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Al-Ahram Weekly 31 August - 6 September 2000 Issue No. 497 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 31 August - 6 September 2000 Issue No. 497
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Dial a fatwa
By Nadia Abou El-Magd"I'm not veiled and I was told that my prayers won't be accepted!"
"I'm a homosexual. How can I overcome this and what is the punishment in Islam?"
"Is stealing from an infidel forbidden in Islam or not?"
These are samples of at least 300 questions submitted to the Islamic Line, which was launched last Friday, said Sheikh Khaled El-Guindi, a graduate of Al-Azhar's Faculty of Religion Fundamentals.
El-Guindi published newspaper advertisements announcing the telephone number of the 24-hour service to which people may address questions on anything related to Islam.
"We had not anticipated the flood of questions that we received," El-Guindi, 39, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "It was a natural step to make use of modern means to spread information about Islam."
El-Guindi considers what he is doing, together with three Azharite colleagues, to be an extension of the enlightened role of Al-Azhar in conveying sound Islamic teachings and information to counter-balance the "irresponsible fatwas [religious edicts] that push society towards the edge of strife and fanaticism."
It was El-Guindi who responded to the unveiled woman who was wondering whether God accepted her prayers. He told her: "Your prayers are valid even if you are not veiled, on condition that you don the veil when you are praying. The veil is a farida [religious duty] and praying is a farida, and not abiding by the first doesn't mean it is going to be at the expense of the second."
El-Guindi stressed that by answering questions they are not issuing fatwas, but providing Muslims with a much-needed service in the age of cyberspace.
The Dar Al-Ifta' or Religious Edicts House, headed by the grand mufti, Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel, is the highest official authority for issuing fatwas in this country.
El-Guindi does not consider what he is doing -- answering Muslims' questions and trying to solve their problems -- to be an encroachment on Dar Al-Ifta'. "Answers to questions are not fatwas to be reckoned with in courts-of-law and in judicial disputes," he said.
According to Sheikh Abdel-Moeti Bayyoumi, dean of the Faculty of Religion Fundamentals, different opinions and different answers to questions by Islamic scholars existed before the Islamic Line and will continue to exist after it. Bayyoumi is one of the sheikhs who answers questions concerning aqida (Islamic doctrine) on the Islamic Line.
"Muslims who call are facing problems and no scholar can abstain from answering their questions or helping them with their problems," Abdel-Moeti told the Weekly. He had spent more than two hours answering the 150 questions or so that he received on the first day of the launch.
Every sheikh has his own code for the questions that fall in his field of specialty and he answers them through a central desk.
One of the questions that was addressed to him was: "I became an apostate for a while and no longer believed in Islam, but now I'm regaining my faith in God and Islam; what should I do?"
Abdel-Moeti believes that one of the good things about the line is that it can handle this sort of question, because nobody would dare make such a confession to any sheikh face-to-face. "Asking via telephone is less embarrassing. People can disclose details of their personal lives that they would not reveal in an office, for example," said Abdel-Moeti.
The Islamic Line was made possible by Telemedia company, which monopolises telephone lines beginning with 0900. The company started its services by making special lines available for songs, weather forecasts, sports results and horoscopes.
"It was impossible not to devote a service for Islamic purposes," said Sheikh El-Guindi. And this is only the beginning. Due to the torrent of questions they are receiving, they will soon consider enlisting more Azharite sheikhs.
The only complaint about the Islamic Line, so far, is the expense.
Every minute of the telephone conversation costs LE1.5, which is expensive to many Egyptians. "Religious teachings and Shari'a [Islamic law] are like water and air and should be easily available to everybody," complained the weekly newspaper Al-Osbou' on Monday.
The greater part of the questions, according to El-Guindi, were about divorce and other sensitive issues such as masturbation. "People know that masturbation is forbidden in Islam. Those who inquire want somebody to stop them. They can't discuss it with anyone, so they seek help via the telephone," argued El-Guindi.
The line, according to him, is leading more people to "beautiful religion, without fanaticism, extremism, or terrorism, without issuing ignorant fatwas or confiscating the rights of others."
Asked what the Islamic Line meant for him, El-Guindi said: "Now I feel that I deserve being called a Muslim. Previously, I had not repaid Islam for what it offered me."
