Yaqeen Podcast

"Does Islam permit a man to hit his wife?"

Islam condemns domestic violence, and a woman is never required to stay silent in the face of abuse. So how do we make sense of Quran 4:34, the verse Muslim women often wrestle with?

Yaqeen scholar Dr. Tesneem Alkiek and host Cadar Mohamud start with a key principle in the Islamic legal tradition: marriage never erased a woman’s independent legal identity. She owns property, enters contracts, and can take her husband to court when she is harmed. Dr. Alkiek explains how jurists defined that harm.

She then looks at what classical jurists actually said about physical discipline. That includes the strict limits they placed on it and how many of them advised men to avoid it entirely. The episode ends with the Prophet’s ﷺ example and what a woman should do when patience is the wrong response.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please know that support is available.

For faith-sensitive counseling and emotional support, you can explore:

Khalil Center: https://khalilcenter.com
Naseeha: https://naseeha.org

As our audience spans the globe, we encourage you to seek local domestic violence support services in your country if needed. Your safety and well-being matter.

Most people believe what the people around them believe, and Muslim children are no exception. 

A child who watches a parent jump up from the dinner table because a prayer is about to pass learns that Allah is real in that house. A child who watches prayer times come and go learns something too, and eventually concludes that their parents never really believed it either.

Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy talks about how the need to belong is human nature, and that a Muslim community should put it to work for the truth instead of fighting it. The home comes first, because children form their picture of Allah largely from how their parents treat them. The masjid comes next, as the extended family most of us no longer have. Beyond it are neighbours who know you well enough to defend you.

Your children are already deciding what you believe. They are deciding it at prayer time.

0:00 - Why faith, family and fraternity
4:31 - Why children of Muslim immigrants drift from Islam
7:03 - How parents pass faith to their children
9:47 - Where children get their image of God
11:54 - The masjid as the extended family we lost
14:46 - Finding a spouse when Muslims are 1% of the country
17:21 - Why Muslims shouldn’t isolate from their neighbors
18:52 - When the neighbors defend the masjid

Sudden death is a sign of the Hour, and nearly everyone says they would choose it: to go peacefully in their sleep. The pious predecessors wanted an illness first, with time to repent, make their will, and seek forgiveness. 

When Aisha (ra) asked the Prophet ﷺ about sudden death, his answer depended on who was dying. Find out what he said in the full episode.

Dr. Omar Suleiman’s answer to a world where death arrives without warning is urgency without panic: hurry to good deeds, visit the graves, and let children witness a janazah.

For over 1,400 years, one clan has guarded the most important key in history. And ironically, it reached them through a man who once rudely denied the Prophet ﷺ entry into the Ka’bah. 

But even as his own parents vehemently opposed the Prophet ﷺ, Uthman ibn Talha (ra) inched closer to Islam. His excellent character in escorting a Muslim woman (ra) to safety, and his joining two other great Companions as they finally headed to Medina to accept Islam, became turning points in his life. 

And on the day of the Conquest of Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ honored him and his descendants with a duty that remains theirs until today. 

0:00 - His name and title of Hajib al-Ka’bah (Custodian of the Ka’bah)
2:18 - A rude comment when the Prophet ﷺ tried to enter the Ka’bah 
5:00 - How he escorted Umm Salamah (ra) to safety 
10:15 - Losing his father, uncle, and 5 brothers at Uhud 
13:21 - His mother’s vow to drink wine from a Muslim’s skull 
14:43 - Embracing Islam along with Khalid (ra) and Amr (ra)
15:58 - Receiving the keys to the Ka’bah

You were still in your mother’s womb when all of this was already written for you by an angel: your rizq (provision), your lifespan, your deeds, and whether you will be among the blessed or wretched. 

So does it matter what you do with your life? Can you still change your destiny? What kind of plot twists might still happen at the end of an apparently good or evil life? And how deep are the risks of getting involved in bid’ah (innovations) in the religion? 

“Anchored: 40 Hadith for Today’s Muslim” is a new series by Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy which draws insights from Imam an-Nawawi (rh)’s collection of 40 hadith and applies them to some of the most pressing questions Muslims face today. 

Tune in every Saturday at 9 AM CST/3 PM GMT for a new episode of Anchored!

Episode 3 covers the 4th and 5th hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi’s collection. 

0:00 - Introduction
3:55 - The first half of Hadith 4: What’s written for you in the womb
5:42 - The first 40 days after conception: How the embryo forms
11:35 - Is there tension between Islamic teachings and modern science? 
13:03 - Ensoulment: When an embryo becomes a person 
16:24 - Can you change your destiny? 
22:59 - The second half of Hadith 4: Does destiny disregard your effort? 
26:12 - Some of your true colors surface at the moment of death 
33:31 - The 4 types of hearts 
37:09 - Hadith 5: The importance of avoiding bid’ah (innovation) 
41:48 - The definition of bid’ah (innovation)
45:01 - Reasons why bid’ah is dangerous