Islamic Thoughts

• ANALYSES
• 1 Behavior code of Muslims toward non-Muslims
• 2 September 11 (2001) attacks on America not compatible with Islam
• 3 Ways To Defuse Religious Tensions
• 4 The Value Of The Ten Commandments
• 5 Bright Spot Of The Us Constitution: Religious Freedom
• 6 Lessons from the prophet's hudaibiah treaty.
• 7 Rulers' roles in promotion of christianity.
• 8 Exploring a model definition of 'religion'
• 9 Where islam stands as a civilized religion?
• 10 Proving god's existence through experimental science.
• 11 Roles of man as necessary & God as sufficient condition.
• 12 Human kindness is a shadow of god's kindness.
• 13 Why islam is the best choice for the Africans?
• 14 In Old Age, All Roads Lead To Death.
• 15 No Creations Are Without Purposes & Uses.
• 16 Prayer Prevents People From Bad Actions.
• 17 When Haram May Be Excusable: Five-Step Conditions.
• 18 Islamization Of Some Un-Islamic Cultures.
• 19 Greater The Faith, Tougher The Test.
• 20 How Science Can Make A Difference For Muslims?
• 21 The Time Gap Reality Between Sin & Punishment.
• 22 Good & Bad Days Alternate In Cyclic Order.
• 23 Let Moon-Sighting Unite & Not Divide The Muslims.
• 24 Faith Crisis Among Some Intellectuals.
• 25 Islamic Policy Toward Animals.
• 26 Improving The Muslim Performance (Aamal) Standard.
• ARGUMENTS
• 27 How Middle Course Better Than Conservative And Liberal Extremes?
• 28 Why God Is The Best One To Be Worshipped?
• 29 Costs And Benefits Of Belief In The Afterlife
• 30 Bible Is Similar To Hadith But Different From Quran
• 31 Defaming Islam: Freedom Of Speech Or Violation Of Rights?
• 32 How Islam Compares With Democracy?
• 33 Who Is Responsible For '0' Small Pox Since 1980?
• 34 Timeliness Is The Leading Condition For Prayer.
• 35 Ten Arguments For Women's Education.
• 36 Why Physical Fitness Matters For The Muslims?
• 37 Homosexuality Vs Adultery: Which Is Worse And How?
• 38 Countering Abortionist Argument
• 39 Which Is Better: Open Or Secret Prayer?
• 40 Small Or Large Recitation: Which Is Better In Prayer?
• 41 Personal Or Social Suffering: Which Is More Painful & Why?
• 42 Cultural Slavery Vs Cultural Diffusion.
• 43 Why Should America Ban Religious Defamation?
• ASSORTMENTS
• 44 Visible Action Of Invisible God: From Author's Diary.
• 45 Optional Good Deeds Are Like Bodyguards For Compulsory Ones.
• 46 The Gravitation Law Of Performance (Not One Of Newton).
• 47 The Theory Of Relativity (Not That Of Einstein).
• 48 In Good Deeds
• 49 "Rob Peter to pay Paul" is not for islam
• 50 Muslims Cannot Be "Penny Wise And Pound Foolish".
• 51 Islam Endorses Salad Bowl & Not Melting Pot Theory.
• 52 100% Homosexuality Means Prospect Of 'O' World Population.
• 53 Sinning In Teens To 40's & Suffering From 50's To Death.
• 54 Revenge May Be Lower But Not Greater Than Harm.
• 55 Why Karl Marx Is Irrelevant Forever?
• 56 Is God The Same One For All Religions?
• 57 How God Controls Economy And Livelihood?
• 58 How Muslim Repression In Myanmar Violates Buddhist Principles?
• MISCELLANEOUS
• 59 Grim Reality of Death: Unfailing Lesson for Everyone

50 : MUSLIMS CANNOT BE "PENNY WISE AND POUND FOOLISH"

The above proverb requires you to give more priority to the important Dos and less to the less important or optional things. You should therefore need to know how Islam classifies the duties and responsibilities of a Muslim in order of importance. These are: fard (compulsory), wajib (semi-compulsory), sunnat-e-moaqadah (borderline between compulsory and optional), sunnat-e-gair-muakkadah or mustahab (optional). If you do not develop any sense about this classification, you be mistaken to regard all these duties as a bundle regardless of importance. You will then give equal weight to each of them and treat them on "do all or miss all" basis.

For example, without discriminating between 'fard' and 'nafl' prayers, you will perform both types when you feel good and give up both when you feel tired or bored. Likewise, you may gain only optional credit by spending millions of dollars in optional charity but you will suffer hellish penalty by failing to spend only thousands intended for 'zakat'. In this way, you will gain sins and lose blessings by giving more priority to the 'nafl' than 'fard'. Moreover, the above examples prove your negligence in gaining vital knowledge which Islam made compulsory under pain of penalty.

The fact remains that the compulsory duties like 'fard' prayer, zakat, fasting during Ramadan etc. have to be performed with highest priority or at least with higher priority than 'nafl'. Violation of the 'fard' without valid excuses like prohibitive sickness is severely punishable which is not true for the 'nafl'. As for 'nafl', usually there is no punishment and if there is any, due to specialty of circumstances, that is supposed to be very light and pardonable if 'fard' duties are duly taken care of (4:31). The 'fard' therefore deserves highest priority. In order to ensure that, the 'fard' should be isolated from the mix of others including 'nafl'. After performing these 'fard' with utmost care and higher quality, if there is any time or energy left, it is only then you can take up the 'nafl' for practice.

Some examples will clear the above point. If you wake up at the end of morning ('fazr') prayer time, then do perform only the 'fard' prayer properly, without running risk of losing its proper time through sunrise while performing both 'fard' and 'sunnah' prayer. Likewise, if you get up early to take compulsory shower after co-living with your spouse but do not care to perform obligatory morning prayers, then you defeat the main purpose of your bath, that is performing prayser in clean body. Similarly, you must clear your zakat (compulsory spending) before you plan for any optional charity. In another example, you should not spend your limited amount of money on 'umra' (lesser Hajj) which you could better use for performing long overdue 'Hajj' (compulsory pilgrimage). In this way, you should classify your good deeds according to importance and perform them in decreasing order of priority to obtain full blessings from God.