Thanks for the information. One final thing; what about people that would not want to live with these sorts of rules; who would prefer a more egalitarian law in which men and women have the same duty to work out what responsibilities they're best at between themselves?
- This is wishy-washy doesn't mean anything. You're attempting to square the circle. Egalitarianism is inherently unjust & incoherent. You are not ruling identical robots. People are different, in faith, in language, in ethnicity, in class, in age, in gender, in talent...etc. Each of these qualifiers is positively relevant in society & Law is nothing but moral solutions to social issues. You can not erase these differences in the name of Egalitarianism without necessarily prompting systematic injustice. It's also delusional, for legal pretense of equality does not impact the unequal reality, unless you force identify –which is obviously impossible. The only way you can reverse these rules is by making female-males, aka square-circles...
- Women get pregnant, give birth & rear children, there is no world in which an egalitarian approach is going to change this into "
work out what responsibilities they're best at". Men will never be any part of "best" in that, nor will women be any part of "best" in men's biological functions. Equalizing between two different entities is
necessarily unjust to one of them. This also applies to qualifiers other than gender, like faith & class... Two different communities of faith have different morality, yet egalitarianism would have them subject to the same morality –generally that of the majority. All in all, this western attitude towards diversity in harmony by annihilation is not new, it's the legacy of pre-modern Christendom; whether under the Church or Secularism, they can't deal with diversity & difference.
You state that the minimum age of marriage is a matter of custom as long as it isn't below the age of nine. What if a country set it at, say, the age of 10 even though current studies and scientific knowledge (
here, for example) show us that this can cause extreme psychological and physiological harm to children?
- No such thing. You're hard-begging the question. One, a study on harmful marriages among 40s adults does not inform raising the minimum age of marriage to 50. Two, 10 (& even 8) is already age of "marriage-without-contract" – aka out-of-wedlock sexual relationships in your West. The difference is a contract entails consent & guaranteed rights –especially for potential progeny, whereas open sex doesn't. Three, all this is, in essence, about degeneracy. Always! Open sex between kids is "freedom" & "exploring" & "rites of passage"... but marriage instead, god forbid! What an abomination. Finally, the 3rd maxim of Sharia states: '
harm must be removed' (from the hadith "
there shall be no harm and no reciprocated harm"). Your contention is, thus, irrelevant, for if there is actual harm then its alleviation is granted in Sharia.
Would you be okay with such a marriage just because its being allowed was a matter of custom?
- I don't see you talking about the non-contractual-marriages to 8 yo being allowed in the West! You gotta stop begging the question, Western customs are not universal customs, they are local in time & place. In the past century alone, they on their own thought: 7, 10,.. [every number].., 18, 21 & 25 are the magical number of consent. If in 50 years they decide that a person who's under 35 is a child & bring studies that show 30 yo marriages are bad, what would you do?
Several years ago in Yemen, for instance,
an eight-year-old child bride died of physiological damage following marriage to an adult man. What are your thoughts on that and similar cases?
- The story isn't even corroborated, fake news! You're arguing from example. That's a fallacious approach! I can go to any age group in the US & find hundreds fatal cases of abuse. So many cases of little girls even being impregnated by their own fathers;
I Was My Dad's Sex Slave father forced her to be his sex slave...etc. Most disgusting thing ever. GEZUZ! You're reaching too far...
I think there is two different things Nubuwa (role of channeling scripture to humans) and Resalah (clear message) although people inverted these definitions, some of Resalah is in the Nubuwa and some of Nubuwa is Resali, but Resalah in Sunnah is clear proofs from Messenger in paraphrasing guidance from God in their hearts to humanity. Aside from Resalah both in Nubuwa and Sunnah, Nubuwa and Sunnah contain beyond the clear message and contain deep teachings.
Ulil-Amr (a) don't need to become each a Messenger if the people don't dispute and differ, as they been ordered not to, but rather obey God and Ahlulbayt (a). This is saying, God forbid you differ with respect to the commands of God and Messenger and Ulil-Amr from you, than refer it to God and the Messenger and this doesn't mean Quran and Sunnah, but rather, it really meant referring to Mohammad (s) at that time, and if people dispute after Mohammad (s), it would mean Ulil-Amr would become Messengers of their time.
God did something different with Mohammad (s). While in the past, the foundation of the blessed tree and it's twelve branches, would be followed with Anbiya, he put an end to that, and so God didn't continue revealing Surahs to become part of Quran at the end of Nabi (a) life. Rather through his wisdom, he put a seal to Nubuwa. And to me, it's obvious Islam would lose it's foundational prestige if we differed with what constituted Quran after Nabi (s). But this was a huge trial as well, as Mohammad (s) Sunnah and life was largely successful due to his Nubuwa (Quran) and God is not longer talking to humans. This is a huge trial.
But whatever reason he sealed talking to humans is intertwined with the need of us obeying Ulil-Amr (a), and God forbid we differ about them or their teachings and issues in religion, Quran is saying you will have a Messenger to judge among you and clarify the truth and bring you back to truth.
This was the case, till the Mahdi (a) disappeared. Who and what would have solved our disputes is now hidden and society can no longer go to him in public.
I think however, the Imams (a) before him and him as well, left us with words of light that are insights to the Quran. I don't believe a insight from Mohammad (s) about Quran and guidance should be subject to man made rules of reputation of humans nor should any words contradicting Quran and guidance ever be verified and acknowledge by man made rules of reputation.
I believe all ahadith are good to study, Sunni, Shiite, Twelver, Zaidi, etc, but keeping in mind, the Quran contains all guidance and all hadiths are to be referred to Quran.
The Quran is no ordinary book, the way it's doors open up other doors, is unique and is the only reason why God sealed Nubuwa. Had anything not been contained in Quran in any time in any generation, he would have not put an end to Nubuwa.
But Resalah of the 12 Imams (a) as disputes occurred, and basic clear truths had to be reminded as was the case of Bani-Israel, are calculative words. They keep in mind Quran in all they say and calculate words of guidance to unlock sorcery from Iblis that put's locks on clear recitations as well they unveil subtle teachings of the Shariah and wisdom behind it.
I don't believe the words of Prophet (s), Fatima (a) and the Guides (a) should be subject to reputation of humans in the chains of their words. Rather insights are insights no matter who conveyed them, be we accuse him of being a liar/untrustworthy nor are words of misguidance to be followed through be we attribute purity/righteous to the narrators who narrated it.
- What exactly is the point of this? I'm Ashaari Sunni, I don't subscribe to most of this.