Islamic dietary laws are laws that Muslims follow in their diet. Islamic jurisprudence specifies which foods are halāl and which are harām. The dietary laws are found in the Quran, the holy book of Islam, as well as in collections of traditions attributed to Islamic prophet Muhammad ("Sunnah").
Halal is an Arabic word that translates to 'permissible' in English. In the Quran, the term halal is contrasted with the term haram. This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification known as "the five decisions": mandatory, recommended, neutral, reprehensible and forbidden. Islamic jurists disagree on whether the term halal covers the first two or the first four of these categories. In recent times, Islamic movements seeking to mobilize the masses and authors writing for a popular audience have emphasized the simpler distinction of halal and haram.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi was an Egyptian Islamic scholar based in Doha, Qatar, and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. His influences included Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim, Sayyid Rashid Rida, Hassan al-Banna, Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi, Abul A'la Maududi and Naeem Siddiqui. He was best known for his programme الشريعة والحياة, al-Sharīʿa wa al-Ḥayāh, broadcast on Al Jazeera, which had an estimated audience of 40–60 million worldwide. He was also known for IslamOnline, a website he helped to found in 1997 and for which he served as chief religious scholar.
Haram is an Arabic term meaning 'forbidden'. This may refer to either something sacred to which access is not allowed to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowledge; or, in direct contrast, to an evil and thus "sinful action that is forbidden to be done". The term also denotes something "set aside", thus being the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew concept חרם, ḥērem and the concept of sacer in Roman law and religion. In Islamic jurisprudence, haram is used to refer to any act that is forbidden by Allah and is one of the five Islamic commandments that define the morality of human action.
Farag Foda or Fouda was a prominent Egyptian professor, writer, columnist, and human rights activist.
Al-Fil is the 105th chapter (surah) of the Quran. It is a Meccan sura consisting of 5 verses. The surah is written in the interrogative form.
Riba is an Arabic word used in Islamic law and roughly translated as "usury": unjust, exploitative gains made in trade or business. Riba is mentioned and condemned in several different verses in the Qur'an. It is also mentioned in many hadith.
In Islam, bid'ah refers to innovation in religious matters. Linguistically, the term means "innovation, novelty, heretical doctrine, heresy". Despite its common use in Muslim texts, the term is not found in the Qur'an.
In Islamic terminology, something which is makruh or makrooh is a "disliked". This is one of the five categories in Islamic law – wajib/fard (obligatory), Mustahabb/mandub (recommended), mubah (neutral), makruh (disapproved), haram (forbidden).
Purity is an essential aspect of Islam. It is the opposite of najāsa, the state of being ritually impure. It is achieved by first removing physical impurities from the body, and then removing ritual impurity by means of wudu (usually) or ghusl.
Muzdalifah is an open and level area near Mecca in the Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia that is associated with the Ḥajj ("Pilgrimage"). It lies just southeast of Mina, on the route between Mina and Arafat.
Muhammad Zahid b. Hasan al-Kawthari was the adjunct to the last Shaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman Empire, a Hanafi Maturidi scholar.
Tāj al-Dīn Abū'l-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Isa ibn Hussein ibn ʿAṭā Allāh al-Judhami al-Iskandarī al-Shādhilī was an Egyptian Malikite jurist, muhaddith and the third murshid of the Shadhili Sufi order.
The Islamic views on tobacco vary by region. Though tobacco or smoking in general is not explicitly mentioned in the Quran or hadith, contemporary scholars have condemned it as potentially harmful, and have at times prohibited smoking outright as a result of the severe health damage that it causes. A tobacco fatwa is a fatwa that prohibits the usage of tobacco by Muslims. Arab Muslims tend to prohibit smoking and, in South Asia, smoking tends to be considered lawful but discouraged.
According to Islam, animals are conscious of God. According to the Quran, they praise Him, even if this praise is not expressed in human language. Baiting animals for entertainment or gambling is prohibited. It is forbidden to kill any animal except for food or to prevent it from harming people.
Muhammad Shahrour was a Syrian philosopher and author. He was an Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Damascus who wrote extensively about Islam. Shahrour was trained as an engineer in Syria, the former Soviet Union and Ireland. He referred to the book of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as "The Book", not the Quran; which casts him in direct contradiction with other Islamic thinkers and traditional scholars. Yet similar to Quraniyoon Muslims, he did not consider Hadith as a divine source; however, he did not belong to the same school as Ahmed Subhy Mansour.
Abdulrazak Eid, Abdul razzak Eid, Abdul razaq Eid, Abdel razzak Eid, Abdul razzaq Eid, or Abd al Razzaq 'Id is a Syrian writer and thinker and one of Syria's leading reformers. He helped to found the Committees of Civil Society in Syria, drafted the Statement of 1000 and helped to draft the Damascus Declaration. Because of his opposition writings and political actions, he was arrested many times in Syria, banned from working and traveling, kidnapped by the Syrian intelligence forces, and was threatened with being assassinated. He fled Syria in 2008 for exile in Europe where he was elected president of the National Council of Damascus Declaration in exile.
Khamr is an Arabic word for wine; intoxication; the plural form, Khumūr, is defined as alcoholic beverages, wine; liquor. In fiqh, it refers to certain forbidden substances, and its technical definition depends on the madhhab or legal school. Most jurists, including those from the Maliki, Shafiʽi, Hanbali, Ahl-i Hadith legal schools have traditionally viewed it as general term for any intoxicating beverage made from grapes, dates, and similar substances. Hanafi jurists restricted the term to a narrower range of beverages. Over time, some jurists classified other intoxicants, such as opium and khat, as khamr, based on a hadith stating, "The Holy Prophet said: 'every intoxicant is khamr, and every intoxicant is forbidden.'"
The Islamic banking and finance movement that developed in the late 20th century as part of the revival of Islamic identity sought to create an alternative to conventional banking that complied with sharia (Islamic) law. Following sharia it banned from its practices riba (usury) – which it defined as any interest paid on all loans of money – and involvement in haram (forbidden) goods or services such as pork or alcohol. It also forbids gambling (maisir) and excessive risk.
The relationship between Islam and music has long been a complex and controversial matter. Many Muslims believe that the Qur'an and Sunnah prohibit music ; however, other Muslims disagree and believe that some forms of music are permitted. Despite this controversy, music has been popular and flourished at various times and places in the Islamic world, often in palaces and private homes to avoid censorship.
