Mufti Mohammad Taha Karaan

Keeping a Beard

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I’ve had people recently asking me the ruling for shaving the beard in accordance to my understanding all four schools of thoughts had a consensus that shaving is haram; however, I have read recently that the relied-upon position for the Shāfiʿī madhhab is that it is makrooh (not sinful) to shave the beard. Is this correct?

The ruling on Music and Fundraising using Ḥarām Means

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We are an Islamic School and wish to raise funds to construct a toilet block. We have been advised to hold a musical show. We are told that Mufti Kifayatullah has given a legal edict that permits the usage of riba [usury] for the construction of toilets. Would the same reasoning apply here as well? Also, should we be incorrect in our initial assumption, what if there were no other means to raise funds? Will this be deemed a case of darurah [necessity] and thereby render it permissible?

Copyright in Islam

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What is the Islamic ruling on copyright? Some authors and publishers spend a great deal of time painstakingly writing books on Islam, and this for them is obviously a means of rizq. Without their permission low quality versions of the same books are published and mass distributed around the world. Shop keepers sell these books at huge profits, justifying this by saying that it’s cheaper than buying the original versions. Some ‘ulama say all of this is okay because there is “no copyright” in Islam. Please clarify.

Al-Fatāwā al-Sirājiyyah on the Shāfiʿī Qiblah

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The Shāfiʿī position, of course, is that one should face the actual qiblah (ʿayn al-qiblah), while the Ḥanafīs take the more indulgent position of the general direction of the qiblah (jihat al-qiblah). With the Ḥanafīs having taken a position of greater latitude it becomes difficult to understand why the Shāfiʿī qiblah comes to be described as “wrong”, since one would naturally expect the narrower position to be subsumed within the broader one.

Concerned Muslim

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Concernes about “looking like a Muslim”: While the idea of someone “looking like a Muslim” might sometimes be based upon a perception of the spiritual effulgence of nur on that person’s face, it is also a fact that people often draw conclusions in that regard on grounds much less spiritual, even offensive at times.