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1 Question: In European countries, public baths are built with certain considerations. Whether or not it is in the direction of qibla is not one of their considerations unlike the situation in Muslim countries: 1. Is it permissible for us to use such facilities, if we do not know where the direction of the qibla is? 2. And if we know the baths do face the direction of the qibla, is it permissible for us to use them? If it is not permissible, what is the solution?
Answer: In the first case, based on obligatory precaution, it is not permissible to use them except after failing to know the direction of the qibla and that it is not possible to wait or that waiting would entail harm and place the person in difficulty.
In the second case, based on obligatory precaution, it is necessary —while using the bathroom— to refrain from facing the qibla or turning one’s back to it. However, in the event of emergency, one should sit with their back towards the qibla. This is based on obligatory precaution.
Qibla
2 Question: t happens that the time of salat sets in while the Muslim worker is at his work-place, - noting that finding work is not easy - thus, he finds it difficult to leave the work for salat. Sometimes he ends up losing his job because of his insistence on saying salat. Is he allowed to say his prayers as qadha? Or must he say them [on time], even if it leads to him losing his job?
Answer: If the need to work at that place reaches the level of necessity, then he should pray in time in whatever way possible: even just by indicating [by lowering the neck halfway for ruku' and fully for sajda]. However, such a situation would arise only exceptionally. So he should fear Almighty Allah and not accept a job which leads to neglecting the pillar of faith; thus, he should remember the words of the Almighty: "And whosoever fears Allah, He will make a way out for him [from difficulties] and provide for him from where he does not expect ."
Prayer Timings
3 Question: Is it permissible for a person to reside in non-Muslim countries with all its temptations that confronts the person on the street, the school, the television and other media while he has the ability to migrate to a Muslim country although that transfer would cause difficulty in residence, loss of material wealth and comfort, and constrain the worldly aspects of his life? If it is not permissible to remain in such a country, would his efforts in propagation among the Muslims (reminding them of their obligations and encouraging them to refrain from haram) change the rule for him and allow him to remain in that country?
Answer: It is not Haram to stay in that country, if it does not create hurdles for him and his family in fulfilling their religious obligations presently as well as in future; otherwise, it would not be permissible even if he is engaged in some kind of propagation activities.
Migration to non-Muslim Countries
4 Question: A mosque has a number of floors, including the prayer room, basement, kitchen, storage, bathroom facilities, are all these parts of the building considered as a mosque, and have the rulings of the mosque? Can women who are in their state of ritual impurity to the other floors of the mosque?
Answer: If the particular land was considered as Waqf (endowment) before the commencement of the building as a mosque, then all of the building, including the basements, and the levels above, have the rulings of a mosque.
However, if the land was not considered as Waqf (endowment) and after completion of the building, one of the levels was considered as a mosque, then only that level will be considered as a mosque, and the rulings of the mosque will comply.
Thus, those who are in the state of ritual impurity, may make use of the other levels of the building, and not enter the level considered as the mosque.
Mosque
5 Question: Is it permissible to cheat [in the exams] at public schools, colleges and universities? Is it permissible to cheat [in the exams] at the private Islamic and non-Islamic schools?
Answer: Cheating is not allowed in any of these places.
Cheating
6 Question: How is puberty confirmed in a male?
Answer: Puberty in males could be confirmed if one of the four signs was present:
1. First: Completion of fifteen lunar calendar years of age (equal to about 14 years and seven months and fifteen days of the solar calendar).
2. Second: Ejaculation through sexual intercourse, or seminal discharge while awake or asleep.
3.Third: The presence of pubic hair, of the rough type.
4. Fourth: The presence of hair on the face and above the lips.
Note: The presence of under arm and chest hair and the deepening of the voice are not the signs of puberty in Islamic law.
He should begin performing his religious duties when he attains the age of puberty.
Adulthood - Puberty (Buloogh)
7 Question: A woman, who is not obedient to her husband and does not carry out her matrimonial obligations, had, without his consent, left her matrimonial home and stayed with her parents for seven months. She, then went to a non-Islamic court, filed a divorce application, and demand maintenance and custody of the infant children. Has such a woman, who has violated her marital duties, any right in anything from her husband?
Answer: The said woman is not entitled to shari'i maintenance. As for her dowry and her right in nursing her offspring for the hawlayn (the two years), it should not be forfeited by virtue of nushouz (recalcitrance of the woman toward her husband).
Divorce
8 Question: A woman, who is not obedient to her husband and does not carry out her matrimonial obligations, had, without his consent, left her matrimonial home and stayed with her parents for seven months. She, then went to a non-Islamic court, filed a divorce application, and demand maintenance and custody of the children. Has such a woman, who has violated her marital duties, any right in anything from her husband?
Answer: The said woman is not entitled to shari'i maintenance. As for her dowry and her right in nursing her offspring for the hawlayn (the two years), it should not be forfeited by virtue of nushouz (recalcitrance of the woman toward her husband).
Child Custody
9 Question: Due to a number of miscarriages, the doctors have stated due to my condition, I can no longer get pregnant, are we, as husbands and wives, able to use our own fertilised egg and use a "surrogate mother", to carry the feotus in their womb?
Answer: If the sperm and egg belong to the husband and wife and the inseminated egg is then implanted in another woman's womb, there is no problem. It is permissible per se. However, since implanting involves touching and seeing the private part, insemination would be allowed only when the parties to the marriage may face difficulty in their life which is not normally bearable. If this is the case, looking and touching would be allowed to the necessary extent.
However, when it comes to who the child belongs to, the owner of the egg or the owner of the womb, that is a problematic issue. In any case, precaution has to be observed in inheritance. As for mahramiyah, the owner of sperm is the legal father and the owner of the egg is mahram (related) to the child because she is her father's wife and the owner of the womb is mahram to him because she is like his mother.
Artificial Insemination
10 Question: In the West, there are many public laundry places in which Muslims and non-Muslims wash their clothes. Is it permissible for us to pray in the clothes washed in such facilities, especially when we have no knowledge whether or not the washing machines are connected to the kurr water2 at some stages of the washing, and whether or not it purifies the clothes in the process of washing?
Answer: There is no problem in praying in those clothes that were pure before washing them [in such facilities] as long as you are not aware that they have become impure. [In other words, what goes in the public washing machine as pure comes out as pure unless you are sure that it has become impure.]
Similarly, [you can pray in] the impure clothes [that were washed in the public laundry machines] provided that you are reassured:
that the impure element, if any, has been washed away;
that the pure water covered the entire impure area twice (if it had become impure by urine and even if the water was connected to kurr source as an obligatory precaution) or just once (if it had become impure by other elements);
and that the water was removed from the clothes by wringing or other similar method [i.e., spinning of the machine] if it was qalil.
However, if you are not sure and just have conjecture that the garment has been purified as per religious requirement, the previously impure garment will still be considered impure and praying in it would not be valid.
Purity
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