Is It A Yes Or A No?

Assalamualaikum wbt.

Actually it’s such a hectic week, including last week and the next week too. I barely had time to do my reading and to complete some other work, which leads me too much lynching and scolding :(.

But on one or two rare occasional days, I managed to sneak in some blogging and reading time along the way. Lately, I’ve been inclined to read some of the fatwas and “hukum-hakam” given out by some Mufti/Ustaz either via websites or videos. They have fatwas for everything—from Facebooking and drinking ribena up to major issues such as witness credibility in sexual crimes (we’ll talk about that later).

from here

 One thing that interest me is that some fatwa really do cross opposite ways with each other, for example, a week ago someone discussed the fatwa of wearing inai (henna) on hands. One said you can, but only on certain fingers. I said eh? Wasn’t it not permissible at all? My mom said so, it’s HARAM! But instead of bashing her further for “ignorance” I googled it up.

Who was right?

Both, actually.

The fatwa agreeing on wearing henna is here, which I directly copy-pasted below:

The 88th Muzakarah (Conference) of the Fatwa Committee National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs Malaysia held on 2nd October 2009 has discussed the ruling on applying design henna in Islam. The Committee has decided that:

1. Applying henna in both hands and feet is permissible for women, whether for married or non married women as long as it does not open the door to fitna

2. However, the application is limited to wrists and ankles. The colour of henna should not remain permanent as in tattoos and the henna does not contain doubtful ingredients. As for the pattern and design, the permitted designs are leaves and plant designs. Meanwhile, designs of animal, deities or any design contradictory to Islam are prohibited.

3. Application of henna on the both hands and legs of men is not permissible except to a number of fingers of bridegrooms during marriage ceremonies and for medical purpose.

from here

Now the hokum disagreeing on henna usage is here :

Volume 7, Book 72, Number 816
Narrated Humaid bin 'Abdur-Rahman bin 'Auf
that in the year he performed Hajj. he heard Mu'awiya bin Abi Sufyan, who was on the pulpit and was taking a tuft of hair from one of his guards, saying, "Where are your religious learned men? I heard Allah's Apostle forbidding this (false hair) and saying, 'The children of Israel were destroyed when their women started using this.'" Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "Allah has cursed the lady who artificially lengthens (her or someone else's) hair and the one who gets her hair lengthened and the One who tattoos (herself or someone else) and the one who gets herself tattooed"  (hadith taken from here)

This hadith was taken as a basis for Dato Abu Hasan Din Al-Hafiz’s conclusion, a former religious officer in the Royal Palace of Kuala Lumpur. He compares henna drawing such as vines, flowers or leaves to tattooing (although one is temporary and one is permanent). He even go as far as saying it is cursed by Allah SWT.  The only thing permissible, he said, is to wear it at the tips of the fingers (as nail color).

from here

So there are two reasoning to that one same situation—one leads to it being haram and the other as halal. I don’t know which is “better” than the other but I’ll stick to the one being Halal so I don’t start criticising people on their wedding day for wearing henna. Although, I’ll refrain myself from drawing henna on my hands to avoid pissing off my mom. She is so hell-bent in prohibiting us from doing henna art that she won't evn listen to my explatantion on the clashes of fatwa. Why? she was brainwashed time and time again by seniors and scholars that it is wrong. (and she got no Google to read up the intellectual discourse that follors)

When I look back at the fatwa’s clashing, I gave a big sigh. This is not something simple—it’s the opposite ends of the spectrum—HALAL and HARAM. Some individual ustaz, especially those with power and popularity, need to refrain from freely giving hukum before consulting some other experienced people. Yes, you think your ten years in Middle East and five years as an Imam is enough, but don’t you think that you might be a “raisin before a grape”? (raisin before a grape is an analogy quoted by a famous Muslim scholar, citing people who think they have enough knowledge that they give judgemental  freely). 

from here

So this problem has been around for centuries, and it has got a lot worse in these days. The fatwas of Yoga and Poco-poco for example, has ended in ridicule by non-Muslims and liberal Muslims by being too “over the top” and “overreacting”. I am not opposing that Fatwa actually, I am rather afraid that this might lead to distrust of the ustaz/mufti community as a whole.

Hopefully one day, we can just have one BIG muzakarah (probably worldwide, but let's be practical--Malaysia is good enough) and they all can do fatwa of everything under the sun. yes it's costly and time-consuming, but no disputes can trouble the minds of the commonfolk anymore.

Let us practice religion in peace please!