Monday, January 24, 2011

WOMEN IN ISLAM

women in islam,http://article-boy.blogspot.com/


In Islam, women are allowed to work. By Islamic law, their salaries belong to them and their husbands are still obligated to support them. The participation of women in Islamic society cannot be put down. Throughout history, many Muslim women have had their active roles in developing  the Islamic civilization.
            In the early days of Islam , women went out to work, and participated in all social and cultural activities. A famous case is shifa bint Abdallah who became a chief inspector of Market in Madina in the era of Caliph Omar bin Khattab. In medieval times, Muslim women were frequently merchants or physicians. Numerous fascinating biographies exist of countless women who became religious scholars and taught in the masjids and colleges. For instance, in Central Asia, Karima al-Marwaziyya (d.1070) as well as Shuhda the Scribe (d.1178) became very famous scholars who taught in Islamic colleges. Fatima bint al-Hasan was known as a hadith scholar as well as a calligrapher in Islam. In Damascus, the famale scholars whose students became leading scholars, included Ibn Battuta who was popular in Java as a traveling Mauna, were Ajiba bint al-Kamaal (d.1339).
            There are also many other woman scholars who gave a great contribution to literature and arts in the later era. Umm Hani (d.1466) was another distinguished scholar. She memorized the Qur’an while still a child and mastered some academic disciplines like theology, law, history, grammar and poetry. She was also skillful in writing poetry and had a deep religiosity that impelled her to perform the hajj pilgrimage to Makkah no fewer than thirteen times. Moreover, in the field of literature is found Wallada of Cordova with her Fitnet of Istanbul (d.1780) and Queen Nadira (d.1842) with her Kokand in Central Asia. These enriched the Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages and literature.
            Muslim women have also played a significant role in military affairs. In the early Islamic period, women were often called upon to provide nursing and other ancillary services, and even to bear arms alongside the Muslim men. This is because when a Muslim community is invaded, taking arms to repel the enemy, might become a religious duty for men as well as women.
            Today, in some Muslim countries the roles of women are becoming more important. They can be engineers, physicians, professors, deans, company directresses, and so on. Their active participation can be seen in many Islamic societies.
            In conclusion, Muslim women have shown a great participation in the development of Islamic life in addition to their contribution to their main duties as mothers and wives.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

E-COMMERCE IN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES

E-Commerce In Islamic Perspectives,http://article-boy.blogspot.com/


As far as Islamic welfare is concerned, Islam accords a dominant importance to the trading sector as a major source of wealth and the engine of the economy.
            In this respect, the holy Qur’an has many references to trade and commercial activities. For example, the Qur’anic ayats that support this statement are:
            Woe to almutaffifin [those who give less in measure and weight (decrease the rights of others)]” (83:1).
            “O you who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves unjustly except it be a trade amongst you, by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves ( do not kill one another). Surely, Allah is Most Merciful to you” (4:29).
            What is more strikinng for a Prophetic authority dated back to as long as fourteen centuries ago, is that Islamic teachings had been aware of what is conventionally known as “Trading Data Management”. This is justified by the fact that the religion of Islam is broken into four major legalistic  sections, among which is “Islamic Business Transactions” (Fiqh al-Mu’amalat). It is not necessary to speak about the very ample provisions set by Islamic laws in regard to the efficient treatment of wealth. However, this research draws on the meaning of the smooth functioning of business transactions and commercial activities from the Islamic perspective. More particularly, does Islam cater for E-Commerce? Right from the very outset, our eminent sunnah (act of Prophet p.b.u.h), in some aspects, preached the same quality values offered by “E-Commerce”, particularly, accuracy and veracity, flexibility, convenience, contract standardization, speed, cost effectiveness, and other. Out Prophet (p.b.u.h) said:
“Allah showers his mercy and compassion upon the one who is tolerantly flexible, both when buying and sellinng”.
            Nonetheless, there are a number of serious legal drawbacks that are likely to arise in the field of ‘E-Commerce’, particularly, short selling, and absence of concrete (hand-to-hand) delivery, uncertainty (Gharar), juridical authentication’s problems and much more.
            According to an analysis, it is found that Islam accepts the conduct of E-Commerce as a new way or technology to facilitate economic transactions. This is based on the Syari’ah (Islamic Law) legal values, namely the obligatory (WAjib), recommended (mandub), permissible (mubah), reprehensible (makruh), and forbidden (haram). In an interview with Ustadz Mustafa Omar, he mentioned that Islam is not against E-Commerce , instead Islam basically encaurages E-Commerce as one of the new ways of conducting business. He further explained that traditionally, business was conducted verbally face to face but today the two contracting parties are connected together via computer. In the event that the persons who are engaged in businesses should not meet directly, they still need to make an agreement. However, he added that what is much of consent in conducting E-Commerce is the moral perspective that leads to a more accountable and responsible trader. As such, a few Shari’ah issues may be referred while discussing matters related to the ethical principles of Islamic business.

Friday, January 21, 2011

ISLAM AND CULTURE

Islam is a great, unique religion. It is held by an absolute majority of the people in some 40 nation states, and of the 900 million Muslims living today only 17% or so are Arabs. It is estimated that Islam will be the religion of one quarter of the earth’s population by the beginning of the 21st  century. All these people have a religion with a set of beliefs and a set of rules covering a goodly part of what one might call a way of life (Adams, 1976; Avdich, 1979). Islam is an uncompromisingly monotheistic religion that requires total submission to the will of Allah. It pust great emphasis on righteousness of thought and of action, and promises rewards in the hereafter, but not in this world, for those who believe and practice as they should.
            Islam is a revealed religion, and its holy book, the Qur’an, is literally the word of God. Based on strong evidences, it should be believed absolutely and its rules are to be followed without exception. The Qur’an, by its example, establishes the logic of how one compares goals and values to other goals, and from rules to other rules. There is in Islam a large body of rules covering a very wide range of human behavior based on the Qur’an, and on the sayings, decisions, and actions of the Prophet. Islam is a major part of Muslim’s culture, and overrides much of what he may have received from outside his religion, whether it’s from Berber culture, or Mongol culture, or any other culture. This religion is very much the same among all people. The Muslim believes that all Muslims from a community bonded by shared beliefs and values, and common rules that govern behavior (von Grunebaum, 1962; Hitti, 1986;Adams, 1976;Braibanti, 1985). It is the sameness and communality that allow one to speak of Islamic culture and to generalize about all of them.
            Factual statements in the Qur’an are absolute truths to the believer. This is not to say that all statement are literally true, but that their meanings are absolutely true. Islam means submission, both to its facts, and its rules. All other facts are true at some lower order, and all other rules are binding at some lower order, and all other rules are binding at some lower level. Thus, the truths of all statements of fact noy in the Qur’an are of a lower order than those in it. In Islam something is either true or not true. As in standard western views of truth, it is a dichotomous concept. This has nothing to do with knowing the truth, but only with view of reality that allows meaningful statements about in to be of only two types. Reality is such or it is not, in which case it is not reality. Reality can never be such and not such, and it cannot be neither such and not such. Concept of something being neither so nor not so may be meaningful in quantom physics but not in Islam or normal Aristotelian and Cartesian system of meaning.
            This notion of absoluteness of truth has logical consequences in values and decision rules. The values given in the Qur’an and any ordering of these are to be accepted as exactly that by the faithful. The highest values are the total submission and service to God, followed by others, such as the importance of charity, and of fulfillment of business contracts. Logic is a highly developed branch of knowledge in Islamic culture, Muslim philosophers learned Aristotelian logic. Improvements had been made to the system, and it was used in religious explanation, law, medicine, and so on. The logic used in Islam is based on the dichotomous concept of truth, and logical operations are elaborate and rigorous.    





Islam And Culture,http://article-boy.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

OUT REACH FOR ISLAM

out reach for islam,http://article-boy.blogspot.com/

Islam is not spread by the sword. The laws of Muslim warfare forbid any forced conversions. The political sway of Muslim rulers has sometimes been achieved through warfare, but this must be distinguished from the spiritual expansion of the Islamic religion. Islam teaches that war is only waged on those who attack the Muslims and obstruct the outreach of Islam. The Qur’an insists that ‘there is no compulsion in relagion’ (2:256), and ‘Had your Lord willed, everyone on earth would have believed. Shall you then force people to become believers?’(10:99)
            The purpose of Muslim rule is not to impose Islam, but to bring about freedom of worship for Muslims and for others within the established framework. While Islamic tradition recognizes the advent of over 124,000 religious prophets inspired by God over the ages, the Qur’an recognizes the particular truth of the original revelations given by God to the Jews and Christian. Muslims see it as a from of ‘liberation theology’. The early Muslims liberated the Near East, and brought religious tolerance to many Jewish and sectarian Christian been the victims of bitter persecution either in the Byzantine Empire or the Persian dominions. Later on, history was to witness the slaughter by the Crusaders of thousands of Muslim and Jews when they captured Jerussalem in 1099, which contrasts sharply with Salandin’s recapture of the city in 1187 and the tolerance he displayed towards the Christian Populatuon, as well as his permission for the Jews to return.
            The difference between Islam’s political and spiritual growth may again be highlighted in another way. In many countries-including Indonesia, which is the most populous of all Muslim states-Muslim political authority was established only after the population had embraced Islam at The hands of traders and preachers, and not as a saquel to military conquest. A further comparison could be made by recalling the intolerance and persecution of the Jews and Muslims in Catholic Spain with the tolerance Jews and Christians experienced under eight centuries of Muslim rule in andalusia.

THE BASIC OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION

The Basic Of Islamic Education,http://article-boy.blogspot.com/

Islam is not only faith in a single God: it goes beyond what is in essence defined by the word “religion”. A set of practices, behavior, and observances cocerning the social arena and protect the faith. Practicing Islam is not confined to the private domain: it includes a community domain with a strong identity. This all encompassing characteristic of Islam is in particular when the religion is being passed on to children. According to a famous hadith by al-Bukhari and Muslim: “All newbom babies are bom according to the fitra; it is their parents who make them a jew, a Christian or a Zoroastrian.” Seyyed Nasr (1975) believes that fitra means “ the primordial nature (of  man), the nature he bears deep within his soul”. Thus, there is a natural aspiration towards God in the conscience and heart of every person (Nasr, 1975).
            Islam teaches that the Revelation by the prophet “ goes back to the sources of the fitra, finds the original spirit of mankind, and brings them to life through the call” (Ramadan, 1995). “ If the parents do not bring up their children do not recognize God” (a Brussels Moroccan Imam). In Muslim thinking, the Qur’an enables people to leam about all sciences. The transmission of faith must therefore precede the learning of the other sciences. In several surah the Qur’an states that education is one of the duties of all Muslims, particularly parents. The surah, which provides most instructions regarding the up-bringing of a child, is the one entitled “Lukman” (Amdouni, 1992). At the end of surah, the children are encauraged to end of surah, the children are encauraged to observe nature around them which is part of the goodness created by good. These verses, that encourage them to rely on their own observation, constitute a prelude to the development of a scientific attitude.
            But in Islam, individual responsibility is always seen also from the point of view of collective responsibility. The preservation of the ummah is regarded as an important aspect of faith and dependent on the success with which believers have managed to protect their community from adverse external influences. Thus, the community must exercise some control over the behavior of its members.