ENGLISH TRANSCRIPTION
We thank Allah and send peace and blessings upon his prophet Muhammad ﷺ
In the matter of religious steadfastness and strictness of faith for those who live in Western countries
When should one be strict about their religion and what are the rulings about the matter?
Firstly, Islamic jurisprudence has known two schools of thoughts
The strict school of Ibn Umar and the leniency school of Ibn Abbas
Muslims have long lived between the rulings of these two schools of thought
Those who choose to follow Ibn Umar’s school of thought
Have never pointed their finger towards the ones following Ibn Abbas
We have never heard Ibn Umar telling Ibn Abbas “you have ruined our religion by giving people all these other easy avenues and excuses”
And never has Ibn Abbas said that Ibn Umar has made matters harder on Muslims
No, they have both accepted each other
Whoever wishes to protect themselves, by all means, do so
But religion is a matter of choices and there are certain risks and
We know that never did Allah’s Messengerﷺ make a choice between two things but adopting the easier one as compared to the difficult one (Sahih)
I have read the history of Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)
My specialisation is Comparison between Fiqh rulings
And I have found that the most lenient Jurist was The Prophet ﷺ
And after him were the companions
And after them will be their followers and so on
Till someone appeared and told us that when Allah told us to wash our faces for ablution
That person decided to ask, “What is the face?”
An this is when the matters of explaining what is obvious and the philosophical interpretations became the hardest thing to understand and study
And now we have to learn where the face starts and where it ends
The companions, like Umar, never asked, “What is the face?’
The face is known
The followers like Hasan Al-Basri never asked, “What is the face?”
But in the age of free time and luxuries, the jurists found time to speak about what the face actually is
Starting from the hairline at the top of the forehead till below the chin line and from one earlobe to the other ….
And if the Muslim is bald what if he thought that his head is part of the face?
Seriously brother? The bald head is like the face?
Face comes from facing someone it’s obvious!
And this where we entered into explaining the details
If you would’ve asked Omar what are the things that spoil your fast?
It was known then there are only 3 or 4 things that spoil you fast
But now we study in the Books of Fiqh
There 63 matters that can spoil your fast
And we had to as children (Studying Jurisprudence) memorise all these rulings
When we reach the second page we would’ve forgotten the first one
When we reach the last page, we would have forgotten the pillars of fasting
This is how strict we’ve become, although our religion is easy and lenient
I say this and Allah knows best!