Email Chain Letters - ''If You Love Allah, Please Forward...''

By Yusuf Atiff Bin Abdel-Lateef Diab

There occurs today a very detestable practice among our Muslims in particular. It is the indulgence and participation in email chain letters. For those of us not familiar with this activity, it is where someone sends an email letter with some sort of story pertaining, in most cases but not always, to something Islamic, and then they put a condition at the end of this story to distribute this email to a certain number of people. The condition usually is a severe warning against not forwarding the email to the certain number of people in which case some calamity or mishap will occur if it is not done. In other cases the condition proposes a special benefit for forwarding the email to the certain number of people. Ordinarily this is a form of shirk that I think most people would be aware of or at least should recognize. Believing that some act not from the Qur'aan or Sunnah, if done, can cause some harm and/or benefit is indeed shirk. In doing so we set up a rival to Allaah, for truly it is only Allaah who can benefit us or harm us, and only Allaah can remove such harm.

As Allaah says in Surah Al-An'am ayah 17: "And if Allaah touches you with harm, none can remove it but He, and if He touches you with good, then He is Able to do all things."

One of the things we learn from this ayat is that any harm that afflicts us can only be removed by Allaah, so to specifically believe in bad omens, which includes bad luck and the belief that certain practices, not endorsed by Allaah or The Prophet sallAllahu 'Alayhi wa Salam, can affect the outcome of future events, is in essence the meaning of an omen. So to believe in these omens would be, belief that other than Allaah can remove such harm from us, which is setting a rival with Allaah in this removal of harm. And Allaah says in Surah al-Ma'aidah ayah 72: "Verily, whosoever sets up rivals in worship with Allaah, then Allaah has forbidden Al-Jannah for him, and the Fire will be his abode."

Imam Ahmad reports, on the authority of Ibn `Amr (radhi Allahu anhumma), that the Prophet (sallAllahu 'alayi wa Salam) said:"Whoever is turned back from his objective by a bad omen has committed Shirk." They asked: "And what is the expiation for that?" He (sallAllahu 'alayhi wa salam) replied: "It is to say: "Oh, Allah! There is no good except that which You bestow and there is no evil except that which You bestow and there is none has the right to be worshipped but You."

In many circumstances these chain emails threatens the reader that "if" the email is not sent to the certain number of people then "such and such" will occur. As reported in the above hadith this is Shirk! As is reported on the authority of Ibn Mas'ood (radhi Allahu 'anhu) in a marfoo' form, which he said: "At-tiyarah (belief in omens) is Shirk, at-tiyrah (belief in omens) is Shirk. There is none among us who is not afflicted by it, but Allah, by true dependence on Him removes it from the heart." [Abu Dawood]

So this hadeeth /athar is a rejection of belief in omens because such beliefs necessitates negation of belief in Allah's Qadr and because it causes the heart to become attached to other than Allah, which is Shirk.

Now what is even more disturbing is that these omens are presented and beautified in the form of "harmless" conditions and mere fun. No doubt a trick for shaytaan ar rajeem, wa iyaadhu billah.

The most recent one of these chain emails puts the condition that "if you love Allaah, then forward this letter to...”!!! This should indeed be a higher degree of disturbing for Muslims as it entails speaking about an attribute of Allaah without knowledge, namely Allaah's love. How is it that one can put a condition to Allaah's love based on doing an act that has no precedence in The Book of Allaah or The Sunnah of His Messenger (sallAllahu 'alayhi wa Salam)?!? This is indeed a form of ilhad (deviation) regarding the attribute of Allaah, and a form of shirk in this category of Tawheed (Asmaa wa Sifaat). The love of Allaah is attainable through many acts of ibaadah mentioned to us in the Quran and Sunnah, and thus to innovate in this noble venture is a disgusting type of bidah, pursued in most part by those of ahl kalam (The people of false rhetoric). Those people who chose not to be content with the established texts of Al-Islaam, but rather engage in exercising their intellect with regard to the deen. As we should know the Beautiful, Perfect and Lofty Names and Attributes of Allaah are tawqeefiyyah, meaning they are derived from the text of The Qur'aan and The Sunnah. Speaking about Allaah's Names and/or Attributes without knowledge that which was not mentioned by Allaah or His Messenger (sallAllahu 'alayhi wa Salam) or the righteous predecessors of this Ummah constitutes a great offense against Allaah and His Deen.

Allaah (Subhana wa Ta'ala) says in Surah Al Ar'af ayah 33: "Say: My Lord has forbidden... and that you say about Allaah that of which you have no knowledge". And Allaah says in Surah al-Isra'a ayah 36: "Do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge." So we must be extremely careful not to attribute to Allaah or place a condition on His attributes that was not mentioned in any text of The Qur'aan and Sunnah, even if it appears to agree with our intellect. This is the methodology of the Sahabah concerning the Names and Attributes of Allaah, and it is the methodology that we in turn should adopt.

In conclusion I offer this sincere advice, and brotherly warning, if you or anyone you know is in the practice of writing these emails, or forwarding them, please revere Allaah and set not rivals with Him by spreading this fitnah of belief and indulgence in omens and superstious practices. Like so many other types of hidden shirk, it is beautified and marginalized until it enters our home as something that we take to be so minute and insignificant.

May Allah Al-Wakeel rectify the affairs of the Ummah. May He, protect us from all forms of Shirk, major and minor, hidden and apparent. May Allaah support us against the plots of shaytaan ar rajeem and our nafs and desires.

Internet Fatwahs are Fitnah

I went to a friend’s salon recently to trim my hair. As I was getting my hair done, two sisters walked in (roughly around my age). One of them was getting married and wanted to book an appointment to get her hair and make-up done for the wedding. So my friend said ok and asked her what style she wanted for her hair. She said she wanted an up-do style but needs to put extensions in her hair because her hair was short and that she wanted her eyebrows to be trimmed and so on. My friend didn’t judge her and perhaps thought maybe she didn’t know having extensions put in and trimming the eyebrows were haraam so she just explained it to them. Her reaction? ‘Nuh uhh, Shaykh so-and-so on the internet said it’s not haraam’. Then she started hitting us with fatwas from left to right about what this so-called ‘Shaykh’ said (I can’t even remember his name, doesn’t matter, I just refer to them as Shaykh Google anyways).

My friend apologised and told her she already consulted a Scholar on these issues and they told her it was not permissible for her to do them and if they wanted she would be more than happy to bring them proof that it’s not allowed, if not they could always go to another salon. Obviously they weren’t very happy and said they also had proof that it was permissible. One of the other hairdressers intervened and started to quote some hadiths relating to the issue. But they still wouldn’t have it. One of them went as far as to say (and I quote) ‘It’s only one night anyways, it’s my BIG DAY, I want to look pretty and make it special. I can always say Istighfaar afterwards.’ SubhanAllah! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Tears started to flow, I couldn’t even help it. What if this sister died on her wedding day and never got the chance to repent? What would she say in front of Allah? I think death was the last thing on her mind, wallahu ‘alam.

Anyways, I don’t want to go on about what happened that day or judge those sisters, that’s not the purpose of this post. What I wanna talk about is a little about internet fatwahs. It's amazing how....in these days people mostly use internet fatwahs for everything. Is something halal? "I dunno...let me ask "sh. google ibn yahoo" but what we don’t realise is these can be specific to a situation that has NOTHING to do with us.

Some people, once they gain a bit of knowledge in the deen or a specific topic, they think they’ve become scholars and can give fatwahs. I’ve seen it so many times; even my teacher told me some stories of people who have little knowledge of the deen giving fatwahs. He was telling us how it seems everyone’s become a scholar these days, hence why we have so many ‘shaykh googles’ giving internet fatawah and so many people doing ‘fatwah shopping’ (i.e., searching the net until you find a shaykh that agrees with your opinion; just like these two sisters who found a shaykh who said it was permissible to trim the eyebrows and put in extensions).

We were studying the history of the scholars of the past and found that the early imams were so cautious about speaking about [the lawful and unlawful] because one who speaks about such matters is relating information from Allah, enunciating His commandments and prohibitions, and passing on His sacred law. It was said about Ibn Sirin, "If he was asked about something regarding the lawful or the unlawful, his colour would change. He would be transformed until he no longer seemed the same person." Ata' ibn al-Saib said, "I met people who, when asked for a religious verdict, would tremble as they spoke." SubhanAllah

Imam Ahmad was extremely hesitant to speak on the lawful and unlawful, to claim that something was abrogated, or related matters which others would too readily expound. He frequently prefaced his answers with phrases such as, "I hope that..," "I fear..," or "It is more beloved to me..." He would often say on an issue with which righteous forbears had various opinions, "The most likely answer is, 'I do not know.' Similarly, Imam Malik and others would frequently say, "I do not know." It is related that when Imam Malik was asked about a legal matter, it was as if he were suspended between Heaven and Hell.

Compare this to the so-called ‘Internet Scholars’ of today. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that all the Shuyukh who give fatawah online are causing fitnah. In fact, there are many Islamic websites that have well-known scholars who give authentic fatawah based on the Quran and Sunnah. All I’m saying is we should be careful where we seek to get our fatwahs. The internet has opened a door where by EVERY SINGLE opinion in the world, and its mother, has a website. So if someone says, ‘I found this on the internet supporting my opinion’, who cares? It’s not rocket science. The concept of ‘fatwah shopping’ in Islam is not permissible.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala forgive us and protect us from falling into haraam. May He help us in gaining more knowledge of the Deen and help us to follow the footsteps of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad salallahu ‘alayhi wassallam, Ameen.