strike them with the bow … and the idols kept falling on their faces" 3. He then entered the Kaaba, broke what was inside it with his own hand, and had the images erased, even the image of Abraham and Ishmael 4. Whoever destroyed three hundred and sixty idols at this exact building in one day and then left one standing, left it by choice, not by inability. The scripture itself forbids by name the category being described: "… idols … are only an infamy of Satan's handiwork" 5. Their definition is "the stones at which the idolaters used to slaughter in veneration of them, and whatever is set up to be worshipped as a means of drawing near to it" 6 — and nothing is slaughtered at the Black Stone, no vow is made to it, nothing is asked of it. The distinction is spoken aloud at the stone itself. Umar said it while kissing it: "I know that you are a stone that can neither harm nor benefit. Had I not seen the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, kiss you, I would not have kissed you" 7. As for facing a building, the same scripture that commanded it is the one that denied any good in the direction taken by itself: "It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East and the West" 8 — "There is no good with God … in turning in prayer toward the east or the west if it is not by God's command and law" 9. And as for crowding to the point of death, that is no part of the rite at all. What is described of the Prophet's own act, may God bless him and grant him peace, is this: "When he drew level with the Black Stone, he touched it and did not push and shove for it" 10.

1 And (remember) when We prepared for Abraham the place of the (holy) House, saying: Ascribe thou no thing as partner unto Me, and purify My House for those who make the round (thereof) and those who stand and those who bow and make prostration.

Surah al-Hajj 22:26 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 Remember, O Prophet, when We made plain to Abraham, peace be upon him, the place of the House and prepared it for him at a time when it was not known, and commanded him to build it on piety toward God, on His oneness, and on purifying it of unbelief, innovation and impurity, so that it would be open ground for those who make the round of it and for those who stand in prayer at it.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — Surah al-Hajj 22:26 our rendering · Open the passage

3 He came to the Black Stone and touched it, then made the round of the House with a bow in his hand. Around the House and upon it were three hundred and sixty idols, and he began to strike them with the bow, reciting the verse that the truth has come and falsehood has vanished, and that falsehood was ever bound to vanish … and the idols kept falling on their faces.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-Ibad, p. 357 our rendering · Open the passage

4 He entered it and saw the images inside, among them an image of Abraham and Ishmael drawing lots with divining arrows, and he said: "May God fight them. By God, the two of them never drew lots with these at all." … And he saw in the Kaaba a dove made of wood, so he broke it with his hand, and he ordered the images to be erased, and they were erased.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-Ibad, p. 357 our rendering · Open the passage

5 O ye who believe! Strong drink and games of chance and idols and divining arrows are only an infamy of Satan's handiwork. Leave it aside in order that ye may succeed.

Surah al-Ma'idah 5:90 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

6 The idol-stones (al-ansab): the stones at which the idolaters used to slaughter in veneration of them, and whatever is set up to be worshipped as a means of drawing near to it.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — Surah al-Ma'idah 5:90 our rendering · Open the passage

7 He came to the Black Stone and kissed it, then said: I know that you are a stone that can neither harm nor benefit. Had I not seen the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, kiss you, I would not have kissed you.

Umar ibn al-Khattab · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 1597 · graded sahih (sound) our rendering

8 It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who believeth in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the prophets; and giveth wealth, for love of Him, to kinsfolk and to orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask, and to set slaves free; and observeth proper worship and payeth the poor-due. And those who keep their treaty when they make one, and the patient in tribulation and adversity and time of stress. Such are they who are sincere. Such are the Allah-fearing.

Surah al-Baqarah 2:177 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

9 There is no good with God, exalted be He, in turning in prayer toward the east or the west if it is not by God's command and law.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — Surah al-Baqarah 2:177 our rendering · Open the passage

10 When he drew level with the Black Stone, he touched it and did not push and shove for it.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-Ibad, p. 207 our rendering · Open the passage

11 Surely pure religion is for Allah only. And those who choose protecting friends beside Him (say): We worship them only that they may bring us near unto Allah. Lo! Allah will judge between them concerning that wherein they differ. Lo! Allah guideth not him who is a liar, an ingrate.

Surah al-Zumar 39:3 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

12 They said: we worship those gods alongside God only so that they may intercede for us with God and bring us nearer to Him in rank. By this they fell into unbelief, because worship and intercession belong to God alone.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — Surah al-Zumar 39:3 our rendering · Open the passage

13 On al-Safa there was an idol in the form of a man called Isaf, and on al-Marwa an idol in the form of a woman called Na'ila … When the people of the pre-Islamic age made the round between the two, they would rub the two idols. When Islam came and the idols were broken, the Muslims disliked making the round because of the two idols, so God, exalted be He, sent down this verse.

al-Wahidi · Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an, p. 45 our rendering · Open the passage

14 When Islam prevailed, the Muslims said: Messenger of God, we will not go between al-Safa and al-Marwa, for it is an act of association we used to perform in the pre-Islamic age. So God, exalted be He, sent down this verse.

al-Wahidi · Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an, p. 45 our rendering · Open the passage

He came to the Black Stone and kissed it, then said: I know that you are a stone that can neither harm nor benefit. Had I not seen the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, kiss you, I would not have kissed you.

Umar ibn al-Khattab · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 1597 · graded sahih (sound) our rendering

From Umar: he came to the Stone and kissed it, then said: I know that you are a stone that can neither benefit nor harm. Had I not seen the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, kiss you, I would not have kissed you.

Umar ibn al-Khattab · al-Albani · Sahih Abi Dawud 1873 · graded sahih (sound) our rendering

The strongest objection

Everything offered here comes from inside the tradition, and Umar's words settle nothing: an educated polytheist would say them word for word. Nobody claims the stone is a god who creates and provides; it is a landmark, an intermediary, a source of blessing. Smashing the idols does not refute the charge, it strengthens it: what competed was removed and what did not compete was kept. That is the practice of every religion that inherited an older temple, kept its stones, and stripped off the names. As for Abraham, that is a claim inside your own book, and nothing but your book establishes it. What can be seen from outside is a Meccan sanctuary standing before Muhammad, and circling performed at it before him — you yourselves report that the people of the pre-Islamic age used to circle it — and a stone in its corner that people touched for blessing. The whole picture stayed and only the name changed.

That a verbal profession settles nothing is true, and it is not disputed here. The scripture said as much first. It reports the intermediary claim from the idolaters in their own words — "We worship them only that they may bring us near unto Allah" 11 — and then counts them unbelievers precisely for it, "because worship and intercession belong to God alone" 12. So the test is not what a worshipper says about his stone, but what is directed toward it: slaughter, vows, supplication, requests for intercession. That is exactly the definition of the forbidden idol-stones in that same verse 6, and by common agreement it is absent at the Black Stone. As for the charge that the picture was taken over intact, the most telling report on the matter tells against the tradition rather than for it. On al-Safa stood an idol called Isaf, on al-Marwa one called Na'ila, and the people of the pre-Islamic age would rub both as they went between them. "When Islam came and the idols were broken, the Muslims disliked making the round because of the two idols" — until the verse came down 13. Their words were plain: "We will not go between al-Safa and al-Marwa, for it is an act of association we used to perform in the pre-Islamic age" 14. So telling the site apart from the idol was a question raised by the first generation itself, which suspended the rite until a ruling reached it. It was not an oversight that slipped past them, and not a silent inheritance. As for tracing the building back to Abraham, that is not established here from outside, and no claim to establish it from outside is being made. It is the scripture's own claim 1, and the place to test it is the question of revelation, not this question. What still stands once it is set aside is the point of the question itself: the one who kept the stone was not unable to remove it. On that same day he destroyed three hundred and sixty idols and had every image erased 3 4.

What good does it do God for me to go hungry?

Nothing goes back to God — and that is what the texts say, not what an opponent says about them: "Whoever does not give up false speech and acting upon it, God has no need of his giving up his food and his drink" 1. The one who gains is named in the very verse that prescribes the fast: "that ye may ward off (evil)" 2 — "so you put a guard between yourselves and acts of disobedience by obeying Him and worshipping Him alone" 3 — and in the hadith the fast is a restraint of the tongue just as it is a restraint from food: "Fasting is a shield, so let him not speak obscenely nor behave ignorantly." Ibn al-Qayyim states the aim precisely: "the restraining of the soul from appetites, weaning it from what it is accustomed to… and it reminds it of the state of the hungry bellies of the poor"; then he says the thing that settles your question: "for the one fasting does nothing; he only leaves his desire and his food and his drink for the sake of the One he worships… and it is a secret between the servant and his Lord that no one else looks upon" 4. As for "give to the poor and eat — that is more useful and shorter": the Qur'an itself puts that forward — "and for those who can afford it there is a ransom: the feeding of a man in need" — and it is the dispensation of the one on whom fasting imposes an unbearable hardship, such as the very old man and the sick man whose recovery is not hoped for 5 — and then it ranks the two explicitly: "and that ye fast is better for you", that is, "your fasting — bearing the hardship — is better for you than paying the ransom" 6. So both roads are set out in the text, and the ransom is not a shortcut around the fast but the substitute for the one unable to keep it. And the faster you point to, who sleeps through his day and gorges at night, is no refutation of the claim: he is exactly the case the hadith ruled out at the start 1.

1 Whoever does not give up false speech and acting upon it, God has no need of his giving up his food and his drink.

Abu Hurayrah · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 1903 · Sahih (sound) our rendering

2 O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, even as it was prescribed for those before you, that ye may ward off (evil);

Surat al-Baqarah 2:183 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

3 O you who have believed God and His Messenger and acted by His law: God has prescribed fasting for you as He prescribed it for the nations before you, so that you may be mindful of your Lord, and so you put a guard between yourselves and acts of disobedience by obeying Him and worshipping Him alone.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Baqarah 2:183 our rendering · Open the passage

4 Since the aim of fasting is the restraining of the soul from appetites, weaning it from what it is accustomed to, and correcting its appetitive power, … and hunger and thirst break its sharpness and its surge, and remind it of the state of the hungry bellies of the poor. … So it is the bridle of the God-fearing, the shield of the warriors, the discipline of the righteous and of those brought near; and among all deeds it belongs to the Lord of the Worlds, for the one fasting does nothing; he only leaves his desire and his food and his drink for the sake of the One he worships. It is the leaving of what the soul loves and delights in, preferring the love of God and His good pleasure. And it is a secret between the servant and his Lord that no one else looks upon.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 26 our rendering · Open the passage

5 (Fast) a certain number of days; and (for) him who is sick among you, or on a journey, (the same) number of other days; and for those who can afford it there is a ransom: the feeding of a man in need - but whoso doeth good of his own accord, it is better for him: and that ye fast is better for you if ye did but know -

Surat al-Baqarah 2:184 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

6 Upon those who can fast only with great difficulty, an unbearable hardship — such as the very old man and the sick man whose recovery is not hoped for — there is a ransom for every day they do not fast, namely feeding a poor man. Whoever gives more than the measure of the ransom, of his own accord, that is better for him. And your fasting — bearing the hardship — is better for you than paying the ransom, if you knew the great merit of fasting with God Almighty.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Baqarah 2:184 our rendering · Open the passage

7 And on this conception repeated worship is read thus: fixed times that cut the day, a fast that teaches the deferring of appetite, and giving that loosens the grip of the hand. And the claim is that the effect is in the doer, not that there is someone whose lack is being filled.

19. Why Worship? our rendering · Open the passage

Whoever does not give up false speech and acting upon it, God has no need of his giving up his food and his drink.

Abu Hurayrah · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 1903 · Sahih (sound) our rendering

The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said: Fasting is a shield, so let him not speak obscenely nor behave ignorantly. And if a man fights him or insults him, let him say: I am fasting — twice. By Him in whose hand is my soul, the odour of the fasting person's mouth is better with God Most High than the scent of musk. He leaves his food and his drink and his desire for My sake; fasting is Mine, and I reward for it; and a good deed is repaid tenfold.

Abu Hurayrah · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 1894 · Sahih (sound) our rendering

The strongest objection

All of this shifts the benefit onto me, and if it holds, you have demolished your own case: if the whole gain comes back to me, and I am a disciplined man who needs no training in deferring an appetite, then I have no need of it, and a month of thirst remains a cost with nothing in return. And "a secret between the servant and his Lord that no one else looks upon" is an effect that can be neither measured nor falsified — and what there is no way to test is no argument.

The first half is soundly built, and the book grants it in its own place, in its own words: "And on this conception repeated worship is read thus: fixed times that cut the day, a fast that teaches the deferring of appetite, and giving that loosens the grip of the hand. And the claim is that the effect is in the doer, not that there is someone whose lack is being filled." The chapter then states the objection in the objector's own voice — if it is for my good, and I am good without it, then I have no need of it — calls that a cogent and soundly built reply, and says the chapter has no answer to it, because it returns the matter to the question of whether there is a God at all 7. So the answer here obliges you to nothing: it says what fasting is if there is a God, not that there is one — and settling that is another chapter. As for the second half, it turns back on you: you yourself argued from a measured effect when you said that people who fast sleep through the day and overindulge at night. That is a visible effect, one that can be seen and judged — and the text judged it before you did, and said God has no need of it 1.

I live in a non-Muslim country — what can I eat? Must I check the gelatin on every label?

The matter is the opposite of what you were told, and the verse you were given as proof tells for you, not against you. What the Qur'an forbids as food is a named and countable list, not an open one: carrion, blood, swine flesh, what has been dedicated to other than Allah, and what is joined to these 1. Then the food of the People of the Book is named in particular and declared lawful 2, and al-Shafi'i reads that verse exactly as you read it: "He … described their slaughter, and excepted nothing from it" 4. As for inspection itself, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked about meat brought by people of whom the questioners said, "we do not know whether they mentioned the name of Allah over it or not," and he answered: "Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it" 5 — he charged the questioner with naming Allah, not with investigating. Ibn al-Jawzi states it as a rule: "their case is presumed to be so … and forgetfulness does not bar lawfulness" 6. Gelatin falls under the rule of transformation: "What counts is not the origin, but the description of the thing in itself … the ruling follows the name and the description" 7, and agreement has been reported that an animal fed on impurity, then confined and fed on pure fodder, becomes lawful in its milk and its flesh 8. And "the religion is ease" is not a softening offered to you when you are in difficulty: He "hath not laid upon you in religion any hardship" 9. One restriction is not hidden from you: al-Tafsir al-Muyassar ties the lawfulness to "if they slaughtered them according to their own law" 3 — and that is where the real disagreement lies, not where you were told it lies.

1 Forbidden unto you (for food) are carrion and blood and swineflesh, and that which hath been dedicated unto any other than Allah, and the strangled, and the dead through beating, and the dead through falling from a height, and that which hath been killed by (the goring of) horns, and the devoured of wild beasts, saving that which ye make lawful (by the death-stroke), and that which hath been immolated unto idols. And (forbidden is it) that ye swear by the divining arrows. This is an abomination. This day are those who disbelieve in despair of (ever harming) your religion; so fear them not, fear Me! This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you, and have chosen for you as religion al-Islam. Whoso is forced by hunger, not by will, to sin: (for him) lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

Surah al-Ma'idah 5:3 · Open the passage

2 This day are (all) good things made lawful for you. The food of those who have received the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them. And so are the virtuous women of the believers and the virtuous women of those who received the Scripture before you (lawful for you) when ye give them their marriage portions and live with them in honour, not in fornication, nor taking them as secret concubines. Whoso denieth the faith, his work is vain and he will be among the losers in the Hereafter.

Surah al-Ma'idah 5:5 · Open the passage

3 Part of the completeness of Allah's favour upon you today — O believers — is that He has made lawful for you what is good and wholesome. The animals slaughtered by the Jews and the Christians — if they slaughtered them according to their own law — are lawful for you, and what you slaughter is lawful for them.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Ma'idah 5:5 our rendering · Open the passage

4 Allah, Mighty and Majestic, made lawful the food of the People of the Book, and He … described their slaughter, and excepted nothing from it.

al-Shafi'i · Ahkam al-Qur'an, collected by al-Bayhaqi, p. 97 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it. [That is, the hadith: Some people said, "Messenger of Allah, a people bring us meat and we do not know whether they mentioned the name of Allah over it or not." The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it."]

Aisha, Mother of the Believers · al-Albani · Sahih al-Jami' 3640 · sahih our rendering

6 Because the People of the Book do mention Allah over the slaughtered animal, their case is presumed to be so. And if we were certain that they had omitted mentioning His name, it could have been out of forgetfulness, and forgetfulness does not bar lawfulness. But if they omitted it not out of forgetfulness, eating it is not permitted. So there is no ground at all for abrogation.

Ibn al-Jawzi · Nawasikh al-Qur'an, p. 429 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Allah, exalted be He, brings the wholesome out of the foul and the foul out of the wholesome. What counts is not the origin, but the description of the thing in itself, and it is impossible for the ruling of foulness to remain once its name and its description are gone. The ruling follows the name and the description, turning with them, present when they are present and absent when they are absent. So the texts that impose the prohibition of carrion, blood, swine flesh and wine do not extend to crops, fruit, ash, salt, earth or vinegar — not in wording, not in meaning, not by text and not by analogy.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 297 our rendering · Open the passage

8 On this principle, the purity of wine through transformation accords with analogy, for it is impure by reason of the description of foulness; so when the cause is gone, what it caused is gone. This is the principle of the Law in its sources and in its outcomes, indeed the very principle of reward and punishment. On this basis, sound analogy extends it to all other impurities when they are transformed … And the Muslims are agreed that when an animal is fed on impurity and is then confined and fed on pure fodder, its milk and its flesh are lawful.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 296 our rendering · Open the passage

9 And strive for Allah with the endeavour which is His right. He hath chosen you and hath not laid upon you in religion any hardship; the faith of your father Abraham (is yours). He hath named you Muslims of old time and in this (Scripture), that the messenger may be a witness against you, and that ye may be witnesses against mankind. So establish worship, pay the poor-due, and hold fast to Allah. He is your Protecting friend. A blessed Patron and a blessed Helper!

Surah al-Hajj 22:78 · Open the passage

10 Those who hold them pure argue that Allah, exalted be He, made lawful the food of the People of the Book, and their food they make with their own hands in their own vessels; and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, accepted the invitation of a Jew … And those who hold them impure argue that it is soundly reported from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that he "was asked about the vessels of the People of the Book, who eat swine and drink wine, and he said: If you find none but them, wash them with water and then eat from them."

Ibn Rajab · Jami' al-Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 198 our rendering · Open the passage

11 Nothing is forbidden except what Allah has forbidden, just as there is no act of worship except what Allah has prescribed; and to forbid the lawful is like permitting the forbidden.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 110 our rendering · Open the passage

12 The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his Companions dealt with the idolaters and the People of the Book, though they knew that they did not avoid everything forbidden.

Ibn Rajab · Jami' al-Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 199 our rendering · Open the passage

Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it. [That is, the hadith: Some people said, "Messenger of Allah, a people bring us meat and we do not know whether they mentioned the name of Allah over it or not." The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it."]

Aisha, Mother of the Believers · al-Albani · Sahih al-Jami' 3640 · sahih our rendering

Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it. [That is, the hadith: Some people said, "Messenger of Allah, a people bring us meat and we do not know whether they mentioned the name of Allah over it or not." The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it."]

Aisha, Mother of the Believers · al-Albani · Sahih al-Jami' 3640 · sahih our rendering

The strongest objection

This is selective reading from inside your own sources. Your own commentary makes it conditional: "if they slaughtered them according to their own law" — and the meat I buy was not slaughtered by a Jew or a Christian, but by a worker in a plant who has no religion at all, by mechanical stunning and with no name pronounced over it. So it is neither the slaughter of a person of the Book nor was any name mentioned over it, and the condition in the verse falls away at its root. And Ibn al-Jawzi, whom you cited, says in his own words: "But if they omitted it not out of forgetfulness, eating it is not permitted." His licence hangs on an ignorance that no longer holds: the label tells me, so the excuse the hadith was built on is gone. And your admitting the disagreement works against you, not for you: where there is disagreement, caution is safer — and that is exactly what the people you are answering told me to do.

The restriction is real, and the disagreement stands; it is not denied here. Ibn Rajab sets out the evidence of both parties on a single page and reports the argument of those who forbid, drawn from the hadith about the vessels of the People of the Book 10 — so whoever told you "there is no disagreement" misled you, and whoever handed you the narrower of the two positions as though it were Islam misled you twice. But Ibn al-Jawzi's text is to be read whole, not by halves: it opens with "their case is presumed to be so," and his exception hangs on "if we were certain" 6 — and certainty is not possibility. A label that says "beef" tells you nothing about whether a name was pronounced over it, so you stand where the Companions' question stood, at "we do not know," and not at certainty 5. As for the claim that caution is always safer, it rests on nothing: "Nothing is forbidden except what Allah has forbidden, just as there is no act of worship except what Allah has prescribed; and to forbid the lawful is like permitting the forbidden" 11 — an error on the side of prohibition is an error just as much as an error on the side of permission, not a caution against it. As for dinner and invitations, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, "accepted the invitation of a Jew" 10, and he and his Companions "dealt with the idolaters and the People of the Book, though they knew that they did not avoid everything forbidden" 12 — so withdrawing from other people's tables is not the price of the religion; it is something added on top of it.

Is music forbidden? I'm a musician — it's half my life.

The matter is other than what is commonly put about: the disagreement is old, still live, and never settled, and whoever handed you only the harsher of the two positions has folded away half the question. The verse the prohibition is built on reads: "And of mankind is he who payeth for mere pastime of discourse" 1, and al-Tafsir al-Muyassar fixes that "pastime of discourse" by a test rather than by a name — "everything that distracts from obedience to God and turns a person away from what pleases Him" 2 — so there is no music in the verse and no instrument. Even the occasion of its revelation is disputed: Ibn Qutaybah says it "was revealed concerning al-Nadr ibn al-Harith," who "used to buy books containing the tales of the Persians" 3 — stories, then, not melody; and of the hadith produced as its occasion, Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali said, "There is criticism of the chain of this hadith," then traced the prohibition to named men rather than to a consensus: "those who forbid singing, such as Ahmad and Malik" 4. Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad was asked three times whether singing is forbidden; he stayed silent, then said: "Is the forbidden anything but what God has forbidden in the Qur'an? … Then you: give yourself the ruling" 5. The other side is not to be folded away either: there is a hadith graded authentic — "There will surely be among my nation people who deem lawful illicit sexual relations, silk, wine, and musical instruments" 6; and yet Ibn al-Qayyim, who is among the strictest men on this subject, reports that a woman had vowed to beat a tambourine over the Prophet's head and that he said, "If you vowed, then do it," and "so the Messenger of God sat down, and she beat the tambourine" — and he grades it himself: "an authentic hadith" 7.

1 And of mankind is he who payeth for mere pastime of discourse, that he may mislead from Allah's way without knowledge, and maketh it the butt of mockery. For such there is a shameful doom.

Surah Luqman 31:6 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 And among people is one who buys idle discourse — which is everything that distracts from obedience to God and turns a person away from what pleases Him — so as to lead people away from the path of guidance to the path of whim, and who takes the verses of God as an object of mockery. For such there is a punishment that humiliates and disgraces them.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · Luqman 31:6 our rendering · Open the passage

3 {And of mankind is he who payeth for mere pastime of discourse} — it was revealed concerning al-Nadr ibn al-Harith (2); he used to buy books containing the tales of the Persians and relate them to the people of Mecca, saying: "Muhammad tells you the tales of 'Ad and Thamud, and I tell you the tales of Persia and Byzantium and the kings of al-Hira."

Ibn Qutaybah al-Dinawari · Gharib al-Qur'an, p. 343 our rendering · Open the passage

4 Ibn Majah also transmitted it. There is criticism of the chain of this hadith, and the like of it has been narrated from Umar and from Ali through two chains that are likewise weak. And those who forbid singing, such as Ahmad and Malik

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami' al-'Ulum wa-l-Hikam, p. 447 our rendering · Open the passage

5 We have already mentioned that the scrupulous scholars, such as Ahmad and Malik, avoided applying the word forbidden to whatever is not certainly forbidden, of that in which there is some doubt or disagreement. … Ja'far ibn Muhammad said: I heard a man ask al-Qasim ibn Muhammad: Is singing forbidden? Al-Qasim was silent. The man repeated the question, and he was silent. He repeated it again, and al-Qasim said to him: Is the forbidden anything but what God has forbidden in the Qur'an? Tell me: when truth and falsehood are brought before God, which of the two will singing be? The man said: Among falsehood. He said: Then you: give yourself the ruling.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami' al-'Ulum wa-l-Hikam, p. 158 our rendering · Open the passage

6 There will surely be among my nation people who deem lawful illicit sexual relations, silk, wine, and musical instruments.

Abu Amir or Abu Malik al-Ash'ari · Ibn al-Salah · al-Ba'ith al-Hathith 1/124 · authentic (sahih) our rendering

7 "A woman asked him (peace be upon him) and said: I vowed that if God brought you back safe I would beat the tambourine over your head. He said: If you vowed, then do it; otherwise, no. She said: I did vow. So the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) sat down, and she beat the tambourine" — an authentic hadith.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 244 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Among them: the permissibility of reciting poetry for one who arrives, out of joy and gladness at his coming, so long as it is not accompanied by some forbidden amusement such as a reed-pipe, a flute, or a lute, and so long as it is not singing that carries an enticement to indecencies and to what God has forbidden. This, no one forbids

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-'Ibad, p. 500 our rendering · Open the passage

9 And in our discourse there is condescension, and imputation of motive, and inflation of the branches, and belittling of the roots. Sermons on the length of a garment and the music at weddings, and silence about a bribe called a gift, and about a labourer underpaid, and about a woman beaten in a house where prayers are said.

An apology with no 'but' our rendering · Open the passage

There will surely be among my nation people who deem lawful illicit sexual relations, silk, wine, and musical instruments.

Abu Amir or Abu Malik al-Ash'ari · Ibn al-Salah · al-Ba'ith al-Hathith 1/124 · authentic (sahih) our rendering

There will surely be among my nation groups of people who deem lawful illicit sexual relations, silk, wine, and musical instruments.

Abu Amir and Abu Malik al-Ash'ari · Ibn Baz · Majmu' Fatawa Ibn Baz 425/3 · authentic (sahih) our rendering

The strongest objection

This is cherry-picking, plain and simple, and you are doing to me the very thing you fault in others. You gathered up what permits and called it "the full picture." The hadith on musical instruments was graded authentic by the hadith scholars. A tambourine struck to discharge a vow when a traveller comes home safe is not an instrument at a concert. And Ibn al-Qayyim, whose report you leaned on, forbids the reed-pipe, the flute and the lute by name. So you hand me the softer of the two positions just as others hand me the harsher one — and each of you chose first, then called the choice religion.

Your first half is right and I grant it: Ibn al-Qayyim says in so many words that reciting poetry is permitted "so long as it is not accompanied by some forbidden amusement such as a reed-pipe, a flute, or a lute" 8 — so I do not enlist him for permission, and whoever does has misreported him. But the same sentence finishes: "This, no one forbids" 8. So there is an agreed zone; the dispute is over where its edge falls, not over whether it exists, and the claim of a consensus on prohibition falls by the words of the very man cited for it. I am not claiming that the permissive side is the stronger one. I am claiming that putting the word "forbidden" on something disputed in this way is a step the imams themselves drew back from: Ibn Rajab said of "the scrupulous scholars, such as Ahmad and Malik" that they avoided "applying the word forbidden to whatever is not certainly forbidden, of that in which there is some doubt or disagreement" 5. As for why only the harsher of the two positions reaches you, the answer is an admission written from inside the believing side, not an accusation from outside it: "And in our discourse there is condescension, and imputation of motive, and inflation of the branches, and belittling of the roots. Sermons on the length of a garment and the music at weddings, and silence about a bribe called a gift" 9.

Should I tell my family and my workplace that I converted, or keep it hidden?

No. You do not owe anyone an announcement, and the soundness of your Islam is not bought at the price of your family and your job. This concession is not something held back and revealed only once you are inside — it is in the published Qur'an, and it was there before you read a line of this page: "save him who is forced thereto and whose heart is still content with the Faith" 1. Tafsir al-Muyassar says of it: "uttered it out of fear of destruction while his heart was firm upon faith: there is no blame on him" 2. And what is permitted there is far heavier than what you are asking about — uttering disbelief itself — so staying silent about something nobody has asked you is a great deal less than that 1. The Qur'an describes a believing man "who hid his faith" inside Pharaoh's own household 3, and it describes believing men and women in Mecca "hiding their faith in fear for themselves, whom you did not know", and because they were where they were, God held back from Quraysh what would otherwise have come down upon it 4. The first to keep it hidden was the Prophet himself: he "remained … for three years calling to Allah, Glorified is He, in secret", and the command to proclaim came to him by revelation only after that 5 — so open proclamation is an order that comes down in its own time, not a badge denied to whoever has not reached that time. And the ruling is spelled out on both sides at once: "one who is coerced into disbelief is not obliged to utter it, and if he endures until he is killed he is not sinful" 6 — that is, both roads lie outside sin: the one who conceals has not sinned, and the one who declares has not bound anyone else to what he himself carried. The other side of it will not be softened here. Concealment is not a free alternative; its price is isolation and the daily strain of hiding. And the book says to the person coming in: "there is no necessary connection between your opinion and your eating with your mother, and whoever makes it necessary has bought a loss his position does not require" 7.

1 Whoso disbelieveth in Allah after his belief - save him who is forced thereto and whose heart is still content with the Faith - but whoso findeth ease in disbelief: On them is wrath from Allah. Theirs will be an awful doom.

Surah An-Nahl (The Bee) 16:106 · Open the passage

2 The one who invents falsehood is the one who utters the word of disbelief and turns back after his faith; upon them is wrath from Allah — except one who was forced to utter disbelief, and uttered it out of fear of destruction while his heart was firm upon faith: there is no blame on him…

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah An-Nahl (The Bee) 16:106 our rendering · Open the passage

3 And a believing man of Pharaoh's family, who hid his faith, said: Would ye kill a man because he saith: My Lord is Allah, and hath brought you clear proofs from your Lord? If he is lying, then his lie is upon him; and if he is truthful, then some of that wherewith he threateneth you will strike you. Lo! Allah guideth not one who is a prodigal, a liar.

Surah Ghafir (The Forgiver) 40:28 · Open the passage

4 …And were it not for believing men, oppressed and weak, and believing women, living among those disbelievers in Mecca, hiding their faith in fear for themselves, whom you did not know — lest you trample them with your army and kill them, so that by that killing there would fall upon you sin and blame and a penalty without your knowing…

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah Al-Fath (Victory) 48:25 our rendering · Open the passage

5 And after that he — peace be upon him — remained for three years calling to Allah, Glorified is He, in secret. Then there came down upon him the command to proclaim openly what he is ordered and to turn away from the idolaters … So he — peace be upon him — proclaimed the call openly and declared open enmity to his people, and the harm against him and against the Muslims grew severe, until Allah permitted them the two migrations.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-'Ibad, p. 83 our rendering · Open the passage

6 …just as one who is coerced into disbelief is not obliged to utter it, and if he endures until he is killed he is not sinful

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 83 our rendering · Open the passage

7 And keep what has no bearing on the matter. And most of what is passed on to us is that what is lost on this road is not a creed; it is a father and a mother and friends at a table — and that is observed and not measured. And there is no necessary connection between your opinion and your eating with your mother, and whoever makes it necessary has bought a loss his position does not require.

23. What if you wanted to come back? our rendering · Open the passage

8 Ibn 'Abbas said: it came down about 'Ammar ibn Yasir. The idolaters had seized him, and his father Yasir, and his mother Sumayya, and Suhayb, and Bilal, and Khabbab, and Salim, and tortured them… As for 'Ammar, he gave them what they wanted with his tongue, under compulsion. The Prophet — peace be upon him — was told that 'Ammar had disbelieved, and he said: 'Not at all. 'Ammar is filled with faith from his crown to his foot, and faith is mixed into his flesh and his blood.' Then 'Ammar came to the Messenger of Allah — peace be upon him — weeping, and the Messenger of Allah began to wipe his eyes and said: 'If they come back at you, say to them again what you said.' Then Allah Most High sent down this verse.

al-Wahidi · Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an, p. 280 (the occasion of revelation of An-Nahl 106) our rendering · Open the passage

9 …from Ibn 'Abbas, on the words about guarding yourselves against them out of fear. Taqiyya of the tongue is that a man is compelled to say something that is disobedience to Allah, and he says it out of fear of people while his heart is at rest in faith — that does not harm him

Ibn al-Jawzi · Nawasikh al-Qur'an, p. 323 our rendering · Open the passage

The strongest objection

Everything you have cited is a concession made under the sword: 'Ammar among killers who had killed his father and his mother; the believer of Pharaoh's household in a court where a man was killed for saying "My Lord is Allah"; the weak of Mecca under torture. Nobody is threatening me with death. The most I fear is an angry father, mockery from colleagues, and a work contract that does not get renewed. So you are stretching a concession laid down for coercion that leaves no choice, and applying it to a man who fears social awkwardness — and that is an expansion of your own, not a text you hold. Then there is this: the Prophet's three years ended with an order to proclaim. So on your own account concealment is a stage that comes to an end, not a concession that stays — which means you are deferring the price and calling the deferral a concession.

The first part is right, and it is granted. The verse in Surah An-Nahl came down about coercion at swordpoint: al-Wahidi, on the occasion of its revelation, reports that 'Ammar "gave them what they wanted with his tongue, under compulsion", and that he was told, "If they come back at you, say to them again what you said" 8 — and it is not stretched here to a man who fears mockery. But the case does not rest on that verse alone. The second passage is not about coercion in progress at all; it is about "believing men, oppressed and weak, and believing women" who concealed "in fear for themselves" until even the Muslims did not know them 4 — that is the condition of a man who fears for himself, not of a man under torture at this moment. More precise than that: what the texts on coercion regulate is speech. "Taqiyya of the tongue is that a man is compelled to say something … that does not harm him" 9 — so what needed a licence was to speak, not to keep quiet; silence was never forbidden in the first place, that a permission should have to be sought for it. As for open proclamation, it came down upon a prophet charged with delivering a message, and the text says that "he … proclaimed the call openly" 5 — a call he was to deliver; and no text has been found that makes a person's disclosure of himself an obligation on everyone who comes in. And the most honest thing that can be said to you is this: the limit of coercion that counts — whether losing a job and being cut off by your family falls inside it, or whether it stops at fear for your life — is the pivot of your objection, and no text has been found that fixes that limit, so no claim is made to you about it. What can be held to is that neither of the two roads carries sin 6.

Can I go to Christmas dinner, give my mother a birthday gift, attend my father's funeral in a church?

No — the wall is not in the text. The Qur'an requires that parents be kept company honourably, "Consort with them in the world kindly," in the most extreme case of disagreement anyone could imagine: that they strive to make you ascribe partners to God 1 2. And of those who "warred not against you on account of religion and drove you not out from your homes" there is a separate text, directing "that ye should show them kindness and deal justly with them" 3, which the Muyassar commentary glosses as "that you honour them with good… and your dutifulness toward them" 4. Its occasion of revelation is your question, word for word: the mother of Asma' bint Abi Bakr came to her as an idolater bearing gifts, and Asma' refused the gift and would not let her into the house; the Prophet was asked about it and the verse came down, "so she let her into her house and accepted her gifts" 5. The gift and the table are the subject of the text, not the subject of a ban. The food itself is made lawful by a third text 6 7, and the limit Ahmad sets is on what was slaughtered as an offering "for Venus, or for the stars, or for the church" 8 — not your family's dinner. As for the church: al-Suyuti transmits from 'Awf ibn Malik, with a chain he calls sound, that he entered with the Prophet the Jews' house of worship on their feast day 9. As for the funeral: Ibn al-Qayyim reports that he was asked about a non-believer's funeral passing by, should we stand for it, and he said, "Yes" 10. What actually stands in the way is one thing, not four: praying for your father's forgiveness after he dies outside Islam 11. And even the prohibition in Surat al-Tawbah on standing at the grave has the hypocrites as its subject, and the Muyassar commentary describes that standing as standing "to pray for him" 12 13 — which is not your attending your father's burial.

1 But if they strive with thee to make thee ascribe unto Me as partner that of which thou hast no knowledge, then obey them not. Consort with them in the world kindly, and follow the path of him who repenteth unto Me. Then unto Me will be your return, and I shall tell you what ye used to do -

Surat Luqman 31:15 — Pickthall translation · Open the passage

2 And if your parents — O believing child — strive with you to make you associate another with Me in your worship of Me, something of which you have no knowledge, or command you to commit one of the acts of disobedience to Allah, then do not obey them; for no creature is to be obeyed in disobedience to the Creator. And keep company with them in this world honourably, in whatever carries no sin.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Luqman 31:15 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of religion and drove you not out from your homes, that ye should show them kindness and deal justly with them. Lo! Allah loveth the just dealers.

Surat al-Mumtahanah 60:8 — Pickthall translation · Open the passage

4 Allah does not forbid you — O believers — concerning those… who did not fight you over religion and did not drive you out of your homes, that you honour them with good, and that you deal justly with them through your kindness toward them and your dutifulness toward them. Allah loves those who are just in their words and their deeds.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Mumtahanah 60:8 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Qutayla bint 'Abd al-'Uzza came to her daughter Asma' bint Abi Bakr with gifts: lizards, clarified butter and dried curd. Asma' would not accept her gifts and would not let her into her house. So 'A'isha asked the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, about her, and he said: "Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of religion" — the verse. So she let her into her house and accepted her gifts.

al-Wahidi · Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an, p. 423 our rendering · Open the passage

6 This day are (all) good things made lawful for you. The food of those who have received the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them. And so are the virtuous women of the believers and the virtuous women of those who received the Scripture before you (lawful for you) when ye give them their marriage portions and live with them in honour, not in fornication, nor taking them as secret concubines. Whoso denieth the faith, his work is vain and he will be among the losers in the Hereafter.

Surat al-Ma'idah 5:5 — Pickthall translation · Open the passage

7 Part of the completeness of Allah's favour upon you this day — O believers — is that He has made lawful for you what is good and wholesome. The animals slaughtered by the Jews and the Christians, if they slaughtered them according to their own law, are lawful for you, and what you slaughter is lawful for them.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Ma'idah 5:5 our rendering · Open the passage

8 He said, in the report of his son 'Abd Allah: I do not approve of eating what has been slaughtered for Venus, or for the stars, or for the church, or anything slaughtered for other than Allah. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has said that carrion, blood, swine flesh and what has been consecrated to other than Allah are forbidden to you [al-Ma'idah 5:3].

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 31 our rendering · Open the passage

9 Al-Tabarani transmitted, with a sound chain, from 'Awf ibn Malik al-Ashja'i, who said: The Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, set out and I was with him, until we entered the Jews' house of worship on their feast day.

al-Suyuti · Lubab al-Nuqul fi Asbab al-Nuzul, p. 189 our rendering · Open the passage

10 He was asked: a non-believer's funeral passes by us; do we stand for it? He said: Yes. You are not standing for it; you stand only in reverence for the One who takes the souls. Ahmad reported it. And he stood for the funeral of a Jewish woman and was asked about that, and he said: Death has terror in it, so when you see a funeral, stand.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 220 our rendering · Open the passage

11 It is not for the Prophet, and those who believe, to pray for the forgiveness of idolaters even though they may be near of kin (to them) after it hath become clear that they are people of hell-fire.

Surat al-Tawbah 9:113 — Pickthall translation · Open the passage

12 And never (O Muhammad) pray for one of them who dieth, nor stand by his grave. Lo! they disbelieved in Allah and His messenger, and they died while they were evil-doers.

Surat al-Tawbah 9:84 — Pickthall translation · Open the passage

13 And never pray — O Messenger — over any of the hypocrites who dies, nor stand at his grave to pray for him; for they disbelieved in Allah Most High and in His Messenger, God bless him and grant him peace, and died as transgressors. This is a general ruling covering everyone whose hypocrisy is known.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Tawbah 9:84 our rendering · Open the passage

14 When 'Abd Allah ibn Ubayy died, his son came to the Messenger of Allah, God's blessings upon him, and said: Give me your shirt so that I may shroud him in it, and pray over him, and ask forgiveness for him. So he gave him his shirt, then said: Notify me so that I may pray over him. So he notified him, and when he meant to pray over him, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab pulled him back and said: Has Allah not forbidden you to pray over the hypocrites?

al-Wahidi · Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an, p. 255 our rendering · Open the passage

15 They are the disbelievers of Quraysh, and the verse concerns the prohibition of showing them kindness and seeking their affection. As for those who did not fight, it has already been stated under the letter lam that Allah permitted the Muslims to keep ties with them.

al-Suyuti · Mu'tarak al-Aqran, p. 426 our rendering · Open the passage

The strongest objection

This is selective. You cite "Allah forbiddeth you not" and stay silent about the explicit prohibition in Surat al-Tawbah on praying over any of them and standing at his grave. And you have blurred, glaringly, the difference between kindness to a person and attendance at a rite whose subject is the celebration of the birth of a god whose divinity you deny: the report about the house of worship and the report about standing for a funeral do not make lawful a table that is, at bottom, an observance of another creed. Finally: the man who gave me the ruling is not ignorant, and you are handing me the widest of the opinions after accusing him of handing me the narrowest.

The verse you point to is about the hypocrites, not about the People of the Book, and the Muyassar commentary sets its limit at standing at the grave "to pray for him" 12 13. Even so, the Prophet gave his own shirt to shroud the body of the chief of the hypocrites — "so he gave him his shirt" 14 — so what was barred is the prayer, not the attendance. The verses of prohibition are limited by their own wording to those who fought and expelled, and al-Suyuti says of them: "They are the disbelievers of Quraysh, and the verse concerns the prohibition of showing them kindness and seeking their affection. As for those who did not fight, it has already been stated under the letter lam that Allah permitted the Muslims to keep ties with them" 15. As for your distinction between kindness and rite, it is correct and nothing here disputes it: no bowing, no recitation of a creed and no assent to one entered the answer above, and the report of 'Awf ibn Malik is an entry on a feast day, not a share in an act of worship 9. The difference between the two positions is that this one comes with a text and an occasion of revelation you can read 3 5, and that the narrowest opinion is the only one handed to you under the name of "the religion" — that is what was objected to, not that the man who issued the ruling is ignorant.

Why does your religion have a ruling for everything — down to which foot enters the bathroom?

It is the opposite of what is commonly said: what binds is a short, closed list, not a ledger. A bedouin asked what had been made obligatory on him, and it was counted out for him item by item — the five prayers, the fast of Ramadan, the alms — and he said, "I will do nothing voluntary and I will fall short of nothing God has made obligatory on me." The verdict on him was: "He has succeeded, if he is telling the truth." 1 And what you raise — which hand, which foot — does not belong to the category of command at all. The wording of the source is a description: "He liked to begin with the right in putting on his sandals… his right hand was for his food and his drink, and his left for the privy" — an account of what he preferred, not a ruling that binds anyone 2. Even the text quoted as the headline for the mockery — "Your prophet has taught you everything, even how to relieve yourselves" — turns out, once it is read, to be four restrictions you can count: not to face the qibla, not to clean oneself with the right hand, not with fewer than three stones, and not with dung or with a bone 3 — with no mention of a foot anywhere in it. As for the piling up of detail, the Qur'an forbids it in so many words: "Ask not of things which, if they were made unto you, would trouble you" 4; the commentary reads: "you were commanded nothing in them… had you been burdened with them it would have been hard on you… God left them out, sparing His servants from them" 5; and the established principle is that "everything about whose obligation or prohibition He was silent is pardoned" 6. The multiplying of rules is in fact charged to the questioner, not to the lawgiver: "The greatest offender among the Muslims against the Muslims is the man who asked about something that had not been forbidden, and it was then forbidden to people because of his question" 7. Your second point — that polishing the form produces people who count and do not think — is true, and there is no denying it; the text says it before you do: "It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East and the West" 8, and "Their flesh and their food reach not Allah, but the devotion from you reacheth Him" 9, and "no one will overburden this religion without being overcome by it" 10.

1 In the two Sahihs, from Talha ibn Ubayd Allah: a bedouin came to the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) with dishevelled hair and said: Messenger of God, tell me what God has made obligatory on me of prayer. He said: The five prayers, unless you do something voluntarily. He said: Tell me what God has made obligatory on me of fasting. He said: The month of Ramadan, unless you do something voluntarily. He said: Tell me what God has made obligatory on me of alms. So the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) told him the ordinances of Islam. He said: By Him who honoured you with the truth, I will do nothing voluntary and I will fall short of nothing God has made obligatory on me. The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said: He has succeeded, if he is telling the truth — or: He has entered Paradise, if he is telling the truth. The wording is al-Bukhari's.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami al-Ulum wal-Hikam, p. 515 our rendering · Open the passage

2 He liked to begin with the right side in putting on his sandals, in combing his hair, in his purification, in taking and in giving; his right hand was for his food, his drink and his purification, and his left for the privy and the like of it, for removing filth.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Maad, p. 166 our rendering · Open the passage

3 It was said to him: Your prophet (peace be upon him) has taught you everything, even how to relieve yourselves! He said: Yes. He forbade us to face the qibla when relieving ourselves, or to clean ourselves with the right hand, or to clean ourselves with fewer than three stones, or to clean ourselves with dung or with a bone.

Salman al-Farisi · Muslim · Sahih Muslim 262 · Authentic our rendering

4 O ye who believe! Ask not of things which, if they were made unto you, would trouble you; but if ye ask of them when the Qur'an is being revealed, they will be made known unto you. Allah pardoneth this, for Allah is Forgiving, Clement.

Surah Al-Ma'idah (The Table Spread) 5:101 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

5 O you who have believed in God and His Messenger and acted by His law: do not ask about matters of religion in which you have been commanded nothing — such as asking about things that have not happened, or things that would bring stricter rules into the law. Had you been burdened with them, it would have been hard on you. If you ask about them during the lifetime of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him), while the Qur'an is being sent down to him, they will be made clear to you, and you may then be burdened with them and be unable to bear them. God left them out, sparing His servants from them. God is forgiving to His servants when they repent, and forbearing with them, so He does not punish them once they have turned back to Him.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-Ma'idah 5:101 our rendering · Open the passage

6 They said: the Prophet (peace be upon him) reported from his Lord, blessed and exalted, that everything about whose obligation or prohibition He was silent is pardoned — He pardoned it for His servants, and it is permitted by way of pardon. So it may not be forbidden, nor made obligatory, by analogy with what He did make obligatory or forbid on some ground shared between them; for that entails removing this category altogether and abolishing it.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Ilam al-Muwaqqiin, p. 183 our rendering · Open the passage

7 The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "The greatest offender among the Muslims against the Muslims is the man who asked about something that had not been forbidden, and it was then forbidden to people because of his question." If this is said of someone who caused the Lawgiver to forbid a thing explicitly by asking about the ruling on what had been passed over in silence, then what of someone who forbids what was passed over in silence by his own analogy and his own opinion?

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Ilam al-Muwaqqiin, p. 184 our rendering · Open the passage

8 It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who believeth in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the prophets; and giveth wealth, for love of Him, to kinsfolk and to orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask, and to set slaves free; and observeth proper worship and payeth the poor-due. And those who keep their treaty when they make one, and the patient in tribulation and adversity and time of stress. Such are they who are sincere. Such are the Allah-fearing.

Surah Al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:177 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

9 Their flesh and their food reach not Allah, but the devotion from you reacheth Him. Thus have We made them subject unto you that ye may magnify Allah that He hath guided you. And give good tidings (O Muhammad) to the good.

Surah Al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage) 22:37 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

10 This religion is ease. No one will overburden this religion without being overcome by it. So aim straight, keep close to the mark, take good news, and draw help from the morning journey, the evening journey and something of the last part of the night.

Abu Hurayra · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 39 · Authentic our rendering

11 Abd Allah ibn Masud said: Follow, and do not innovate, for you have been given enough; every newly invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is an error… He also said: Beware of innovating, beware of affectation, beware of going to extremes; hold to the old religion.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Ilam al-Muwaqqiin, p. 114 our rendering · Open the passage

It was said to him: Your prophet (peace be upon him) has taught you everything, even how to relieve yourselves! He said: Yes. He forbade us to face the qibla when relieving ourselves, or to clean ourselves with the right hand, or to clean ourselves with fewer than three stones, or to clean ourselves with dung or with a bone.

Salman al-Farisi · Muslim · Sahih Muslim 262 · Authentic our rendering

This religion is ease. No one will overburden this religion without being overcome by it. So aim straight, keep close to the mark, take good news, and draw help from the morning journey, the evening journey and something of the last part of the night.

Abu Hurayra · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 39 · Authentic our rendering

The strongest objection

This is plain cherry-picking. You quote the texts that lighten the load and say nothing about the fact that the body of law that actually exists runs to thousands of rulings, and that a Muslim does not live with "the five obligations" but with fatwas that follow him through every movement. And your distinction between "obligatory" and "recommended" is a distinction on paper, cancelled in practice: a man who drops what is merely recommended is blamed and counted deficient in his religion, so the choice you appeal to does not exist on the ground.

The objection is accurate as a description of the reality, and it is not disputed here — but the body of law is not the text, and the gap between the two is exactly what the text lays down against itself. The multiplying of rulings is charged as an offence to the questioner 7. What has been passed over in silence may not be attached to the forbidden by analogy, because that "entails removing this category altogether and abolishing it" 6. And going to extremes is condemned by name: "Beware of innovating, beware of affectation, beware of going to extremes; hold to the old religion." 11 As for the blame attached to dropping what is recommended, the bedouin's own answer overturns it: a man announced that he would not add a single thing beyond the obligatory, and he was told he had succeeded, not that he was deficient 1. So if you see someone who counts and does not think, you are seeing what these same texts call a severity that overcomes the one who carries it 10, and a righteousness spent on the direction one faces rather than on the deed 8 — the argument runs against him, not for him.

I believe in God and pray in my heart — why do I need a fixed form?

It runs the other way from the way it is usually put: the picture offered here as a case against the text is the very picture the text curses. In the Qur'an that "woe" falls on people who pray, and on no one else — "Ah, woe unto worshippers", heedless of the prayer they perform, praying to be seen, and, in the closing line, "Yet refuse small kindnesses!" — and the chapter that says it opens with the orphan and the destitute 1. The commentary reads it the same way: "they neither did well in worshipping their Lord, nor did they do well by His creation" 2. And what is refused there, the small kindness, was explained by the Companions as lending out the cooking pot, the bucket and the axe 3 — so a man who prays and withholds the pettiest favour is named in the text before you name him. As for the form and the fixed hours, they are not ornament laid over a meaning. The timing itself is what is imposed: "Worship at fixed times hath been enjoined on the believers" 4. And the shape of the prayer is passed on by imitation, not by composition: "Pray as you have seen me pray" 5. The claim being made is also not a guarantee to be tested in one individual. That "worship preserveth from lewdness and iniquity" 6 is qualified in the commentary, which says it of "the one who keeps it up, completing its pillars and its conditions" 7; and the effect is drawn as cumulative rather than immediate — a river a man washes in five times a day 8. In the book the point is a shaping of the doer, not a transfer of benefit to the one worshipped: "fixed times that cut the day, a fast that teaches the deferring of appetite, and giving that loosens the grip of the hand" 9.

1 Ah, woe unto worshippers

Surat al-Ma'un 107:4–7 · Open the passage

2 And they withhold the loan of things whose lending would do them no harm — vessels and the like; so they neither did well in worshipping their Lord, nor did they do well by His creation.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-Ma'un 107:7 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Our teacher — may God be pleased with him — said: the sound view is that he is obliged to give it free of charge, as the Book and the Sunna indicate. God says: {Ah, woe unto worshippers (4), who are heedless of their prayer (5), who pray only to be seen (6), Yet refuse small kindnesses! (7)} [al-Ma'un 107:4–7]. Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn 'Abbas and others of the Companions said: "It is the lending of the cooking pot, the bucket, the axe and the like."

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 435 our rendering · Open the passage

4 When ye have performed the act of worship, remember Allah, standing, sitting and reclining. And when ye are in safety, observe proper worship. Worship at fixed times hath been enjoined on the believers.

Surat al-Nisa' 4:103 · Open the passage

5 Pray as you have seen me pray.

Malik ibn al-Huwayrith · Ibn al-Mulaqqin · al-Badr al-Munir 4/600 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

6 Recite that which hath been inspired in thee of the Scripture, and establish worship. Lo! worship preserveth from lewdness and iniquity, but verily remembrance of Allah is more important. And Allah knoweth what ye do.

Surat al-'Ankabut 29:45 · Open the passage

7 … Keeping up the prayer restrains the one who keeps it from falling into acts of disobedience and wrongdoing; and that is because the one who keeps it up, completing its pillars and its conditions, has his heart lit, his faith increased, his appetite for good strengthened, and his appetite for evil weakened or extinguished …

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-'Ankabut 29:45 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Tell me: if there were a river at the door of one of you, and he washed in it five times a day, would any of his dirt remain? They said: No, none of his dirt would remain. He said: That is the likeness of the five prayers; by them God wipes away sins.

Abu Hurayra · Muslim · Sahih Muslim 667 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

9 And on this conception repeated worship is read thus: fixed times that cut the day, a fast that teaches the deferring of appetite, and giving that loosens the grip of the hand. And the claim is that the effect is in the doer, not that there is someone whose lack is being filled. … And here the objector says something sound: 'if it is for my own good, and I am good without it, then I have no need of it'. And that is a reply sound in its construction — and there is no answer to it in this chapter, because it carries the matter back to the question of existence

19. Why worship? our rendering · Open the passage

10 … al-Khattabi related from Abu al-'Aliya that he was asked about the meaning of the words {those who are heedless of their prayer}, and he said: it is the man who finishes his prayer not knowing whether he prayed an even or an odd number of cycles. Al-Hasan said: enough, Abu al-'Aliya, it is not so; rather they are the ones who were heedless of its appointed time until it passed them by. Do you not see his words {of their prayer}? … Since he said 'of their prayer', it indicates that what is meant is letting the time go.

al-Zarkashi · al-Burhan fi 'Ulum al-Qur'an, p. 293 our rendering · Open the passage

Pray as you have seen me pray.

Malik ibn al-Huwayrith · Ibn al-Mulaqqin · al-Badr al-Munir 4/600 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

Tell me: if there were a river at the door of one of you, and he washed in it five times a day, would any of his dirt remain? They said: No, none of his dirt would remain. He said: That is the likeness of the five prayers; by them God wipes away sins.

Abu Hurayra · Muslim · Sahih Muslim 667 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

The strongest objection

This is armour nothing can get through. If a man who prays turns out corrupt, you say he never really performed it. If a man who does not pray turns out decent, you say he is beside the point. You are writing into the word 'prayer' a condition measured after the result rather than before it, which makes the claim unfalsifiable in the first place — the very fault you charge others with. And if the effect is in the doer alone, then I am decent without any of this, so I have no need of it.

The condition is stated before the result, not after it, and its marker is verbal: it is measured against the clock, not against a man's character. Al-Hasan al-Basri rejected the reading that makes "heedless" mean a wandering mind, and held that the preposition settles it: "Since he said 'of their prayer', it indicates that what is meant is letting the time go" 10. Letting the prayer slip past its appointed time, praying to be seen, and withholding small kindnesses are three descriptions visible in the act itself 1; where they meet in one man, the text places him among those it threatens, not among those it counts as worshippers. As for your second half, it is not being pushed back: the book calls it "something sound" and "a reply sound in its construction", and states outright that "there is no answer to it in this chapter", because it carries the matter back to the question of God's existence and not to the usefulness of a rite 9. If there is no God, then all of this is a habit whose usefulness is measured by experience alone — and that, not the shape of the prayer, is where the real dispute lies.

I work at a bank — or a bar, or an insurance company. Must I quit my livelihood?

Anyone who rules on your case without knowing your contract and your loan carries the sin of that ruling himself. Ahmad ibn Hanbal was asked about a man who gives a fatwa on a matter he has not made clear to himself, and he answered: "its sin is upon the one who gave it" 8. For Ibn al-Qayyim, a sound fatwa needs two acts of understanding, not one: understanding your actual situation, then understanding the ruling that applies to it — "and whoever takes any other road robs people of their rights, and ascribes that to the Law" 9. And the first thing the very text that forbade usury says is that what you took before the prohibition reached you stays yours and is not demanded back: "he shall keep (the profits of) that which is past" 1; "what passed before the prohibition reached him is his, and there is no sin on him in it" 2. So the subject does not open by confiscating your past. Next, "a bank or a bar or an insurance company" is not one case. The curse in the two hadiths falls on named roles: "the one who consumes usury, the one who pays it, its two witnesses, and the one who writes it" 3, and "the one who drinks it, the one who pours it, the one who sells it … the one who carries it" 4 — not on a building, and not on a payslip. The question is therefore which role you occupy, not what sign hangs over your door. And nothing here will soften what harms you: if your work is writing the usury contract, or pouring and selling the drink, your role is named in the hadith in so many words 34, and that is the heaviest thing in this question, not the lightest. On the other side stand texts that are part of the ruling itself, not a concession in its margin: "So keep your duty to Allah as best ye can" 5; "the religion of God is ease, there is no hardship in it, and God does not ask of His servants what they cannot bear" 6; and necessity is a stated allowance, measured by the size of the need: "whoever is driven by necessity … not wronging by eating beyond his need" 7. So a man who tells you "resign tomorrow" while knowing nothing of your contract, your instalment, or what you actually do all day has not only wronged you; he has fallen into what Ibn al-Qayyim called "a grave error against the Law, one that has imposed hardship and difficulty and the burdening of people with what they have no way to bear — things the resplendent Law … does not bring" 10.

1 Those who swallow usury cannot rise up save as he ariseth whom the devil hath prostrated by (his) touch. That is because they say: Trade is just like usury; whereas Allah permitteth trading and forbiddeth usury. He unto whom an admonition from his Lord cometh, and (he) refraineth (in obedience thereto), he shall keep (the profits of) that which is past, and his affair (henceforth) is with Allah. As for him who returneth (to usury) - Such are rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein.

Surah Al-Baqarah 2:275 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 Whoever is reached by God's prohibition of usury and desists keeps what passed before the prohibition reached him, with no sin upon him in it, and his affair for the time to come is with God.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-Baqarah 2:275 our rendering · Open the passage

3 He cursed the one who consumes usury, the one who pays it, its two witnesses, and the one who writes it.

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud · al-Albani · Sahih Ibn Majah 1860 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

4 God has cursed wine, and the one who drinks it, the one who pours it, the one who sells it, the one who buys it, the one who presses it, the one who has it pressed, the one who carries it, and the one it is carried to.

Abdullah ibn Umar · Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani · Hidayat al-Ruwah 3/137 · hasan (sound) our rendering

5 So keep your duty to Allah as best ye can, and listen, and obey, and spend; that is better for your souls. And whoso is saved from his own greed, such are the successful.

Surah At-Taghabun 64:16 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

6 The religion of God is ease; there is no hardship in it, and God does not ask of His servants what they cannot bear.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-Baqarah 2:286 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Part of God's favour to you, and of the ease He grants, is that He has permitted you to eat these forbidden things in a case of necessity. So whoever is driven by necessity to eat some of them, not wronging by eating beyond his need, and not overstepping God's limits in what has been permitted to him, there is no sin on him in that.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-Baqarah 2:173 our rendering · Open the passage

8 And I asked him about a man who gives a fatwa on a matter he does not grasp. He said: its sin is upon the one who gave it.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in an Rabb al-Alamin, p. 26 our rendering · Open the passage

9 Neither the one who gives fatwas nor the judge can give a ruling or a judgement with the truth except by two kinds of understanding: … the first is understanding the situation and grasping it, drawing out knowledge of what has actually happened from the circumstances, the indications and the signs, until he has full knowledge of it. … The second kind is understanding what is due in that situation … and whoever takes any other road robs people of their rights, and ascribes that to the Law with which God sent His Messenger.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in an Rabb al-Alamin, p. 68 our rendering · Open the passage

10 This is a chapter of very great benefit. Ignorance of it has caused a grave error against the Law, one that has imposed such hardship and difficulty, and such burdening of people with what they have no way to bear, that it is known that the resplendent Law — which stands at the highest rank of human good — does not bring the like of it.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in an Rabb al-Alamin, p. 10 our rendering · Open the passage

11 And if the debtor is in straitened circumstances, then (let there be) postponement to (the time of) ease; and that ye remit the debt as almsgiving would be better for you if ye did but know.

Surah Al-Baqarah 2:280 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

12 The answer in two lines: begin with the smallest thing that lasts, and do not go back into the same setting that took you out. And you may come back with an open question still in your hand — nobody makes it a condition on you that your questions be finished first.

23. What if you want to come back? our rendering · Open the passage

He cursed the one who consumes usury, the one who pays it, its two witnesses, and the one who writes it.

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud · al-Albani · Sahih Ibn Majah 1860 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

God has cursed wine, and the one who drinks it, the one who pours it, the one who sells it, the one who buys it, the one who presses it, the one who has it pressed, the one who carries it, and the one it is carried to.

Abdullah ibn Umar · Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani · Hidayat al-Ruwah 3/137 · hasan (sound) our rendering

The strongest objection

All this detail ends up in the same place. You said it yourself: the one who pours the drink and the one who writes the usury contract are named in the hadith — meaning, get out. "Capacity" and "necessity" are elastic words, and the man who decides how far they stretch knows nothing about my rent or the day my instalment falls due. You answer one jurist with another jurist and then call that a scale. "He shall keep (the profits of) that which is past" clears a month that is already gone; it does not pay next month's rent. What I am holding is a contract, a loan, and children — not a verse and not a report from Ibn Hanbal.

The first half is right, and it is not disputed here: the two roles you named are named in the two hadiths 34, and whoever softens them for you is softening what is not his to soften. As for "capacity" being elastic, the measure is stated, not left open: necessity is measured by the extent of the need and no further 7, and the debtor who cannot pay is met, in that same Qur'an, with "And if the debtor is in straitened circumstances, then (let there be) postponement to (the time of) ease" 11 — the text you fear is the same text that gives you time on your own debt. As for answering one jurist with another: yes, and that is exactly the point. The standard is internal and openly stated, and it applies to you, to this page, and to the man who issued the fatwa alike 9; the fatwa that hurt you is set aside by the scale of its own tradition, not by an outsider's opinion. As for next month, no job is being promised, and no line on this page claims otherwise. What the book says to someone who has newly come in is "begin with the smallest thing that lasts", and it does not make it a condition on him that everything be settled first 12.

Are images forbidden? I'm a photographer — and my passport carries my photo.

The matter is not what it is commonly taken to be, and the two cases you raise are not the whole of the question. The wording your question rests on is transmitted by Ibn Rajab like this — "Among the people most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection are those who make these images" — said about a curtain bearing images in a house, with a partitive "among" and with a demonstrative "these": not a blanket ruling on everyone who reproduces a likeness 1. And for those who spelled the prohibition out, its operative point is idolatry (shirk), not art: Ibn al-Qayyim explains the Prophet's refusal to enter the Kaaba until its images had been erased by saying that "a place of images is a likely occasion of shirk; most of the idolatry of the nations came by way of images and graves" 2. On that basis the juristic answer turned on the venerated form, not on the drawing as such: Ahmad allowed a man who saw an image in a bathhouse to scrape off the head alone 3, and the companions of al-Shafi'i said, "The wrong is only the particular form, so it goes away when that form goes away" 4. And the "imitation" (mudahah) people are warned with means claiming to create, not catching a likeness — Ibn al-Qayyim raised it about counterfeiters who "with their counterfeit and their fraud imitate the creation of God", not about painters 5. The Quran mentions statues made for Solomon in a passage of favour and thanksgiving: "They made for him what he willed: synagogues and statues" 6 — glossed in al-Muyassar as "figures of brass and glass" 7 — and where it condemns such things, the condemnation is for devoting oneself to them: "What are these images unto which ye pay devotion?" 8, that is, the idols "you made, and then kept to, devoting yourselves to worshipping them" 9.

1 … When he (peace be upon him) saw or heard something God dislikes, he would grow angry at it, and would speak about it, and not stay silent. He "entered the house of Aisha and saw a curtain with images on it, and his face changed colour, and he tore it down, and said: Among the people most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection are those who make these images."

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami al-Ulum wa al-Hikam (A Compendium of Knowledge and Wisdom), p. 370 our rendering · Open the passage

2 In the account: the Prophet (peace be upon him) entered the House and prayed in it, and he did not enter it until the images had been erased from it. In this is evidence that prayer in a place bearing images is disliked, and this is more deserving of dislike than prayer in a bathhouse; for the dislike of praying in a bathhouse is either because it is a likely place of impurity, or because it is the house of Satan, and that is the sound view. As for a place of images, it is a likely occasion of shirk; most of the idolatry of the nations came by way of images and graves.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Maad (Provisions for the Hereafter), p. 401 our rendering · Open the passage

3 al-Marrudhi said: I said to Ahmad: A man rents a house and sees images in it. Do you hold that he should scrape them off? He said: Yes. I said: And if I enter a bathhouse and see an image, do you hold that I should scrape off the head? He said: Yes.

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya (Methods of Judgment in Islamic Governance), p. 465 our rendering · Open the passage

4 The companions of al-Shafi'i said: he is liable for what lies between it and the limit at which the image is undone; below that there is no liability, since it was due to be removed; and above that it remains property, since benefit from it can still be had. The wrong is only the particular form, so it goes away when that form goes away …

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya (Methods of Judgment in Islamic Governance), p. 462 our rendering · Open the passage

5 … and especially these alchemists who adulterate coin, jewels, perfume, scent and the like: with their counterfeit and their fraud they imitate the creation of God. God has created nothing such that His servants are able to create the like of His creation. God said, as His Messenger (peace be upon him) reported from Him: "And who does greater wrong than one who sets out to create as I create? Let them create an ant, let them create a grain of barley."

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya (Methods of Judgment in Islamic Governance), p. 392 our rendering · Open the passage

6 They made for him what he willed: synagogues and statues, basins like wells and boilers built into the ground. Give thanks, O House of David! Few of My bondmen are thankful.

Surah Saba (Sheba) 34:13 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

7 The jinn made for Solomon whatever he wished: places of worship, figures of brass and glass, great bowls like the basins in which water gathers, and cauldrons fixed in place, immovable because of their size. And We said: O House of David, work in thanks to God for what He has given you, by obeying Him and carrying out His command. Few of My servants thank God much, and David and his house were among the few.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar (The Simplified Commentary) · Saba 34:13 our rendering · Open the passage

8 When he said unto his father and his folk: What are these images unto which ye pay devotion?

Surah al-Anbiya (The Prophets) 21:52 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

9 When he said to his father and his people: What are these idols that you made, and then kept to, devoting yourselves to worshipping them?

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar (The Simplified Commentary) · al-Anbiya 21:52 our rendering · Open the passage

10 Abu al-Hayyaj al-Asadi said: Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) said to me: "Shall I not send you on the errand the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) sent me on? That you leave no image without effacing it, and no raised grave without levelling it." Narrated by …

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya (Methods of Judgment in Islamic Governance), p. 464 our rendering · Open the passage

11 Muslim. This indicates the effacing of images in whatever they may be, and the demolishing of raised graves, even if they are of stone or fired brick or mud brick. … And in the two Sahih collections, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or an image."

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya (Methods of Judgment in Islamic Governance), p. 465 our rendering · Open the passage

The strongest objection

This is cherry-picking. The very sources you quote contain something broader and harsher: Ali is sent out "that you leave no image without effacing it" [[10]], and Ibn al-Qayyim states that the report "indicates the effacing of images in whatever they may be", and in the two Sahih collections, "Angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or an image" — with no condition of worship, of veneration, or of a standing form [[11]]. So you took what restricts and left what generalises, and then called your own choice "the operative point".

This is the strongest point in the whole question, and it cannot be brushed aside: the disagreement is real and it stands, and anyone who takes the unrestricted reading has an explicit text for it 11. Still, the same author who gives that unrestricted reading pairs the effacing of the image with the levelling of the raised grave in one and the same report 10, and states elsewhere that the reason behind images is that they are "a likely occasion of shirk" 2 — the pairing and the reasoning both name what is feared. And those who took the unrestricted reading did not require destroying every drawing: Ahmad ruled that the head alone be scraped off, not that the panel be wiped out 3, and among the Shafi'is the wrong is "the particular form", which goes away when that form goes away 4. So what can properly be said is this: it is a question whose operative point is disputed between the texts, not one agreed ruling by which the practice is overturned, or which the practice overturns.

What do I wear in a non-Muslim country — at work, at the pool, at the gym?

No - it is not a uniform. What God sent down is clothing described by its function: "raiment to conceal your shame, and splendid vesture" 1, and al-Tafsir al-Muyassar names the two as the clothing of necessity and the clothing of adornment and beauty 2. The Prophet's own practice in dress, as Ibn al-Qayyim records it, was "to wear whatever clothing was available: wool at times, cotton at times, linen at times" - and, in the same passage, that what is objectionable is binding oneself to one style of dress, not departing from it 3; that "he wore in each setting what suited it" 4; and that he wore a long-sleeved fur robe (mustaqa) sent to him as a gift by the ruler of Byzantium 5. Ibn al-Qayyim gives a whole chapter to "the change of the fatwa, and its variation according to the change of times, places, circumstances, intentions and customs," and says that ignorance of it has caused "a grave error against the Law, one that has imposed hardship, difficulty and the obligation of what cannot be done" 6. The closest case in this library to a pool or a gym is the bathhouse: it is not to be entered "except with a waist-wrap of his own; and this is a recommendation amounting to obligation" 7 - a limited covering, not a uniform. Nor will the heavy part of your question be hidden: for a woman there are two texts in particular - "and to draw their veils over their bosoms" 8, where the exception is read as "the outer garments that custom has made usual to wear" 9; and "to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognised and not annoyed" 10, whose stated reason is that it is "nearer that they be distinguished by covering and modesty" 11. That is a visible cost, and it is not denied; and it is a different matter from a beard or the length of a garment. As for the conflation you complain of, the book concedes it in its own words: "And custom did not put on the dress of religion by itself: we are the ones who dressed it in it." 12

1 O Children of Adam! We have revealed unto you raiment to conceal your shame, and splendid vesture, but the raiment of restraint from evil, that is best. This is of the revelations of Allah, that they may remember.

Surat al-A'raf 7:26 - Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 O Children of Adam, We have made for you clothing that covers your nakedness - and that is the clothing of necessity - and clothing for adornment and beauty, which belongs to completeness and ease. And the clothing of the fear of God Most High, by doing what He commands and avoiding what He forbids, is the best clothing for a believer.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar - Surat al-A'raf 7:26 our rendering · Open the passage

3 They likewise keep to a single style of dress, and to set forms, postures and appearances, and they hold departing from them to be objectionable - yet nothing is objectionable except binding oneself to them, holding to them, and never departing from them. ... The truth is that the best of ways is the way of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, which he laid down, commanded, encouraged and kept to; and his practice in dress was to wear whatever clothing was available: wool at times, cotton at times, linen at times.

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 137 our rendering · Open the passage

4 It may be said that he entered Mecca in the gear of battle, with the helmet on his head; so he wore in each setting what suited it.

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 130 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawud related, each with his chain, from Anas ibn Malik: "The ruler of Byzantium sent the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, a mustaqa of fine silk, and he wore it; it is as though I am looking at his hands swinging in it." Al-Asma'i said: the masatiq are furs with long sleeves.

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 133 our rendering · Open the passage

6 Chapter on the change of the fatwa, and its variation according to the change of times, places, circumstances, intentions and customs ... This is a chapter of very great benefit. Ignorance of it has caused a grave error against the Law, one that has imposed hardship, difficulty and the obligation of what cannot be done - such as is known not to come from the resplendent Law, which stands at the highest ranks of benefit.

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya - I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 10 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Abu al-Qasim al-Khiraqi said, in what he transmitted from Abu Abd Allah: ... And he said, in the narration of Abu Dawud: it is recommended that he not enter the bathhouse except with a waist-wrap of his own; and this is a recommendation amounting to obligation.

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya - I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 31 our rendering · Open the passage

8 And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands' fathers, or their sons or their husbands' sons, or their brothers or their brothers' sons or sisters' sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women's nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that ye may succeed.

Surat al-Nur 24:31 - Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

9 And tell the believing women to lower their gaze from what is not lawful for them to look at, and to guard their private parts from what God has forbidden, and not to display their adornment to men but to strive to conceal it - except the outer garments that custom has made usual to wear, when there is nothing in that to invite temptation - and to cast the coverings of their heads over the openings of their bosoms, covering their faces, so that their covering may be complete, ...

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar - Surat al-Nur 24:31 our rendering · Open the passage

10 O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognised and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.

Surat al-Ahzab 33:59 - Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

11 O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to let down over their heads and faces part of their wraps and mantles, so as to cover their faces, their bosoms and their heads; that is nearer that they be distinguished by covering and modesty, so that no harm or annoyance is directed at them.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar - Surat al-Ahzab 33:59 our rendering · Open the passage

12 And custom did not put on the dress of religion by itself: we are the ones who dressed it in it.

An apology with no 'but' our rendering · Open the passage

13 They were wearing the taylasan, and he said: how much they resemble the Jews of Khaybar. From here a number of the early and the later generations disliked wearing it, because of what Abu Dawud and al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak related from Ibn Umar from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: "Whoever imitates a people is one of them."

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 136 our rendering · Open the passage

The strongest objection

This is cherry-picking. The very book you cite is the one that reports "whoever imitates a people is one of them," and on that basis the early generations disliked one particular garment because it was the dress of Jews. So your religion does demand a distinctive appearance, and it makes resembling outsiders a ground for blame. All your talk of "function" and "custom" is a workaround that ends with a Muslim who is indistinguishable in my country - and that is exactly what your own text forbids.

In that same passage the report is applied to one particular garment, not to foreign dress as such: "They were wearing the taylasan, and he said: how much they resemble the Jews of Khaybar. From here a number of the early and the later generations disliked wearing it" 13 - the reason is a garment that had become the badge of a religious community, not everything a non-Muslim wears. And the book that transmits this is the same book that transmits that the ruler of Byzantium sent him a fur robe "and he wore it" 5, that "he wore in each setting what suited it" 4, and that what is objectionable is "binding oneself to them, holding to them, and never departing from them" 3 - the three do not hold together on your reading. As for your being in the country you were born in, that is precisely what the chapter on "the change of the fatwa ... according to the change of times, places ... and customs" 6 is about; it is not a case for a ruling carried across unchanged from one country to another.

How do I fast where the sun sets after twenty hours — or doesn't set at all?

The matter runs the opposite way to what is usually assumed. The text never names a single hour. It tied the ruling to a sign in the fasting person's own sky: "and eat and drink until the white thread becometh distinct to you from the black thread of the dawn. Then strictly observe the fast till nightfall" 1 — and the Prophet explained that the two threads are "the whiteness of the day and the blackness of the night" 4. So the gap in hours between Trondheim and Mecca is what the ruling requires as it was worded, not a concession wrung out of us. The first half of the choice you offer — that a person should fast himself to ruin — is barred by a text of its own: "The Messenger of God, peace be upon him, forbade the continuous fast as a mercy to the community, and permitted it up to the pre-dawn hour" 5. And the verse that imposes the fast carries the dispensation inside it, before anyone thinks to ask for one: "and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, (let him fast the same) number of other days. Allah desireth for you ease; He desireth not hardship for you" 2, which the commentary reads as: "God, exalted be He, wants ease and facility for you in His laws, and does not want hardship and difficulty for you" 3. And where the sign itself is missing, estimation is an instrument stated in the chapter on fasting itself: "if it is obscured from you, then estimate it" — "for estimating here is the measured reckoning, and what is meant by it is completing the count" 6.

1 It is made lawful for you to go in unto your wives on the night of the fast. They are raiment for you and ye are raiment for them. Allah is Aware that ye were deceiving yourselves in this respect and He hath turned in mercy toward you and relieved you. So hold intercourse with them and seek that which Allah hath ordained for you, and eat and drink until the white thread becometh distinct to you from the black thread of the dawn. Then strictly observe the fast till nightfall and touch them not, but be at your devotions in the mosques. These are the limits imposed by Allah, so approach them not. Thus Allah expoundeth His revelation to mankind that they may ward off (evil).

Surat al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:187 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Qur'an, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion (of right and wrong). And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, (let him fast the same) number of other days. Allah desireth for you ease; He desireth not hardship for you; and (He desireth) that ye should complete the period, and that ye should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that peradventure ye may be thankful.

Surat al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:185 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

3 The sick person and the traveller are permitted to break the fast, and then they make up the number of those days. God, exalted be He, wants ease and facility for you in His laws, and does not want hardship and difficulty for you.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surat al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:185 our rendering · Open the passage

4 and that the white thread and the black thread are the whiteness of the day and the blackness of the night

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 224 our rendering · Open the passage

5 The Messenger of God, peace be upon him, forbade the continuous fast as a mercy to the community, and permitted it up to the pre-dawn hour. And in Sahih al-Bukhari, from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, that he heard the Prophet, peace be upon him, say: "Do not fast continuously. Whoever among you wishes to fast continuously, let him do so only until the pre-dawn hour."

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 32 our rendering · Open the passage

6 This is not contradicted by his words: "If it is obscured from you, then estimate it" — for estimating is the measured reckoning, and what is intended by it is completing the count, just as he said: "then complete the number"; and what is meant by completing is completing the count of the month that was obscured.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 36 our rendering · Open the passage

7 It was said: this is a general ruling in all lands, even in a land whose people have never heard of dates nor seen them; so the value of a sa' must be paid in place of the dates, and paying a sa' of their own staple food does not suffice them … Others disagreed with them and said: rather, in every place a sa' of the dominant staple food of that land is to be paid … And there is no doubt that this is closer to the Lawgiver's purpose and to the interest of the two contracting parties than requiring the value of a sa' of dates in its place.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 18 our rendering · Open the passage

8 For the Sacred Law is built and founded upon wisdom and upon the welfare of God's servants in this life and the next. It is justice entire, mercy entire, benefit entire, and wisdom entire. So every question that departs from justice into tyranny, from mercy into its opposite, from benefit into harm, and from wisdom into futility is not part of the Sacred Law, even if it has been brought into it by interpretation.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 10 our rendering · Open the passage

9 Hamza ibn 'Amr asked him, peace be upon him, saying: I find in myself the strength to fast while travelling, so is there any blame on me? He said: It is a dispensation from God; whoever takes it has done well, and whoever wishes to fast, there is no blame on him. Muslim recorded them both.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 226 our rendering · Open the passage

The strongest objection

This is a rationalization built after the problem appeared. The text says "till nightfall," not "till something that resembles nightfall," and in the whole of your classical jurisprudence there is not one line about a country where the twilight does not leave the sky for two months — because the men who framed the law did not know such countries existed. And your analogy with cloud is a fallacy: cloud hides a sign that is there, while at high latitudes there is no sign to hide. Then you yourselves disagree today about the answer — the nearest moderate country, or the timings of Mecca, or splitting the twenty-four hours? Your disagreement about this "instrument of the text" is the proof that it does not come from the text at all. It comes from you.

The first half of that is granted, and I do not dispute it. But the absence of the case is not the absence of the tool. This very question — is the letter of a text to be exported to a country where it cannot stand? — was put to the jurists in the case of the musarrah, the animal left unmilked so that it appears to yield more, and it was settled against literalism: "this is a general ruling in all lands, even in a land whose people have never heard of dates nor seen them … rather, in every place a sa' of the dominant staple food of that land is to be paid … and there is no doubt that this is closer to the Lawgiver's purpose" 7. As for your distinction between a sign being covered and a sign not existing, it is a real distinction in description that changes nothing in the tool: "then estimate it" is an answer to a case where sighting is impossible, and its remedy is reckoning and completing the count 6. The disagreement is admitted. It is a disagreement about the estimate, not about the ruling, and its test is stated in the texts, and every position within it is judged against that test: "every question that departs from justice into tyranny, and from mercy into its opposite … is not part of the Sacred Law, even if it has been brought into it by interpretation" 8. And one thing remains that I will not soften for you: a dispensation is a permission, not a cancellation — "It is a dispensation from God; whoever takes it has done well, and whoever wishes to fast, there is no blame on him" 9 — so whoever is strong enough for the twenty hours fasts them. It is genuinely hard, and I claim nothing else.

Where does the Quran state the five prayers? I can't find it.

The matter is the opposite of what the question assumes. The Quran commands the prayer, fixes its times, and names some of the prayers outright 1 3; what it does not give is the number of units and the manner of performance, and nothing beyond that. "Establish worship at the going down of the sun until the dark of night, and (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn" 1 — and al-Tafsir al-Muyassar glosses it: "this includes the noon prayer, the afternoon prayer, the sunset prayer and the night prayer; and establish the dawn prayer" 2 — five in a single verse. Two of them the Quran names by name: "Before the prayer of dawn … and after the prayer of night" 3. It commands, "Be guardians of your prayers, and of the midmost prayer" 4, which al-Muyassar reads as "the five obligatory prayers … and the prayer that stands in the middle of them, which is the afternoon prayer" 5. And it states that "Worship at fixed times hath been enjoined on the believers" 6 — where al-Shafi'i finds two things at once in "at fixed times": "the time in which we pray, and their number" 7. As for the units and the manner, their absence is a stated division of labour, not a gap passed over in silence: "the Quran came with the obligation of prayer, zakat, hajj and jihad in summary, without the detail of it" 8, and the detail is in the words "Pray as you have seen me pray" 9. The phrase you appeal to, "an exposition of all things", is glossed by al-Muyassar as "a clarification of every matter that needs clarifying" 10, and the Book itself assigns that clarifying to the Messenger: "and We have revealed unto thee the Remembrance that thou mayst explain to mankind that which hath been revealed for them" 11. So the two options you set out are not the whole range: a Quran that obliges and fixes times 6, a Messenger whom the Book appoints to explain 11, and a Sunnah that details what was given in summary 13.

1 Establish worship at the going down of the sun until the dark of night, and (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn. Lo! (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn is ever witnessed.

Surah al-Isra 17:78 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 Establish the prayer in full, from the time the sun declines at midday until the darkness of the night — this includes the noon prayer, the afternoon prayer, the sunset prayer and the night prayer; and establish the dawn prayer, and lengthen the recitation in it, for the dawn prayer is attended by the angels of the night and the angels of the day.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Isra 17:78 our rendering · Open the passage

3 O ye who believe! Let your slaves, and those of you who have not come to puberty, ask leave of you at three times (before they come into your presence): Before the prayer of dawn, and when ye lay aside your raiment for the heat of noon, and after the prayer of night. Three times of privacy for you. It is no sin for them or for you at other times, when some of you go round attendant upon others (if they come into your presence without leave). Thus Allah maketh clear the revelations for you. Allah is Knower, Wise.

Surah al-Nur 24:58 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 Be guardians of your prayers, and of the midmost prayer, and stand up with devotion to Allah.

Surah al-Baqarah 2:238 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

5 Guard, O Muslims, the five obligatory prayers by keeping to them at their times, with their conditions, their pillars and their obligatory parts; and guard the prayer that stands in the middle of them, which is the afternoon prayer; and stand in your prayer obedient to God, humble and submissive.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Baqarah 2:238 our rendering · Open the passage

6 When ye have performed the act of worship, remember Allah, standing, sitting and reclining. And when ye are in safety, observe proper worship. Worship at fixed times hath been enjoined on the believers.

Surah al-Nisa 4:103 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

7 And with the same chain he said: al-Shafi'i said: God, Mighty and Majestic, laid it down in His Book that what He made obligatory — the prayers — is at fixed times; and "at fixed times" (God knows best) means the time in which we pray, and their number. For He, exalted be His praise, said: "Worship at fixed times hath been enjoined on the believers" (4:103).

al-Shafi'i · Ahkam al-Qur'an lil-Shafi'i, compiled by al-Bayhaqi, p. 56 our rendering · Open the passage

8 He, peace and blessings be upon him, said when he led the people in Hajj: "Take from me your rites of pilgrimage." For the Quran came with the obligation of prayer, zakat, hajj and jihad in summary, without the detail of it; and there is further clarification that adds to the ruling of the Book, such as the prohibition of marrying a woman together with her paternal aunt or her maternal aunt, and the prohibition of domestic donkeys and of every fanged beast of prey, along with other matters too long to list, which I have set out in summary elsewhere. God, Mighty and Majestic, commanded obedience to him and the following of him with a command that was absolute and general, restricted by nothing; He did not say, "whatever agrees with the Book of God", as some people of deviation have said,

Ibn Abd al-Barr · Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm wa-Fadlih, p. 2754 our rendering · Open the passage

9 Go back to your families, teach them and instruct them, and pray as you have seen me pray. When the prayer is due, let one of you give the call to prayer for you, and let the eldest of you lead you.

Malik ibn al-Huwayrith · al-Albani · Sahih al-Adab al-Mufrad 156 · Authentic (sahih) our rendering

10 And remember, O Messenger, when We raise up on the Day of Resurrection in every nation a witness against them — he is the messenger God sent to them from among themselves and in their own tongue — and We bring you, O Messenger, as a witness against your nation. We have sent the Quran down to you as a clarification of every matter that needs clarifying, such as the rulings of the lawful and the forbidden, of reward and punishment, and other than that; and so that it may be a guidance out of misguidance, a mercy for whoever believes in it and acts by it, and good tidings for the believers of the good end awaiting them.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Nahl 16:89 our rendering · Open the passage

11 With clear proofs and writings; and We have revealed unto thee the Remembrance that thou mayst explain to mankind that which hath been revealed for them, and that haply they may reflect.

Surah al-Nahl 16:44 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

12 That which Allah giveth as spoil unto His messenger from the people of the townships, it is for Allah and His messenger and for the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, that it become not a commodity between the rich among you. And whatsoever the messenger giveth you, take it. And whatsoever he forbiddeth, abstain (from it). And keep your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is stern in reprisal.

Surah al-Hashr 59:7 — Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

13 There is no difference at all between the Sunnah coming with the number of circuits of the tawaf and the number of units of the prayer, and its coming with the obligation of stillness, the specification of al-Fatihah and the intention; for all of it is an explanation of what God intended — that He made these acts of worship obligatory upon His servants in this manner, so this manner is what was intended. The Sunnah came as an explanation of what was intended in every one of its aspects, even in legislation it introduces first, for that too is an explanation of what God intended by the general command to obey Him and to obey His Messenger.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 223 our rendering · Open the passage

Pray as you have seen me pray.

Malik ibn al-Huwayrith · Ibn al-Mulaqqin · al-Badr al-Munir 4/600 · Authentic (sahih) our rendering

Go back to your families, teach them and instruct them, and pray as you have seen me pray. When the prayer is due, let one of you give the call to prayer for you, and let the eldest of you lead you.

Malik ibn al-Huwayrith · al-Albani · Sahih al-Adab al-Mufrad 156 · Authentic (sahih) our rendering

The strongest objection

That relocates the problem, it does not solve it. Every verse you cited is indefinite. The phrases "the going down of the sun" and "the dark of night" are words for times of day, not counts of prayers, and the one who put "five" into them is the commentator and al-Shafi'i — that is, the Sunnah itself. So you prove the Sunnah from the Quran and then read the Quran through the Sunnah, and that is a circle. Worse, "And whatsoever the messenger giveth you, take it" is about the division of the fay' by the explicit wording of its own context, so appealing to it for a general rule of legislation is cutting half a verse out of its place.

Your second point is right as stated, and there is no glossing over it: the verse sits in the context of the fay', "That which Allah giveth as spoil unto His messenger from the people of the townships" 12, so nothing can be built on it alone. The weight rests instead on "that thou mayst explain to mankind that which hath been revealed for them" 11 — the task of explaining is settled in the Book before anything is narrated from anyone, and Ibn Abd al-Barr points out that the command to obey came "absolute and general, restricted by nothing; He did not say, 'whatever agrees with the Book of God'" 8. As for the circle, it does not close, because the Quran alone — before any report — establishes that the prayer has fixed appointed times, "Worship at fixed times hath been enjoined on the believers" 6; that among them is a "midmost prayer" set between others of its kind, "Be guardians of your prayers, and of the midmost prayer" 4; and that some of them carry names, "the prayer of dawn" and "the prayer of night" 3. The fixing is in the Book and the number is in the explanation, not the reverse. The objection also swallows itself: whoever rejects the Sunnah is not left with some rival count of prayers, he is left with no prayer at all, for the Book has no counted bowing, no described prostration, and no Fatihah made obligatory within it. "There is no difference at all between the Sunnah coming with the number of circuits of the tawaf and the number of units of the prayer, and its coming with the obligation of stillness, the specification of al-Fatihah and the intention" 13 — and all of it comes back to "Pray as you have seen me pray" 9.