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A Statement on: Calling for the Preservation of Brotherly Ties and the Rejection of Conflict and Disagreement
Author : The General Iftaa' Department
Date Added : 03-04-2014

A Statement on: Calling for the preservation of Brotherly Ties and Rejection of Conflict and Disagreement 

 

All praise is due to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds, peace and blessings be upon Prophet Mohammad and upon all his family and companions and all those who have followed in his footsteps until the Day of Resurrection:

 

Dear fellow believers!

 

Allah has warned us in the Glorious Quran against disagreement and conflict leading to failure, He Said (What means): "And obey God and His Messenger, and do not quarrel with one another, lest you falter and your strength fade; and be patient. Surely God is with the patient." [Al-Anfal/46].

 

Reprehensible disagreement and conflict lead to exchanging accusations, arousing sectarianism and widening disunity within the Muslim nation. This results in failures and weaknesses, and hinders society from progress and prosperity for all of these negative aspects are tantamount to corruption that is denied by any reasonable person.

 

Allah has urged the Muslim community to hold together and to cooperate just like one body; when one of the limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever. Therefore, He warned against disagreements that end with quarrel and division, and commanded holding fast to His solid bond for He , The Most Exalted, Said (What means): "And hold fast to God's bond, together, and do not scatter; remember God's grace upon you when you were enemies, and He brought your hearts together so that by His grace you became brothers..." [Al-Imran/103].

 

When Muslims complied with this heavenly guidance, their hearts were brought together against all enemies, and whenever the enemies tried to scatter them, they remembered the Prophet`s saying: "Do not (become infidels) revert to disbelief after me by striking the necks (cutting the throats) of one another (killing each other)." [Agreed upon]. Therefore, all of us have to resort to constructive dialogue and advice to achieve the desired reform.                                                                                                                                            .

Dear fellow believers!

 

Abide by the above Hadith (prophetic saying) and the teachings of the Prophet (PBUH) and those of the Holy Quran for the Prophet (PBUH) says: "A Muslim is the one who avoids harming Muslims with his tongue or his hands." [Agreed upon]. He further says: "And anybody who believes in Allah and the Last Day should talk what is good or keep quiet. (I.e. abstain from all kinds of evil and dirty talk)." [Agreed upon].

 

It is incumbent upon us as Muslims to refrain from acts that cause conflict and division so as not to undermine the unity of our homeland. Instead, we should join forces to achieve all that is good to our religion, country, community, and nation. Allah Says in the Holy Quran (What means): "Help one another to righteousness and piety; do not help one another to sin and enmity. And fear God; surely God is severe in retribution." [Al-Ma`idah/2].     

  

Dear brothers!

 

We should be a cause for all that is good and a hindrance to all that is evil for the Prophet (PBUH) said in this regard: "Some people are a cause for all that is good and some are a cause for all that is evil; the former are blessed but the latter are disgraced." [Ibn Majah].

 

The General Iftaa` Department calls on all citizens to observe the teachings of Islam, discard all aspects of division, conflict and disagreement as well as all factors that incite to enmity and hatred among the people of the community, and to follow the advice of the Prophet: "I have left in you  that which will not lead you astray if you abide by it: The Holy Quran and the Prophetic tradition." [At-Tirmithi/ Graded it as a sound & strange Hadith (a strange one due to few narrators of the above Hadith].

 

We ask Allah, The Almighty, to safeguard our beloved country along with the rest of the Islamic countries, and praise be to Allah, The Lord of The Worlds.

 

And peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you all.

 

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Summarized Fatawaa

What is the ruling of Islamic Law on performing prayer on the upper floors of al-Masjid al-Ḥarām?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
Facing the actual structure of the Ka‘bah (‘ayn al-Ka‘bah) is one of the conditions for the validity of the prayer. The scholars have clarified what is meant by "the actual structure of the Ka‘bah."
Imam ash-Sharwānī (raḥimahullāh) said: "What is meant by its ‘ayn (actual structure) is its physical body, or the airspace directly aligned with it — if the person praying is not inside it. But if he is inside it, then the airspace alone does not suffice; rather, the actual physical structure must be faced, such that even if he faces a projecting part of it measuring roughly two-thirds of a dhirā‘ (cubit) or more, this would be sufficient." [Ḥāshiyat ash-Sharwānī ‘alā Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj, Vol.1/P.484]
Sheikh al-Qulyūbī (raḥimahullāh) said: "Unlike one who prays outside it — i.e., outside the Ka‘bah — for him the airspace (directly above it) suffices, even if he is higher than it, or even if he is at the location where it (hypothetically) has been demolished." [Ḥāshiyat al-Qulyūbī ‘alā Sharḥ al-Minhāj,  Vol.1/P.154]
Accordingly, the prayer is valid on the upper floors of al-Masjid al-Ḥarām, even though these floors are higher than the roof of the Ka‘bah itself. And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.

What is the ruling on forgiving a tenant next month's rent, with the intention of counting it toward zakāh al-māl?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
It does not fulfill the obligation to count the rent owed on a house, or a portion of it, in lieu of zakāh. Rather, it is necessary to first transfer ownership of the zakāh amount to the poor person directly; only afterward may he be asked to pay the rent [from that money].
It is stated in ‘Umdat as-Sālik (p. 112): "If someone gives [money] to a poor person, stipulating that the recipient return it to him in payment of a debt owed to him, or says, 'I am making what you owe me into zakāh, so take it [as such]' — this is not valid. But if he gives it to him with the [unstated] intention that the recipient will use it to repay him, or says, 'Repay what you owe me, so that I may [then separately] give it to you as zakāh,' or the debtor himself says, 'Give it to me, so that I may [then] repay you with it' — this is valid, and there is no binding obligation for the recipient to actually fulfill this [informal understanding]."
We would also remind [the reader] of the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ: "The Muslim is the brother of the Muslim: he does not wrong him, nor does he abandon him [to harm]. Whoever attends to the needs of his brother, Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, will attend to his needs. Whoever relieves a Muslim of a hardship, Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, will relieve him of one of the hardships of the Day of Resurrection. And whoever conceals [the faults of] a Muslim, Allah will conceal him on the Day of Resurrection." (Agreed upon). And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.

What is the ruling on a woman who learns of her divorce or her husband's death after her *ʿiddah* has ended? And does the *ʿiddah* of a woman who abandoned mourning (*iḥdād*) for the whole period of the *ʿiddah*, or part of it, still end, even though she knew that abandoning it is forbidden?**

 

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
The waiting period of a widow who is not pregnant is four months and ten days, based on the saying of Allah Almighty (which means): “And those of you who die and leave wives behind, they shall wait concerning themselves for four months and ten days” [al-Baqarah/234]. If she is pregnant, her ʿiddah ends with the delivery of her child. The ʿiddah is calculated by lunar months and begins from the date of death.
If her ʿiddah ends before she learns of her husband’s death, or of his divorcing her, she does not observe the ʿiddah upon learning of it, because her ʿiddah has already ended.
It is stated in al-Bayān fī Madhhab al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī (Vol.11/p.41), one of the books of the Shāfiʿī school: “If a man divorces his wife, or dies while he is absent from her, her ʿiddah is from the time of the divorce or from the time of death. If she does not know of the divorce or the death until her ʿiddah period has ended, then her ʿiddah has ended. If she learns of it before the end of the ʿiddah period, she completes her ʿiddah counting from the time of the divorce or death.”
As for a woman who abandoned mourning throughout the ʿiddah while knowing that it is forbidden, she is sinful, although her ʿiddah has nonetheless ended. And Allah Almighty knows best.

What is the ruling of Islamic Law on supplicating with other than the transmitted (Ma'thur) supplications in prayer?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
It is permissible to supplicate (make du'a) during the prayer for anything from the affairs of religion or worldly life, and the prayer is not invalidated by doing so.
Shaykh al-Islam, the Imam an-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy on him, says: "Our madhhab [i.e., the Shafi'i madhhab] holds that it is permissible for a person to supplicate during it [the prayer] with anything that is permissible to supplicate with outside the prayer, from the affairs of religion or worldly life. He may say: 'O Allah, grant me wholesome sustenance, offspring, a house, and a beautiful young wife' — describing her; or: 'O Allah, free so-and-so from prison,' or 'destroy so-and-so,' and other such things — and none of this invalidates his prayer according to us. And this is also the view of Malik, ath-Thawri, Abu Thawr, and Ishaq." [Al-Majmu', Vol.3/P.454]. And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.