EU-LIKE POLITICAL BLOC POSSIBLE FOR MUSLIMS: HEAD OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS

22.07.2014
Reuters
Source: Daily Sabah 

Comment:  Although I agree with Mehmet Gormez about ISIS, there are many things in which I disagree. One of those things concerns the Khilafah. From this article it seems as if Mehmet Gormez has the position that the Khilafah does not have any validity.
  My position is, that the Khilafah will be re-established by Allah-Himself- when and how He choices. Khilafah is not an obligation, but a blessing from Allah that we Muslims need to deserve. In sha'a Allah we will deserve it when we are no longer mixing faith with wrong.
 Allah says in The Qur'an that those who do not mix faith with wrong will be in security and will be guided. What does this mean? (What does it mean to say that the glass is half full? It means that the glass is half empty.) It means that those who do mix faith with wrong will not be in security. 
What is some of the major wrongs within The Islamic Nation? They include: making shirk with Allah (some of the ways that Muslims are making shirk with Allah is: taqlid and shrine worship); saying lies about Allah (which includes forbidding that which Allah has made lawful); and, fearing Allah's creatures. 
Now, as far as The Turkish constitution is concerned the article says:

 "The constitution enshrines the directorate's duty to uphold principles of secularism and national unity."

Secularism and national unity? What is this? Secularism is a Kufr way of life, and therefore is unacceptable in Islam. It is the directorate's duty to uphold principles of secularism...? Is it the duty of a Muslim to uphold Kufr? I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Shaitan.

Here is the article:
 

ISTANBUL – The declaration of a "caliphate" by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militants in Iraq lacks legitimacy and their death threats to Christians are a danger to civilization, head of Turkey's Religious Affairs, the successor to the last caliph's most senior imam, said.

ISIS, an armed group formerly allied to al Qaeda that has captured swathes of territory across Iraq, last month declared its leader, Ibrahim al-Baghdadi, "caliph" - the historical title last held by the Turkish Ottoman sultan who ruled much of the Muslim world.

"Such declarations have no legitimacy whatsoever," Mehmet Görmez, head of the Religious Affairs Directorate, the highest religious authority in Turkey, which, although a majority Muslim country, has been a secular state since the 1920s.

"Since the caliphate was abolished ... there have been movements that think they can pull together the Muslim world by re-establishing a caliphate, but they have nothing to do with reality, whether from a political or legal perspective."

Görmez said death threats against non-Muslims made by the group, were hugely damaging.

"The statement made against Christians is truly awful. Islamic scholars need to focus on this (because) an inability to peacefully sustain other faiths and cultures heralds the collapse of a civilization," he told Reuters in an interview.

Since ISIS's advance across northern Iraq in June, Christians have fled the city of Mosul, where the militants are based, after they were given the choice to convert, pay a religious tax or be executed.

Mosul's Christian community is one of the world's oldest, tracing its roots back two millennia.

 'HISTORICAL TIES'

Görmez is in a unique position to question Baghdadi's claim to the caliph's seat. His office was created in 1924 to replace the Ottoman Sheikh al-Islam, the mufti with authority to confirm new sultans and who also served as chief legal adviser.

"Its structure has changed greatly in modern times but its historical ties, of course, continue," Görmez said, wearing a grey suit and tie and running worry beads through his hand.

The caliphate itself was abolished in 1924, part of early modernising efforts by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the secular Turkish Republic on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

Today Görmez's department drafts the weekly sermon delivered at the nation's 85,000 mosques, which it supervises. It also employs all of Turkey's imams - Muslim preachers - who are technically civil servants trained by the state.

The constitution enshrines the directorate's duty to uphold principles of secularism and national unity.

"The caliphate is erroneously viewed as a religious authority by Westerners, who see it like a kind of papacy. But historically the caliphate was a legal entity that accepted religious references. It was a political authority," he said.

Muslims can no longer be unified under the rule of a single ruler like a caliph but could emulate political blocs like the European Union, aligning themselves along shared democratic values, Görmez said, speaking after wrapping up an international conference in Istanbul that brought together dozens of scholars from the Shi'ite and Sunni branches of Islam.

Conflict between the two denominations has been blamed for much of the recent bloodshed in Iraq and Syria, but Görmez said that economic and social factors in areas were the root causes.

"After a century of occupation, dictatorial regimes and suppressed identity, they are trying to express their vengeful anger and hatred by appropriating religion," he said.

"The West looks for the roots of this terror and violence in religion, but these are not the wars of the Middle Ages, which were truly sectarian."

An average of 1,000 Muslims are killed each day around the world, mostly due to internecine strife, he said. "Almost 90 percent of them are killed by other Muslims, by their brothers.

"Muslims need not look beyond themselves for the causes of these conflicts. They should be aware that ... global powers have a responsibility but those are forces they cannot control."


Link: http://www.dailysabah.com/nation/2014/07/22/turkeys-top-religious-authority-calls-isis-caliphate-illegitimate.

 

Imitating non-Muslims and taking part in their celebrations

Muslims celebrating Christmas

Question
Can a Muslim celebrate Christmas? Is there any Aalim who tells that it is Haram to celebrate? If so who? Is there any Fatwa about celebrating Christmas? Is it written in the holy Qur'an about Christmas?

Fatwa

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

A Muslim should be thankful to Allah for His great blessings upon him. He Who Guided him to the right path. So he should keep on supplicating Allah to make him steadfast on this path which is the path of blessed people and to keeping him away from the path of those who deserve His Anger and of those who went astray.

The Kuffars spare no efforts to draw the Muslims away from the straight path and to cut their relation with their true religion. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {Many of the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) wish that if they could turn you away as disbelievers after you have believed, out of envy from their ownselves, even, after the truth (that Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) is Allâh's Messenger) has become manifest unto them. But forgive and overlook, till Allâh brings His Command. Verily, Allâh is Able to do all things.}[2:109].

We the Muslims are proud of our religion that was revealed to us by Allah and are thankful that Allah has chosen us for his religion.
Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {… This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islâm as your religion. …}[5:3].

The Kuffars' celebrations such as the second millenium, Christmas Day, etc. are among the falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {And those who do not witness falsehood, and if they pass by some evil play or evil talk, they pass by it with dignity.}[25:72].

Many known ancestors made clear that the "falsehood" in the above verse means feasts of Kuffars. Imam Ahmad in his book of Hadith al-Musnad and Imam Tirmizi in his book of Sunan reported on the authority of Anas who said that the Prophet came to Madinah while people there had two days in which they played. The Prophet asked, "What are these two days?" They said, "These are two days we used to play in, in our Jahiliyyah! The Prophet said, "Allah has replaced them with two better days. Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr".

A person came to the Prophet and said: "I have taken a vow to sacrifice a camel at Buwanah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked: Did the place contain any idol worshipped in pre-Islamic times? They (the people) said: No. He asked: Was any pre-Islamic festival observed there? They replied: No. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Fulfil your vow, for a vow to do an act of disobedience to Allah must not be fulfilled, neither must one do something over which a human being has no control."
No doubt celebrating such feasts is actually imitating unbelievers. The companion of the Prophet Abdullah Bin Amar bin al-'Aas said: 'Whoever celebrates the Persian New Year's Day or their carnival and imitates them till his death he will be resurrected with them on the Day of Judgment'.

The Prophet said as reported in a sound Hadith: "Who imitates non-Muslims he is one of them" [Imams Ahmad and Abu Dawood].

Therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them. Nor, does a Muslim celebrate any of their other feast days. A Muslim celebrates only the Islamic Eid days.

Many times Allah has mentioned the details of the birth of Jesus in the Qur'an but He did not mention any celebration to be done on this occasion.

Please read the Fatwa: 82006.

Allah knows best.