Kudos to St Ann's Hospice in Heald Green, Stockport - what a fantastic charity, and one that deserves more help from the community than it currently receives.

Although our Masjid in Cheadle has held a fund raising event for them already, I advise all of you to go and visit a sick person who is being cared for in such a place so that you can really appreciate the true value of such an organisation.

This evening, I went with a few brothers to pay a brief visit to an old Muslim lady, living alone without any help, who doesn't have too long left with terminal cancer. She has been transferred from her home to this hospice where they tend for her every need, without cost of course, to try and make things as comfortable as possible.

I've never known this lady before but she was very tranquil to look at, most jovial and yet serene with her illness. I'm not the best speaker of Urdu but I still understood what she was saying.

After some brief introductions, and after I had recited over her the du'a of the Prophet (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam), "As'alullah al-'Adheem, Rabb'l-'Arsh'l-'Adheem an yashfiyak" seven times, the lady asked me what I had just said.

I told my friend, "Tell her that I recited the Prophetic Du'a 'I ask Allah the Al-Mighty, Lord of the Supreme Throne, to cure you' and through this, either she will be cured or she will go to meet her Lord.

Actually bro...on second thoughts...just tell her it was a du'a!"

My friend, suprisingly enough, agreed!

Then she asked, "Tell us something to do with the Deen."

Allahu Akbar. Man, don't you just hate such a question? What on Earth can you say?!

I had a quick think and I remembered something one of our scholars taught us:

"Aunty, please make good opportunity of this time as you are being purified. All your stress and pain that you are undergoing now is to clean you from your mistakes during your life so that you can be ready to enter the Clean Place for clean people. Have patience and be happy, because if you don't take this washing now, then you'll have to be cleaned by blow-torch down there before you can go up there to the Clean Place - Alhamdulillah that you'll be insha'Allah spared that! So please, make du'a for us in your state for we may never reach such purity in our lives."

She smiled, and asked me my name again to memorise it.

Woohoo! Jackpot!

:-)

Folks, I am grateful to my friend for advising me to visit this unknown dying lady tonight, and for him will be all the reward insha'Allah.

I'd also like to pass on the barakah to you all and I ask you to visit a sick person as soon as possible, for the only person you'll being doing a favour to will be yourself. Give 70,000 angels something to do for the evening...

The latest post from Jimas got me thinking about the new Galileo project, which for someone like me who has a large interest in GPS developments, makes me wonder what really is the problem?

Yeah ok, so all this big brother bakwas from the government means that they'll know everything possible about us at all times. Fine. Scary? Yes.

Bothered?

Think Catherine Tate. Ay na'm.

In fact, I reckon that the only people who really should be worried and bothered are all those scamming fraudsters out there obtaining false sickness, disability and income benefits, as well as not paying road tax and car insurance etc etc. Paks, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Also, such a system can only help cut the ridiculous rates of theft, robbery and all other such crime. Indeed, one can see how this development is going to be the greatest boost against crime since DNA identification technology.

Don't believe all the hype about it all being 'free' though. Said system is going to cost us all serious money, with unlimited new avenues open to the government to charge/tax us further such as congestion charging, pay-per-mile driving systems, toll roads, etc ad nauseum. As someone who drives up and down the UK regularly, this isn't the best of news.

Yet I am supporter because I know that I will ultimately benefit from the system in one way or the other, whether through convenience or ease of living through less congested roads and thus less time travelling or just simply the safety factor with respect to being able locate people and objects at an instant.

All very exciting isn't it? Not too long now, and I haven't even prepared a new Galileo Masjid POI list for it yet either...

Another thing that caught my eye is the revival of Vitamin D as the new panacea for all things wild and wonderful, not least certain types of cancer. You might remember a few months back how I recommended all parents to give a good dose of Vitamin D to their children whether as part of a multi-vitamin preparation such as Abidec or just pure Cod Liver Oil etc, especially since the government stopped giving it on the NHS a while back as part of standard policy. If I was to advise you with anything now, despite the lack of proof of the above study, it is to get as much Vitamin D down you from as much fish as possible, especially during this miserable freeze we're in.

Saying that, I had a seafood salad a few days ago from that market place thingy in Leeds city centre. It was made of fresh raw mussels, whelks, squid, octopus, shrimps and crab. And there was no salad. The crab was lovely.

The rest though was so rough, I was nearly sick whilst eating it. But hey, I did it, so so can you.

Or just stick to Tuna and Mayo sarnies as you usually do. Paks don't eat anything else at work do they?

Not unless you're on that Ahl al-Kitab bakwas of course...

;-)

I was just sent this email from someone who wanted to post it on this site, so that those with legal knowledge can help and/or contribute in finding a solution insha'Allah.

Before I respond over the next few days, I'd appreciate your comments and advice/experience, so please post them below. Shukran.

"As salamu’alaykum wa rahmatullah

Please forgive me for interrupting your post Abu Eesa, I am desperately in need for information regarding a situation I am currently in.

I am a divorced sister with a child, who has married a masha’Allah practising brother recently Alhumdulillah. My child is six years old masha’Allah.

The child’s father (my ex husband) is non practising, drinking, violent etc (I’m sure you all get the picture) who is trying to obtain more rights towards my child.

Previously he would see my child for 3 hours on a Saturday and a Sunday every three weeks. I did not prevent contact because I understand the ties of kinship must not be cut.

However, I found very disturbing the things that this man was teaching my child and the arrogance and bad behaviour my child would come home with after the visits. I firmly believe this man has no sincere intentions towards my child (And Allah knows best) but merely wants to cause me and my family further distress and heartache. He has never taken an interest in my child and does not even attempt to build a relationship when he comes; he merely sows seeds against me us and distances my child from myself. There is no form of contact made in between meetings and no concern for his welfare in any aspects of his life.

After marrying almost a year ago my child settled with me and my new husband extremely well and Alhumdulillah we have seen massive changes in this boy in the last year.

Subsequently, when dropping my child off to his father he becomes very disturbed up until the point where he is refusing to go despite what anyone says to him. I honestly believe he has felt true love from us fi sabi lillah and he now recognises this and does not want to be away from us.

In the time he has refused to see his father, we have seen in him a surge of stability in terms of his behaviour, character and emotions. He seems to have found the security which he has needed for a long time.

My child has not had physical contact with his father for a few months, and his father has made no attempt to contact him as he never has, except for the actual meetings.

I truly cannot state the detrimental effect this man has on my child and how this is all being done for the sake of pride. The family has complete disdain for the deen of Allah, and mock my attempts to raise him fi sabi lillah

Today I received in the post a letter which is summoning me to court. My child’s father is demanding more rights (overnight stays) and more access to my child, along with accusing me of withholding my child from himself, which is untrue in itself.

The court hearing I have been given is the day before I am Insha’Allah due to give birth to my second child. The letter has threatened me that if I do not attend the hearing, it will be carried out without me, which I am not sure is true.

I truly believe this kuffaar system will ruin my child’s life as well as akhira, I am trying my best to protect him and I badly need some advice please. This man is and will continue to have a detrimental affect on my child and my family if this situation continues.

I have a few questions regarding this situation if I may.

1. Is it possible to have a court hearing moved due to being pregnant? How long can I expect to delay the hearing for?

2. The father is asking for much more access, including overnight stays and holidays. Can this be prevented?

3. Where do we stand considering my child himself does not want to see his father because he feels bullied and intimidated? Can he be made to comply with any court orders saying he must see his father?

4. I have been told if a court order is made and I do not comply I could have a penal notice attached and potentially be imprisoned.

Surely there is a way to protect my child in this system?

I have only briefly outlined the situation as this could be a post in itself, however I am sure many sisters understand this situation and may be going through this same situation now.

Please can any brothers or sisters who have experience or legal/shari’a knowledge in this field please offer me some advice?

This has been an extremely upsetting situation for some time, which only seems to get more complicated as time goes on. I simply do not know what to do at present. Any help would be very much appreciated.

JazzakAllah khayr."

Picking up from a comment on the last post, I'd like to briefly share my thoughts on 'Ambrose', the University of Manchester Islamic Society's Mosque for the last 10 odd years. It closed down today for building work around it and although it will reopen in 6 odd weeks time, it is widely believed that this is the final move from the University in reclaiming their land.

Ambrose has been the envy of Muslim students up and down the country for years and years - and for good reason masha'Allah. It's size and premier central location have made it easy to access and possible to cater (just) for a huge Muslim population. Having personally seen many of the Prayer Rooms in the English Universities, there was simply no comparison.

Personally, I loved Ambrose - in fact I reckon that I spent more of my day there than I would in lectures, absolutely no doubt about it. So:

whether waiting around for fellow mates or just making new ones from all the Freshers;

whether having lunch (back in the day, the Malaysians used to sell the most gorgeous sweet and sour chicken and rice just outside) or just catching a quick tea and biscuit from the 'tea corner';

whether spending the night there whilst travelling through after my student days or spending the day and night there revising for our exams;

whether wrestling with the lads or being almost beaten by the (very fiery) resident Khateeb (who gave many a Mojo a few black eyes back in the day);

whether praying outside on the sheets or praying inside on new carpets donated by foreign students;

whether spending the day reading the free English Islamic literature or whether studying from the full Arabic library donated by some of the foreign tullab al-'ilm that we knew;

whether sitting there arguing with pseudo-Muslims or whether witnessing the countless shahadahs in our more informal da'wah sittings...

I could just go on and on, in fact every student could wax lyrical about their student days and there'll always be loads of time and space for their own beloved student prayer room.

Over the last ten years in Ambrose, we've seen the tears and the laughter, from sublime speeches of the scholars to the absolute farce of the extremists trying to teach us Islam. We've seen the gentle disagreements to the disgrace of punches and police.

Yes, Ambrose the old boy has seen it all.

In any case, Ambrose was always living on borrowed time. It has always been understood that it was on 'lease' to Man Uni ISOC yet the Uni paid for all of its costs and upkeep. The problem that Ambrose was on a multi-million pound piece of real estate was never going to go away and the move to another place was inevitable.

To be honest, the new temporary place, which I understand will become the permanent one insha'Allah will be set up in the old squash courts of the Mcdougall Sports Centre, which although is a bit further away for some, will actually be the same for the Dentistry, Medicine, Pharmacy and Art students. Also, there are stack loads of car parking places which was always a huge problem in Ambrose (and a very expensive one for the Khatibs I can tell you!) so there are many benefits to be gained insha'Allah. I also understand that the refurbishing process and costs (that could stretch to the million mark) will be covered by the Council and Student Union etc which is fantastic news.

So no need to despair folks; we've all got very very fond memories of Ambrose and it's very sad to see it close down, but you can never keep the Sahwah and the Manchester Muslims down - they are indeed a force to be reckoned with.

Long live the Da'wah!

Post all final tributes below...

:-)

I know it's old, and I know it's lame and I know I put this up last year but you know how it is...

;-)

Subhanallah, can I relate to this or can I relate to this?

Kasmi, working in these shops is just driving me mental - my new DAB radio not picking up reception deep in the dispensary is only compounding my misery.

Sigh.

I know all you guys like driving around, and I know that everyone would love to know whether that camera really did flash you or did it flash the next bloke.

Well, the wait is over.

Visit this site: http://www.e-database.co.uk/

Don't worry about login details, just click the temporary login link and then you can use that again next time.

This site will actually even show you the 'speed camera picture' from the national database!

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with you entering a sudden state of depression.

(...or wanting to kill me, but that'll become clear later I reckon...)

:-)

I'm not one to patronise (he says) but just in case you felt like saying, 'Merry Christmas' to someone...

...then don't.

Translation? Basically we're saying its bad, immoral, shameful, naughty, haram, kufr, shirk and all the rest of it.

So there.

Merry Kuffmas everyone.

We ask you O Allah to pardon us and shower your mercy upon the weak and needy.

As some of you will know, there has been another Earthquake in the Hindu-Kush region measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale.

I've been on the phone for the last hour and it has been felt all over Pakistan. Faisal Dar, who is one of the main players behind the PG aid effort, is still outside in the open with his young family in Lahore. He told me it's very cold but they are safe, yet they are too scared to go back in.

And this was in Lahore.

What then of the others who are still living in tents and all those who are still taking shelter in their old unstable homes? 'Afiyah Ya Allah, 'Afiyah!

The Swat region has escaped damage, Shangla has been damaged quite bad (but these are all only premliminary reports from my phone calls and don't forget that it's still 3am in the morning there), Balakot seems to be holding out, Pindi and Islamabad shaken seriously but no damage yet.

In any case, please make du'a for those who may be affected, those who have been previously affected and that no-one else becomes affected.

Wa anta Ya Allah Mujeebu al-Da'waat.

Super Sporting Saturday - it's just a shame that with so many runs this morning, including Tendulkar's phenomenal world record 35th test century, the Kiwi's unbelievable world record victory over the Aussies and finally England's record highest overseas score, the only guys to miss out on all the world records were us Paks as usual.

Anyway, it wasn't too bad an effort but I think it was incredibly poor captaincy to have such a small and lame batting line-up and then a spinner as the Super-Sub with Kaneria and Shoaib Malik already playing! How thick was that?!

And then the Scousers win as well a few hours later?

And then Danny Williams (this is heavyweight boxing Danny-boy, not elephant-weight) is going to get battered by Audley, and it'll be left to Amir Khan to save our red baistee blushes...

:-(

Finally, seeing as no-one wants to discuss Shar'i mu'amalat contracts and join in the debate, then let me tell you that Flintoff will deserve Sport Personality of the Year tomorrow (although I think Ricky Hatton is an awfully close second), the England team will deserve the Team award, Mourinho deserves his Manager of the Year award, and the rest doesn't really matter.

So there.

I thought I'd give Data...woops... sorry David Cameron a few days to settle down to see whether he can cut it at the top. After watching his rather flustered performance at PM's questions, I was disappointed to say the least.

Not half as disappointed to learn though that he's tempted everyone's favourite Tory, Boris Johnson, into leaving the Spectator and returning back to some pseudo position on the front bench. How sad.

Andrew Neil will have his work cut out in finding a replacement, not that I care too much for him or 'Con-man-rad truly Black' with his growing list of misfortunes; at least we'll get to hear loads more from Boris on the radio, something which has taken on new levels of importance since I received my new DAB radio today...

Hey I'm buzzing over it - now I'll never miss TMS ever again! And don't nazr me guys, say Masha'Allah!

:-)

Finally, here is the latest fatwa from our beloved brother Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad on the issue of cash-back deals in mobile phone contracts. Although I have my doubts over some of the content, and we've already spent far too much time debating with the Sheikh in order to understand better his wajh, it is definitely worth a closer look and then serious discussion over the conclusion, especially considering how popular this scheme is now; you won't have to go too far to find loads of Muslims involved in this scheme whether as dealer or buyer...


Do cash-back contracts involve unlawful interest?

All praise and thanks are due to Allāh, the Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon our Prophet, Muhammad, his family and all his Companions.

Many brothers and sisters have been asking me over the last few weeks about the permissibility of the "cash-back scheme" implemented by many companies that provide certain products and services such as mobile phones. In this fatwa, I will briefly explain how the scheme works before judging its validity. Finally, I will explore some solutions for those who already have such contracts.

Introduction

Many companies and high street shops providing certain products and services (such as mobile phones) implement a scheme similar to the following example:

i) The company or high street shop offers a contract over one year (or some other period) in which it provides a customer with a certain product (in the case of mobile phones it is a handset plus a fixed quantity of calls or air-time) for a price (say 30 pounds sterling or us dollars) paid in monthly instalments. This amount is to be deducted directly from the customer's account via direct debit.

ii) The company or high street shop will after a period of time return to the customer a lump sum equivalent in amount to what the customer has paid minus a small amount. This small amount therefore seems to be what was paid in exchange for the product or service. (Sometimes this amount is as little as £1 or $1 multiplied by the duration of the contract in months). The returned lump sum might be given as a single payment or in instalments distributed throughout the duration of the contract. Also, sometimes it might be conditional to the submittal of the invoice statements to the company by the customer. In some cases two parties are involved; the customer and the company. However, many other times, there are three parties involved in the transaction: the customer, the broker/agent (which is usually the high-street shop), and the service provider (which is usually a large company such as Orange or T-Mobile in the example of mobile phones contracts). The customer is paying the money to the large company while getting cash-back from the broker and the service emanates from the large company.

These cheap contracts attract many people to take them not merely for their basic needs but also as a luxury or for future trading and business since they are able to acquire expensive products cheaply which can be re-sold again at a profit.

Is this scheme Islamically permissible?

Judgement

Before I clarify the Islamic position concerning this transaction, I would like to summarise certain key principles concerning transactions in Islam more generally. These principles will help the reader to comprehend many issues in modern day Islamic finance.

Bilateral transactions can take two forms in terms of the profit intended [in this life]:

(1) Profitable transactions and

(2) Non-Profitable transactions

A profitable transaction can be a sale transaction or partnership for investing.

(i) A sale transaction [bay’] is any exchange between money on the one hand and any good or service on the other, or any exchange between a good or service on the one hand and another good or service of a different type. If this sale transaction is prompt or hand to hand then no further condition, apart from the normal sale conditions, is mandatory. If a time factor is involved during the exchange process then other guidelines have to be met which are beyond the scope of this fatwa. Leasing and renting are also forms of sale transactions since the service provided is the usage of the object leased or rented.

(ii) Partnership for investing [sharikah]. This occurs when two persons or more agree together to own a property or carry out commercial activities. The partnership could take several forms based on the role of each party. Sometimes both parties participate in forming the capital of this partnership, while at other times both participate in physical activities where no money from either of them is involved. On other occasions, one party invests money and the other makes available his or her experience, and so on. In modern Islamic finance this is known as investment. This type of contract requires a detailed explanation which is again beyond the scope of this fatwa.

Non-profitable transactions can be classified into three sub-types:

(i) A loan, which is permissible or encouraged if two conditions are met: the same amount and type of item is returned for the same amount and type and no benefit of any form accruing to the lender should be explicitly or implicitly stipulated in the agreement or the contact. If the loan is of a physical nature then it is called ‘areyah while if it is of a monetary form i.e. gold, silver, money or its like, then it is termed qardh.

(ii) A trust [amanah]. An example of this occurs when money is deposited with another person for safekeeping, a “deposit of trust”. One condition of such a deposit is that the trustee should not use the money for any purpose. The trust can be of a physical nature or of monetary one, however, it should not be used by the trustee [ameen] i.e., the one who safe-keeps it. The difference between this and a loan is the fact that in the instance of a loan, the borrower borrows the money to use it, whereas with a trust, the trustee should not use the money at all.

(iii) Security, mortgage, pledge [rahn]. This is a contract or an agreement in which the owner of property [rahen] pledges it to another [murtahen] as security for some future obligation, for example the obligation to repay a loan at a future date may be secured by the pledge of the borrower’s property. The pledge has the advantage that the owner of the property may continue to benefit from it whilst at the same time using it as a pledged item, for example the owner of a house may continue to live in the house whilst providing it as security for a loan. The pledge [rahn] can be property, gold, silver, money or its like. Whatever the nature of the rahn is, the one who keeps it apart from his owner, such as [murtahen], is not allowed to use it at all.

The guidelines mentioned here about these types can be directly and indirectly deduced and extracted from the famous hadith of Ubadah ibn al Samit. The Messenger of Allah (Salla Allahu ‘alaihi Wasallam), said: "Gold is to be paid for gold, silver for silver, wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for dates, and salt for salt, same quantity for same quantity and equal for equal, payment being made on the same spot. If these classes differ, sell then as you wish if payment is made on the spot." (Muslim)

This is one of the many miracles of the Messenger (Salla Allahu ‘alaihi Wasallam) who was gifted by Allah to have the most profound and eloquent manner of speech.

I would like to mention a very useful tip that helps anyone to apply utmost care prior to indulging in certain transactions. One should be very careful when he or she notices a combination of a profitable transaction and non-profitable transaction in one transaction. An area of riba or prohibition is definitely being approached in such a case. A good example of this combination is what is mentioned in one of the prophetic traditions where the Prophet (Salla Allahu ‘alaihi Wasallam) prohibited the combination of salaf (loan) and bay’ (sale).

Moreover, with the understanding of these types and their conditions, we should realise that any transaction where money is given in return for money should also signal a possible instance of riba or prohibited transaction irrespective of the amount of money involved and the name of the transaction or transactions.

The final indication of riba or prohibition can be clearly identified when we examine the result of the end-to-end transaction irrespective of its breakdown.

We have to be very aware of this fact since, unfortunately, many transactions these days involve exchanges of such a nature. Moreover, I have seen very complex and twisted forms of contracts in the West that are nothing but a manifestation of riba and its central role within the economic system.

Concerning the transaction in discussion here, the cash-back system, it is clear that this involves the exchange of money now for money later in addition to a service and/or product. It is true that they call this transaction a sale, yet we have to be careful of terminologies since we do not share the same terminologies of non-Divine systems.

The ultimate consequence of this transaction or transactions is that the customer pays money (which is the price of the product or contract for which he will receive the service) under the condition of receiving in return the agreed amount of cash-back plus the service or the product. So all or most of his money will be returned to him in addition to the product or service.

In reality, from the Islamic view point, this transaction is a loan given by the customer to the company or high street shop. The money given by the customer is then returned to him either partially or fully with a benefit added to it, which in our case is a handset plus some free minutes of talk-time. So this is in effect a loan that leads to a benefit which is unanimously prohibited. The basis for this unanimous agreement is the implicit meaning of the hadith of Ubadah and the explicit meaning of the statements [athar] of many companions which states “Any loan that gives rise to profit or interest is riba”.

Some of the people of knowledge might consider this transaction as a combination of a loan and a sale. A loan since the customer pays A, say it is equal to B+C where B is bigger than C, over a period of time where he/she is going to get back B. So B in this case is the loan given by the customer to the shop or the company while C will be the price paid for the product or the service or both of them which makes this part of the transaction the sale one. If this combination is carried out in a way that leads to riba or to an exchange between money now and money later then it will be prohibited unanimously also. The basis of this prohibition is all the above mentioned prophetic traditions.

Consequently, I conclude that purchasing any product or service in accordance with the scheme described above is totally prohibited as it is a manifestation of riba if the cash-back is equal or almost equal to the money paid by the customer. If the cash-back is very little in comparison to either the value of the commodity being exchanged or to the price paid by the customer then the transaction is still prohibited since the exchange of money now for a different amount of money later is still involved.

Clarifications

In order to address some concerns and misconceptions that may arise with regard to this fatwa, I would like to make the following additional points.

1- The conclusion mentioned here is not a matter of disagreement between the scholars nor is it even founded on matters of disagreement. It is my habit to mention any strong difference of opinions involved in the discussion. Moreover, I normally do not base my published fatwas on matters of ijtihad or personal opinions, rather on matters of consensus or of similar authority.

2- Some brothers argue that there are in fact three parties involved in the transaction: the customer, the broker/agent (which is usually the high-street shop), and the service provider (which is usually a large company such as Orange or T-Mobile in the example of mobile phones contracts). The customer is paying the money to the large company while getting cash-back from the broker and the service emanates from the large company. The broker/agent/shop is getting nothing but a sale commission.

In answer to this I say that it may be true that this scenario is taking place but this does not have any impact on the ruling of the transaction. The customer is paying to the large company and the broker, as a result of the customer taking a contract with the company, is obliged to return this amount in full or in part to him after a while. It does not matter whether the customer carries out the transaction directly with the ultimate borrower or delegates that task to the shop. The fact is that the customer is giving money to someone under the condition that he will get this money back in full or in part plus a phone and a service. This is the summary of this transaction.

3- Others may argue that the contract should be deemed acceptable due to necessity. Here I would like to mention what I always ask people regarding the rule of necessity: Who said that it is a necessity? On what basis was this conclusion made? I do not believe that there is a necessity or even a real need in most of the cases to engage in such transactions. However, if there is a real need, as when there is no other provider for a highly needed service or product, then the customer should take the transaction that is according to his need only, without any further indulgence that would provide for him or her a luxury or satisfy a superfluous business intention. Moreover, once he receives the cash-back he should get rid of the riba amount involved in it just as he gets rid of the interest or riba money.

4- If someone were to agree that the riba or the haram involved in this transaction is due to the cash-back, and therefore propose that the service can be used so long as the cash-back is disposed of or left to the shop, I would again say that this is not acceptable. It may be acceptable in the presence of a necessity or real need but the scope for this would be confined to a narrow set of circumstances. The main reason for this prohibition is the fact that taking such a contract and signing it is a manifestation of acceptance of a riba/haram-based contract. Let us, prior to indulging in such a contract remind ourselves that that the Prophet (Salla Allahu ‘alaihi Wasallam) has cursed "the one who consumes riba, the one who gives it to others, the one who writes it down and the one who witnesses it." He said:" They are all the same." (Muslim). If the one who writes riba or merely witnesses it is cursed, then what about the person who signs the riba-based contract, even if he intends not to benefit from the riba?

How to dispose of the riba or the haram money involved in this contract:

The following process helps a person achieve this:

1- It is essential to identify the time this transaction became known to the person as being haram or the time he or she decided to repent, which must be immediate and without any delay. (let us call this: time of knowledge or repentance).

2- All earnings and benefits already received before the time of knowledge or repentance are considered to be halal or permissible. Allah says in the Quran, “So whosoever receives an admonition from his Lord and stops eating Riba (usury) shall not be punished for the past; his case is for Allah (to judge); but whoever returns [to Riba (usury)], such are the dwellers of the Fire - they will abide therein.” [2:275]. This approach was adopted by the Shari'a to encourage people to repent and stop dealing in haram.

3- If a contract or a transaction took place prior to the time of knowledge or repentance, yet there are some benefits, such as the cash-back or the service that the customer is going to receive after this time, then he or she may dispose of either the price or the commodity, which is the service (and the product if any). He should not keep or benefit from both and is not obliged to get rid of both since he can keep the capital as it just explained.

4- I would like to confirm here that it is difficult to say that the customer who initiated the contract and then came to realise its impermissibility or decided to repent from it MUST get rid of these benefits/interest/surplus once he receives them in the way explained above. Instead, I say that this is recommended and it will place him on the side of safety, especially if he was involved in it out of negligence and wants to repent.

5- As for earnings and benefits that a person will receive due to a contract that takes place after the time of knowledge or repentance, such benefits and earnings are considered haram as aforementioned.

6- Ridding oneself of this money means it is to be disposed of in such a way that one does not receive any kind of physical or moral benefit since it is not considered to be sadaqa; rather it is considered to be riba money.

7- This is the proposed solution for those who have already taken out such contracts and are unable to cancel the contracts before their end-date. Those who can cancel the contract without incurring major loss should do so.

How to change this scenario/ scheme to make it Islamically acceptable?

As already noted, the main problem in this scheme is the cash back involved in it. If there were no cash back involved, the contract will be ok. For example, if the shop/broker/agent sells the product for a price equal to the final net amount the customer is paying then it will be a normal sale transaction which is halal. This gives us the first and best option which can be provided for the shops/brokers/agents. However, many will not opt for this option since they do not have the money to do it; rather they are waiting to receive the commission from the company on each new contract.

Another option which can be carried out by the shop/broker/agent is to replace this cash back with another product or service or even coupons which enable the customer to exchange them by pre-selected items (some room for selection is allowed) from limited stores. The reason for the condition of specifying certain stores is to avoid replacing the cash back with coupons that might be considered as money or checks. This is not considered to be a deception to overcome the prohibited part of the transaction rather it will be considered as a normal sale were the customer pays certain amount of money in exchange of two or three known and specified real commodities.

Having said that, I would like also to mention that the suggestions given by some brothers to solve the problem in this scheme where the company or the shop/broker/agent gives the customer the full amount of the cash back in advance will be only valid if the customer pays the price in full at once and then immediately receives the full amount of the cash back on the spot without delay. As we have explained earlier that once a time difference between the price in full or in part and the cash-back is involved then the transaction is impermissible and a possible instance of riba has occurred.

Before I conclude, I would like to emphasise that this fatwa deals with the above scenario of cash-back systems only. Other scenarios may have different rulings.

To conclude, we ask Allah jalla wa Alaa to provide us with halal money and means. Allah knows best.

Finally, as I am expecting many responses to this fatwa, in order to make best use of time, I would like to ask the brothers and sisters, especially those who are not specialised in this field, to read the fatwa carefully before sending me their views. Other than that, I would be more than happy to receive comments and constructive criticism.

Haitham Al-Haddad

8th Thul-Qe’adah 1406

8th Dec 2005.

One wouldn’t have thought that the recent test series between Pakistan and England could reproduce the astonishing level of cricket drama in the recent Ashes series, yet we were treated to a mighty grand contest, albeit slightly dull in the early days but worth every penny on the 5th day of each test.

As a summary, I honestly believe that Pakistan are not as good as it has been made out. England did not play to their recent high standards, the bowlers didn’t get much luck in terms of all the edges and dropped catches (cf Yusuf’s double century) and their batsmen failed miserably with very poor shot selections at critical times.

Pakistan were often all over the show as usual, falling to pieces until Captain Fantastic would pick them up and show them what ‘izza was all about. If you pore over the scorecards, you’ll see that Inzi came to the crease in major disaster circumstances almost every time and suddenly turned each game around single-handedly – he was simply (and quite literally) a giant, winning the series by himself. Sure, Kaneria was ok with a few good balls and the guy I just love to hate, Shoaib Akhtar, bowled simply magnificently at times to at least give us some hope for the future. I don’t think much can be read into this victory but I hope it at least encourages the young team to look at their elders and realise that Pak cricket has been absent for far too long from the top.

As for the highlights of the series, then where do you start? I suppose you start with the Mac himself…



Honestly, his batting was just another level altogether. He’s easily been the best batsman on display this year, although still not the world’s best until he can move quicker in the crease. But look at his average this series, and then remember that this…



…was just a disgrace, an absolute farce. Add to that the fact he just gave his wicket away in the 3rd test and then you realise that England hardly got him out legitimately in the series and he might have had an average for the series of over 150!

The problem though is that we won’t get too many more years out of him, and the team is far too dependent upon him and Mohammad Yusuf to perform. This needs to be seriously addressed if Pakistan wish to maintain a presence on the world stage.

Talking of Yusuf (formerly Yusuf Youhana of course), then that’s a whole story in itself. He has been one of Pakistan’s best and most consistent batsmen over the last few years (as a Christian) and you could just guess how stressed all the Paks were when they saw his level fall through the ground as soon as he became Muslim!

But my goodness, when he hit his double hundred, were the Paks relieved or were the Paks relieved! I’m still not convinced he’s back to his best form though, especially based on the double hundred, which was full of mistakes and lucky escapes, as well as a whole shed load of gymnastics…



Other batting plus points for Pakistan were few to be honest. Kamran Akmal has just proved his potential for we all knew he was the one to watch. Pakistan have always been lucky in their wicket-keeper batsmen, following the recent good trend of Moin Khan and Rashid Latif – and this young lad took some absolutely stupendous catches, especially the Pieterson catch in the last test; a match-winner by anyone’s standards.

One area which we are really suffering is the opening partnership. They reckon we’ve used over 19 different combinations in recent times to try and recreate the classical opening duos of the Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail days – it looks as if we’ve got a long way to go. Salman Stud, sorry Butt, seems not too bad despite his constant fishing outside the off stump but Shoaib Malik was absolutely rubbish. So were the rest, especially Younis Khan who really needs to rediscover the form that led him to destroying India single-handedly.

Danish Kaneria looks ok, not in the same league as Warne and Murali but he still bowled a few classic googlies to put good pressure on. His ball against Flintoff was a peach…



I tell you one thing that Kaneria won’t be in the side for though…



He has got to be the worst fielder I have ever seen. Actually, make that the second worst after Shaun Tait the miskeen. Now he was rubbish.

Shoaib has been a right pain in the backside for us Paks, so at long last it was great to see such a visible change in attitude and a development of respect and humility for his team and elders. Although he had some pretty ordinary overs when the England batsmen were comfortably in, he did bowl some of the best balls you will see this year…



It’s difficult to choose the best ball he bowled, because his slower balls in the last test were truly magnificent and effectively won us the game. The slower ball that did Bell was class, but the one he got Vaughan with was even better…



But the best ball I think was the way he bowled Flintoff for just one in the second Test was absolutely unbelievable. Let’s just hope that he can maintain his work ethos, as well as concentrate more on line and length as opposed to just chucking it down at 300 miles per hour.

Mind you, talking about classic balls, Flintoff bowling Shoaib and Afridi wasn’t too bad either…



He was still England’s most dangerous bowler despite the excellent efforts of Harmison. I seriously believe that the England seam attack will take Pakistan apart later in 2006 when the Paks come to town, and it’ll be a real struggle for Pakistan to win in our conditions here – I hope I’ll be proved wrong.

Yet at the same time, England on this form haven’t got a chance against the Aussies in Australia for the Ashes next time if current form is maintained – the Poms will need to have a serious long look at their touring form to change that.

Back to this series, my choice of best Pakistani bowler was easily Rana Naved Hasan – he has improved so much, his line and length were excellent, and he’s even getting faster. If Shoaib is our Harmison, then Rana is our Jones – all we need back now is our Flintoff i.e. Abdul Razzaq and we could have a chance to really go places. And what with Afridi back (hey we’re Muslims man, we forgive easily!), then we can still get back to number 2 in the world above the Indians at all costs!

But yeah, Rana produced some phenomenal spells…





I could go on for ever especially considering our miserable display last night in the Champion’s league which obviously means football is off the agenda for at least another year (doh!), but I’d like to believe that this was an excellent series of cricket in a country that really needed it. Many of you might believe that cricket was a petty piece of chewed laghw at this time of despair and distress post the Earthquake, yet I couldn’t disagree more.

Having personally witnessed the utter misery of so many people, our priority was always to not only show our compassion and generosity, but also to encourage and inject the communities to return to normality as soon as possible, to start to rebuild and recover their lives. Hence, we have been concentrating on training up people to make their own homes, whether that which was destroyed or temporary shelters that we are providing, on their own land in their own localities to revive life as they knew it. In Balakot, I was working with some sections of the Army whose sole responsibility was to rebuild mosques and seminaries and to employ replacement Imams (in place of all the Shuhada, and Subhanallah if only you knew how many Imams, Muftis and Tullab al-‘Ilm were martyred in the Quake) so that the society can start to function again as soon as possible.

All of these efforts were to re-ignite the will to live and enjoy life again despite the circumstances. And we mustn’t ignore the role of cricket in all of this, i.e. establishing normality amongst the community; a sport loved by the masses, a source of relief and happiness, and a continuing drama to observe as the nation bets on who exactly will get the wicket of Kaneria; Sa’eed Anwar or the new Gusht Amir: Inzamam ‘Imdad ad-Din ul-Haq’…

:-)

Not to forget also the amount of money raised by the England team and the international cricket community; this has been truly impressive. More so in my opinion was the immense compassion displayed by some of the England team on their visits to those affected by the Earthquake, whilst I was still there in Pakistan.

I’ve always had a soft spot for players like Hoggard, Giles and Tres yet I can easily say that the most emotional and sincere pictures/footage I witnessed was that of these three visiting the injured and distributing monies amongst the homeless. They were so shaken that they were actually unable to speak on camera – it was truly humbling.

And truly infuriating too, when one compared their approach to the disgusting, sickening photo-ops taken by the criminals Musharraf, Aziz and their cronies.

A’udhu billah from such Shayateen.

In any case, not to digress too much, I was happy and grateful for such a nice series to have been played out, despite some of the controversies and flash points, and all I can say is thank you to the ebay member who has sent me my brand new DAB radio ready in time for the one day series.

Test Match Special – I can’t believe how much I’ve missed you…

:-)

Although still trying to catch up with life from the last few months, a few light news stories have caught my eye, in fact from the Eye as well. And you know me, I love it when the hacks get a good cussing…

The birth of a healthy son to stabbing victim Abigail Witchalls was a triumphant moment not just for her family but for many of Fleet Street’s finest. While the Sun cannot be blamed for the fact that the baby arrived six weeks prematurely, just days after its exclusive front-page revelation of a “Dec 25 tot for Knifed Abigail”, the Daily Mail waited until the day after his arrival, 12 November, to explain to readers in detail “Why the surgeons were forced to intervene” (the nature of her injuries meant “she could not have the baby naturally” so an “emergency caesarean” was the only answer) - only for the Witchalls to issue a statement pointing out that “Abigail had a natural birth with very little assistance and did not require a Caesarean section.”

Finally the Mirror and Express and, yes. Sun again, announced that the baby was to be called Joshua - “a Hebrew name, meaning ‘the Lord is salvation’, and a Book of the Old Testament”. Sure enough, the family later announced that their son would be called... Dominic.

And here’s Bliar in action again, guilty of a Bushism of all things…

JOINED-UP GOVERNMENT

9 November 2005: Tony Blair tells the Commons it should support the anti-Terrorism Bill because: “The police and those charged with protecting our country provide, as they have, a compelling case for action, I know what my duty is: my duty is to support them, and so is the duty in my view of every member.”

15 November 2005: Government pushes through the Licensing Act to allow 24-hour drinking despite objections from police chiefs in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Merseyside, Lothian and Borders, North Wales, Hertfordshire, London, the British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police Federation.

Fancy that!

Our penultimate article for today…

CONGRATULATIONS to sub-editors on London’s Evening Standard, who managed last Thursday to add 9/11 and 7/7 and come up with a convenient one-stop-shop for all terrorist atrocities.

A news in brief item on the establishment of the Commons inquiry into anti-semitism quoted Bassetlaw MP John Mann claiming that: “I have seen books making absurd suggestions that 7/11 was a Zionist conspiracy.”

Haha!

Absolute classic.

And for our last one, considering that you get my series review on Pakistan v England tomorrow, let’s have a more honest commentator opinion on Multan (where the first test was won by the Paks), which not only leaves the cricket stuff to me to talk about but also gets it spot on for the reality of most of Pakistan’s cities in a nutshell. Apologies to all those from Multan in advance…

*sly smile*

CRICKET-loving Daily Telegraph readers who want to know what’s happening in Pakistan naturally turn to the paper’s cricket correspondent, Martin Johnson. And, since arriving in the country two weeks ago, he has been happy to enlighten them.

“Things are slightly different here in Pakistan,” he revealed in his first dispatch (11 November), on the eye of the First Test, “where the Dom Perignon is a bit thin on the ground, and where you wouldn’t contemplate 10 minutes in an open-top bus without reaching for a gas mask. Multan might just qualify as a spa town, but only if you were out here on holiday from Chernobyl.”

The following Monday, 14 November, Johnson had two full days’ play to report - but chose instead to begin thus: “It is worth coming to Multan for the journey to the cricket ground alone, with scenes - if you take out the smoke-belching auto-rickshaws and all the other eccentric types of motorised transport - straight out of the Old Testament. St John’s Wood Road it isn’t.”
These transport-related musings continued for several more paragraphs. (“The local equivalent of Eddie Stobart are the donkeys, which are employed for carrying people, vegetables, pots and pans, and just about anything else you can think of...” Fancy!)

By 15 November the Test match was shaping up nicely, but Johnson still had other things on his mind. “Yesterday was a public holiday in Multan,” he wrote, “although you wouldn’t have known it from the billowing dust kicked up by the usual hom-honking melee of bullock carts, bicycles, donkey trailers and auto-rickshaws. Take a day off here and you’re liable to starve, never mind not get paid - a lesson England need to absorb if they are to win in Pakistan.” By now the sub-editors were entering into the spirit of it, with the headline: “After the smog, the fielding was breath of fresh air.”

And so to Wednesday 16 November, with the match excitingly poised for a final day in which either side might win. Unbelievably, Johnson’s report began once again with... smells and rickshaws. “There are a variety of aromas on the subcontinent, not many of which put you in mind of a French parfumerie,” he disclosed, “and if your nostrils can cut their way through the noxious fumes belching from the motorised rickshaws, you’re most probably inhaling something that can best be described as essence of cow pat. This is the stuff they set on fire to do the cooking - not many Agas and double ovens here...”

Later that day the English batsmen were skittled out and Pakistan won a famous victory. Surely even Johnson would give this news priority over his customary bulletin on Pakistani transport systems? Er, no. “On the early morning suicide run to the ground, there was a bicycle transporting no less than five people, including a boy of about eight balancing on the crossbar,” he reported on 17 November. “There are many ways of securing an appointment with the undertaker in Multan, balancing on crossbars in the rush hour traffic among them, and if he’s been working overtime over the past week or so, it’s probably because he’s been busy embalming the cricket pitch.”

And so to Faisalabad for the second Test. “Whether anyone would ever complain about not getting to Faisalabad on time is highly unlikely,” Johnson wrote on 19 November, referring to complaints about flight delays, “but you could certainly imagine a riot if you ever got delayed trying to get out of here. Faisalabad may not be the only city in Pakistan that would make you think twice about a holiday timeshare cottage, but with its textile factories, smoking brick kirns, size and extra pollution, it makes Multan look like Leamington Spa.”

Can’t the Daily Telegraph recall Johnson from Pakistan on compassionate grounds? The poor fellow really ought to be put out of his misery.

Hopefully in this post, I will attempt to clarify a few details of our aid effort in Pakistan, how the money was spent, some extra pictures that I couldn’t upload over there due to internet difficulties as well as other bits and bobs. Most importantly, I will give the very latest update on the current situation there.

First of all, what is ‘PG’ (‘Prophetic Guidance’)? The following is rather tedious but a few people wanted to know exactly to whom they had given their money.

During my early years of da’wah in Manchester, myself and a few like-minded brothers set up a little group called ‘Answering for Islam’, trying to organise our Islamic activities and provide funds for conferences and workshops, aimed particularly at the non-Muslim market. We duly set up a ‘community account’ which unfortunately at the time, we were unable to get registered charity status for, and since then, the account effectively became defunct.

Then, four or five years ago after I returned from abroad, we decided to try and revive the da’wah scene. PG became the da’wah wing of a parent institute, financially supported by a small closed group of benefactors, masha’Allah, in order to achieve PG’s aims and objectives, namely to hold conferences, lectures, seminars, publish da’wah material and a charitable aspect.

My own personal involvement is with this charity aspect of PG – I am solely responsible for selecting and ‘investing’ this money in the best possible way that I believe will bring the maximum return for it’s ‘investors’. I tend to concentrate on gifts and paying off of loans etc for new reverts, investing into the infrastructure of seminaries and charity projects abroad in remote places I might have studied in such as Mauritania and other parts of Africa and Asia, healthy sadaqah jariyah projects and helping unique and more local projects in the UK that have some Islamic or humanist aspect to it.

The use of the PG account for the SE Asia Earthquake appeal was a one-off; we really didn’t have much other choice in terms of time and ease, despite the difficulties of keeping the funds separate (which Qadir masha’Allah did a fantastic job of doing). If we had been able to set up another charity account, we could have potentially made another £10,000!

In any case, what is done is done – we had a phenomenally successful fund raising appeal which collected over £86,000!

Allahu Akbar.

It sounds even better in rupees – nearly NINE million rupees masha’Allah!

And they said the world was suffering from donor fatigue.

*smiles happily*

The reason such a small confined ‘community’ (ie the readership) gave so freely was because I guaranteed as much as humanly possible that all their money would get to those affected one way or the other – I am glad to say that by the immense mercy and grace of Allah, this has almost been achieved, and will insha’Allah reach fruition soon.

Why was there a concern then about charity reaching the right people? Because we were dealing with one of the most corrupt countries in the world, with not only a corrupt government but many corrupt normal Pakistanis too, especially some of the businessmen that we met who are making an absolute killing out of this tragedy wa Allahu musta’an.

Honestly, the kind of shenanigans we encountered from the tent manufacturers was simply unbelievable. As I trounced round Lahore through it's industrial wastelands and factories, this was the 'army standard' tent that was being offered...



We tried to inspect every single process as closely as possible, especially the waterproofing of the tents...



Which was an utter waste of time when we found out that as soon as we left, they swapped the agreed upon heavy canvas for a much lighter non-waterproof version! And then we were told to wait another 3 weeks for that rubbish too!

I'm not the most patient of people at the best of times, and only God knows I try my best whilst fasting; but Allahu Akbar, the amount of fights I got into during Ramadhan was just ridiculous - these businessmen single-handedly ruined my Ramadhan.

:-(

Oh by the way, it wasn't just the tent people who are crooks but other big business people such as those who owned private hospitals. The brothers who went with us giving medical relief in hospitals such as the Frontier Medical College caught these criminals red-handed hiding aid goods and not releasing them to be used on the sick and injured upstairs in the theatres. This was only discovered when some of the lads who saw all the stuff coming in but then disappearing strangely, forced their way into the basement to find...



Anyway, that's enough of the depressing stuff because alhamdulillah, the khayr that we witnessed from the people and large sections of the army was truly inspiring. For every dodgy soldier, there were four excellent officers. For every corrupt tent boss, there were huge donations from other private businessmen. Everyone in Pakistan knows about the huge 'Sufi' group, who specialise in cooking oil, soap etc, and they were also magnificent in their personal help to me and my team.

There is still approximately £30,000 of funds to spend yet, earmarked for our community projects remaining in Mansehra, Balakot and a little bit of Muzaffarabad. This money will go on CGI (corrugated galvanised iron) sheets, wall materials such as sandbags, wood and rope, as well as tool kits comprising of shovels, hammers, nails etc. There are also more plastic sheets, blankets and small cash donations to go out as well wal-hamdulillah – we will also be supporting other existing projects that I have surveyed (or my team has personally checked) especially in Balakot and recently in Bagh too.

Today, we bought 400 CGI sheets for two villages in Mansehra, where there are walls still standing from their destroyed houses and hence no real need for anything else as such. Considering that these were thick 22 gauge, 12ft x 4.5ft sheets, they should give good shelter for over 100 families insha’Allah.

As for individual huts/houses then here is an example of the shelter we are making, based upon a few ideas that are being trialled in the field by fellow relief workers. This is the model that has been set up by the ‘Nomad Volunteers’ (whom we have also supplied with funds for materials as well as other logistical support too) in Bagh which we (as in PG) ourselves, under the tutelage of Amanullah and Co will be constructing in Balakot…







To start this initial order, 24 tonnes of sheets, tens of thousands of sandbags as well as hundreds of complete tool kits have been paid for today and will hopefully arrive in Balakot for Tuesday. It’s a shame that I was the only one with the digital camera (back in the UK now with me) but I am sure the brothers will find someone to take a few pictures for us as we set up these homes in Balakot and surrounding areas.

The great thing about this shelter idea is how warm it is, relatively solid especially when the locals make a mud wall around it and set up a wooden frame outside the bags, held together with rope. And of course the price – only 8000 odd rupees which is amazing considering the strength and longevity of the shelter.

Another key benefit is how the construction of the shelter is mobilising the rather apathetic masakeen who have lost their homes. All the news reports that you have read about them being dazed and just sitting around living off aid are unfortunately true. Such schemes though help to instill a sense of hope, urgency and pride in these affected communities which in turn has a knock-on effect upon the rest of their neighbours.

So far, the majority of our funds were spent in the Shangla province. Over £14,000 went on blankets, nearly £20,000 on tents, £13,000 on cash donations and so on.

We also sent over a hundred new blankets to Muzaffarabad four days ago.

For all those wishing to view a full and complete account of all money received and spent, as well as invoices, receipts and the full identity lists of those surveyed in affected areas before we gave them aid, please send an email request to PropheticGuidance@hotmail.com.

This is the most up to date report I have so far after reviewing Friday’s plans with our volunteers in Pakistan.

Please remember all those affected and those who helping to alleviate their condition in your du’as.

Barakallahu Feekum.