Answered by Dr. G.F. Haddad

Is `aqida the differentiator between Muslim and kafir?

Question

What is the criteria laid for AQEEDAH: is aqeedah the differentiator between a Muslim and kafir, and if one does not consider the world of grave as reality what is the ruling on that person because he thinks that its not 100% sure?

Answer

The Shaykh was one of the great saints of the Punjab and a sayyid also from both maternal and paternal sides of his family. His ancestors, all sufi masters themselves, hailed from Shiraz in Iran and came to the Subcontinent when one of them accompanied Emperor Humayoun back to Delhi after his exile in Iran where Humayoun had originally met him.

BEIRUT, (AFP) - Hezbollah said Friday it was "ready more than ever" to wage war against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, accusing Washington of giving him the green light to strike the militant Shiite Muslim movement.

"Information is being leaked that Sharon has received US authorisation to strike at Hezbollah in Lebanon," Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told a religious ceremony Friday.

"In any case I tell Sharon and his masters that ... we are not mobilised at the highest level militarily but we are beyond any imagination spritually and psychologically," Nasrallah said.

by Enver Masud

WASHINGTON, DC--The Taliban's destruction of the statues of Buddha at Bamiyan, Afgahnistan, have provoked near universal condemnation. One voice, however, has not been heard--that of Buddha himself.

What would Buddha say having witnessed 13 centuries of Muslim rule in Afghanistan under whom centuries of cultural heritage survived? Yet in just 21 years, since the Russian invasion of 1979, "thousands of Hellenistic, Iranian and Indian artifacts from Afghanistan's many-layered past have been smuggled out to the voracious and amoral Western art market."--Robert Huges, "Buddha Bashing," TIME, March 19, 2001.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's civilian and military leaders have agreed on new measures to tighten controls over Islamic businesses in a campaign to curb political Islam, a Turkish newspaper reported Saturday.

The National Security Council -- made up of top generals and political leaders -- decided in a meeting Friday to amend laws to allow a government inspection board to scrutinize companies partly owned by municipalities run by an Islamic party, Hurriyet reported.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Shouting "Death to America! Death to Israel!" and waving clenched fists, some 50,000 Lebanese Shiite Muslims marched in south Beirut on Friday night to show support for Palestinians fighting Israeli forces.

The protest, led by Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas who fought Israeli forces during their 18-year occupation of a south Lebanon border zone, dwarfed similar rallies by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan.

The Hezbollah demonstration was one of several organized to mark Land Day and to protest the U.S. veto this week of a Palestinian proposal to send U.N. observers to the Middle East.

07-03-2001

At 1 a.m. this morning Israeli soldiers imposed a total siege of Palestinian villages within the Occupied Territories. They have dug a trench and installed a blockade, starting from Sorda village near Ramallah, from Ein Sheikh Yusef, up to the town of Bir Zeit. The trench and blockade is 2 metres into the earth, and it is about 150 metres in length. This total siege prevents any access to or out of the areas by vehicle.

Below is a comical attempt to show clashes between 'athiest science' and god.

"At an educational institution: Professing to be wise, they became fools .... "

"Let me explain the problem science has with God." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.

"You're a Muslim, aren't you, son?"

"Yes, sir."

"So you believe in God?"

"Absolutely."

"Is God good?"

"Sure! God's good."

"Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?"

"Yes."

Did He need to? Why did He not do so sooner rather than later?

Firstly, it should be noted that as human beings we perceive everything from a human perspective and formulate our views accordingly. To take one example, human beings act out of necessity or desire. We set out to do things because we have certain needs or are compelled.

Through some infatuation in ourselves or ill-thinking, we foolishly presume to compare God to ourselves and suppose that God acts as we do. Therefore, in asking the above questions, it is of the utmost importance to remember that God is independent of all wants or needs, and far beyond our inadequate conceptions.

Question: If God is Benevolent and Omnipotent, then why is there existence of evil in the world? If God allows evil to exist, then He is not all-good. If God cannot help but allow evil to exist, then he is not all-powerful.

Answer: