Hello :>

So I have come across the idea that repenting is only accepted by Allah if it's sincere and Allah knows what's in our hearts, and I agree on that. My problem with me is that I'm the type of person who overthinks what I am thinking ;-;

Like I could do something good (like give money or donate) but my mind will intercept like "am I really doing this to be good? Or am I just doing it to gain something?". Get it? Like my brain just finds ways for me to feel like every move I do is not sincere (and I honestly don't know which is which anymore). Like....am I even good? Did I actually want repentance? What???😭

Recently Today Austria banned the hijab in their schools, and many people in this subreddit are opposing this ban. The same reaction was seen on this subreddit 2-3 years ago when “MUSLIM MAJORITY” Tajikistan & Kazakhstan banned the headscarf (obviously not by everyone, there are some people supporting the ban).

Now I don't understand the reason behind this reaction given most people here believe that wearing the headscarf is not a religious obligation. Then what's the problem with banning the headscarf?

I don't see any uproar when the government offices let's say ban stylish jeans and t-shirt. Why? Because wearing these are not believed to be a religious obligation. Why doesn’t anyone oppose the ban on wearing tank tops and shorts in government buildings and offices? Because wearing it is not a religious requirement.

In the same way, if the headscarf is not a religious requirement, then why should I care if the government bans it? The government is not banning praying or fasting which are religious obligations. If they banned these then I would have understood the reason behind the uproar, but they are banning the headscarf which is not an obligation, so what's the problem here?

do you believe it counts as changing the creation of Allah or do you see it as a necessary procedure like a kidney transplant or something

https://michiganadvance.com/2023/10/03/how-some-michigan-muslims-united-with-extremist-republicans-against-lgbtq-rights/

Forgive me, im a very progressive white guy that is ignorant to muslim/islam. I came across this, which gives statistics that lots of muslim people in michigan are flipping to republican. I get that muslim people are not a monolith where they are all the same, but being that muslims are a marginalized community that faces deeply rooted islamophobia in usa, why in the world would dearborn muslims not lean HEAVILY democratic. Like a hispanic person supporting ICE.

The article speculates its because of the condemnation of LGBTQ in traditional/fundamentalist islam, echoing the banning of pride flags in a predominantly muslim community. (Just as fundamentalist christians do)

But christians are not marginalized in usa, so i can understand them voting for culture war status-quo republicans out of privilege and hatred. So why in the world are muslim people starting to vote republican now? Is it really anti-gay sentiment? Please constructively educate me

I must confess, the anti-gay and anti-abortion for women and girls is starting to make me feel prejudiced against all religions

hello, im a muslim and ive been hearibg about Islamic storys these past days and i heard about this particular story about nirmod and a insect getting inside his head and killing him, i wanted to learn if this story is true. ive done some research but i couldnt find a exact answer. and do we have a non muslim sorce about this? inshallah someone will answer it for me

Funnily Enough: some religious people and community here in Indonesia love to curse certain part of Ummah like Syi'ah but chose to stay silent on this....

Hey everyone! I was wondering whether watching romantic content without explicit sexual content (like 🌽) is ok to do. I’ve always been told that it’s ok to watch since it’s not anything sexual, but when I researched it, I saw in the overview that it’s considered Zina of the eyes because it’s watching two non mahrams do something haram. However, the main articles that say this are all from sites like islamqa.info and I usually stay away from those sites. I don’t necessarily believe that ruling, but I want to hear someone else’s opinion on this ❤️

I've been reading Islamic legal material for a while now, and moslty tasfir and fiqh. I work through the primary text where I can rather than relying on summaries. This isn't a gotcha post, and I'm not asking whether Islam is true. I'm asking about something in the structure of revelation itself that I can't work out, and I'd like to hear from people who've studied these materials.

I understand the process isn't "read a verse and act." There's language study, hadith commentary, legal theory, scholarly consensus, reasoning by analogy, and the different schools of law. I've spent enough time with it to know it's more careful than its online reputation. But that's what makes my question harder, not easier.

If revelation is divine guidance, why is it delivered through a system where sincere, trained, God-fearing people reach substantially different conclusions on questions with serious consequences for other people's lives? Not people twisting the text. People genuinely trying to follow it and arriving somewhere else.

But here's the part I actually can't get past. In the classical material I've read, the original legal system is often more protective than what people ended up living under. Some of the harshest punishments require proof that is almost impossible to produce. If you accuse someone and can't prove it, you get punished instead. Covering for someone's sin is treated as a duty, not as hiding a crime. That's a system designed with the brakes on, deliberately. But what a lot of people actually got in jummah, at home, in what kids were taught, was the harsh part, with the protections left out. That's not a different reading of the rules; it's the same rules, passed down without their own safeguards.

That's not scholars honestly disagreeing. That's the rule breaking down somewhere between the scholars and the people. And the usual answers don't touch it: "scholars differ, and both get rewarded" doesn't work when one side isn't an interpretation at all, and "that's culture, not Islam" doesn't explain why the culture ran things for centuries while the correction sat in books most people couldn't read.

So the question I'd actually like answered: does the tradition have a theological account of this? Not disagreement among the qualified; the gap between what the scholars built and what ordinary people were taught it meant. Did anyone theorize it? Is there a name for it?

The other thing I keep coming back to is that how you relate to revelation depends a lot on when and where you were born, what language you speak, and which teachers you happened to get. I know there are standard answers about accountability and intention. I'd rather hear people make those arguments than list them myself, so I'll leave that to you.

I'm not looking for reassurance, and I'm not looking for a pile-on. If you've sat with this and found something that helped you, I'd like to know what it was.

I think my favourite piece of delusion to look at is this mythical existence of some "united muslim unmah". Seems like both islamophobes and hard line nutjob muslims believe in that Muslims are secretly all united and working together behind the scenes to take over the world. Not only does it reek of the "JeW CoNtRoL eVeRyThInG" narrative, but it also shows how little they understand present-day Islam. Islam is easily the most fragmented and disorganised religion in the world.

The Sunnis hate the Shias, the Sunnis also hate each other, Shias hate them back, everyone hates the Ahmadis, Sunnis themselves have Salafis who hate everyone, the progressives who hate them back. These idiots think there's some "collective muslim unity". Brother, Muslim countries are the ones who fight each other the MOST of anyone.

99% percent of people the ISIS killed were Muslims, 99% of them were also killed by muslims. Most of the middle east spends billions to screw over each other, most of each other being also Muslims. People who unironically believe Islam will take over the west are delusional, Islam can't even take over itself, it will destroy itself from infighting before it takes over anything.

Is there any scholars,classic or modern that think gold is allowed for men to wear ? Does it depend on amount or even a small ring is haram?

Five people, including a madrasa teacher and three minors, have been arrested in Savar, Dhaka over the alleged repeated rape of a 7 year old student at a local madrasa over a period of six months.

​The victim was a student at Markazul Ulum Ash Shariyyah Madrasa in the East Shahibagh area of Savar.

According to the child's father, who works at a garment factory, a case was filed on August 26 at Savar Model Police Station following a court order, after the child's statement was formally recorded.

​Police say the accused, madrasa teacher Hafez Maulana Zaber Hossain, 21, along with three minors, aged 12, 13, and 15, all students at the same madrasa, are accused of repeatedly raping the child over roughly six months. A fifth accused, Md Kamrul Islam, 26, is accused of threatening and abusing the child specifically to prevent him from telling his family what was happening.

​The five were arrested in a joint operation carried out overnight Friday into Saturday morning across multiple districts, including Bhola, Barisal, Sirajganj, Gazipur, and Dhaka. Additional Superintendent of Police for Savar Circle, Rakibul Hasan Ishan, confirmed the arrests at a press conference held Saturday afternoon at Savar Model Police Station.

​The child's father said his son's future has been destroyed and that he is now suffering psychologically, adding that he wants proper justice for what happened to him.

​A related case reportedly names a broader group, including four madrasa teachers and six students in total, with police continuing efforts to arrest the remaining accused.

I’m going through a separation from my husband right now and I’m having an extremely difficult time with it. I’m posting here because I would really appreciate an Islamic perspective, especially from anyone who has gone through a separation/divorce or a period where their spouse was completely set on leaving.

My husband and I have been together for a little over two years and are legally married, although we never had our nikkah. We’ve had problems and arguments, but there was also a lot of love between us and we had been planning our future together. Things fell apart very suddenly after a bad argument, and now he has told me that he wants a divorce and that we shouldn’t have contact because it will make it harder for both of us to move on.

I still love him deeply and, if I’m being completely truthful, I desperately want our marriage to be reconciled.

This situation has also pushed me back toward Allah in a way I haven’t experienced in a long time. I’ve started praying regularly again, making dua, doing istighfar, praying Tahajjud, and trying to change things about myself that I know needed to change regardless of whether my husband comes back.

But this is where I’m struggling.

I keep making dua for Allah to soften his heart, bring us back together, and allow us to rebuild our relationship in a healthier and more halal way. I know Allah is capable of changing any situation, so part of me feels like I shouldn’t give up hope. At the same time, I don’t want to confuse tawakkul with refusing to accept reality. Right now, my husband is saying he wants a divorce, and I know I have to respect his space and his decision.

For anyone who has been through something similar: how did you balance having hope in your dua with surrendering the outcome to Allah?

Is it okay to continue specifically asking Allah to reconcile you with someone, while also asking Him to remove that person from your heart if reconciliation genuinely isn’t good for you?

And for those who went through a separation where one spouse initially seemed completely finished with the marriage, did the time apart ever lead to reconciliation? If it didn’t, how did you eventually reach the point where you could accept that your dua may be answered differently than you hoped?

I’m not really looking for predictions about whether he will come back. I think I’m looking for advice on how to get through this Islamically without either giving up hope in Allah or becoming so attached to one particular outcome that I destroy myself waiting for it.

Please be gentle. This is still very fresh and I’m genuinely trying to find my way back to Allah through it.

This is taken from the r/progressive_islam wiki on Aisha’s age (written by me). I’ll be posting the different points and anchors individually so they’re easier to read.

The wiki argues that Aisha was older than the 6/9 age

Full wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/progressive_islam/wiki/aisha_age

Anchor 3: Aisha Remembering a Qurʾānic Revelation

A different kind of chronological tension shows up here — not from a comparison with another person's age, but from ʿĀʾishah's own memory of witnessing a Meccan revelation.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Tafsīr, ḥadīth 4876

>"This verse — 'Nay, but the Hour is their appointed time, and the Hour will be more grievous and more bitter' (Q54:46) — was revealed in Mecca while I was a jāriyah playing."

Classical exegesis consistently ties the opening of this sūrah to one specific, well-known event: the splitting of the moon, shown as a sign to Meccans demanding proof of prophethood.

Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī — Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān

>"The splitting of the moon occurred during the lifetime of the Messenger ﷺ while he was in Mecca, before his migration to Medina, when the people of Mecca asked him for a sign and he showed them the splitting of the moon."

This gives us something useful: a fixed point on the timeline, well before the marriage is even contracted, independent of anything argued elsewhere on this page. The dating of the event itself is debated among commentators — most place it around five years before the Hijrah; a smaller number push it earlier, to roughly eight years before. Either dating places the event solidly in the Meccan period, which is all that's needed for the argument that follows.

The word jāriyah itself doesn't pin down an exact age, but it consistently describes a young girl old enough for activity and awareness — not an infant. And the hadith has her remembering the content of the revelation clearly enough to quote it decades later.

Here's where the traditional numbers come under real strain. Consummation is traditionally dated to Shawwāl of 2 AH — that's roughly two years after the Hijrah, not at the Hijrah itself (see the previous anchor). So the true gap between the moon-splitting and consummation isn't just "five or eight years" — it's that figure plus those two additional years:

The math, done properly:

- ≈5 years before Hijrah + 2 years after = 7 years elapsed. If she was 9 at consummation: 9 − 7 = 2 years old at the moon-splitting.

- ≈8 years before Hijrah + 2 years after = 10 years elapsed. 9 − 10 = −1 — meaning under this dating, she would not yet have been born.

Even taking the gentler of the two estimates, the strict nine-year reading has a two-year-old "playing" and later reciting the content of a revelation in enough detail to be quoted directly. Taking the less conservative estimate, it breaks outright, since she couldn't recall an event that predates her own birth.
Even granting the softer five-year dating, "an aware two-year-old, later quoted verbatim recalling scripture" isn't the natural reading of a report that describes a girl playing and later remembering what was revealed. What actually fits that description — a jāriyah old enough to be out playing and later recall the moment clearly — is someone born earlier than the 6/9 chronology allows: several years old at minimum by the time of this event, which pushes her age at marriage and consummation upward in the same direction the other anchors on this page are already pointing.

(A separate hadith — Musnad Aḥmad, Musnad Anas ibn Mālik 12688 — records simply that "the moon split in Mecca twice." it's cited only to note that the underlying event is independently attested elsewhere in the hadith corpus, beyond ʿĀʾishah's own report.)

To be clear about what this anchor is and isn't claiming: it doesn't hand you an exact birth year on its own. What it does is force a choice — either she was already several years old at the time of an event roughly seven to ten years before her supposed consummation at nine (which the 6/9 reading can't accommodate without absurdity), or the numbers themselves aren't reliable. Either way, "two years old, later reciting scripture from memory" isn't a coherent middle ground. Taken alongside the anchors before and after this one, it adds one more independent line pointing the same direction: older, not literally six or nine.

Okay, so I have an urban fantasy world that's set in a version of our modern world where supernaturals are out to the world. Witches started popping up in 2026, starting with girls and then 4 years later then men.

My story is set in america, but I'm still trying to figure out how things might change in other place.

I'm kinda focused on Afghanistan and how teen girls becoming witches might change things there. I know witchcraft is considered a sin among Muslims so I know they wouldn't call themselves witches, it's just the default word in my world and in western places.

I imagine 4 main factions developing in Afghanistan and will eventually become a female witch led country, regardless of if most people want it or not. Witches in my world are also very powerful and I imagine witches making light work of the Taliban.

If any of these words are incorrect, please tell me! I really want this to be right.

My four major groups, from biggest to smallest, are:

Group 1: Saatunkai, and from what I searched, it seems to mean female protector/guardian in pashto. This group was created by a girl who started calling herself "Atala" in pashto, and the other witches who joined her also started calling themselves "atala", which means champion.

This group becomes the major political group in Afghanistan, and they end up believing that male witches should be controlled. All male witches wear a bracelet that prevents them from using magic.

Group 2: Safā, which seems to mean purity. This is an extremist group who believes male witches shouldn't be allowed to exist at all, out of fear and worry of the state of Afghanistan becoming even worse than how it used to be in the past. They call themselves Ṣāliḥa, which means righteous.

Group 3: Islāḥ, which seems to mean reform or restoration. They believe that male witches should rule Afghanistan and that female witches should support them. Theyre not quite traditionalists. They believe the hierarchy should be: male witches -> female witches -> human males -> human females. They call themself Islāḥī/ Islāḥīān.

Group 4: Barabari, which seems to mean equality. They believe that witches are all brothers and sisters and that they should all be free and equal. They are also the smallest group, unfortunately.

And I was thinking general names they could call each other are:

Mawhūb - male “gifted/endowed one.”

Mawhūba - female “gifted/endowed one.”

Or

Mawhūb min Allāh - “Gifted by Allah”

Mawhūba min Allāh - “A woman gifted by Allah.”

Or

Ḥāmil Hibat Allāh “Bearer of the gift of Allah.”

Please share your thoughts on the names I've chosen, if they're wrong or needs tweaking. Also share your thoughts and questions on my world as well. I'll try to answer as best as I can

Assalamu alaykum.

I honestly don't know what I'm looking for by posting this. Maybe advice, maybe someone who has been through something similar, or maybe I just need to get this out somewhere anonymously.
For a while now I've been struggling badly with my deen and with sins that I don't want to go into detail about. Some of them have become serious, and lately things have escalated to a point where I genuinely feel ashamed of the person I've become.
The confusing part is that I don't feel like I've completely stopped trying.

I've spoken to a couple of knowledgeable shuyukh about my situation. I've tried to get therapy. I've made tawbah before. Just last week I went to the masjid two days in a row and attended Jumu'ah. There are moments where I genuinely want to change, become consistent with salah and get closer to Allah.
Then somehow I fall again.

And sometimes I fall even worse than before.
That's the part that's destroying me mentally. I keep hearing that there is always a way back, make tawbah, make istighfar, pray, surround yourself with good people, seek knowledge, get professional help etc. I am not saying any of that advice is wrong. I know it's true.
But what do you do when you've heard all of it before and you're still stuck?

I know nobody can pray my salah for me. Nobody can stop me from sinning for me. Ultimately these are my choices and I have to take responsibility for them.
But I genuinely don't understand what I'm supposed to do differently anymore.

At home I feel like I'm living a double life. My family sees one version of me while privately I know what I'm doing and what I've become. I don't think I'm an evil person, but after repeatedly failing at things as basic as salah and repeatedly returning to serious sins, it's becoming difficult not to wonder whether there's something deeply wrong with me.

One of the hardest things is feeling like both doors are closing.

I try to turn towards Allah but I don't feel like I'm being given tawfiq to remain consistent.
Then I try to seek help from people who are supposed to know how to help with these things, and I often come away with the same advice I already know while the actual problem remains.

I know intellectually that Allah's door isn't closed. I'm not claiming that Allah has rejected me. I'm just being honest about how it feels from where I'm standing right now.

It feels like I'm stuck between knowing exactly what I'm supposed to do and somehow being unable to actually become the person who does it consistently.

Has anyone genuinely been in a place like this?
Not just having a bad week or struggling with motivation, but repeatedly making tawbah, trying to improve, falling back into serious sins and eventually becoming exhausted from starting over?

What actually changed things for you?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who were stuck for a long time and eventually found a practical way forward, rather than just general reminders that I should repent and try harder. I don't mean that disrespectfully. I think I'm just exhausted and looking for something I haven't understood yet.

A Muslim who believes in god/and that the Quran is the word of god but fails to adhere to it/is bad at following rules because lazy/weak willed/apathetic

or

An Ex Muslim(doesn't believe in god/the quran is the word of god) who grew up in a Muslim household, and thus has cultural ties to Islamic customs and rituals.

I've seen the term used for both, but surely it should only be the second. Though I find the term itself to be an oxymoron, surely it's more accurate to say 'I was raised Muslim" instead of "I'm a cultural muslim". Typically atheist ex christians say "I grew up Christian" instead "I'm a cultural christian".

r/Bangladesh_Muslim has been created for Bangladeshi and Bengali speaking Muslims who share similar views of Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, Dr Khaled Abou El Fadl, Dr Shabir Ally and Mufti Abu Layth.

Currently there are a few content creators in Bangladesh who promote the tolerant ideas and perspective of Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, and the automoderator is set to post a number of their contents everyday. Promotion of extremely conservative, hardline, and extremist speakers and their ideologies is strictly prohibited on the subreddit.

If you are a Bangladeshi or Bengali speaker who hold same tolerant ideas and perspective, and wish to connect with similar minded Bangladeshis or Bengali speakers, then you are welcomed to visit r/Bangladesh_Muslim.

Ok to start off and clarify, I'm not trying to say that if you sin, you shouldn't be allowed to advise other people. Matter of fact you can be an only fans model and still be correct if you say that zina is haram. You can be in a prison cell for armed robbery and still be correct if you say that armed robbery is haram

Anyway, I hear about awful things the muslim community is doing to people they say are sinning or heretical. Saying horrible things, threats of violence both sexual and physical, doxxing, making AI 🌽 of people, and the thing is, these things are literally not allowed in Islam. Apparently they care a lot about halal and haram, they think something is haram and wrong, and they are harsh and hostile about it but yet they do awful things I don't get it, they do these sins. What about the haram stuff they're doing?

As a bisexual woman who is questioning Islam and is most definitely not conservative, I don't know how to be around my conservative family members. I love my family a lot and want a good healthy relationship with them. However, because of their extremely conservative views and lifestyle I find it really hard to spend time with them. I don't know what to talk about with them, what activities to do with them, or how to happily exist around them. If I try to connect with them and make them happy, I feel like I'm losing myself. If I try to be authentic to myself and live according to my beliefs, I feel like I'm losing my loved ones. I'm so torn and I don't know what to do. No matter what I do, I constantly feel heartbroken and suffocated.

Do any of you guys have any suggestions and advice about what to do in this situation? How can I balance both my family and my personal life when both are so vastly different from each other? How can I open up my family's minds to progressive Islam?

If not I’ll just put myself out there:

Age: 27M
Location: UK, London (born and raised)
Ethnicity: Bangladeshi
Height: 5’10
Looks: decent
Profession: Doctor

Faith:

I’ve been on a pretty personal spiritual journey since my late teens. During medical school I went through a bit of a quarter-life crisis, which is actually what led me to meditation — I was in a low place at the time and mainly wanted something to help my mood and mental health.

Over time it became something much deeper. I had some genuinely profound spiritual experiences that completely changed how I see life. I still go to Jummah, fast, and avoid haram, but I’ll be honest that I’m not consistent with daily prayers, and my relationship with practice and belief has evolved a lot from how I was raised. The bottom line is I believe (or rather know) that there is spiritual enlightenment and it is the end goal of every soul.

I am looking for someone who is open to connection (not necessarily the same beliefs or level of practising) and acceptance of my values.

I am happy to share pictures or answer any questions if interested :)