Muslim Slob's Blog

It takes a slob to recognize a slob. The mission of this blog is to point out the problems this slob sees within Islam. And to develop solid arguments needed to bring reform within the Muslim communities, as well as counter Islamophobes. This is not an offense free zone. If you are offended...just ignore me. I don't believe in censorship at all and I use four letter words. Not saying this to brag about my crass-ness or anything, just a warning for people that are uncomfortable reading about Islam and seeing a f-bomb appear out of nowhere. Bio: I was born in Pakistan and raised in the U.S. and just recently moved to Malaysia. I've been educated in Islam by Pakistani culture, moderate/conservative parents, mostly conservative extended family, conservative Islamic Sunday school, conservative and extremist mosques and then have educated myself as I realized their education had misled me numerous times. I am in favor of reforming all the branches of Islamic Traditional Structures. Everything from Mosques and Schools of Thoughts to politics and the commonly practiced Tradition based Islam. In my opinion, Muslims have headed in the wrong direction for so long, they have stopped being Muslims.

[fucknosexistcostumes]

Police making a woman take off her clothing at the beach because she’s wearing too much, 2016

Police measuring a woman’s clothing because she’s wearing too little, 1922

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Wow almost as if the clothes weren’t the problem and men just want to control women

[kitteemortis]

I think it’s an important peice of context that the first image was based on a law that was targeting Muslims specifically.

[islamic-art-and-quotes]

Source: flickr.com, via IslamicArtDB

[muslimslobblog]

The Quran Is Not Too Complex

At a young age, many Muslims are told that the Quran is too complex to be understood by normal Muslims. It needs a scholarly class to be properly analyzed and comprehended. This, of course, is contradictory to the Quranic belief that the Quran is simple and for everyone.

One of the results of the “Quran is too complex” myth is the over reliance of the Ahadith in Muslim culture; while the Quran is too complex, the Ahadith are there to help you understand the Quran. The Ahadith are perceived to be bite-sized anecdotes that any simpleton can understand. The consequence of the over reliance of the Ahadith, coupled with a few other erroneous beliefs, has the Muslim population relying on the Ahadith as the primary source of their Islamic knowledge. When an Islamic question is raised, many Muslims run to the Ahadith first. The Quran therefore became secondary.

Instead of skimming through the pages of the Quran first, then going to the Ahadith to see it’s application, Muslims read the hadith and ignore what the Quran may have to say on the matter. Or worse, after reading the Ahadith, they fail to see that the Quran was contradicted. For a certain segment of the population, I can understand where the “Quran is too complex” thinking comes from. There are plenty of illiterate or under educated Muslims. They cannot be trusted to analyze the Quran and draw correct conclusions. For these individuals, asking them to trust the educated seems like a reasonable request. But does this way actual accomplished the goal? Should we be saying, “The Quran is too complex, so don’t try?” Or should we be trying to empower everyone, “The Quran is complex, but with enough study anyone can understand it.” Many of my followers here are college educated. Which allows me to assume you’ve written at least a couple of research papers. You may have even analyzed writings from Shakespeare or Dickens. You may have even sharpened your critical analysis skills by taking philosophy or joined a debate team. And while your literary analytical skills may be better than majority of the Muftis and Imams on this planet, you for some reason still default to their interpretations of Islam, while ignoring your own apprehensions about their interpretations. Don’t do it. The Quran tells you to apply your critical thinking skills to it. You don’t have to rely on some under-educated Mufti’s biased opinions to determine if women can travel without a mehram. You know they can. The tools we have available to us, the Muslims of the past could never fathom. We are more aware and educated than the people that compiled the Ahadith. When applying academic standards, the Ahadith do not hold up to scrutiny. No academic standard would approve of the criteria applied for the compilation of the Ahadith. If you presented the criteria to a college professor, the professor would say you need better sources. The Ahadith read more like a collection of children stories, old wives tales, and parables than actual facts. The Ahadith rely on literary methods, like repetition, that many children’s stories use and reminds me of Goldilocks and Chicken Little. In fact, for many of the Ahadith, if the character names were changed, you wouldn’t be able to tell if I was quoting a religious text, or trying to teach kids manners and social norms through storytelling. Many of us end up studying Islam in our own personal lives for years and years. Having done so, why should we default to some backwards Imam in Saudi Arabia, when our own critical thinking skills are better? Why do we ignore the political and social biases of the Imam, while also ignoring that we are more knowledgeable than him? The Quran is not too complex for you. Things are just confusing because most of us grew up being told lies and misinterpretation of Islam.

[iwearplaids-deactivated20211004]

non-muslim friend during ramadan : Why are you not eating ?

me :

[parchaparadise-blog-deactivated]

I’m a light skinned kid with nappy hair. I’m A Puerto Rican woman who doesn’t speak Spanish. I’m a proud boricua who abstains from the popular superstitious traditions of her culture. I’m a Muslim convert who practices probably one of the smallest and taboo sectors of Islam, called Quranism. I’m a 20 year old smart ass who isn’t in college.

My whole identity is full of contradictions…and yet I’m one of the most content people I know.

[findingpeacewithin]

True Quranists shouldn’t even believe in the Quran itself because of the fact that its verses were relayed through Prophet Muhammad (SAW)

If you don’t think any of the words spoken by the Prophet were reliable then why do you think the Quran is reliable?

[amalgamspot]

Because the Quranists are still Muslims. To you Quranists are not Muslims, so it’s hard to believe that Quranists believe that the Quran is the word of God, like the Quran says it is.

If you look at the picture of Islam that exists within the pages of the Quran, and compare it to the pictures found in the ahadith, you can see that the pictures are very different. In the pages of the Quran, the religion seems more open, peaceful and sane. In the pages of the ahadith, the religion seems to be from/for a particular culture of a particular time. And, by the majority of the Muslim population, it is interpreted to mean we should all behave how Arabs from the distance past would behave. The Islam of the Quran is very different from the Islam of the Ahadith; only one can be right. Quranists choose the Quran.

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Differences Between Quranist Muslims and Orthodox Muslims

The shahada (statement of faith). Quranists say ‘lâ ilâha illallâh’ (no God but God) rather than the Sunni lâ ilâha illallâh, Muḥammadur rasûlullâh (no god but God, Muhammad is His Prophet) or Shia lâ ilâha illallâh, Muḥammadur rasûlullâh, wa Ali unwali ullah (no god but God, Muhammad is His Prophet, Ali is God’s regent). Only the Quranist shahada appears verbatim within the Quran.

Quranists reject Hadith.  Sunnis & Shia claim that Hadith are  “sayings” of Prophet Muhammed that were gathered more than 100 years after his death and were assumed to be verbally transferred throughout generations.  Quranist find Hadith compilation time frame and compilation methodology as weak and full of contradictions with the Quran  and a major source of confusion.  Sunnis and Shia consider the Quran to be an insufficient source of guidance that lacks details and is only completed by a second source (Hadith).

Quranist consider the four forbidden months as the months for pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca, since this is stated in the Quran.  While Sunni & Shia Hadithists implement Hajj over a 4 day period.

The overwhelming majority Quranists pray 3 times a day dissimilar to orthodox Sunnis and Shia, the three mentioned in the Quran.  A small minority argue that the Quran mentions 5 prayers & not 3, and therefore pray 5 prayers.

Quranists have no restrictions with women leading prayers and sermons, since there is no mention in Quran prohibiting this, while this is  haram (forbidden) by Sunni & Shi’a theologies.

A menstruating Quranist woman may perform salat (prayer), enter a mosque and touch a quran, as the quran only forbids menstruating women from sexual intercourse or marrying a new man within the first three menstrual cycles of leaving her husband, the Quran offering no further mention of menstruation-related prohibitions.

Quranists reject the hadith story of the miraj (night journey) where Prophet Muhammad purportedly flew to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on a buraq, ascended to heaven, conversed with Moses and the other Prophets, and bargained down the number of prayers required from Allah to eventually settle at five. Hadith followers hold that as a result of the events during the miraj, a Muslims prayer carries fifty times more merit than a single prayer or that of a non-Muslim, whilst quranists reject the reasoning and the story;

A Quranist adhan (call for prayer) may differ from the orthodox Muslim adhan.  Quranist Adhan emphasizes on the mention of God Alone, since the Quran emphasizes that prayer and houses of worship are for God Alone.

The amount of zakat (alms), hadithists provide 2.5% of their wealth in a prescribed manner and formulas based on secondary-sources once a year, whilst a quranist is free to donate as much or as little as they wish from the extra/excess, whenever he/she is blessed by a certain amount of wealth/payment, be it, once a day, once a month, or once a year.  The Quran does not specify the amount to be given, but giving zakat should be within close proximity of when the payment/wealth is received, since it is societies responsibility to take care of the poor, frequently, not once a year.

Circumcision, either male or female, plays no role in Quranist theology.

Most Quranists interpret the Quran’s prohibition on intoxicantsas deeming alcohol haram (forbidden) like the orthodox Muslims do.  While some minority Quranists hold that alcohol is not forbidden and the only restriction is to avoid making prayers while intoxicated.

Quranists do not consider dogs unclean or to be avoided, whilst dog ownership and interaction is discouraged by orthodox Muslims;

Quranists are free to listen to music and dance without restriction, because nowhere does the Quran mention a prohibition or discouragement of it. Orthodox Muslim communities permit music and dance only with severe restrictions.

Orthodox Muslims are encouraged to dress in the way of the prophet Muhammad or his wives, including growing a beard to a certain length, trimming the mustache, wearing a taqiyah (cap), and wearing a niqab/face-cover or hijab/head-scarf (depending on the madhab/sect); and discouraged or prohibited from dressing in certain other ways such as men wearing yellow-colored clothes, silk and gold jewelry. Clothing rules play no part in Quranist theology other than that the person dress modestly according to the quran’s prescription. Quranists agree that head scarf is not required for women and the niqab plays no role in Quranist theology.

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I'm hoping to community build with a bunch of Quranist Muslims.

Introduce yourselves by reblogging and DMing!

[muslimslobblog]

Are you Muslim by birth, or by choice?

I’m not asking whether you’re a convert (revert) or not. Do you, personally, believe that you’ve actually made the decision to be Muslim, or are you Muslim because you were culturally indoctrinated early in your life?

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The Imam making an announcement after Isha like “I received complaints that men are wandering into the women’s area looking for their wives, current or future” LMAOOO

[islamic-art-and-quotes]

I'm genuinely wondering why is wars important in Islam? Why did the deen spread by war? I don't understand the spoils of war aswell. It's talked about in the Qur'an. I don't want to say something which would make me deviate , so please don't pass that judgment. I'm just not a war person and I don't understand the idea behind taking things from the enemy when war is a traumatisizing experience.

War is what comes about when people cannot settle their disagreements peacefully. It is just a larger version of a fight between two people. Fighting is part of the lives of many animals, not just humans. 

Humans fight because some people’s desires make them want to take things from other people or do things to other people. Humans have free will, meaning that even if they know everything there is to know about morality, they can still do evil things and harm others. The reason God rewards us for being good is that we have the power to be evil, it is for our choice to be good that God rewards us.

The Muslims peacefully suffered the oppression of the pagans in Mecca. The Prophet ﷺ did not ask his followers to start gathering weapons in order to fight back. As long as they lived under the rule of the pagans, they had to abide by their laws.

But when the Prophet was elected the ruler of the city-state of Medina, things changed. Medina was a sovereign state (it was not under the rule of any other country, it was independent) and had to defend itself against external threats. When ruling a country, you cannot say that you love peace and sit back and expect outsiders to be peaceful. If your country has something valuable, such as oil, then other countries will want to invade you and take the valuable things you have. As long as you are dealing with other humans, you need to have the power to defend yourself from them, because not all humans are good people who want peace. Many humans constantly desire more power and wealth and are willing to harm and kill others for it. There are thousands of rich factory owners who do not care that the chemicals they throw into the rivers can cause birth defects. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they do not care. What is needed therefore is a law (backed by men and women carrying weapons, i.e. the police) that prevents such people from polluting rivers.

The Prophet ﷺ had to deal with the threat from Mecca and other surrounding Arab tribes who wanted to extinguish Islam and kill him and his followers by creating an army. They ended up fighting the Meccans, then the Romans and the Persians started to threaten the Muslims, so the Muslims had to fight them, and in this way the war continued.

Eventually, the Muslim world was ruled by the Umayyads and Abbasids who were not always very religious. They acted like all other rulers act, wanting wealth and power and glory, so they encouraged people to wage wars in the name of Islam even though it wasn’t about religion, it was about power.

So asking why war was needed is similar to asking why the police is needed. It is needed because some people are not nice and are willing to kill you to take what you have.

As for the spoils of war, it is an ordinary part of war that the defeated army leaves behind its weapons and other things it has. The rules regarding the spoils are there so the Muslims do not fight among themselves over the spoils but deal with them in a civilized manner.

[skepticbrowngirl]

“Hijab subverts beauty standards and makes men look focus on your personality instead of your looks!”

Not really…women still have to live up to beauty standards, they just have to do it in the privacy of their home for their husband. They literally told us in Sunday school that women should save makeup and tight dresses when they are home with their husbands and shouldn’t “dress like Eskimos” around them (also know as, be covered up).

On top of that, women do have to fit beauty standards when going to women only events. The pressure and girl hate and competition still exists and manifests themselves at milads and other events where women are separated from men. Especially if you’re talking in terms of marriage, where aunties see how pretty you are and make arrangements for you to meet their son based on that.

Also, what personality are men seeing? Because even in the West it’s really looked down upon for boys and girls to socialize too closely. Events are always split by sex. Dating is haram. Marriage happens through parents talking to other parents. So there’s really not a lot of time to get to be friends to even know each other personalities beyond some superficial points.

When parents look for marriageable boys, they look for someone financially stable and from a “good” family/rich with good reputation. When parents look for girls, they look for someone pretty (but modest), who can do housework, and has a good career (but only for trophy purposes, because they still expect her to be the one to do the housework and raise kids). There really is no friendship or actual bonding outside of a few phone calls and instant message chats. So how can it make men see women for their personality? When they can’t even have a friendship or a real bond, when their relationship is based on their parents approving for wealth and reputation?

The only “personality” men are appreciating is one of subservience. Their parents approve of a girl who will follow the family customs the way they want. They told us in Sunday school men prefer women in hijabs because these women will “raise their children” and are therefore more pure and better mothers. (Because somehow clothing has an indication of how well you work with children). They want baby factories who will do the housework and agree with them, not girls who they became friends with and bonded with enough to love them for who they are and not what they can provide for them. That’s the only personality they get to see in this really archaic culture.

[fakerniba7asbak]

I’d also like to add that the hijab doesn’t rid women of beauty standards even in public environments.

I can at least speak for the gulf countries - there are different styles to the hijab and abaya, lots of trends that go in and out and there’s a lot of pressure to keep up with those trends. Makeup isn’t nonexistent, in fact many hijabi women don’t leave the house without it, same as women in the west.

Women who are more conventionally attractive get more positive attention. Women who are not conventionally attractive struggle because of it.

Hijab does not rid women of beauty standards. That is a myth on so many levels.

[xx-fadingaway-xx]

I hate when Muslims are glorifying the hijab and then they’ll say something like “"well in ancient Europe women were also supposed to cover up and only show themselves to them husbands!” Like yea that was backwards and archaic af we should be moving on from from the Stone Age not trying to emulate it. 

[islamic-art-and-quotes]

There are endless of hadiths that ridicules us woman. That says that we aren't rational, intellectual etc. Many of them are of sahih. For instance the hadith in which asmaa bint Yazid was talking to the prophet sws and he and his companions were amazed that a woman could express herself as she did (which means that they normally doubt woman's intellect). Then you got the straightforward ones that says woman are stupid, inferior etc...

Our conceptualization of Islam comes from the Quran. The Quran is our program and our guide in life, and it doesn’t contain any of the things you describe.

As for hadith, hadith exists on a second tier, it is there to provide us with an example of the Prophet’s efforts to follow the Quran. Everything in hadith is considered z̧anni, meaning of doubtful certitude. Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa recommend skepticism toward hadith, including authentic ones, whenever they deviate from the Quran or from well-established practices of the Sunna. Therefore, for example, Imam Malik refuses to act by various hadith narrations even though they were considered authentic, because the narrations go against the well-established practices of the people of Medina (see The Origins of Islamic Law: The Qur'an, the Muwatta’ and Madinan Amal by Yasin Dutton).

Imam al-Bukhari himself rejects an authentic hadith because it contains a prophesy that does not come true (the Prophet peace be upon him says this thing will happen, but 200 years have passed and it has not happened, so al-Bukhari concludes the hadith is false). For more examples of scholars rejecting authentic narrations see the (freely available) paper How We Know Early Ḥadīth Critics Did MatnCriticism and Why It’s So Hard to Find by Jonathan Brown.

There is an authentic narration (in Sahih Muslim) that says if a woman, black dog or donkey passes in front of a person praying, their prayer is invalidated. In a different narration, also in Sahih Muslim, it is recorded that when Aisha (wife of the Prophet peace be upon him), may God have mercy on her, hears this hadith (this is after the Prophet’s death), she angrily retorts “You have compared us to dogs!” Instead of sitting quietly and accepting the hadith, she challenges it because she finds it ridiculous and insulting.

You can do the same. Instead of submitting to other people’s visions about what Islam should be, do your own research and build your own vision of Islam based on a wide variety of sources. If someone uses some random hadith to belittle you, challenge them using the Quran’s principles, or research the hadith and you will usually find that there are other hadith narrations that contradict it. 

[muslimslobblog]

A very good interview covering weak hadiths and why they are in books considered sahih (authentic)

[weavemama]

Heartwarming photo of a Muslim girl and Jewish boy fighting for the same rights along with their fathers.

[emihg]

This picture is obviously fake, Muslims and Jews hates each other. That’s a fact.

[weavemama]

This photo was shared and published through Time, CNN, The Huffington Post and Metro. There is this whole “fake news” epidemic going on, but I don’t think these huge media companies would go as far as spreading a fake photo. Especially a fake photo with a very strong message. The photographer’s name who took this photo Nuccio DiNuzzo. The Muslim girl’s name is Meryem Yildirim, she is 7 years old. Her father’s name is Faith. The Jewish boy’s name is Adin Bendat-Appell, he is 9 years old. His father’s name is Jordan Bendat-Apell. You can also visit this article and you will be given the option to watch a VIDEO of one of the fathers being interviewed about the photo.

You can’t just say these two individual people hate each other when all they’re trying to do is fight for the same rights. You should allow two people of a different religion to protest for the same things without questioning the reality of it. 

Good day.

[theimpossiblenight]

I am a Jew. My best friend of 17 years is a first generation American. Her parents are from Iran. They are my second family. They have fed me, clothed me, and even provided me with medical assistance. Her mother (again, FROM IRAN, KNOWS THAT I AM JEWISH) has held me while I cried, picked me up when I’m down, and showed me what it’s like to be a powerful, strong woman time and time again. I would take a fucking bullet for these people. So this whole “Jews and Muslims hate each other” bullshit dies right here. Does that look like hate to you?

[theconsciousmuslim]

If somebody comes into Islam, don’t force them into all sorts of things. There was a lady who newly became Muslim, and the first thing she asked about was make up because she had been told that it is ḥarām. I just said to, ‘Don’t worry about make up its not important, it’s fine, just wear your make up.’ People who heard me, some of them: ‘Aʿudhu billah, he permits make up!’ She ended up leaving Islam, I asked about her and was told she left, I asked why and it was because people had told her she was in fornication because her husband was not Muslim, and she just left Islam. This is just amazing; these people (the one’s advising the lady) have no fear of God. I had another case of a woman, who called me; she had become Muslim and was highly educated, as was her husband. She called me because somebody gave her my number. She was told that she had to leave her husband, as their marriage was no longer valid, because he was not a Muslim. She loved her husband, she had kids with him - so she called me, and I told her she did not have to leave her husband, as long as he was not opposing her Islam. Six months later, he became Muslim. Now I would not have known that, had it not have been for Shaykh ʿAbdullah bin Bayyah, and it’s a weak opinion, but in this age those are the opinions you need to keep people in the fold. It’s an opinion taken from ʿAli bin Abi Talib, and the chain is sound.

Shaykh Ḥamza Yūsuf  (via theconsciousmuslim)