Fun Fiqh

Time to add your favourite fiqh moments. I'll start:

Nizari Missionary Dr Abualy A. Aziz ("Missionary" is a traditional title: da'i) writes in his elucidation on the Nizari Ismaili Imami Shi'i tariqah that when one enters the prayer hall for services and greets the door-person with "Hai zindah!" (i.e. "he is alive", the Gujarati translation of "Allahu l-Hayyu", one of the 99 Beautiful Names), this is equivalent to having donated an elephant to charity.

I just love that someone somewhere once said, "Oh, but that is just like donating AN ELEPHANT to charity!"

The proper response is "He is Eternal" (another of the Beautiful Names), by the way, which earns the Greeter a pony. Err, the equivalence of the donation of a pony.

I refuse to treat my life as a balance sheet, so the "you've gained Karma!" effect is a bit too Fallout 3 for me, but it still a great image. Imagine if by saying "He is Living" you could SAVE an elephant? Wouldn't that be a better motivand?

Anyway, got some fun fiqhi moments? Don't have to be bad ones. I always thought the idea that you mustn't talk in the bathroom because the angels have to record your words so then they'll be angry they have to watch you pee was by far the most amusing thing I had ever heard. That one I heard both at The Evil Mosque on Prospect(tm) and read in my Silly Book of Sunni Fiqh (which I don't have on hand to cite at the moment).

... hai zinda!