Asslamo Allaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,
I remember buying one of the first HTC smart phones with windows and paying top money for it, having this device meant that I didn’t have to carry my PDA and phone and I could now just carry 1 device with which I could:
Asslamo Allaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,
I have now lived in the West for nearly ¾ of my life, interacting regularly and on a daily basis with Non-Muslims with diverse backgrounds and opinions.
I have also lived and worked in Saudi Arabia where majority of the natives believe every Non-Muslim wears a cross, is an Israeli supporter, bent on destroying Islam and harming Muslims. The Fatwaas of permissibility of consuming the commonly available meat and marrying local woman also stem from the misunderstanding that majority of the Non-Muslims in the west are Ahlul-Kitaab (people of the book).
Anyone who has ever lived, worked or studied in the west knows that most people are either agnostic or Christian by name and employment laws don’t require registration or tracking of religion in any field (of employment) let alone in abattoirs so your cow/lamb/sheep could be slaughtered by a Jew, or a Christian or a Hindu, or a Muslim or an Atheist so it’s ridiculous to assume that because the meat is available at an American or British Supermarket it was slaughtered by someone from Ahlul-Kitaab (people of the book) and similar is the case of most women i.e. they are Christian but in name!
Anyways, back to the subject... :- )
Asslamo Allaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,
When I was a young boy in the late 1970’s, something extraordinary happened which was one of the first initiate of its kind by Deobandi Ulamah. Shaykh (Mufti) Yusuf Ludhyanwi Shaheed (RA)was approached by the Jang Newspaper Management to start answering people’s Masail in a weekly newspaper column which Hazrat (RA) accepted after much deliberation because Jang wasn’t a religious newspaper and there was some trepidation about answering Mas’ail in a newspaper which also had unIslamic content on other pages. The section was entitled “Aap Kay Mas’ail Aur Un Ka Haal (Your Mas’ail and their solutions)” and it was a phenomenal success and it became a conduit for many Pakistanees to become familiar with Shias, Qadiyanees, Barewlees etc and as a little boy barely able to read Urdu I used to look forward to Friday papers, in fact I used to run out to fetch the papers for my father the moment I heard the cycle bell of the hawker and then put my Urdu reading skills to the test!