Binterik On Dawah

This special edition of the podcast is a reflection on myself, lessons learned from a recent gardening experience. What began as a simple gardening task became nearly a whole day of work, involving help, and letting things go.

All kinds of things can happen in the DMs, and you don't want your efforts to go to waste, or be public knowledge! So, have someone read and guide you through it with you as you search for a spouse. We already know what happens when we don't!

Do you want to be the reason someone hurts when they hear the Quran? In this podcast Sakina Binterik discusses the harms of abusing people by using the Quran, hadith and words of the scholars as weapons to only win arguments. This is a very dangerous thing: do we honestly believe that the Quran will testify for us when we have used its beautiful ayaat to harm, shame and embarrass others for our gain? The solution is to constantly, as we learn and as we share our knowledge, renew our intentions for Allah and seek refuge in Him from our rewards being lost due to our desire to win.

Keeping Muslim women out of your eyesight gets a lot easier when you lower your gaze. This narrative about protecting Muslim women is really about control. We would not know a great amount of the Islamic information we have today if it wasn't for the scholarship and teaching of Muslim women, through the ages. Colonial times changed that, but let's bring women scholars back! Support your sisters, don't tell them to be quiet and go away!

Does talking about mistakes Muslims make equal bad dawah? Why can't we put the blame on those who are publicly making mistakes, and misrepresenting Islam? Sakina Binterik talks about how accusations of bad dawah flip back on those who act badly in sight of non-Muslims and Muslims alike. And it's not wielding Quran and hadith like weapons, either: we caution the ummah about behaviors, to catch any and all Muslims who are making these mistakes. We can't sit idly by waiting for someone else to say something, especially since there are so many ayaat in the Quran about commanding good and forbidding evil. But let the way we do it be good, so we do not tip the scale of harm and benefit. It's awkward and difficult to bring up Muslims' mistakes: we want to make sure we are rewarded for it.

Do you suspect converts? Do you assume we all had wild lifestyles and got into all kinds of corruption before Islam? You will be surprised, and you should be ashamed: converts are Muslims. As as such, they have the same rights as all Muslims: they should be safe from your assumptions.

Is it the evil woman that breaks a marriage? Or has she gone through so much that she decides the marriage must end before she herself breaks? Sakina Binterik discusses the ugly stigmas of divorce, divorcees and famous examples of excellent Muslims divorcing.

Muslim men have girlfriends. Let's get that out of the way. They could either be single or married, but they have something in common: thinking they can make rules for their girlfriends to follow, as if they are 1. Muslim women and 2. actually married. You're having cake, brothers, but you're not going to get to eat it, too. Sakina Binterik discusses the many problems with the crazy idea that when you're boyfriend's a Muslim, you have to obey him.

How do you 'make' your daughter wear hijab? Some Muslims say that hijab is mandatory at the age of sixteen, and they practice this by dressing the girls in all kinds of immodest clothes, then at the age of 16 exactly, boom, down comes the hijab.  Illogical and antithetical to tarbiyah, it often does more harm than good.

How did we get to a place and time that Muslim men have fallen back onto their couches and refuse to provide?  Sakina Binterik discusses the strange and unIslamic phenomenon of Muslim men not providing for their wives, with the result of them having to beg from social services. Why is this a thing?