Hello Friends,
Although I consider this to be a serious forum and one that in addition to much information not reported by the main stream media provides additional knowledge that might not be found elsewhere unless you are looking for it and know where to look.
From time to time it's necessary to take a break from the serious mode and have some fun. I must admit that the fun can lead you to the serious again as you will soon see but yet again the ridiculous should be entertained from time to time.
I read the article that brought about this short time out at Jihad Watch and had a good chuckle and then after laughing saw the serious side of it too.
In 2007 Sheikh Ezzat Attiya came up with a unique solution to a long standing issue in Islam. How can unrelated men and women work together in offices and other places of employment when Islam forbids men and women not related or married to be alone together.
Quite a problem isn't it? Well not according to Ezzat Attiya who was head of the Hadith department at Al-Azhar University (one of the mainstays of Islamic Shariah law in the world). As I said his solution was unique. He proposed that the woman "suckle" the man (or men) and by doing so will become his foster mother and as such family and they are then allowed to be alone and work together.
Guess what? Al-Azhar University promptly fired Attiya but now the Cairo Administrative Court reversed that decision and Ezzat Attiya is returning to his former position at the institution.
As I mentioned earlier Attiya was the head of the University's Hadith department and is well versed in the Koran and with the following ahadith.
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hadhaifa, lived with him and his family in their house. She (i. e. the daughter of Suhail came to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) and said: Salim has attained (purbety) [sic] as men attain, and he understands what they understand, and he enters our house freely, I, however, perceive that something (rankles) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa, whereupon Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said to her: Suckle him and you would become unlawful for him, and (the rankling) which Abu Hudhaifa feels in his heart will disappear. She returned and said: So I suckled him, and what (was there) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa disappeared. (Sahih Muslim 3425) Muhammad tells the daughter of Suhail to suckle Salim. This will make her unlawful to him, that is, he won't be able to marry her because he will be her foster child. Thus it will be lawful for him to be in the house with her, and Abu Hudhaifa will no longer be angry.So according to the advice of Muhammad suckling solves the problem and Attiya was only being the observant Muslim with his breast feeding hadith and for that he got the proverbial kick in the ass. (I wonder how this solution would be accepted in the Western world. :) )
In any case good old Attiya is back at his job and I'm sure the University hopes and prays he doesn't come up with any other perverted solutions to problems that in the real world aren't problems to begin with.
Shalom,
Peter
[ Monday, 18 May 2009 ]
Egypt court annuls Azhar's decision to expel controversial sheikh
Breastfeeding fatwa sheikh back at Egypt's Azhar
Ezzat Attiya will be rehired at Azhar
CAIRO (AlArabiya.net)
The case of the male breastfeeding fatwa, or religious ruling, just took another strange turn as the scholar who issued the controversial opinion was rehired after being fired by Egypt’s al-Azhar University.
The Cairo Administrative Court overturned the decision by al-Azhar's disciplinary committee to expel Ezzat Attiya, the president of the hadith department, for issuing a fatwa condoning the symbolic breastfeeding of grown men in 2007.
The court annulled the university’s decision to expel Attiya after he issued a fatwa permitting symbolic breastfeeding of men as a way to loosen the customs of segregation between the sexes in Egypt.
"No one can argue with a court order,” Sheikh Fawzy el-Zefzaf, head of religion and dialogue committee at al-Azhar, said in a statement Monday. “We respect the Administrative Court and follow its orders without thinking twice.”
Some students at al Azhar University who disagreed with the fatwa nonetheless endorsed the court's deicision, saying that no Azhar teacher should be expelled.
"I am glad the Attiya is back at Azhar because no sheikh should be expelled from his job for his opinions," Abdul Qader Ramadan, 23, told Al Arabiya.
Read the rest here
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