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The council of scholars known as Majma' al-Fiqh al-Islaamee issued the following fatwaa in their fifth session in Kuwait, December 10-15, 1988: "After reading the research papers prepared by its members and experts on the subject of intellectual property rights and after hearing the discussions of the issue, the Council affirmed the following: 'Trade names, logos, trademarks, authorship, inventions and designs are the rights of their owners. These things have acquired commercial value in the modern business environment because people make money from them. The Sharee'ah recognizes such rights, so they should not be violated.' " (Al-Fiqh al-Islami wa Adillatuh, Wahbah Al-Zuhayli, 7:5160)

I strongly believe in supporting Muslim writers and enterprises. A great deal of effort goes into the research, writing, editing, designing and printing of Islamic literature. If we pirate or distribute unauthorised copies of such books, we are depriving the people who help to make such works possible of their income and benefits of their labour.

In some cases, I have included extracts from copyrighted material. I hope that in this way, I am generating free publicity for these works and that you, the readers, will be encouraged to support the authors and publishers by purchasing the works in full.

In the case of the section on the Life of Muhammad, the last Messenger of Allah, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, I have reproduced material from Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation's now-defunct website with the purpose of making the beneficial information available to all.

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