A professor at Egypt’s Islamic Al-Azhar university on Monday retracted a controversial religious edict which states that a woman can only be left alone with a strange man if she breastfeeds him.
Ezzat Attia, president of the university’s Hadith department which studies traditions based on the Prophet Mohammed’s words and deeds, withdrew his fatwa and apologised for any inconvenience he caused, in a statement distributed by Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s main seat of learning.
Attia’s edict, which sparked an uproar in the media, stated that a woman can only be alone with a man to whom she is not related, such as an office colleague, if she nurses him “directly from her breast” at least five times.
…Malika Yussef, a professor of theology at Al-Azhar told the weekly Al-Karama paper. She said even debating the issue was “insane.”
Exactly!
I’ve had a run in with at least 3 debates on TV this week causing my hairline to recede half an inch. People literally wasting their time on a round table debate about this topic. Even so much as debating this issue, giving it an ounce of credibility, is like arguing with a drunk.
My generation is suffering from fatwa withdrawal. We either accept such idiotic “laws” as Islamic and thus swing to the farthest depths of the right or we are so disgusted by them that we become unattracted to religion and reject it forthright. I don’t deny that there are outer forces at work with an anti-Islamic agenda but the forces within are more troubling.
There was a time when Islamic universities accepted only the brightest people and even then they were doctors, chemists and poets; pushing their respective fields along within Islamic thought. Instead, we have this now. Maybe there will come a time when a student requires a 95% average to even be considered for Islamic scholarship. It would be a giant leap from the current prerequisite of just being literate (barely) but I think it could happen.
I wanted to vomit when I heard about this insane fatwa and I was very surprised that such stupid person is being called a Muslim!!
I wonder what craziness we will be hearing in the future :S
May God increase the kind of Malika Yussef.
Two good things out of the insanity: 1) It got him out of a position of influence.2) Others who may think like him may be shamed into silence in advance before uttering such things.
Nas, your poor hairline!
We actually know the “quality” of sharia students in our universities! We know their “tawjihi” grades but yet they get admitted. That is one aspect, the other one is that most of our extremist “shiekhs” used to be gangsters who drank alcohol and had tatoos on their hands then decided to become the defenders of islam!! I hope that our leadership recognize the flows in our education system and fix it before it is TOO LATE!
Exactly! debating the issue is “insane.”
Debating the issue is not insane. The guy didn’t invent anything, he simply failed to understand how things are different from the time when people would accept such laws, he’s isolated as most imams are, he’s not insane nor he’s stupid.
omar, it is one thing to offer something as an opinion, perhaps even based on a specific interpretation; something that is debatable and open to discussion or even ridicule…but you cross over to coo coo land once you issue a fatwa based on that.
that’s the point
According to my Islamic education, the issue is nothing new, my point is; although he issued his opinion as a modern Fatwa, the Islamic law was already in action for the past 1400 years, he ‘reactivated’ a fatwa that was issued by A’ayesha and was confirmed by at least other 10 remarkable imams through history. All of those who immediately jumped on the guy’s throat had never heard of the incident before, thus, they concluded that the guy is insane to come up with such a thing!
Just sit back and watch how people reacted, 95% of people said the guy is insane because it’s impossible that the prophet would allow such a thing to happen, the other 5% who actually went through and searched a little about the issue came up with the idea that the Hadith isn’t authentic! The truth is that the incident did take place, and many imams acted according to it through history, therefore, there’s no need to push it that far, Mr. Ezzat Attiyah isn’t a moron.
OmAr: on the contrary, people who “jumped on the guy’s throat” knew exactly what he was referring to and what he based his fatwa or interpretation on.
and since we’re just allowed to make up numbers i would say that 95% of scholars, imams and what have you, all disagree with A’isha on her interpretation of the hadith. moreover, many of those same people also believe(d) that what is referred to as A’isha’s interpretation is actually not her own and rather attached to her in the same context of the story that states she would do the same to men who came to seek her advice or be educated. this story being even more ludicrous for obvious reasons.
Ok, obviously I cannot scan all the books I read and post them in the comment space to back my words, and I’m not really going to help anyone by doing so. I studied this incident 7 years ago in my high school (we had a different classes than other schools) , and we debated the issue much more harshly than some did today, and for the life of me, I can comfortably say that the Fatwa isn’t insane according to Sharia law!
nevertheless, to say that most people knew exactly what he was referring to is simply inaccurate unless you’re surrounded by imams, or you’re living inside a Sharia faculty inside some university! 95% (95.47% to be accurate ;)) of people NEVER HEARD OF THIS INCIDENT BEFORE, even those who consider themselves religious, people reacted blindly and severly as Muslims always do, this is what I think of the issue.
It is like arguing with a drunk Nas and still you are argiung it!
Actually 7aki Fadi I’m on drugs right now 🙂
Imams who know nothing of world history, of Biology,Physics,Math, other world religions, of LOGIC, or anything that would render that person a modern human being (not necessarily western mind you) should not give out religious edicts in my personal opinion. Not necessarily because they are wrong, but they do not have a complete understanding of their surroundings which is Gods divine creation.Gods creation is all around us, including mind you Americans and Jews and to ignore and dismiss it is utter stupidity. I really long for the days when Imams where the source of Science and Technology and enlightenment, what we see nowadays, is as Nas said, many who live in COO COO land and have absolutely no connection with reality. And the best evidence to this is the current state of the Muslim nations, I can hardly think of one that could be labeled as a first world country. Unless we want to blame the 20 million Jews and the Satan lovers some call America again…. or is it MICKEY
“to say that most people knew exactly what he was referring to is simply inaccurate”
well you gave a made up number so i gave a made up number….i thought we were playing some sort of number game.
“that the Fatwa isn’t insane according to Sharia law”
i think suffice to say, by taking a specific situation the prophet pbuh was referring to and generalize it as applicable to everyone and anyone, especially random strangers in a workplace…THAT is the source of the insanity.
7aki fadi.
Nas do not need attorney,sa7ee7 7aki fadi fadi.
Nas,,Since I started reading your Blog,the only thing you do is to blame and attack the poor religious guy and you never ever blame the system. or governments that encouraged and supported the so called religious “fanatic” for long time ,why is that Nas?
Now I remember why I stopped commenting on your blog!
let me cut to the chase; you might think the guy is a lunatic, and probably he is, but hasn’t it crossed your mind for a second that the guy is also the head of the Hadith department at Al Azhar! God damn it man, the guy’s ultimate goal in life is to filter Hadiths and to read the prophet’s biography! even if he was insane, he would never utter a word without having his back covered, the incident did take place, A’ayisha did generalize and applied it on everyone, Al Nawawi did approve A’ayisha’s opinion, so did al Bukhari, Malik, Al Nisa’i, and Moslem!
as I said at the beginning, the guy’s isolated, he spent too many time between Hadith books, he forgot he’s living in the 21st century.
and let’s continue our little game: I think that 99.99% of Muslims never heard of the story before the guy issued his Fatwa.
because regardless of the “system’s” role the personal individual directive is much more apparent and much more important. it’s like stealing and then blaming it on the “system” that drove you to do it. people have their own minds…governments dont control those…yet
but ironically, you on the other hand have never admitted the role an individual or a group of people and their beliefs can play on such actions.
you seem to want to blame everything on governments, zionists and americans. and i hate to shatter the reality but there’s a lot that’s happening in this world that cant be blamed on any of the aforementioned people.
well now you’re just trying to hurt my feelings
its strange that you can call him a lunatic yet still defend his sanity. but more importantly…
i thought you were the kind of person who didnt care much for titles.
so you of all people should know that his position in alazhar nor the fact that he is a part of that university, should play little into what he actually produces.
but if we are to hold him to that title; as a person with a higher understanding of sharia…what use is that knowledge if it is completely inapplicable to the modern world.
which is why the majority of scholars, specifically those in the past, disagreed with the generalization.
lastly, if only 0.01% of us ever heard of the story then that makes us a very select group of people.
“well now you’re just trying to hurt my feelings”
LOL
you’re just amazing.
“its strange that you can call him a lunatic yet still defend his sanity. but more importantly…
i thought you were the kind of person who didnt care much for titles.
so you of all people should know that his position in alazhar nor the fact that he is a part of that university, should play little into what he actually produces. ”
You didn’t get my point, I couldn’t care less about his title, if that’s a title in the first place! I was trying to say that in order to get his job you must be a Hadith nerd, that is, he might be lunatic but the guy must know a lot about Hadith, and of course that has nothing to do with the quality of his production, I never said that, my whole point was that in this case, IT’S NOT HIS PRODUCTION, hada elli sarli ba7kee mn el sobe7!
in simple words, all what the guy did was using the memory cells in his brain, (and they’re filled with a lot given that he’s the head of the Hadith department!) typing the keywords “breastfeeding, older than 2 years old” and oops, he got a Fatwa from A’ayisha regarding the same issue, he used his memory cells once again to make sure the story did actually take place and through history many people approved it, grabbed a pen, and typed the infamous Fatwa. I never implied that the guy has a higher understanding of Sharia, on the contrary, I repeated more than once that he’s isolated.
And where exactly did I defend his sanity?! don’t tell me you got the impression that I’m with him!
“lastly, if only 0.01% of us ever heard of the story then that makes us a very select group of people.” I thought we were playing a game, please, give me a note before I should stop.
LOL Omar :D.
I am trying to understand what is the goal? To prove that islam is wrong and retarded? Should we go athiest based on the information that you provided for us?
And hey there was another fatwa or whatever, that the pee of the prophet is pure and the sahabeh used to “yetbarrako” feeha!!I don’t know about the “shiekh” but as I remember the first thing they taught us at school was “Al nathafa mn el 2eeman” and now another jerk who thinks that god gave him the ability to rule in people lifes comes up and say people used to drink the prophet pee!!
I think that all of our “islamic” institution must be torn down and then we should start over!
Wallahe this is comedy!! Just keep in mind that aisha is human and another surprise to you is that the prophet is human also!! So he can joke and aisha can make mistakes, but ignorance is rooted!!
LOL @ Mohanned!
so that’s what you concluded, HAHA! that I want you to go atheist based on my last comments 😀
and you dare to talk about ignorance 😀
I think I believe in Omar’s theory that the bloke is obviously isolated, and has lost touch with the real world, because the whole idea isn’t rational, and the person is really betting that every Muslim is pure, that every man is stripped from any sexual desire. I don’t know, but conspiracy theories can be applied everywhere and every time, they’re just not that ubiquitous. But again, that’s my personal opinion. I felt that the guy assumes that everybody is just as devoted to Islam the way he is. However, I can’t deny that the repercussions of this Fatwa are definitely destructive. It just doesn’t leave a good after taste for the next generation, it reminds me of the Fatwa saying that Pokemon promotes Zionism. And it makes us Arabs (since 90 percent of the globe think that being Arab is synonymous to being a Muslim) look really stupid.
Thank you mr.omar, I was referring to the shikhs but it seems that you ready to attack!!
BTW, I just checked out your blog, and it seems that Marx and communism still exists, so for you to try to attack and hurt islam from the inside I think that is called cheap shot!!We know that marxists don’t believe in god!!It is like the same ex-terrorist that is always on fox news attacking islam!
Funny world!
Mohanned,
Now I’m crying alone in the corner.
Mohanned, I always wonder why Islam is so easy to get hurt. It seems that one can hardly move or say anything without hurting Islam. Who decides when Islam is hurt? Why does Islam need such constant defending? Aren’t the foundations of the religion stable enough to tolerate debate and questioning?
From the side the “hurting Islam” mindset seems like a silencing and crowd control tactic. Please correct if I’m wrong.
Yael,
Behaviors are hurting islam, a stupid sheikh made a stupid “fatwa” and you see people defending him, not because they believe he is honest but to convey a message that islam accepted that..And by the way did you see me silence anyone? I just see that marxists can’t talk about relegion because they don’t believe in god..
Me as a person believe that relegion must be logical and up-to-date.
Also it is not only islam, you can debate the foundation of any relegion since God is not something that is seen or felt; So it depends on your beliefs at the end..
Mohanned,
Thanks for the answer, but sorry if I still don’t get it. Don’t people make Islam? Islam is not a brain on its own term that cries when it hurts.
I didn’t mean that you were silencing, I meant that when you say that one action or another ‘hurts Islam’ you’re asserting an ‘objective’ voice of ‘authority.’ That’s a dangerous voice that you yourself resist when it comes from that sheikh. That kind of phrasing is heard quite often. Or did you mean that it gives Islam a bad reputation? Or that it actually damages the religion itself?
From my modest experience, it seems that anyone who has the inkling can talk about godâ€â€such an abstract, open-ended, and flexible conceptâ€â€comes in S,M,L,XL,XXL and all colors. One doesn’t have to belief to think and talk on the subject. I pretty much tried the full spectrum and I can tell you one thing for sure, that the earth spun on its axis and water froze in sub-zero C temperature throughout my journey from believing to ‘it doesn’t matter.’
If Nas decides that he doesn’t agree with the messages that the Imam in his mosque delivers and looks for a different mosque, he is in fact modifying his religious practice to fit his changing sensibilities. Nas took it even further and actually wrote a sermon wish list.
“Me as a person believe that religion must be logical and up-to-date.”
Logic in belief is a hard candy to chew! Good luck.
yael,
Thanks, but look it, logic and relegion should work together, we as humans-not only muslims- should be able to say that this act is not logical so don’t mix it with relegion. I am a muslim, but I also have my own definition of islam, it is between me and god, islam gave me guidelines and told me to be logical so…
As for this specific post, I was not defending islam, I was “attacking” an argument made by a supposed “muslim”.
BTW I love hard candy:) No pain no gain..
Logic, huge complex topic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic
For some reason (logical?) this book, that I read with great pleasure comes to mind:
http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Charles-Seife/dp/0285635948/ref=sr_1_1/102-1945531-0264131?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180370372&sr=1-1
Enjoy the chewing 🙂