Rational Directive to ‘Bin’ the Father’s Name for Reverts!

After all the ‘controversy’ the young Mufti created by taking to task the more senior Mufti’s of Malaysia with regard to the ‘khalwat raids, mat skodeng, etc, this directive by him sounds reasonable and about time.

I mean it’s ridiculous for the revert to Islam to have to deny his or her father after just embracing Islam.

Even during the Prophet’s time, the ones who embraced the faith were not asked to rename themselves if their names weren’t offensive to Islam or carried a meaning that implied worship or obedience to a deity or object of worship other than Allah the Almighty.

So, when Mufti Dr. Muhd Asri bin Zainul Abidin comes up with this directive, I support his call.

It is about time that our fellow Muslims who have embraced Islam out of their own convictions and willfully come into this faith that is their birthright, do not lose out the rights to retain their father’s names.

I can just imagine the pain that the father goes through when his son or daughter embraces Islam and is forced to forfeit the right to be called as so and so , the son or daughter of so and so.

I applaud this call by the Mufti of Perlis for the doing away with the practice of naming the converts or reverts to Islam having to be named bin or binti Abdullah.

Although I appreciate and fully support his call to maintain or retain the father’s names when a revert embraces Islam, I’d like to draw his attention to certain cases where the father’s name carries a certain meaning.

I would like to ask Dr.Asri if names that revere the Hindu deities like Ramalingam in the Hindu faith are allowed to be retained by the new Muslim?

Ramalingam as what I understand means the ‘male genitalia’ of Rama, the Hindu deity. Is that permissible?

Since he is the ‘Mufti’ and is ‘licenced to issue fatwa’s ‘; what does he have to say about a situation like this?

I am not trying to put the man in a spot but since we are being dictated to abide by what the ‘Ulul Amri’ and ‘titled ones’ with a PhD in Islamic theology, etc, let’s ask all that we want to know and understand from the scholars ?

Would it be permissible for the reverts to Islam to retain their father’s names that represent a deity’s name or as in the example above carry a name so suggestive or even be a bit gross like that?

Just asking. What does the learned Mufti have to say about that?