For example, biological anthropology proves that human infants have a gestation time of almost eighteen months. That’s right, it takes almost a year after birth for the human infant to catch up with every other mammal infant on the planet. Think about it. Baby cows and horses and cats and dogs are up and toddling about within hours or days after being born. Human infants? Not for months.

And yet American society continues to push an agenda of getting mothers “back to work” within six to nine weeks after giving birth. That’s absurd! I’m not against women working, but unless there is some sort of a dire need and the woman absolutely must work to keep herself and her family from starving it’s not worth it, not for at least the first year.

That first year is absolutely crucial, yet we let the almighty dollar and social norms convince us to do the craziest thing: take our helpless infants and leave them in a room full of other helpless infants and one or two minimum-wage employees. The majority of those infants will receive either soy or cow’s milk based formulas, both of which infants are not designed to digest as well as mother’s milk (of course there are exceptions, I’m talking in general).

And yet, if we are Muslim but don’t understand the biological human condition we might mistakenly concede that it’s a good idea for women to put their kids in daycare as soon as possible. Or we might insist that women stay home and care for their children but be unable to explain WHY, which just leads to an atmosphere of paternalism and accusations of oppression.

Astaghfirullah, let me get off my soapbox there. My point is, anthropology and other forms of social science will do this ummah good, provided we don’t associate them with Allah (audhubillah).

I believe it is written by Alissa Quart.

Masha Allah, one of the best lectures I have ever I have listened by Shaykh Suhaib since a long time now. I personally felt that Shaykh Suhaib includes a lot of ‘jokes’ in the speeches lately which is not ‘really necessary’.

Listening to this speech it reminds me of the Shaykh Suhaib which i used to listen to 2006 and years before that..

Jazak Allah Khair,
Syed J.

btw, can anyone tell me where can I get the maqamat (chant) at the end of the video?
thank you

honestly ukhti i’m not sure, but both donating money and feeding people are very good in Allah’s sight

Abu Huraira related that the Prophet said: The Lord’s commandment for every one of His slaves is, ‘Spend on others, and I will spend on you’. (Bukhari, Muslim)

(this would be a sign of donating because you’re spending your money to help others)

but also,

Narrated ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr: A man asked the Prophet ,
“What sort of deeds or (what qualities of) Islam are good?”
The Prophet replied, ‘To feed (the poor) and greet those whom you know and those whom you do not Know
(Sahih Bukhari)

so honestly both are praiseworthy
& forgive me if i’m wrong, and Allahu A’lam 🙂

Jazak Allahu khairan. Just regular people actually, not necessarily Muslim. I read in a fatwa that it is best not to entertain non-Muslim friends with food during the day in Ramadan, out of respect for the sanctity of the month.

Is simply donating money as meritorious in the sight of Allah as handing out food, or is the letter more praiseworthy?