By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi Your question: If a woman’s menstruation stops while she is at work or travelling and she is not able in that situation to take a bath (ghusl), is she allowed to miss the obligatory prayers (i.e., defer them until the time when she can take a bath)? My response: Prayer (salah) is the firmest of the obligations placed on believing men and women. They must do the obligatory prayers within the time when they are due. If a Muslim is willing but simply not able to do wudu’ or ghusl within the time when a…
View More Not being able to take a bath after menstruationAuthor: admin
Those eligible to receive zakah
By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi Your question: Who should I pay my zakah to in the West? My response: The qualification in the question, “in the West”, does not have much significance for the answer, except that in the West, Muslims however numerous, do not (or do not yet) organise the collection and expenditure of zakah as a state function. Individual Muslims have to assess and tax themselves, and they have themselves to dedicate the expenditure of what they have collected from themselves. How should they spend the zakah they collect from themselves? The obligation of zakah, and the categories…
View More Those eligible to receive zakahBreath Control
By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi Part one Your question: JazakAllah for the detailed response. Really helps. Can I ask one more question in addition to above as it is slightly connected. Is guided meditation allowed? In this case, someone else guides you to focus on breathing and then you are asked to imagine like you are collecting all those negative emotions which have been keeping you in a state of unhappiness and then letting it go so to stop over thinking and calm your mind. It can be considered as self-hypnosis of sort as you are not surrendering your consciousness…
View More Breath ControlSunnah and Ḥadīth
By this link: What is the meaning of sunnah? The technical meaning of the term is a way or practice that was established and pursued by the Prophet, peace be upon him, and then by the Rightly Guided Caliphs, the rest of the Companions, and the leading figures in the generations that followed them. And what is the meaning of ḥadīth? Technically, it is a report comprised of the words of the Prophet, peace be upon him, or of his actions, tacit approvals, characteristics or other personal matters. And what is the real connection between them? Is it a successive,…
View More Sunnah and ḤadīthDeparture of Scholars from the Way of the Ḥadīth Imāms
By this link: We attend your lectures and you point out all sorts of scholarly mistakes in the treatment of the Prophetic sunnah and the failure to fully grasp the approach of the Imāms of ḥadīth. So please inform us of the roots and origins of this fault and error. I replied: There are two matters: that which most scholars fell into and that which only some of them did They asked: What affected most of them? I replied: Two matters. They asked: What are they? I replied: Need to Treat Ḥadīth as Historical Reports First, there is failure to…
View More Departure of Scholars from the Way of the Ḥadīth ImāmsAvoid hypnotherapies
By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi Your question: I wanted to know if Hypnotherapy is allowed in Islam? Like to overcome any negative thoughts by listening to tracks which guide you to think positive while there is a trypnaural brainwave music used. In particular there is a woman by the name of Marissa peer who is renowned who uses hypnotherapy to help people overcome any limiting beliefs or those thoughts stopping them from being their best. Like nothing she says is against religious values but there is a particular kind of brain music to put you in a deep meditative state…
View More Avoid hypnotherapiesVirtue of the Juristic Approach in Fiqh
By this link: One particular matter really concerns us. I asked: What is that? They replied: People have differed in fiqh, as some take it from the jurists while others take it from the scholars of ḥadīth. I replied: Why do you always inquire about simple matters that contain no ambiguities? Were you to exercise your mind and intellect, you would have understood its reality quite well. Do you not respect your teacher enough to protect his time from being wasted? For the most valuable thing I am devoting myself to is my commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. I do not…
View More Virtue of the Juristic Approach in FiqhBetween Hadith and Fiqh
By this link: We were impressed by your article “Between Hadith and Philosophy“, benefitting from it, and thereafter, being able to distinguish between the nature of hadith and the nature of philosophy and their respective standards and measurements which are specific to each one of the sciences, thereby avoiding the conflation and confused mixing of the two. So, please expound for us the difference between hadith and fiqh in a way that eliminates any complications and obscurity. I said: Read the article again and you will find therein a comprehensive explanation regarding that which you have asked me. They said:…
View More Between Hadith and FiqhHusband and wife
By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi The Quran speaks about husbands and wives in the context in which children are born and trained as servants and worshipers of Allah. The husband-wife relationship is the pattern for the children to learn about the difference between men and women, and the complex adjustment necessary to balance love and power. The achieved balance is authority by which the young person can give themselves the commands which they have been getting from their parents. Within the home this arrangement is expressed as the authority of the husband to be responsible for the protection and financial…
View More Husband and wifeMeaning of Companionship
By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi I need to explain to you the difference between a disciple and a companion. A disciple can only do those things that the master has defined and given him explicit permission to do. The disciple cannot make decisions or make adjustments in connection with the master’s teachings, neither in the terminologies used, nor in its implementation in explaining doctrine and practice. The disciple can only alter or amend the habits of his master when and if the master grants him the title ‘master’ after him or in some other place. The range of the teaching…
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