Is fidyah required for someone who breaks their fast due to a valid excuse?
● If the excuse is permanent, such as a chronic illness with no hope of recovery or old age, then fidyah is required. This means feeding one needy person for each missed fasting day.
● However, if the excuse is temporary, such as menstruation, postnatal bleeding, or a temporary illness, then only making up the missed fasts (qada) is required, and fidyah does not apply.
Is it permissible for a praying person to make supplication in each Sajdah (a prostration) of obligatory prayer?
It is permissible for a praying person, whether praying individually, or in congregation, to make supplication during Sujood (prostration) in obligatory, or voluntary prayers. However, it is disliked for the Imam to do so since he is required to spare the prayer performers any sort of hardship, unless he is leading a certain group who don`t mind him extending the prayer.
What is the ruling on swearing an oath by the Prophet ﷺ, and does such an oath take effect according to Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, requiring expiation upon its breach?
All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
Swearing an oath by a created being is disliked (makrūh) in our Shāfiʿī school. Shaykh al-Islām Imām al-Nawawī, may Allah have mercy upon him, states: "Swearing by a created being is disliked — such as swearing by the Prophet, the Kaʿbah, Jibrīl, the Companions, or the Prophet's family. Al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah have mercy upon him, said: 'I fear that swearing by other than Allah the Almighty may constitute an act of disobedience.' The scholars of the school explained this to mean: that is, something forbidden and sinful — indicating that he had some hesitation in the matter. Al-Imām stated: the established position of the school is that it is categorically not forbidden, but rather disliked. Furthermore, whoever swears by a created being, his oath does not take effect and no expiation (kaffārah) is required if he breaks it." [Rawḍat al-Ṭālibīn wa ʿUmdat al-Muftīn, Vol. 11/P.6]
According to the Ḥanbalī school, however, expiation becomes obligatory upon one who swears by our master the Prophet ﷺ and then breaks his oath. Imām al-Bahūtī al-Ḥanbalī, may Allah have mercy upon him, states: "No expiation is required for swearing by other than Allah the Almighty, even if the oath is broken — because expiation was made obligatory for swearing by Allah and His attributes, out of reverence for His names, and nothing else is equal to Him in this regard... except in the case of swearing by our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, for expiation becomes obligatory when one swears by him and then breaks the oath. This was explicitly stated in the narration of Abū Ṭālib, because he is one of the two conditions of the two testimonies of faith by which a disbeliever becomes a Muslim. Ibn ʿAqīl held the view that swearing by any of the other prophets, peace and blessings be upon them all, carries the same ruling." [Sharḥ Muntahā al-Irādāt, Vol. 3/P.441]. And Allah the Almighty knows best.
What is the ruling on one who doubts washing a limb before or after finishing ablution?
If a person performing ablution doubts leaving the washing of a limb from the limbs of ablution during his ablution, he must repeat washing that limb and wash what comes after it. If he doubts leaving the washing of a limb after finishing the ablution, there is nothing upon him. And Allah the Almighty knows best.
