-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-| Background |-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Like most Muslims out there in our time, I grew up with very little Islamic knowledge (due to the heedlessness to fiqh that was handed down over the generations, then to the weak educational system of countries like the one I grew up in, Kuwait). I, however, was always religious & conservative by virtue of my family atmosphere & sticking to our Arab customs & traditions (which have mostly an essentially Islamic origin that is sometimes not clear or known), only started to grow in Islamic knowledge gradually (motivated by no one but myself) & more so than ever before after I came to Canada.[1] I was a member of our local mosque's youth study circle in Kuwait (youths who join such circles are nicknamed in Kuwait "Shabab el-Masjid = "the Mosque's Youth"). I came to Canada later, at age 15, after I was already armed with reasonable & sufficient Islamic knowledge to shield myself well (to the best of my human strength) from the corruption I found rampant in the Western society of Canada.
I'm originally from an area in the vast Arab world that's known for mixing 'pockets' of either Shafi'i or Hanafi followers of madhabs (nominal following by the 'commoners' more than a type of following characterized by 'choice' & deep knowledge). We were Shafi'i (while I know that in Gaza, the hometown of Imam al-Shafi'i, there existed also Hanafis, like my grandmother's family) & I remember how I started to realize 'partially' what that meant when I was still in Kuwait, growing up and seeing one of my parents 'humoring' the other by 'touching' him/her on any part of their 'skin' just to nullify the other's wudu (ablution)[2], vex him/her and thus make him/her go back to the washroom and wash for the next prayer! That was the extent of knowledge about 'madhabs' that I gained or was exposed to or was allowed..in Kuwait, as much as I can remember, and I didn't care more about 'madhabs' & 'madhabism' until after I came to Canada and started to mix with the South-Asian Muslims (known generally for their Madhab fanaticism & deep traditionalism -the latter not necessarily a bad thing, at least not in entirity).
I remember how I had an Islamic book, one day in Kuwait, in my hands (in Arabic of course) written by an Egyptian (I think) woman. It was kind of the introductory Islamic materials. I remember gazing always at the phrase ("as-Salaah 7asb al-Mathhab ash-Shafi3i = Prayer According to the Shafi'i Madhab") & wondering (only in the beginning) how 'wonderful' it was having different 'ways' to perform prayer :s! I remember how my father (a man with very little Islamic knowledge) told me how some Muslims were praying with their hands on their sides (i.e., Malikis) & things of that sort (which I didn't care at all about expanding my knowledge of!). I remember seeing different ways of praying at our local mosque: people moving their index fingers fast & in weird ways (to me, then), placing their palms on their thighs when saying the tashahhud in a different way from what I grew up noticing around me, others putting their hands -when standing in prayer- on their heart area,[3]...things like that. I didn't know then that those were 'madhabic' issues & I didn't care much to ask anyone or to seek information about it from our Imam or any one I detected had ample Islamic knowledge. I don't remember EVER the Imam talking about 'madhabs' in our local mosque, or me hearing about them on Kuwaiti TV or..just NO WHERE that I can remember..when I was still in Kuwait! Perhaps magazines did, but I had no access then to Islamic magazines (or didn't care much about them or I may have been 'skipping' the Islamic pages in magazines because I may have falsely thought then that I 'knew all there is about Islam' or something -like I felt once later on, in Canada!). Everyone around me (predominantly Arabs, Palestinians more than any other nationality) in my city (which I hardly left) didn't care much about 'madhabs' or madhabism. Everyone was a 'traditional' Muslim in the way that they were conservative & all (in varying degrees, of course) but none was so observant (from what I know about my family, immediate & extended, family friends, neighbours, etc etc) none was AT ALL observant of JUST ONE madhab.[4] Everyone's madhab was that of the one who gave him the Islamic verdict (fatwa), as long as they trusted the 'mufti' & all. None cared for more than that.
Being Palestinian meant naturally & usually being Sunni, this is because the Sykes-Picot agreement[5] excluded, almost completely, from the 'Palestinian' soil..any 'villages' or cities known for having ANY or a sizeable Shia (or Shi'ite) community,[6] thus after years of the formation of the 'Palestinian identiy' (thanks to 'Sykes' & 'Picot') & people becoming familiar with the different kinds of Palestinians through the years after 1948, people came to know that there won't exist an originally Palestinian 'Shia'. Palestine, however, included (thanks again to Sykes & Picot) a sizeable Druze[7] community & villages.
I remember myself, when I was younger than 10 years of age, pointing at a huge white mosque that had a green dome, near our city in Kuwait, pointing at it & asking my father why we never performed our prayers there; his answer was: "because it's a Shia mosque", & I was left with that answer & never sought any further elaboration. Few years later I was directing a question to my Lebanese friend: "why do you not come to perform prayers with us at the mosque??" (& I meant our local & only close one, big enough to accommodate all the 'believers') -& I asked him innocently (being friendly, religious & wanting to find my friends at a great place like the mosque), but Sami (& that was his name) answered: "I'm Shia!", & again I just remained silent & sought no clarification or explanation :s I remember also playing soccer at a far playground near that green-domed mosque, when I heard a different 'version' of the athan (call to prayer) -which was the Shia version, but I still didn't give it a second thought!!! I remember my all-time barber (Abu Jasim) who cut my hair ever since as I can remember until I left Kuwait (& to this day his shop remains there beside our mosque, just few 'meters' away from it), he was a Lebanese Shia too whom I never saw at our mosque praying. I remember our Iranian-Arab[8] neighbours' kid (Hassan) when we once had a fight with him, all of a sudden the kid (who must have been between 11 & 14 years of age) all of a sudden he brings up 'Abu Bakr al-Siddiq' (ra.) in his curses which he hurled at us!!!! But again, had it not been for my uncle who happened to hear that, we (the Sunni kids) wouldn't have 'caught' what that Hassan said!!! Those times the issue of the Shia being different or even 'hostile' was brought up..were times like 'black-outs' in our consciousness; nothing about the issue would 'sink' in our brains!!! To that degree we were uneducated & indifferent. And the above mentioned situations really puzzle me when I remember them; I can't but be amazed by how all but inquisitive (like it is nowadays) was my mind!!!
I remember how I had an Islamic book, one day in Kuwait, in my hands (in Arabic of course) written by an Egyptian (I think) woman. It was kind of the introductory Islamic materials. I remember gazing always at the phrase ("as-Salaah 7asb al-Mathhab ash-Shafi3i = Prayer According to the Shafi'i Madhab") & wondering (only in the beginning) how 'wonderful' it was having different 'ways' to perform prayer :s! I remember how my father (a man with very little Islamic knowledge) told me how some Muslims were praying with their hands on their sides (i.e., Malikis) & things of that sort (which I didn't care at all about expanding my knowledge of!). I remember seeing different ways of praying at our local mosque: people moving their index fingers fast & in weird ways (to me, then), placing their palms on their thighs when saying the tashahhud in a different way from what I grew up noticing around me, others putting their hands -when standing in prayer- on their heart area,[3]...things like that. I didn't know then that those were 'madhabic' issues & I didn't care much to ask anyone or to seek information about it from our Imam or any one I detected had ample Islamic knowledge. I don't remember EVER the Imam talking about 'madhabs' in our local mosque, or me hearing about them on Kuwaiti TV or..just NO WHERE that I can remember..when I was still in Kuwait! Perhaps magazines did, but I had no access then to Islamic magazines (or didn't care much about them or I may have been 'skipping' the Islamic pages in magazines because I may have falsely thought then that I 'knew all there is about Islam' or something -like I felt once later on, in Canada!). Everyone around me (predominantly Arabs, Palestinians more than any other nationality) in my city (which I hardly left) didn't care much about 'madhabs' or madhabism. Everyone was a 'traditional' Muslim in the way that they were conservative & all (in varying degrees, of course) but none was so observant (from what I know about my family, immediate & extended, family friends, neighbours, etc etc) none was AT ALL observant of JUST ONE madhab.[4] Everyone's madhab was that of the one who gave him the Islamic verdict (fatwa), as long as they trusted the 'mufti' & all. None cared for more than that.
Being Palestinian meant naturally & usually being Sunni, this is because the Sykes-Picot agreement[5] excluded, almost completely, from the 'Palestinian' soil..any 'villages' or cities known for having ANY or a sizeable Shia (or Shi'ite) community,[6] thus after years of the formation of the 'Palestinian identiy' (thanks to 'Sykes' & 'Picot') & people becoming familiar with the different kinds of Palestinians through the years after 1948, people came to know that there won't exist an originally Palestinian 'Shia'. Palestine, however, included (thanks again to Sykes & Picot) a sizeable Druze[7] community & villages.
I remember myself, when I was younger than 10 years of age, pointing at a huge white mosque that had a green dome, near our city in Kuwait, pointing at it & asking my father why we never performed our prayers there; his answer was: "because it's a Shia mosque", & I was left with that answer & never sought any further elaboration. Few years later I was directing a question to my Lebanese friend: "why do you not come to perform prayers with us at the mosque??" (& I meant our local & only close one, big enough to accommodate all the 'believers') -& I asked him innocently (being friendly, religious & wanting to find my friends at a great place like the mosque), but Sami (& that was his name) answered: "I'm Shia!", & again I just remained silent & sought no clarification or explanation :s I remember also playing soccer at a far playground near that green-domed mosque, when I heard a different 'version' of the athan (call to prayer) -which was the Shia version, but I still didn't give it a second thought!!! I remember my all-time barber (Abu Jasim) who cut my hair ever since as I can remember until I left Kuwait (& to this day his shop remains there beside our mosque, just few 'meters' away from it), he was a Lebanese Shia too whom I never saw at our mosque praying. I remember our Iranian-Arab[8] neighbours' kid (Hassan) when we once had a fight with him, all of a sudden the kid (who must have been between 11 & 14 years of age) all of a sudden he brings up 'Abu Bakr al-Siddiq' (ra.) in his curses which he hurled at us!!!! But again, had it not been for my uncle who happened to hear that, we (the Sunni kids) wouldn't have 'caught' what that Hassan said!!! Those times the issue of the Shia being different or even 'hostile' was brought up..were times like 'black-outs' in our consciousness; nothing about the issue would 'sink' in our brains!!! To that degree we were uneducated & indifferent. And the above mentioned situations really puzzle me when I remember them; I can't but be amazed by how all but inquisitive (like it is nowadays) was my mind!!!
So, I came to Canada, bringing with us (me & my family) few Islamic books, among which was the famous 'Fiqh as-Sunnah' by the Egyptian, non-Madhabist Azhari scholar: Sayyid Sabiq[9]. But the story through which I came into loving to grow in Islamic knowledge started in a weird way: coming to Canada we thought our relations with our 'roots' will be severed, so someone in my immediate family thought that by bringing few Arabic casette tapes of songs..we'll keep our connection to the Arab world 'alive'. Soon I was admiring the voice of the Saudi singer 'Abdumajeed Abdullah' & admiring more his 'Gulf' dialect[10]. I noticed how close it (the Gulf Arabic dialect) is to the classical (or standard) Arabic language, i.e., the Fus-ha (or Fus7a) & being a lover of the Arabic language since Kuwait & wanting to strengthen & improve my mastering of my beautiful language (motivated by the marvellous 'vocabulary' I noticed in the Gulf-Arabic songs -something other dialects lacked in their songs), I looked around for a 'source' to 'enrich' my Arabic vocabulary from, but noticing I brought no such 'language books' with me from Kuwait & not knowing anywhere in Canada back then from where I can buy such helpful books, my thinking guided me to the Quran & the Hadith books!! There, I believed, I should find lots of Arabic vocabulary & thus have reached my goal!
Before then..I never thought about 'increasing' my Islamic knowledge. I was more into the Palestine problem, learning about the Jews, Zionists, Arabs, etc. etc.! I would go to the Mississauga Public Library (because I lived in Mississauga in the beginning of my arrival to Canada) & spend hours there by myself..just browsing all the Arabic & English books that had to do with topics of interest to me; and in the case of languages I didn't understand, you'd still find me looking at whatever pictures I could find in those books :s I remember grabbing a book from a shelf and forgetting to take it with me where I can sit down & continue browsing it, so I would end up standing for 4 or 5 hours!!! I'd have forgotten to sit down!!!! :s So, my interests was mostly my 'national' background, not religious one. In Kuwait I used to collect the pictures I was finding in newspapers..from the first Intifada (which broke out in 1987 & lasted till the early 1990's), I used to participate in art contests on the Palestine problem[10], & I was also becoming better in Arabic calligraphy, so..I had all the 'distraction' you can think of for someone my age then & I had no reasons to think that I 'lacked' lots of Islamic knowledge, LOTS. My level of knowledge back then was never challenged.
Years pass while I'm in Mississauga, influencing & being influenced by the Muslims I was meeting. Overall I alhamdulillah brought more good on many people (praise only to Allah) than anything else. I was always the conservative, reserved, peaceful one who wasn't also an 'easy prey' for any propaganda, though the circumstances would sometimes play a major role in keeping me 'ignorant' or 'deceived' (like you'll read soon), however only temporarily (praise be to Allah).
In High school, I remember asking my Lebanese friend (Malik) if he was Shia, and his answer to me was: "eh, 7atsibbili??" (in Lebanese Arabic, meaning: "yes, will you swear at me (now)??"); of course I wasn't going to!!! I had no reason to (at least not then!)! Plus, I don't mistreat the persons among the Shia people I meet as long as they don't insult my religion (like others did later, like I'll tell you). Plus, I was absolutely ignorant about the Shia religion back then, so I had no reason to make enemies with Malik. A year or 2 later, I met 2 Muslims (Sunnis[11]) from Indian background, Ahmad & Ali. They were the 'best' Muslims I had seen up to then in Canada, & ones who shook me to see wearing Islamic dresses (which were only their traditional 'South-Asian' dresses) & Islamic hats (which I learned from them, & others of their kinds, later to be called 'Kufi'!) in high-school! they were also bearded, but the way that 'Salafis' grow their beards (i.e., don't shave the hair on their cheeks, like many other Indian Muslim men do -& whom you can see examples on this website). Their beards were 'fist-length'[12]. I believe they also had 'short pants' (above the ankles)[13], something that startled me in the beginning but I never asked about it.
Before then..I never thought about 'increasing' my Islamic knowledge. I was more into the Palestine problem, learning about the Jews, Zionists, Arabs, etc. etc.! I would go to the Mississauga Public Library (because I lived in Mississauga in the beginning of my arrival to Canada) & spend hours there by myself..just browsing all the Arabic & English books that had to do with topics of interest to me; and in the case of languages I didn't understand, you'd still find me looking at whatever pictures I could find in those books :s I remember grabbing a book from a shelf and forgetting to take it with me where I can sit down & continue browsing it, so I would end up standing for 4 or 5 hours!!! I'd have forgotten to sit down!!!! :s So, my interests was mostly my 'national' background, not religious one. In Kuwait I used to collect the pictures I was finding in newspapers..from the first Intifada (which broke out in 1987 & lasted till the early 1990's), I used to participate in art contests on the Palestine problem[10], & I was also becoming better in Arabic calligraphy, so..I had all the 'distraction' you can think of for someone my age then & I had no reasons to think that I 'lacked' lots of Islamic knowledge, LOTS. My level of knowledge back then was never challenged.
Years pass while I'm in Mississauga, influencing & being influenced by the Muslims I was meeting. Overall I alhamdulillah brought more good on many people (praise only to Allah) than anything else. I was always the conservative, reserved, peaceful one who wasn't also an 'easy prey' for any propaganda, though the circumstances would sometimes play a major role in keeping me 'ignorant' or 'deceived' (like you'll read soon), however only temporarily (praise be to Allah).
In High school, I remember asking my Lebanese friend (Malik) if he was Shia, and his answer to me was: "eh, 7atsibbili??" (in Lebanese Arabic, meaning: "yes, will you swear at me (now)??"); of course I wasn't going to!!! I had no reason to (at least not then!)! Plus, I don't mistreat the persons among the Shia people I meet as long as they don't insult my religion (like others did later, like I'll tell you). Plus, I was absolutely ignorant about the Shia religion back then, so I had no reason to make enemies with Malik. A year or 2 later, I met 2 Muslims (Sunnis[11]) from Indian background, Ahmad & Ali. They were the 'best' Muslims I had seen up to then in Canada, & ones who shook me to see wearing Islamic dresses (which were only their traditional 'South-Asian' dresses) & Islamic hats (which I learned from them, & others of their kinds, later to be called 'Kufi'!) in high-school! they were also bearded, but the way that 'Salafis' grow their beards (i.e., don't shave the hair on their cheeks, like many other Indian Muslim men do -& whom you can see examples on this website). Their beards were 'fist-length'[12]. I believe they also had 'short pants' (above the ankles)[13], something that startled me in the beginning but I never asked about it.
.....................................to be continued.
____________________________________________________
[1] I'll share the story of how I came into learning fiqh, self-motivated, in Canada..later inshallah. I'm going by the chronological order of events here.
[2] This view (of the nullification of one's wudu upon ANY physical touching between 2 persons, each from a different sex) is characteristic of the Shafi'i school of thought & one the madhab is most famous of :s; it was proven to be wrong & was not adopted by other madhabs (like the Hanafi one). The great, spectacular, Mujtahid Imam, Shaykh-ul-Islam ibn Taymiyah, proved the fallacy in that Shafi'i view (concerning the nullification of wudu in the event of a mere, even undeliberate touch involving a man & a woman..even with the absence of sexual lust!)
[3] I observed this on Shafi'i Egyptians & Somalians, in Kuwait & Canada, respectively.
[4] like some 'simpletons' -or perhaps even 'ignorants'- out there call us to & even dare & have no shame to make having to observe only one madhab.."mandatory" --a dangerous claim that can kick one out of the fold of Islam if he/she insists on after establishing the proof on him/her about the serious fault of that claim!! I can now remember how some neighbours in Kuwait could have been what I came later to know as 'Salafi', which doesn't mean a madhab comparable to the 4 major Sunni madhabs
[5] a British-French agreement through which those two colonial, imperialist powers divided, against the will of the Arab people, the Arab world into zones & spheres of their dominion (agreed upon mutually, respected & recognized), directly or through Arab puppets they installed on top of the political apparatus in the new, many Arab states -particularly those in the eastern half of the Arab world, the so-called "Middle East", as opposed to the western half of it, "North Africa".
[6] like those which exist in the south of modern-day 'Lebanon', in Jabal 3aamel (literally, "the Mountain of Amel") or other areas of the south, or even the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon.
[7] the Druze religion being an offshoot of the Shia sect, but one that deviated into an intolerable extreme to the degree that the Druze are impossible to be counted as 'Muslims' AT ALL, or even be 'marriageable material' :s like Jews or Christians!! --for a reason I will share later, the Druze of Palestine were possible to see standing on the Zionist 'line of fire' against the Muslims of Palestine! I, however, never met a Druze Palestinian, but I saw so many on TV, in documentaries & other kinds of programs. Perhaps I should mention that the English word 'Druze' is the Arabic word for the plural referring to the adherents of that religion (the singular form being 'Durzi', plural being 'Drouz' -in colloquial Arabic-, 'Durouz' -in Standard, Fus7a Arabic-, or what's now in English 'Druze').
[8] Iranian Arabs come mostly from al-Ahwaz, an occupied Arab country by Iran since the 30's of the 20th century. For more on that forgotten country, see this website.
[9] His book was taught by major Salafi scholars of our time like Sh. al-Albani (rah.).
[10] and I won awards, like when I ranked 16th among 1600 contestents in an art contest in Kuwait in Dec., 1989. I also was known for my artistic talent at age 7, and would excel artistically students of higher grades (like I remember clearly a story when I was in grade 6). I had one painting of mine used in a Kuwaiti TV series (namely: al-Madhi wa Khareef al-3umr, starring: Sa3d al-Faraj & the Egyptian Poussi). I was really good, but I killed that talent in me upon learning that Islam forbids drawing of human figures. I, however, pulled all my weight to improve my mastering of Arabic calligraphy & I would have become 'someone' in that field..had my interest not shifted again, heavily & sharply to reading on Islam & not be interested with anything else beside that, at least not equally.
[11] but I never asked them then if they were Sunni, because I didn't care then, thinking all Muslims had O.K. beliefs!
[12] a view some Salafis also share, led by Sh. al-Albani.
[13] Until few years ago, I was trying to follow the 'mainstream' Salafi view of keeping the man's pants above his ankles, for the prophetic hadith states that "what's below the ankles deserves the Fire" (source: Sunan ibn Maajah), BUT I found Imam al-Nawawi stating that hadiths which are on the same 'degree' (i.e., both 'saheeh' or both 'hasan') but one puts a 'condition' while the other doesn't, the latter should be understood in the light of the first, i.e., the hadiths that don't associate the length of one's pants..with pride (kibr) should be understood in light of those that do, and thus one concludes that the matter of keeping one's pants above his ankles (we're talking about males only here) applies only on those who mean to show 'pride' (wealth-wise perhaps? That they could afford to buy more 'cloth' for their dresses than the poorer men & thus they could 'cover' more of their legs?? That's a reasoning I can't avoid & one which some 'Salafis' disagreed with me, but I never 'bought' completely what they said to me then, and I only 'rested' when I read al-Nawawi's view on understanding 2 such hadiths. With regard to Ahmad & Ali though, I don't know if their 'school of thought' looks at the matter like Salafis do (despite the hostility between their school of thought & the Salafis). I noticed, for example, the Taliban having short pants, but I never paid attention to the pants of men from the Indian Sub-continent. However, I remember a Black Sufi in our local mosque..once 'ordering' a kid in the prayer line in front of him to "roll up his pants" when (and apparently only when) about to pray :s What's the whole confusion about? I don't know!! I'll know later maybe.
[2] This view (of the nullification of one's wudu upon ANY physical touching between 2 persons, each from a different sex) is characteristic of the Shafi'i school of thought & one the madhab is most famous of :s; it was proven to be wrong & was not adopted by other madhabs (like the Hanafi one). The great, spectacular, Mujtahid Imam, Shaykh-ul-Islam ibn Taymiyah, proved the fallacy in that Shafi'i view (concerning the nullification of wudu in the event of a mere, even undeliberate touch involving a man & a woman..even with the absence of sexual lust!)
[3] I observed this on Shafi'i Egyptians & Somalians, in Kuwait & Canada, respectively.
[4] like some 'simpletons' -or perhaps even 'ignorants'- out there call us to & even dare & have no shame to make having to observe only one madhab.."mandatory" --a dangerous claim that can kick one out of the fold of Islam if he/she insists on after establishing the proof on him/her about the serious fault of that claim!! I can now remember how some neighbours in Kuwait could have been what I came later to know as 'Salafi', which doesn't mean a madhab comparable to the 4 major Sunni madhabs
[5] a British-French agreement through which those two colonial, imperialist powers divided, against the will of the Arab people, the Arab world into zones & spheres of their dominion (agreed upon mutually, respected & recognized), directly or through Arab puppets they installed on top of the political apparatus in the new, many Arab states -particularly those in the eastern half of the Arab world, the so-called "Middle East", as opposed to the western half of it, "North Africa".
[6] like those which exist in the south of modern-day 'Lebanon', in Jabal 3aamel (literally, "the Mountain of Amel") or other areas of the south, or even the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon.
[7] the Druze religion being an offshoot of the Shia sect, but one that deviated into an intolerable extreme to the degree that the Druze are impossible to be counted as 'Muslims' AT ALL, or even be 'marriageable material' :s like Jews or Christians!! --for a reason I will share later, the Druze of Palestine were possible to see standing on the Zionist 'line of fire' against the Muslims of Palestine! I, however, never met a Druze Palestinian, but I saw so many on TV, in documentaries & other kinds of programs. Perhaps I should mention that the English word 'Druze' is the Arabic word for the plural referring to the adherents of that religion (the singular form being 'Durzi', plural being 'Drouz' -in colloquial Arabic-, 'Durouz' -in Standard, Fus7a Arabic-, or what's now in English 'Druze').
[8] Iranian Arabs come mostly from al-Ahwaz, an occupied Arab country by Iran since the 30's of the 20th century. For more on that forgotten country, see this website.
[9] His book was taught by major Salafi scholars of our time like Sh. al-Albani (rah.).
[10] and I won awards, like when I ranked 16th among 1600 contestents in an art contest in Kuwait in Dec., 1989. I also was known for my artistic talent at age 7, and would excel artistically students of higher grades (like I remember clearly a story when I was in grade 6). I had one painting of mine used in a Kuwaiti TV series (namely: al-Madhi wa Khareef al-3umr, starring: Sa3d al-Faraj & the Egyptian Poussi). I was really good, but I killed that talent in me upon learning that Islam forbids drawing of human figures. I, however, pulled all my weight to improve my mastering of Arabic calligraphy & I would have become 'someone' in that field..had my interest not shifted again, heavily & sharply to reading on Islam & not be interested with anything else beside that, at least not equally.
[11] but I never asked them then if they were Sunni, because I didn't care then, thinking all Muslims had O.K. beliefs!
[12] a view some Salafis also share, led by Sh. al-Albani.
[13] Until few years ago, I was trying to follow the 'mainstream' Salafi view of keeping the man's pants above his ankles, for the prophetic hadith states that "what's below the ankles deserves the Fire" (source: Sunan ibn Maajah), BUT I found Imam al-Nawawi stating that hadiths which are on the same 'degree' (i.e., both 'saheeh' or both 'hasan') but one puts a 'condition' while the other doesn't, the latter should be understood in the light of the first, i.e., the hadiths that don't associate the length of one's pants..with pride (kibr) should be understood in light of those that do, and thus one concludes that the matter of keeping one's pants above his ankles (we're talking about males only here) applies only on those who mean to show 'pride' (wealth-wise perhaps? That they could afford to buy more 'cloth' for their dresses than the poorer men & thus they could 'cover' more of their legs?? That's a reasoning I can't avoid & one which some 'Salafis' disagreed with me, but I never 'bought' completely what they said to me then, and I only 'rested' when I read al-Nawawi's view on understanding 2 such hadiths. With regard to Ahmad & Ali though, I don't know if their 'school of thought' looks at the matter like Salafis do (despite the hostility between their school of thought & the Salafis). I noticed, for example, the Taliban having short pants, but I never paid attention to the pants of men from the Indian Sub-continent. However, I remember a Black Sufi in our local mosque..once 'ordering' a kid in the prayer line in front of him to "roll up his pants" when (and apparently only when) about to pray :s What's the whole confusion about? I don't know!! I'll know later maybe.
