Our Dialogue

Q.1. May I cite the case of a Muslim who lives in the midst of a community where the majority are non-Muslims, many of whom are courteous to him. . Nevertheless, he fails to speak to them about Islam or call on them to become Muslims. What will he be his status?

Q.2. These days people use the Internet to chat to people whom they do not know. Suppose that they talk to people of the opposite sex, and as this goes on the chat becomes too familiar, yet they are unlikely ever to meet them. What does Islam say about this?


A.1. How do I or anyone know what will be the status of any person, Muslim or non-Muslim, on the Day of Judgement? This is something determined by God on the basis of His knowledge of people’s actions and failings as they go through life. The very basis of the question is wrong, and the very premise that such people will go to hell is wrong. This is something God determines. It is not for human beings to try to sit in judgment on others. How does any of us know what will be his state of affairs tomorrow, let alone on the Day of Judgement? Can anyone tell that he or she will maintain his convictions and his way of life for the rest of his days on Earth? Obviously no one can tell. Hence, no one should imagine that what he thinks today will happen tomorrow.


There are a variety of reasons why people cannot talk about Islam to non-Muslims. This may be because they do not have enough knowledge themselves, or they are too shy, or the other person is unreceptive, or the general conditions do not allow. While the Muslim community as a whole is required to make Islam known to all people and to address them properly calling on them to accept Islam, individuals should do what they can to make Islam known to people and present the proper Islamic image. The best way to do so is to live our lives as Muslims, adhering to Islamic values and principles. People will come to respect us and realize that our code of morality and our principles are of the higher type. They will start looking for the reasons that give us this distinction and they will soon realize that it is our faith.


Many communities adopted Islam in this way. Indonesia and Malaysia as well as many African communities chose Islam as a result of dealing in trade with Muslims. They admired their honesty and high sense of morality. People like a person with good conduct and proper morality. What those traders did was to live according to Islamic principles and to inform their trade partners that it was Islam that gave them those principles and values. If we do so, we will have done our duty to propagate Islam. We are not supposed to take a hostile attitude to people. On the contrary, we should remember that the Prophet’s message is described in the Qur’an as ‘mercy for all the worlds.’ It is such love and mercy that we should stress.


A.2. We cannot give a blanket verdict that applies to all Internet chatting. It depends on what people say and what their intentions are and how they develop such talk to practical matters. A man who is chatting to a woman decently about something that helps either or both of them in their work or their lives does no wrong. By contrast, people who talk about immoral matters commit a sin.

Q. Could you please explain the husband’s right to his wife’s salary? If she wants to give a portion of her salary to her parents, can he stop her?


A. Islam has given women their full financial rights long before any other political or religious system. Under Islam, a woman has equal rights to earn, own, spend and otherwise dispose of her property as she wishes, without interference by any male relative, be he a father, husband or guardian. As long as she is an adult and of sound mind, she has the right to do what she likes with her money and property. These two conditions apply to males and females equally.


Unfortunately, some Muslim communities impose a subordinate status on women, but this has nothing to do with Islam, although Islam is often said to endorse such subordination. The fact is that such situations are based on local culture and tradition. Islam does not endorse them. A woman has the full rights to her earnings and property. A husband is well advised not to meddle with his wife’s property, because he does not have any claim to it. He must still support his wife and look after her, providing all she needs of food, clothes and housing. She does not have to spend anything on the family home.


Having said this, I should add that nowadays many married couples work, and the wife’s work leads to extra family expense, such as extra transport, nursery fees for young children, help with housework, etc. It is right, therefore, that the woman pays a share of the family expense, which should at least offset the extra expense they incur. What is left is her own property and her husband cannot have a claim to it.


Regrettably, some husbands use the traditional status given to them by their local culture and try to impose their will on their wives and take away all, or most of their salaries. If they do, they are committing a sin. A husband cannot take any portion of his wife’s money without her full agreement. He does not have any say as to how she uses it. Take the example given by our reader. The woman wants to help her parents but her husband objects. How absurd! If she helps her parents, she will be dutiful, earning God’s pleasure and reward. All sons and daughters are required by God to be kind to their parents. Now her husband objects to her kindness to them. By doing so, he is not only making an absurd claim; he is committing aggression against her rights. He should fear God and leave her to do what she wants. They can make reasonable arrangements for their own family, but what is left of her salary is her own property and he has nothing to do with it.

Q. I am told that the Prophet (Pbuh) divided the moon into two and later put it back in its original form. Is this true? Is there any evidence to support this?


A. The parting of the moon is a fact, but the Prophet did not do it. It was done by God who is able to accomplish any purpose of His. Many a Qur’anic verse ends with the comment: “God has sway over all things.”


The evidence confirming this event is in the Qur’an. Surah 54, The Moon, or Al-Qamar, starts as follows: “The Last Hour has drawn near, and the moon has been split. Yet whenever they see a sign, they turn away and say: ‘It is but sorcery extended’.” (54: 1-2) When you analyze the first verse carefully, you find that it consists of a warning about the Day of Judgement, which is indicated here as the Last Hour, and a piece of news speaking about a certain event, namely, the parting of the moon. There are also several Hadiths that mention the event. One of these is reported by Abdullah Ibn Masoud who says: “The moon was split into two parts during the lifetime of the Prophet and people looked at it. The Prophet said to all people: ‘Bear witness’.” (Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim). Further evidence is that the Qur’an stated this fact very clearly, confronting with it the idolaters who denied God’s message, and none of them is reported to have denied the event.


But why should we wonder at God’s ability to split the moon in two, or into many smaller fragments, if He so wills? Do we not believe that He is able to accomplish any purpose of His? Besides, the creation of the moon itself and the way it functions, the cycle it follows, and the change of its position and shape every night provide a much greater sign for us to see.

Q. A Muslim family received a proposal of marriage from a young man who is a Hindu. He said that he is willing to adopt Islam if his proposal is accepted. The girl’s father told him that he should also change his name to adopt an Islamic name, but the young man refused. Please comment.


A. Many people nowadays tell newcomers to Islam that they must change their names. Yet there is no such requirement in the Qur’an or the Sunnah. When people accepted Islam during the Prophet’s lifetime, the overwhelming majority of these retained their names. The Prophet did not change their names or tell them to do so. He, however, changed the names of certain people as soon as they became Muslim. Hence, it is important to look at these to determine why the Prophet changed names in these few cases.

Q. My wife’s father died in 1979, leaving behind his wife, one son and two daughters, but no other heirs. Her mother died about ten years ago, and her brother a few months back. At the time of his death, her brother was a widower, but he had 3 sons and 3 daughters. No inheritance has been divided, and there is a house still registered in my wife’s father’s name. Please advise on the division of this inheritance.


A. The Prophet emphasized that inheritance should be divided among the heirs without delay. Delay causes problems, and these could lead to long running disputes between brothers and sisters. Many families think it is better to keep things running as they were during the lifetime of a parent, particularly when there is a business that brings income to the family. Yet such thoughts are wrong. It is still possible to keep the business running, with each of the heirs knowing exactly what his or her share is and the amount of income they receive from the business. Without division some heirs lose their rights, and they often begin to nurse a long lasting ill feeling towards their close relatives. Hence the Prophet’s advice: “Divide the inheritance even though it may be only a tooth stick, or a miswak.”


Be this as it may, it is important in the case we are looking at to divide the inheritance without further delay, because there are now secondary heirs, i.e. the son’s children. If it is not divided, someone’s rights might be lost and this will land the whole family into problems. Fortunately, the case is not too complicated now, but it could become so if left undivided for much longer. The father’s estate should have been divided in the following manner: one-eighth to his widow, and the rest to his children, divided into four shares: two for the son and one each for the two daughters. The mother’s estate should be divided among her children in four shares: one to each daughter and two to her son. This assumes that at the time of her death, the mother also had no other heirs, such as either of her parents who might have survived her.


Since the mother’s inheritance follows the same lines, this means that when she died, the house, as well as any other money or property left by either parent, belonged to your wife and her sister and brother, with each of the two women taking one quarter and their brother taking one half.


As your wife’s brother died, his inheritance should go to his six children. It should divide into nine shares, with each son taking two shares and each daughter taking one share. This applies to all his estate, including half the house he inherited from his parents.


This means that the ownership of the house left by your father-in-law is: one quarter to your wife, and one quarter to her sister. The other half belongs to her brother’s children divided between them on the above lines: two shares for each son and one for each daughter.

Q. A friend of mine is married to a Hindu woman who has given him three children. The children have Muslim names, but his wife remains a Hindu. Now he realizes that this should not continue.

Can he force his wife to convert to Islam if she refuses to do so voluntarily?


A. Your friend certainly cannot, and must not, try to force his wife to accept Islam. Faith is the result of conviction, not coercion. God says in the Qur’an: “No compulsion is admissible in matters of religion.” (2: 256) Besides, if he forces his wife, and she feels that she must do what he asks her to do, what will the result be? She simply will say the declaration that Muslims say, but it will be a mere verbal formality, with no conviction. Will she be a Muslim as a result? Certainly not. It is all a question of conviction. You say that his children have Muslim names. So what? Are they brought up as Muslims? One or two Christians in Arab countries have called their sons Muhammad. Does this mean that the father or the son is a Muslim? Certainly not, unless either or both make a conscious decision to be a Muslim and acts on such a decision.


Your friend should have looked into this question long time ago, before he got married. You have not told me whether he realizes the full implication of his negligence. Well, his marriage may be approved by the civil law in his country, but it is not recognized as valid from the Islamic point of view.


What he should do now is to explain to his wife how their marriage is viewed in Islam and tell her all the implication. He should suggest to her that she should study the main principles of Islam and its basic requirements to determine whether she wishes to be a Muslim. If she decides against this, he must not force her.


He should terminate his marriage. They can agree on how they look after their children. But the children must be brought up as Muslims.

Q. What should be done in the case of abortion already done, knowingly or unknowingly, within the first few weeks of pregnancy.


A. I do not understand how abortion can be done unknowingly. Abortion requires the intervention of a doctor or someone else to terminate a pregnancy. The pregnant woman would know that her pregnancy is being terminated. If she does not know and her husband or someone else arranges for it, then that person is guilty. The woman in this case is blameless.


Abortion is forbidden. Some scholars of old times mentioned that it is permissible within the first 120 days of conception. But as medical knowledge advanced, contemporary scholars are increasingly leaning to the view that abortion is forbidden from the very first day of conception. As a forbidden act, its commitment requires repentance and seeking God’s forgiveness. The repentance must be genuine, coupled with a resolve not to do it again. It also incurs the payment of blood money, which in this case is known as ghurrah, which varies according to the age of the pregnancy.

Q. If someone committed a grave sin and is ashamed of himself, what should he do to rectify his position and earn God’s forgiveness?


A. The first thing that we must understand is that Islam acknowledges man’s weakness in the face of temptation, and it accepts man with his weaknesses, opening before him the way to redress his mistakes and repair what he damages. Hence, the relation between man and God is based on forgiveness, rather than permanent sin, disobedience and eventual punishment. God’s attributes make mercy, grace and forgiveness available in increasing degrees, while punishment is much narrower. Thus God describes Himself as “much-forgiving; superior in forgiveness; forgives all sins, etc.” This is to encourage everyone who commits grave sins not to despair of God’s forgiveness, because nothing will stop such forgiveness when sought in earnest.


We need also to understand that God’s forgiveness applies even to the most serious of sins, including the ones that incur specified punishments of the sternest type, such as theft and adultery. It is also important to make clear that in saying so we do not wish to give a sense of complacency that accepts such sins, or even lighter ones. All sinful actions must be avoided with all one’s energy. Even the smallest of sins is an act of defiance and disobedience to God Almighty. As such it cannot be condoned in any way. However, when one slips, yields to temptation, or gets misguided and commits a sin, the way is open to repentance and earning God’s forgiveness.


The first thing that is needed is to genuinely regret having committed such an act that incurs God’s displeasure. This is what is called in Islam “repentance”, i.e. to feel ashamed of having disobeyed God and to want to do anything to redress the fault. This regret should be coupled with a firm resolve not to repeat that sin, no matter how strong the temptation of a repeat may be. One should then earnestly pray to God to accept one’s repentance and forgive one’s sin.

Q. I have an illness in my knees which causes me much pain when I perform the sujood, or prostration during prayer. As a result, I use a chair. When I am praying in congregation, I want to stand while the imam is standing, but this has caused a problem because if I stand in line, the chair is behind the row and this causes inconvenience to the people in the next row. Some people suggested that I should not stand, but sit during the entire prayer, but I feel this deprives me of something I can do. Please advise.


A. The rule that applies to all people who are prevented by ill health from doing any part of the prayer in the way it should be done is that they should do what they can and signal what they cannot, doing of it what they can. In your case, standing appears to be no problem.


Therefore, you must stand with the imam. You can be seated only if you cannot stand. If bowing, or ruku, presents no problem, then you should do it normally. In this case, you should do the prostration, or sujood, in the same way as you do your bowing, but making the prostration a little lower, or the bowing a little higher.


It may be that bowing also presents a problem for you, because it involves some stretching of the knees. In this case you can signal both bowing and prostration while standing, moving your head and part of your body. Your movement for prostration should always be a little more than for bowing. What I have said involves no use of a chair. If this is comfortable for you, then you should do it in this way.


If it is difficult, or if standing throughout the prayer causes you pain, while the use of a chair makes it easier, then using a chair is recommended. As I said, whatever you can do of your prayer in the normal way, you should do.


Where to place a chair? If you are standing, then you must stand in your row, shoulder to shoulder with other worshippers. In order not to cause inconvenience to others, you should take your chair to the end of the row, either to right or the left as is convenient to you and to others.