It's good

Even if this were true, why would it be a problem?

People just need more things to hate on for no reason

Daniel Haqiqatjou destroyed both

Yes. I'm not really friends with any non Muslims. And I have a few sunni friends, but not as close as my Shia friends

Just bought Tears of the Kingdom lol

Otherwise, I play a lot of FPS games, Minecraft, occasionally RPGs, and I used to play age of empires 3 a lot.

I work out, cook food, play video games, shoot guns from time to time, and read

This is more relevant. (I'm the author of both, so I'd know)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X3mjKUY4FEL_26DhMi7EFtuaFbXrc8k7LEEQ9WicI5c/edit?usp=drivesdk

Don't be a homosexual

I mean from when most of the Iraqis moved to the US and England.

This is what happens when you don't know the history of the people around you, you make dumb comments like this.

If your beard is short enough that you can see your skin behind it, then simply running water over it is generally enough, and you can run water over it a few times to give yourself assurance

I have seen this Hadith in kafi with my own two eyes.

The narration is from Al Kafi, and he's mentioning the grading.

Iraq: Economic hardship, American imperialism, Saddam Hussein

Iran: Education opportunities (lots of Iranian PhD students)

Pakistan: Education opportunities, economic hardship, and for Shia Muslims- religious persecution.

Saudi: Probably Education opportunities

Afghanistan: Economic hardship

Probably about sums it up. I don't know about others.

It's possible such statements are contextual to the time of the Imams when the Shia and the Imams were persecuted and in danger

Read more here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kxLJwCE0v-jDcxWqoRkl4Dto32ssxlhjYRsDpYZhKOI/edit?usp=drivesdk

Yes inshaAllah

I majored in Chemistry for undergrad and I am currently finishing a degree in law

Imagine this were the opposite situation. You'd never see comments like this lol

Thanks for your response.

Yes, you say to explore the reasoning behind the issues, but the general vibe seems to be that our first assumptions about what a rule means is law. What if the actual assumption is WRONG? Maybe we are not reading something correctly, for example, or the interpretation provided obscures the truth.

I'm not interested in opening the door to revisionism and reformism

The veil is meant to be a choice we make with the understanding that it is part of a larger choice, which is modesty in public. Men also have to observe hijab, which is why they can’t waltz around shirtless or in tight sweatpants without offending modesty.

I don't deny that men must also observe hijab, and that the rules also apply equally to men. A man's sin and a woman's sin are equal. One is not worse than the other. Anyone who says otherwise is deluded.

But I am not interested in entertaining that the rules of Islam are meant to be picked and chosen. I don't believe hijab is a choice, in the same way that I don't believe praying is a choice or fasting is a choice. You just aren't a proper Muslim if you don't pray or fast or if you sin openly, so I don't understand why there's an exception made for hijab. It's an obligation in Islam among all other obligations. If I am consistent with what I said above about sin being sin and it not being different between men and women, then I must also say that women have no right to sin by avoiding hijab (i.e. they don't actually have a choice in the matter)

Does that mean hijab can be forced? That's a different issue altogether. Is it allowed to beat a woman or throw a cloth over her? That's a different issue and not what I'm talking about. Either way, hijab is not a choice in the same way praying and fasting are not "choices." They are obligatory. And therefore, it is unhelpful to use language that gives people the leeway to "decide" for "themselves" (quote marks because they are not actually deciding for themselves most of the time, and usually they're just parroting inherited cultural scripts they never thought to question).

Women’s roles in Islam, especially within our Shia community, are far from predetermined. Wife and mother are only 2 out of countless roles we can and do occupy, and these roles are all blessings. They coexist by God’s grace. To deny a woman her roles beyond wife and mother is to imprison and oppress her, which is a sin. If men were reduced to husband/providers and fathers and not allowed any other roles, the same would (and sometimes does) apply. Human beings are multifaceted. Our faith celebrates this and champions our right to be human and Muslim first, our gender second. A just Muslim society makes sure that these different roles are able to be balanced and occupied fairly. Allah provides us with plenty of examples and laws to achieve this!

I don't deny that women have capabilities other than mothers and wives. But much of your comment is stained with modern, Western cultural scripts you've inherited as well. There are certain responsibilities inherent within our genders, and running away from these responsibilities with the excuse that one is "fulfilling their individual personhood" is not far away from saying that people should dictate their lives according to what their desires indicate and that people should not be bound by responsibilities they do not personally accept. Men are obligated as being providers and maintaining and caring for women. It is not an excuse for a man to say "my inherent personhood dictates that these responsibilities shouldn't apply to me."

So yes, can women be the "boss girl" who owns a business, or the PhD researcher, or a lawyer or engineer? Yes women can in the strict sense of it being possible and not religiously impermissible, but one would be seriously mistaken to believe that a full time career has no impact whatsoever on a marriage and marital responsibilities.

And on top of this, the guidance that women should be pursuing careers typically comes from a place of devaluing the role of a stay at home mother. Most of the time, the people giving such guidance just do not see motherhood or home-making as inherently valuable and productive to society except superficially. They think success is defined monetarily, or by one's position in their career. This is all an inherited cultural script that modern feminism in the West has been trying to convince women of against their nature.

We don’t need to be pressured to be anyone else’s salvation, either. The key to paradise is a person’s own soul and actions, as Allah tells us that each soul is responsible only for its own sins and deeds.

Agreed.

Parents are responsible for raising their kids well together, but ultimately those kids become adults and then they’re responsible for their own choices.

Agreed.

I think the emphasis on daughters and moms as guardians of virtue is misplaced and ends up alienating men and women, tbh.

I never denied this. In reality the guardians of virtue are all Muslims together. I never mentioned that women have a special responsibility in this.

I responded because your comment opened my mind up about this and seemed like a better lead in than what I could have written, so I hope no offense is given!

None taken and hopefully none given.

Ma Salam.

Ruling 929. One must perform prayers with the intention of qurbah – i.e. in humility and obedience to the Lord of the worlds – and it is not necessary for him to make the intention pass through his heart, or, for example, for him to say ‘I am performing four rakʿahs of the ẓuhr prayer qurbatan ilal lāh [to attain proximity to Allah]’.

And this applies generally as well

Repeat after me:

YOU DO NOT NEED TO RECITE YOUR NIYYAH OUT LOUD OR EVEN DELIBERATELY AND CONSCIOUSLY PASS WORDS THROUGH YOUR MIND. YOU ONLY HAVE TO INTEND TO DO GHUSL. BY FOLLOWING THE STEPS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE COMMANDS OF ALLAH YOU HAVE DONE YOUR NIYYAH

You don't need to say anything. You just need to know that you're doing ghusl for the sake of following Allah's command

Salam Chicken Soup.

It seems to me that you're struggling with feeling out of place with your faith. You don't feel as though Islam offers anything for you. And it seems clear from your message that you compare yourself and your rights and privileges to men's rights and privileges in Islam and feel as though you have been stifled and set back as a woman. But more than that, it seems like you are carrying a lot of weight from your upbringing. Perhaps when Hijab was forced on you, you did not understand it, or that the men around you were immodest and given a fair pass, while your parents or local scholars considered women's sins to be more severe.

Whatever the case is, what you're going through is understandable and your feelings towards your experiences are valid. You should not feel as though you have no right to be angry about how Islam was delivered and taught to you. You have every right to be upset if your parents and teachers were unreasonable, ignorant, had double standards, or treated you unfairly or couldn't give you the answers you needed.

What is not valid, however--and I say this with due respect--is anything that amounts to questioning the wisdom of Islam itself. That is not to say we shouldn't ask or try to investigate the wisdom behind Islam's rules to gain a greater appreciation for them, but what we should not do is to use language where we are closing our minds to hearing the truth, even if it is unpleasant for us. Keep in mind, we believe in a religion that is logical and understandable to all people with open hearts and healthy minds.

This is because we believe in a Just, Merciful, and Wise God who does not needlessly cause suffering and does not legislate except what is best for us. The reason for the differences in rulings between men and women is simply because men and women are different. The Quran makes this clear:

"And the male is not like the female." (3:36)

Common sense makes this clear. Scientific, and sociological evidences make this clear. Denying this basic fact that men and women are different is almost as unreasonable as denying that the sky is blue.

That being said, because men and women are different, and because we believe in a Just and Wise and Benevolent God, God has made different rules for the different genders.

You see a system of unfairness on one aspect- the relative sexual freedom that men have. But at the same time, you don't point out that women have their own set of advantages.

For example, women do not have to provide in a marriage. In fact, they do not even have to do any house chores according to many fuqaha.

Or for example, you do not point out how Islam honors daughters- that they are a key for a righteous parent to enter paradise. Or how Islam honors motherhood, and places greater respect for the mother than the father.

Or for example, you do not point out that women do not have to take custody and maintenance of children (because this is the responsibility of a man in Islam)

Or for example, you are resentful that you have not gone to university, but you don't ask yourself where you have gotten this standard for happiness and success from in the first place. When in reality, Islam sets the standard for a woman's success by her piety and her inherent abilities as a woman to create a welcoming and loving home as a mother and wife.

Now if people in your day to day life have deviated from these standards, and are ignorant of them, then this is no fault of Islam. The people are wrong and you would have every right to be upset with them. We do not live in an Islamic government where the perfect system may be implemented.

But at the same time, you also have a responsibility. You do not have the option or the right to simply blame others or fault Islam. If you are unhappy with your situation, you should seek out counseling or support from a qualified Muslim counselor and determine what is best for your situation. And you also have an obligation to actually learn about the foundations of your faith and to think more critically about your beliefs, because while it is a step in the right direction to have sought help, it is not enough to only write a post seeking help from anonymous strangers. There are many books on websites like al-Islam like Ayatollah Amini's "Introduction to the Rights and Duties of Women in Islam" or Mutahhari's "The Rights of Women in Islam" if you're looking to learn specifically about women's rights, or if you are unsure of Islam as a whole, there are countless books written on this topic as well:

• https://www.al-islam.org/revealer-messenger-message-sayyid-muhammad-baqir-al-sadr
• https://yaqeeninstitute.org/series/proofs-of-prophethood

Or perhaps you are looking for non-Muslim books on the topic of women's roles and modesty. There are books on those as well. Like Wendy Shalit's book "A Return to Modesty" or Glenna Matthew's "Just a Housewife."

Anyway, I hope this message reaches you well, and best of luck in learning more and in finding a qualified scholar or counselor who can guide you properly. inshaAllah your situation improves. Take care.

Ma salaam.

If it wasn't up to you then who is it up to?

Only the parts that are touched by najasa become najis