Friday, September 4, 2015

CONGRATULATIONS KIM DAVIS - YOU ARE ONE IN A ZILLION !!!!

Why aren’t there more Kim Davises?

Liz Goodwin
Senior National Affairs Reporter
Yahoo Politics
September 4, 201
County clerk Kim Davis during a rally on the steps of the Kentucky State Capitol. (Photo: Timothy D. Easley/AP)
 
A federal judge ordered Kim Davis — the defiant Kentucky county clerk who has cited her Christian faith in refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples — to jail Thursday afternoon for refusing to carry out the duties of her position. 

Davis has become a symbol of religiously motivated disobedience after the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in June — she’s said she is acting under “God’s authority” when she repeatedly turns gay couples away. But Davis is very much alone in her defiance. The refusal of other clerks to marry same-sex couples largely melted away as it became obvious their legal claims would not hold up in federal court. Only 13 counties in Alabama and two counties in Kentucky are refusing marriage licenses to gay couples, according to the gay rights group Freedom to Marry. Despite many loud proclamations of defiance after the ruling, the vast majority of counties have accepted the law.

 practice might be behind some of this unexpected compliance. In Utah, North Carolina, Texas and other states, local governments are shifting responsibilities so that employees who object to gay marriage do not have to be involved with wedding licenses at all. In this scenario, the objectors’ co-workers or other government officials rotate to handle the task, allowing clerks who object to fade into the background and not participate. 

In fact, this might be what happens in Davis’s case: Late Thursday afternoon, five of her deputy clerks offered to begin issuing marriage licensing, a move that could save her from jail.

They won’t be the only clerks covering for their bosses. Hood County Clerk Katie Lang denied a marriage license to a same-sex couple in Texas several times after the Supreme Court ruling. But after the pair filed a federal lawsuit, their licenses were quickly granted. Lang released a statement saying she would “personally refrain” from issuing them, but that other people in her office would do so instead.

These kinds of personal exemptions have flourished elsewhere, as well.
In June, North Carolina legislators overrode the Republican governor’s veto to establish that county magistrates who object to same-sex marriage can opt out of wedding licensing entirely and designate someone else to perform the function. (This is what Kim Davis wants to happen in Kentucky, according to a statement from her lawyer. She’d like another Rowan County agency to take over marriage licensing entirely.)

So far, 32 out of 672 magistrates in North Carolina have recused themselves from wedding licensing and have designated substitutes.

Although the ACLU and many gay rights groups strongly object to these exemptions, they’re hard to challenge legally unless a magistrate does not find an adequate substitute, and gay couples find it hard to marry in a certain county.

North Carolina ACLU Legal Director Chris Brook says they are concerned a magistrate could recuse himself at the very moment a same-sex couple walked in, thus denying the couple a marriage license without giving them an alternative. 

But as long as same-sex couples are able to access marriage the same way opposite-sex couples are, a legal challenge would be tough.

“I think the attempt to create exemptions is going to bump up against the [the gay marriage decision] if it’s not made available on roughly the same terms that civil marriage is made to opposite sex couples,” says Robert Tuttle, a professor at George Washington University Law School.

Then there’s the so-called Utah Compromise, which carves out personal exemptions for government officials while extending housing and hiring protections to LGBT people. In Utah, county clerk employees who don’t want to marry gay people can privately notify the government of that and then appoint someone else in the community to handle all marriage licenses.

“There are good reasons to try to allow people who have been in these jobs for a long time to be able to keep their jobs,” Wilson says. “That’s a really noble thing to do in our culture, especially at a time of deep division.”

But a group of Columbia University law professors argue in a recent memo that these kinds of exemptions create “conscience creep,” in which government employees can refuse to provide more and more services that violate their beliefs. And what happens when no one wants to provide the service? “The exemption proposals would make the efficacy of same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry contingent upon their being able to find a public official who has no objection to their having such a right,” they write.

Nonetheless, states may choose to copy North Carolina’s law when their legislatures reconvene in September and January.

Legal precedent says government officials have a right, like anyone else, to uphold their religious beliefs. But they do not have a right to their government job and paycheck. If their beliefs conflict with their duty to uphold federal law, they can lose their job.

“If you are going to work for the government, you have to respect the constitutional rights of its citizens,” Ted Olson, the lawyer who argued against California’s same-sex marriage ban in Supreme Court, told Yahoo News in an email.

One clerk in Tennessee recently chose to opt out of government service over this issue. In Decatur County, longtime clerk Gwen Pope and many who worked for her resigned on July 5 over objections to same-sex marriage. “I honestly believe God will take care of us,” Pope told the Jackson Sun.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

THE LEGACY OF SHAYKH DR. AMINUDDEEN ABUBAKR OF KANO, NIGERIA


(107): The Legacy of Shaykh, Dr Aminuddeen Abubakr (I) 
by 
Muhammad Jameel Yusha'u 
http://jameelyushau.blogspot.com/2015/0 ... ddeen.html 



Sometime in 1983, my mother broke the news to me that henceforth, I will be joining my father to attend Friday prayers at the Bayero University old campus mosque, where my father regularly prays. It was an excellent news for a little kid. Apart from attending prayers, it was an opportunity to go out, and as you know, when you go out with your dad, you get a treat, and I still remember those days with nostalgia. 

On arrival at the mosque, sitting by the side of my father, we listened to the sermon delivered by Imam Abbas. But even as a kid, I noticed a man sitting slightly ahead of the first row, listening attentively to the sermon, you can’t miss his exceptional devotion from the way he sat. Immediately after the prayers, this gentleman stood, and after some introduction in Arabic, he started translating the Khutbah (sermon) in Hausa, our native language. Instead of people leaving the mosque shortly after the prayers, they started moving forward, those outside the mosque where trying to find a space inside in order to listen to the translation of the Khutbah. The man was dressed in a long gown, an ash coloured jallabiyya, and a cap a made from wool, also an ash colour with some black stripes. 

I asked my father, who is this gentleman? He said this is Shaykh Aminuddeen Abubakar. He was looking youthful, most likely in his mid or late thirties at the time. Then comes another good news. “We will pray Asr, (the late afternoon prayer) in his mosque”, my father told me. It means we will stay some more hours before returning home. After listening to the translation of the sermon, we came out of the old campus mosque; there was a convoy of cars, one of them an SUV with public address system on top. The translation of the sermon was played, and the convoy started moving, which we also joined, and move straight to No 483, Sulaiman Crescent in Nassarawa quarters, Kano metropolis. 

Again I asked my father, to tell me more about this place, and he said, this is Kajawah Group of Nigeria founded by Shaykh Aminuddeen Abubakar. Inside the compound was a newly built school, a mosque made from wood, painted in blue, but made bright by the number of fluorescents in and outside. Some feet away from the mosque was a construction site, which later became the current mosque within the vicinity of the centre, some classes as well as the office of the Shaykh. 

We prayed Asr in the mosque shortly after Shaykh Aminuddeen arrived from Bayero University. He attended to a number of students and visitors afterwards before entering his house briefly, to be ready for the Magrib (night prayer), where he also deliver different lessons on daily basis in between the Maghrib and Isha (late night) prayers. After spending the entire evening at the centre, my father broke another news to me, "a new Islamic school has started here at night, and you would be enrolled in the night classes", he said. I still remember with ecstasy when my father took me to Shaykh Muhammad Sanusi Abubakr, the brother and one of the closest associates of the Shaykh, to interview and register me for the classes. 

The founding of Daawah Group of Nigeria was in my opinion one of the major legacies left by Shaykh Aminuddeen Abubakr for a number of reasons. First, it was the first modern religious organization of its type established in Kano, and one of the first in northern Nigeria with a completely different approach to Islamic education. 

Da'awah Group was a major religious centre with a global worldview, but rooted within the local culture. Shaykh Aminuddeen Abubakr has established strong partnership with international organisations particularly in the Middle East and other parts of the world. As such, the centre was a major hub for international visitors from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Syria, United States, United Kingdom, Morocco, Algeria and different parts of the world. 

Whenever these visitors came, he seized the opportunity either to ask them to deliver the Friday Khutbah (sermon) or dedicate to them one of the slots during the lessons he delivers between Maghrib and Ishaa. This culture established by the Shaykh contributed significantly in creating a worldview among the visitors, which made them understood global issues, and learn how Muslims live in other parts of the world, as well as the challenges they were facing. 

This culture provided an opportunity for comparison between various Muslim nations and what obtains in Nigeria. I can still recall the visit by Shaykh Babandi Abubakar Gumel in the early 1990s, who took his time to lead a delegation of Muslim reverts to Nigeria, and they camped at the Daawah Mosque sharing their experiences on how they came in contact with Islam, and why they devote their time to the propagation of Islam. 

Secondly, Daawah Group was unique because of the chain of schools established by Dr Aminuddeen Abubakar. The schools include a modern primary school which combines both Islamic and Western education. In the evening there was a school for married women which I shall elaborate on later. The school for women runs simultaneously with a section for children learning the memorization of the Glorious Qur’an. The children school was a perfect fit, because the women do not have to worry about their children, as the section takes care of the kids, with an added value, which is learning the Qur’an. At night there was the school for children which runs for four nights at the time, and the remaining three nights dedicated to male adults. These chain of schools completely revolutionized the running of Islamic schools in Kano, a feat that continue to be replicated to date in Kano and other parts of Nigeria. 

Thirdly, Da'awah Group was unique with the daily lessons between Magrib and Isha delivered by Dr Aminuddeen. This contribution was unique because he brought for the first time a different methodology of teaching which was different from the traditional system of Makarantun Zaure. Under makarantun Zaure, as I witnessed with my late grandfather, Malam Yusuf Abdurra’uf, a group of students will visit the scholar, each of them with his book(s), usually, Taalimul Muta'allim, Al Akhdari, Al-Izziyya, Arrisala and Mukhtsar Khalil. There were other books like Aajurumiyya, Muwatta Malik and Tafsir Al Jalaalain, as well as the Sihah Assitta for more advanced students. This system treat each student according to his learning ability. The scholar listens to each student while reading from the text, and then translates and provide interpretation in Hausa. 

It was a unique system that has value till date, because apart from the textual lessons, the students learn from the character of the scholar, listening to more advanced students and becoming more familiar with advanced texts before reaching that level. The student also has a more learned authority to make reference to whenever the need arises. It is a system that the Muslim community should pay significant attention to its revival, especially in this age when people accord to themselves the status of scholars without going through tarbiyya that is associated with learning from pious scholars. 

What Dr Aminuddeen Abubakar did was to add a spice to the traditional system of makarantun zaure by encouraging the learning of Arabic as a language, at least ensuring that students have an excellent reading and writing proficiency. Then he transformed the Da'awah mosque to provide multipurpose function by serving as a mosque and library. 

The first thing a visitor will notice in the 1980s and 1990s when he enters the mosque, which differentiates it from many mosques, was that it was covered by bookshelves. The bookshelves contain abundant copies of books from the Sihah al-Sitta (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhy, Abu Dawood, Ibn Maja, Nasaa’iyy, and Sunan Ahmad), Riyad Assalihin, Kitaab Al Kabaa’ir, Fath Al Majid, Bulugh Al-Maram and several books of Tasfsir (Quranic exegesis) and Dhikr (remembrance of Allah). 

He ensured that enough copies were made available. Between Maghrib and Isha he teaches one book only from the collection stated, and each student attending the lesson has a copy available for use. A student does not have to worry about purchasing a copy, especially those who cannot afford to do so. For those with strong thirst for knowledge, they can utilize the time after prayers to revise the lessons and even read from other books. At any time, the mosque was a reference point. 
This system that he established contributed greatly in producing a lot of youths with a sound understanding of Islam, some of whom later developed to study in higher institutions of learning in Nigeria and others in universities in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and Niger among others. In those days, we have witnessed people who embraced Islam in Daawah Group, or came to the centre with a very weak foundation, yet develop sound understanding of Arabic and other religious texts, which enables them secure admission into secondary and post-secondary institutions in Nigeria and abroad in order to advance their studies. 

To be continued insha Allah.

Monday, July 20, 2015

WHAT MUHAMMAD DID FOR HUMANITY - TEN POINTS

What Prophet Muhammad Gave Humanity in 10 Points

 

Secretary General of IPIPM

Arabic calligraphy: Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah
Some non-Muslim westerners wonder what Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) offered to humanity. This question is raised particularly after incidents of defamation targeting the Prophet's honorable character by western media.
So, it is our duty to answer these questions and to highlight what our Prophet gave to humanity and the world. Aided and guided by God's revelation, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) contributed the following:
1. He transferred humanity from obedience and submission to other men to the worship and submission to God alone, associating nothing with Him. Consequently, humanity became free from servitude to other than God, and this is the greatest honor for mankind.



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2. Through revelation from God, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) liberated the human mind from superstition, deception, and submission to false objects of worship as well as those concepts contrary to reason. This includes the claim that God had a human son, and that idols and stones can harm people.
3. His message laid the foundations for tolerance among people. In the Qur'an, God revealed to His Prophet that there is to be no compulsion in the acceptance of religion.
The Prophet also clarified the rights of non-Muslims who do not wage war against Muslims and guaranteed protection of their lives, children, property, and honor. Even today in many Muslim countries there are Jewish and Christian citizens living in peace and security, in contrast to the Spanish Inquisition when Muslims were exterminated in an ethnic cleansing that violated all basic human principles.
4. Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was a mercy sent by God to all peoples regardless of race or faith. In fact, his teachings include mercy even to birds, animals, plants, and inanimate beings. He forbade harming them without right or reason.
5. Muhammad showed unparalleled respect for and appreciation of all the prophets who preceded him, among them Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace and blessings be upon them all).
One who denies or disrespects any of the prophets cannot be a Muslim. Islam regards all of the prophets as one brotherhood, inviting people to the belief that there is no deity worthy of worship except God, who is the one true God.
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6. Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) defended human rights for both males and females, for the young and the elderly, regardless of social status. He established a set of sublime principles; one example being in the speech he gave during his farewell pilgrimage in which he declared strict prohibition of transgression against people's lives, property, and honor.
He laid down these principles more than 1400 years ago, long before the world knew of the Magna Charta in 1215, the Declaration of Rights in 1628, the Personal Freedoms Law in 1679, the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, the Human and Citizen Rights Charter in 1789, and the worldwide Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) presented to the world a perfect model of brotherhood among human beings.
7. Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) elevated the importance of morality in human life. He called for good manners, honesty, loyalty, and chastity, and strengthened social bonds such as being dutiful to parents and relatives, always putting into practice what he preached.
He prohibited and warned against negative behaviors such as lying, envy, betrayal, fornication, and disrespect of parents, and he treated the problems stemming from these grave social diseases.
8. Through the revelation from God, His Messenger invited people to use their minds, to discover the universe around them, and to acquire knowledge. He confirmed that God rewards such deeds at a time when scientists and intellectuals in other civilizations were suffering persecution and accusations of heresy and blasphemy, being terrorized in prisons, tortured and often killed.



9. Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) came with a revelation from God, presenting a religion compatible with human nature, a way of life that satisfies the needs of the soul and those of the body, and establishes a balance between worldly deeds and those done for the Hereafter.
It is a religion that disciplines human instincts and desires without suppressing them completely as happens in some other cultures which were absorbed with ideas contrary to human nature, depriving religious men of such natural human rights as marriage and of such natural reactions as anger toward transgression. This led most members of these civilizations to reject religious teachings and become absorbed in the material world, which caters only to their bodies while leaving their souls in a miserable state.
10. Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) presented to the world a perfect model of brotherhood among human beings. He taught that no race is superior to another for all are equal in origin and equal in responsibilities and rights. One's degree of faith and piety is the onWly criterion for preference. His Companions were given equal opportunities to belong to Islam and serve the religion. Among them were Suhayb, a Byzantine, Bilal, an Abyssinian, Salman, a Persian, and many other non-Arabs.
In conclusion, each of these ten points requires further details and explanation. What Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) offered humanity is too detailed to be mentioned in this brief outline. There is also a great deal that has been said about him by objective researchers from the East and West after they studied the biography of this great Prophet.
God's Blessings and peace be upon Prophet Muhammad as well as upon all other God's prophets, his family, Companions, and followers.
* Taken with some modification from www.mercyprophet.com.** This article was published in 2010.
Dr. Adil bin Ali Ash-Shaddy is Secretary General of the International Program for Introducing the Prophet of Mercy
Dr. Adil bin Ali ash-Shaddy is Secretary General of the International Program for Introducing the Prophet of Mercy.
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Saturday, July 18, 2015

TIME TO REAP THE HARVEST

Time to reap the harvest
Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam
We are meeting at a highly auspicious moment, blessed by God – the night of 29th Ramdhan in much of the Subcontinent and the night of 30th in many parts of the Muslim world. These are the most precious moments of the holy month, and possibly the Night of Power (Lailat-al-Qadr) in the Subcontinent.

We have been asked by our beloved prophet (PBUH) to find the great night in which a night’s prayer and supplications are worth about 85 years of the same. We have been asked to try to seek it in the nights with odd numbers of the last ashra (10 days) of the month (21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th and 29th). For most of us, it could be this night. For the rest it could be the night before Eid, which has its own blessings from Allah. We must strive in the way of Allah in the time left up to Eid. We must ensure these precious moments are not lost in frivolity.

Within the next 24 to 48 hours it will be time to rejoice, to thank Allah for our having been chosen to be alive in these blessed moments, for having bestowed on us the taufiq to fast and pray and stay away from everything forbidden by Islam in the days of Ramdhan. At the end of it comes Eid (which, in Arabic, means joy), the time to rejoice. This is also the time to reap a rich harvest of our deeds in the form of Allah’s pleasure, which is the most precious treasure coveted by a Muslim.

Allah has shown the reward for every good deed, all acts of faith and piety, including the prayers and supplications during Ramdhan (which is 70 times greater than in the rest of the year), but He has not disclosed the reward for this month’s fasting, which is mandatory. The reward is understood to be Allah’s pleasure, which will bring us a clean, moral and satisfying life and a Hereafter that will bring us such good things that our eyes had never seen, our ears never heard, our minds could never imagine.

With the Eid prayers this cycle of Ramdhan, with all its blessings, ends to come only next year, which many of us will never see. Remember, for many of us it is going to be our lives’ last Ramdhan. Do not allow a single moment to pass without Allah’s remembrance. By the time Eid prayers, followed by the mandatory khutba ends, Allah will confer his approval on us (Insha Allah) and we will return home, satisfied and thankful to Him.

We will return home with the commitment and pledge to live the rest of our lives in prayers to Allah and service to His Creation, living clean lives dedicated to Islam. We will keep this spirit for the rest 11 months till we welcome the month again with great enthusiasm and thankfulness. But, remember, all of us may not see the next Ramdhan. So, make the most of what is left of it.

With this, I take leave of you. As I may not meet you in the next few weeks, accept my Eid Mubarak a few hours in advance. Wassalam.

P.S: Please try to pay fitrah (in Indian value, Rs. 50 each person) before heading for the Eidgah for the Eid prayers. That is the preferred way of paying fitrah.
 
 

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

RAMADHAN - A MONTH OF SYMPATHY



Ramadan: Month of Sympathy

 

Academician and Writer


What follows is based on a true story…
There was an affluent father who used to keep his family fed and clothed decently, if not splendidly. After a while, things changed and he became in straitened circumstances. Unable to afford food for his family as he used to, the month of Ramadan came. His social standing as well modesty prevented him from stretching his hand to ask others for assistance even if it were in the form of a personal debt. While struggling with life, all he could manage to be feeding his children with was nothing but cheese, oil and beans.



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·         Feed, Greet and Pray
The children put up with this on the first and second days of Ramadan. On the third, however, the youngest commented:
“O Father! Cheese and oil have burnt our stomachs. We are fasting and we need something to moisten our tummies in this burning heat. We are almost about to faint from the smell coming up from the kitchens of our neighbors. Why don’t you feed us as our neighbor does to his children? Why don’t you feed us as you used to do?”
Then, the expressive but burning words of the little child were followed by tears spilling from his sad eyes.
Upon that, the grief-stricken father withdrew into a dark corner of the house where he burst into tears, as he did not want his children to see signs of society’s faithlessness and people’s cruelty on his face!
Did you find this emotional? Did it move your feelings? Did it move you to tears?
If yes, let me then congratulate you for the remaining sense of humanity you still have; the sense of humanity which Islam came to advocate and instill into the societies which broke away from all senses of common humanity.
When humaneness fades away, the law of the jungle prevails so that the strong devours the weak, the rich only gives charity to the poor to see humiliation and humbleness in his eyes, and one does not care about his next-door neighbor or even bother to know anything about his conditions.
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Customarily, when a Muslim breaks his fast, he praises Allah for His abundant blessings and favors. However, praising Allah for His favors should not be via the tongue alone. It should involve sharing such blessings and favors with other indigent brothers in humanity and in faith.
Many are those who are poor and to whom neither the society show mercy, nor the state care about in any way; a matter which makes them groan in pain under the severity of misery and deprivation. In fact, if mercy for these people is mandatory in other than Ramadan, it is most mandatory and necessary during the blessed month. Likewise, if humanity necessitates that anyone who recognizes them should assist them, a true Muslim should be keener on helping them so as to wipe away the tears from their eyes and to see his own happiness in making them happy.
The poor, for real, are too many to be counted. Here, I do not mean the professional beggars who knock at doors or roam the streets asking for charity. Rather, the ones who are meant here are the likes of a father who cannot find work to feed his kids; a mother who lost her guardian but her chastity and modesty prevent her from stretching her hand out; a child whose father passed away leaving him alone with no supporter or protector around; a refugee who was driven out of his own homeland at the hands of oppressive rulers and traitorous politicians leaving behind his riches as well as pride.



These are the ones, along with so many others, to be remembered during the blessed days of Ramadan. I am not saying we should give them out in charity as charity is a supererogatory or voluntary act of worship. No, never do I mean any of this! What I mean here is that we should expiate for our own sins by way of making them feel the duly blessings of brotherhood, neighborhood, religious affiliation, and human compassion. Indeed, were it not for our and the society’s negligence, they would not have been in such bad and cruel conditions!
It goes without saying, if they feel the bitterness of deprivation in other than Ramadan for once, they feel it more than a thousand times in Ramadan!
How many Muslims spread their tables with various colors of food and drink every time they break their fast? Amazingly, only a little amount of these extra foods and drinks may feed whole families, relinquish their thirst, and wipe away the tears from the eyes of their groaning children.
Is there anyone of us who thinks about his nearby needy neighbor and destitute relatives?!
Is there anyone of us who thinks he can save some of the food he prepares for his own family on daily basis and decide to give it out to a poor family to break their fast with?!
In fact, if every fasting well-off person feeds another who is poor, no one will ever remain hungry or thirsty. If this really takes place, Ramadan will turn into a season whose blessings do not cease or come to an end and we, Muslims, will be the best of all nations for real.
Given this, let us search for the refugees, the homeless, the destitute and those who lost their breadwinner to do ourselves good through supporting them and to save ourselves from Allah’s torment through sympathizing with them. It is we who need them more than they need us!
Let every one of us remember that Allah the Almighty may not accept our fasting or acts of obedience while there are hungry human beings whom we could satisfy and unhappy fellows whom we can make happy around us. Finally, let us remember the hadith of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in which he says, “The one who sleeps with a full stomach knowing that his neighbor is hungry doesn’t believe in me.” (At-Tabarani)
A. S. Halawani is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Translation, Misr University for Science Technology (MUST); Former Editor-in-Chief of the Electronic Da`wah Committee (EDC), Kuwait; Former Deputy Chief Editor and Managing Editor of the Living Shari`ah Department, www.islamOnline.net; Member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS); and member of the World Association of Arab Translators Linguists (WATA).