My name is ‘Umar, from Iraq, I am a university student in my final year.
My problem is that I am suffering a lot of hardship and difficulty, deliberate delays, marginalization and oppression. I cannot live my life or practice my religion, and all of this is because my name is ‘Umar. This name is hated by the Shi’ah who are now in power, and many of the government departments and universities are in their hands. All aspects if life in Iraq are in their hands. They hate this name, and they do all the harm they can to the person who has this name. I cannot express what is going on, but I am asking you to give me a solution so that I can live my life in the shade of true Islam. I want to live my life and protect my religious commitment.
Praise be to Allah.
If keeping this name is going
to cause you harm and difficulty to the extent that you mentioned, there is
nothing wrong with your changing it to another name.
But it is not permissible to
change your father's name or your lineage to something else, because it is
haraam for a person to be attributed to someone other than his father.
We ask Allah to support the
truth and its followers, and to humiliate falsehood and its followers.
And Allah knows best.