Chowrangi

There is an amazing amount of ignorance concerning inheritance. People say that because a girl receives half that her brothers receive, males are more important and it is unfair to girls. Really?

When a girl gets married and even if she is wealthy, her husband still has to spend on her. He has to provide for all her comforts and needs. This is her right. He cannot take her money without her permission but she can take his. Similar is the case with working women. A working muslim woman can choose to spend all her money on herself. She does not even have to spend her money on her children. That is the husband’s responsibility.

A person who uses contraception basically exercises common sense. Having fewer children means a better standard of living for children. It means better health for the mother and less strain on the father.

It is a woman’s choice whether she wants children or not. Less or more. Right after marriage or later. Or never. It has nothing to do with the husband. It is she who is going to go through the pain of pregnancy and the torture of childbirth. Not the husband.

Islam is not just about praying and fasting. A woman has many rights that a husband must fulfill. This is compulsory just as salat is, just as zakat is.

No man who thinks of himself as a human being can force pregnancy on his wife. It is her right whether she wants to have children or not. If she does not want to have children at all (the case with a lot of working women) then it is tough on the husband but there is nothing he can do. It is not mandatory to have children.

In the coastal areas of Karachi and Balochistan, you will find that Muslims are described either as “Namazis” or “Zikris”. The Zikris do not pray in the manner that other Muslims do. Instead of namaz, they do “zikr”, apparently reciting what they have learnt. Sometimes you find a zikri man having a namazi brother, and often a namazi man will marry a zikri woman (and vice versa). The zikris, like the Qadianis, do not believe in the Holy Prophet Mohammad (saw) being the last of the prophets. They are the followers of Syed Muhammed Jaunpuri, who lived and preached five hundred years ago.

Music is a drug that runs in the veins and gives a sort of high. To get that high again either a person listens to the same song on his headphone so loud that you can hear him 2 kilometers away or he simply gets bored with the same song and needs something different. Another song, and then another and then another.

It takes focus off work and family. Some people spend hours listening to music neglecting their role as husband, father and brother. The time of salat passes by and Mr. Happy is still getting a high from the drug.

It is very important that income is earned from a halal source. The reason a lot of people dont care about their source is because they don’t know that haram income hides in it diseases, misery, disgrace and worry.

It is not just enough to have a halal source of income and slack at work. A person has to work hard and complete the number of hours at work. If a person gets paid for 8 hours work, then he/she must work 8 hours. They cannot go home earlier or come late and receive full pay.

I remember a time when a bottle of brandy was kept in every house to be used as a remedy for colds and nasal congestion. A tea spoon of brandy in a warm cup of water would clear the nose and in a few minutes you were asleep. This was in the early fifties, when very few families had cars and the nearest doctor was four kilometers away and you couldn’t find a cycle-rickshaw to take you there after ten in the night. Later, when mullahs began to shout from their pulpits that even a drop of alcohol was forbidden, almost everyone I know decided not to use any liquid which contained alcohol (like after-shave lotions and perfumes, for instance). But most people continued buying cough syrups and other medicines which contained very small amounts of the stuff. It was widely rumoured that in Saudi Arabia, medicines with alcohol content were banned, but during my two visits to that country I saw such medications on sale in all pharmacies.

So is Alcohol, Weed and Cocaine

When a person commits a sin his/her level of Imaan goes down whether they consider it a son or not. The sign of a weak imaan is not wanting to pray. Most people in this country just pray the Friday (juma’a) prayer. The first thing in Islam is the prayers. Allah has promised a hard life for those who turn away from the Quran.

Some people try to justify music by saying that it is not mentioned “directly” in the Quran. Well, there are verses in the Quran that refer to music, admit it or not.

Despite mankind’s astonishing progress in all aspects of life, there still exists an emptiness in every person’s heart that can only be filled by believing that there is no God but Allah, praying 5 times a day and reading the Quran daily.

Allah Ta’ala says in the Quran, “And we reveal the Quran that is a healing and a mercy for believers……” (Al-Isra: 82)”

Wearing a taweez is allowed for protection or healing provided certain conditions are met:

1. They consist of Allahs attributes

2. They are in Arabic

3. They do not consist of beads, charms, talismans, bones and so on, things that were used in the pre-Islamic period of ignorance

Islam adopts a firm stance against any form of evil teachings and desires of corrupt people in order to protect mankind from his own caprice and to put an end to his anxieties and sorrows. Who is richer than he who adheres to the religion of Allah, though he is economically underprivileged, and who is poorer than he who opposes the religion of Allah though he is financially prosperous.

People seek happiness through means other than Islam, treat their disease with poison instead of medicine and delude themselves into believing that satiating their desires will cure them of their ailments. An example of this is the obsession of many people today with music and musical instruments; they justify this habit of theirs with baseless arguments and excuses.