1. After Eid prayers at my local mosque, I saw a bewildered looking Englishman looking confused and not knowing how to fit into the atmosphere of Eid celebrations around him. I later found out that he'd become a Muslim that very day, but did not know where to go or what to do. Surely he deserved better treatment. What is the responsibility of the community on new Muslims?
Islamically-speaking, the responsibility if the community on new Muslims is great. Unfortunately we have until now not been able to set up institutions or procedures for fully implementing them. This explains he sad spectacle you have observed.
One of the reasons for this deficiency is the relatively low priority the community has given to the responsibility. This has to change. For new Muslims, merely reciting the words of the Shahadah is not sufficient, he needs both; knowledge about Islam and a social context to practise it. Of course this in turn needs money and trained personnel, something which has been in short supply. But it'll always be in short supply so there's no use in complaining. We have to make a start somewhere sometime. Such trained personnel have to look after the needs of new Muslim adults and their young children.
Remember these children, like our own children, have experienced nothing but the norms and attitudes of the West. They more than anyone-need practical demonstrations of moral and spiritual values. It is simply no good to lock them up and hope that somehow, divorced from the world, they will miraculously become good Muslims. They have to be gently guided through the transition from their familiar old environment into their new communities and families.
(166 - Living in the West 5)
2. My sister insists on buying only free-ranged eggs because she thinks it's cruel to keep chickens cramped in batteries and that, Muslims should take a stand against the practice? Is battery farming wrong?
Once more I think the questioner is being a little bit jerky. Of course, Muslims are obliged to treat animals without being cruel and to be caring and sensitive. The Prophet (s.A.w.) once found some children taking aim at birds and he told them that we are not allowed to use live animals for target practice. In another Hadith we are told that a woman was thrown into the fire for not feeding her cat or allowing it to water itself. There are so many such reports of the Prophet being kind to animals and advising his Ummah to do the same.
At the same time however, animals are part of the Creation of Allah which are made for the use of human beings. We have the right to consume these animals but only once we have uttered the name of Allah over them to signify that we are taking a life that God has given. As long as the birds are being looked after in a proper manner, that means as long as they get food and water, their products are all right. If we can ascertain objectively, and not out of emotion, whether there is maltreatment, (real cruelty - not imagined), involved then we should do everything to try and correct that.
(11 - Animals Etiquette 1)
