As a Muslim, I question everything, find answers and become a confident Muslim. The Quran calls on us to examine and understand its wisdom.
The first part of the note below about Zakath is beautiful as it came from the creator. Whereas the 2nd part, the Hadith, came from Humans and is flawed, even if it claims to be Sahih. Here is another example of a Hadith passed on as Sahih.
My response follows the Hadith.
The following Is the note;
There will always be poor people, not because they do not work.
Being poor is not a sin. I can give you massive evidence of how America (paradise of capitalism) creates poverty (poor people) on an industrial scale. Prominent economists in America have already raised alarm bells that wealth and income inequality are the greatest existential threat to America, not climate change.
That is why Islam has made Zakah the foundational pillar of the Islamic economic system. Zakah came from the Arabic root ز ك و, meaning to purify.
==========
Not sure if this Hadith is authentic. But it does make sense and is aligned with the central message and numerous verses of the Holy Quran and Injil and Torah!
وعن ابن عباس، وعمران بن الحصين، رضي الله عنهم، عن النبي ، صلى الله عليه وسلم ” قال ” اطلعت في الجنة فرأيت أكثر أهلها الفقراء، واطلعت في النار فرأيت أكثر أهلها النساء” ((متفق عليه من رواية ابن عباس)). ((ورواه البخاري أيضاً من رواية عمران بن
الحصين)).
Ibn’ Abbas and ‘Imran bin Al-Husain (May Allah be pleased with them) reported: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “I looked into Jannah and saw that most of its dwellers are the poor, and I looked into Hell and saw that most of its inmates were women.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
# # #
Here is my response to the above;
“Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) could not have said that, let me assert, Prophet could not have said the above statement.
Thanks to Imam Bukhari for collecting 600,000 Hadiths and rejecting 99% of them for lack of authentic source. No manufacturer of anything will pass along such products. Would you fly in a plane manufactured by a company with a 99% rejection rate?
Imam Bukhari passed on the collection as he may not have had the time or was exhausted to subject these Hadiths to a critical test. Could the man who was a mercy to humankind have said such a misogynistic statement? Could Rahman and Rahim have said anything like that?
Bukhari probably expected Muslims would further debate and discuss it. Instead, the Muslims swallowed it up as a sahih Hadith. It is an example of uplifting human writings equal to God’s words. It’s not the character of the Prophet to say such a nasty thing about women.”
You may not, but I have interviewed several Muslim women who hated misogynistic interpretations of Quranic verses and Hadiths. They will not open up to you if you don’t believe in free speech, a solid Islamic value.
Quran is the only book the Prophet asked us to follow, knowing the triumphalist Muslims will cook up things. Quran calls on us to question everything. Mustafa Aykol’s book, “A scholar of Islam, implores Muslims to stop deifying received tradition and undertake a critical study of their religious past, shedding unyielding legalism and close-mindedness.”
We have put some scholars on a pedestal instead of God. It’s time for us to free ourselves, question everything, and become confident Muslims.
Let me add the slogan of the World Muslim Congress – a think tank. “If it is not common sense, then it is not Islam.
Mike Ghouse
More about him at www.TheGhouseDiary.com