Masturbation during Ramadan

Masturbation during Ramadan on Andrew Sullivan’s blog The Daily Dish reminds me of Arun Shourie’s book The World of Fatwas, Or, the Shariah in Action:

Full 43 pages of Vol VI of the fatawa Dar al-Ulum, Deoband are devoted to considering what breaks the roza fast and what does not. Mufti Kifayatullah gives a very qualified ruling on watching wrestling or kabaddi, “To see wrestling in such a way that private parts come to be seen is “na-jaiz”. Maulana Ahmed Riza Khan’s fulminations against doing anything which entails association with kafirs, Hindus in this case, extend over more than a hundred quarto-sized pages of closely packed text. These fatwas are grouped under the heading “Nafrat ke Ahkam” “The Ordinances of Hatred”. (P.245)

Chapter 6 entitled “Women and Shariah” is an exhaustive study of the man- woman or the husband and wife equation; and redundant to add that “the husband is always the master”. A woman is wickedest thing. And “when excited, she is a hundred times more passionate than man… A woman is “mom ki naak” (white hot tip of the candle), “balki raal ki pudiya” (a tight little packet of resin), “balki barood ki dibiya” (in fact a packet of explosives). If she is brought near a spark (of temptation) it will explode. She is defective in reason as well as in faith. And by nature she is crooked. (p.289) Which is why the husband has the power the absolute, unconditional power to exercise talaq for which he is not accountable to anyone on earth – to throw the wife out by just uttering the word talaq. (p.292). The chapter is replete with hundreds of examples of talaq, and every time the husband stands victor and superior.

Source: INDOlink Book & Media Review :THE WORLD OF FATWAS

I don’t know where you could get the book or if Mr. Shourie plans on publishing an electronic version, but I am sure if enough people are interested, Mr. Shourie could work something out.