Q. Our family back home is a closely-knit one. Against my normal practice, when I was on vacation this year I refused to visit one of my sisters because her son has married a Christian woman, and the marriage was done in a church. She continues to go to church for prayer on Sundays. My family is hard on me, thinking that I am taking an intolerable attitude. I feel that unless the marriage is solemnized according to Islamic law, I should continue to boycott the family. I would like to know whether my attitude is correct. Is it permissible for a Muslim to partake of food and drink in such a house? Are the prayers and other Islamic acts of worship offered in that house by my sister and her husband, i.e. the parents of my nephew, valid and acceptable to God? Under what conditions is a Muslim permitted to marry a Christian woman?

T.M.F.I, Jeddah

A. If we start by answering the last question first, we say that the marriage of a Muslim man to a Christian or a Jewish woman is permissible, as God states clearly in verse 5 of Surah 5. God has not attached any special conditions or mentioned particular circumstances to make such a marriage valid.

This means that the requirements are the same as that for any marriage, which means that it is a contract in which both parties enter freely, without pressure or compulsion. Other than that, what is required to make the marriage contract valid is the same in all situations.

Islamic marriage is completed when the contract is made. Normally it is a verbal contract, with a commitment by the woman’s father or guardian acting on her behalf by a power of attorney, and an acceptance by the man. When this is done in the presence of a minimum of two witnesses, the marriage is complete. A dowry should be specified, which is payable by the man to the woman, and it becomes her property in the full sense of the word.

A Christian marriage is a little different, with the priest or a person from a Registrar’s office asking each of the two parties whether they take the other for their wedded spouse. If both answer in the affirmative, they are pronounced man and wife. In a church, the priest will add certain duties of loving and cherishing the other party until death.

This means that, as formalities go, there is little difference between the two types of marriage. What remains at issue is whether it is right for a Muslim to marry in a church. The answer is that it is not right, because it implies a recognition of the validity of what is said in a church about God, particularly the false claim that He has a son. Some scholars also speak of the unacceptability of non-Muslim witnesses, but they look at this from the point of view of a witness having some authority over the person he is testifying for or against. This is, however, an issue where scholars are not unanimous.

If we now consider the marriage the reader is asking about, I would say that the family should have taken the right step of consulting a scholar before making the arrangements. A scholar would have told them that they should have the marriage done according to the Islamic way, with commitment and acceptance in front of witnesses. This they have not done. It is still preferable to do so now. But the marriage that has taken place is not invalid, since both parties declared their acceptance of it in front of a large number of witnesses. Everyone who knows them, as well as the law of the land, recognize that they are married. Then anyone who says they are not is accusing them of adultery, which is not the case.

Our reader has taken an attitude in support of abiding by the Islamic law, and may God reward him for that. But he has been hard, risking the alienation of his sister and her entire family. This makes his stand unacceptable to them, and would make them refuse to listen to anything he has to say. Thus, rather than giving advice that might be acted upon, he would alienate himself from them.

The result is that they would go one way and he goes another way. If there is something to be corrected in this relationship, it will not be. Besides, why would he not eat in his sister’s house when Muslims are encouraged to have good social relations with the followers of other religions, particularly Christians, as long as they do not adopt a hostile attitude to Islam? It is God who says: “The food of the people who received revelations before you (i.e. Christians and Jews) is permissible to you, and your food is permissible to them.” (5: 5)

The reader wonders whether prayers offered by his sister and her husband are acceptable to God? I find the question very strange. What would make a prayer of one person unacceptable on the basis of an action done by another? Even if the action is strictly forbidden and the other person has not expressed any objection to it, the most that can be said against that person is that he failed to counsel his friend or relative against it. That does not make his own worship invalid.

Installments purchase, etc.

Q.1. People in many countries buy expensive items by installments; a practice that involves paying more than the cash price. Is this permissible?

Q.2. In some countries, students in higher education receive loans from government to pay for their expenses, and they start repayment after they are in employment. Is this permissible, considering that a low rate of interest is applied?

Q.3. If a mother tries to teach her children how to pray, by standing like an imam and reading aloud, is this acceptable?

S.Y.A.

A.1. If the seller says to you: this car will cost you 50,000 if you pay cash, or 55,000 if you pay over a period of one year, this is perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, if he says to you: if you cannot pay the whole price immediately, I will lend you the money, but you pay me 5,000 extra, then that is a usurious loan, and it is forbidden. The difference is not in how you pay and how much you pay in both situations, but in how the matter is looked upon. In the first case, which is acceptable, one price is set for cash payment, and one for installments. In the other case, a loan is given which is then repaid in a larger amount. That is usury, or riba.

A.2. Normally governments which provide loans to students during their higher education charge a very low rate to cover the administrative expenses of running the scheme. They are not in it for profit, but they operate it to help students get their education, and repay the loans so that the funds can pay for the education of other students. There is nothing wrong with that.

A.3. There is nothing wrong with teaching prayer in the method you have described, because it is far more effective than plain instruction. If the mother is alone with her children, and they are too young for any son to lead the prayer, then she does well to teach them by example.

 

Some wild claims

Q. In a magazine published in South Africa, called The Majlis, Voice of Islam, a reader expressed his doubts about a report that Imam Abu Haneefah always prayed Fajr without need for ablutions, i.e. wudhu, other than the one he performed for Isha. The report mentions that this happened continuously for 40 years. The reader putting the question said this meant that Abu Haneefah did not sleep for forty years and that was impossible. The answer made little of this, saying that people endowed with real knowledge and those close to God could be given this sort of power. Many of them in early generations used to pray Fajr with the same ablution of Isha for 50 years or more.

I would like to know how authentic are such reports and whether the argument advanced by the magazine is valid or not.

Aslam Akbar, Jeddah

A. To start with, the expression that a person prayed Fajr having the same ablution he performed for Isha is an indication that he spent the whole night in worship. While voluntary worship and night worship are highly commendable and rewarding, spending the whole night in worship is not so. Indeed, the Prophet spoke clearly against it, as we will show presently.

What we need to say first of all on this matter is that in the early days of Islam, the Prophet and his companions were required, as a duty, to spend part of the night in worship. However, the order given to him specified that the period to be spent in such worship might range from less than one third to nearly two-thirds of the night. This order applied in the early period of Islam only, and was rescinded after one year, to make night worship voluntary, though rewarded very generously by God. It was always the practice of the Prophet’s companions, later scholars and pious people to sleep part of the night and rise for worship for the later part, which could be an hour or two, or a little more.

Why was this order given and then rescinded? Most scholars agree that at the beginning, in the formative period of the Muslim community, Muslims needed this sort of training which would give them an insight in the meaning of faith and its requirements. That was of great help to them in facing their people, calling on them to believe. When Islam was more strongly established, this order was modified to make night worship voluntary. At no time did God or His Messenger recommend spending the whole night in worship. Indeed, when the Prophet heard that three of his companions imposed on themselves hard tasks, he spoke to them pointing out that it was against Islam to do so. One of these decided to fast every day of his life, the other to spend the whole night every night in worship, and the third vowed not to marry. The Prophet said to them: “I am the most God-fearing and most devoted worshipper among you, but I fast on some days and do not fast on others, I spend part of some nights in worship and give myself enough sleep, and I marry women. Marriage is the way I recommend, and whoever turns away from my way does not belong to me.”

In these words did the prophet point the way for all Muslims in all generations. If we try to add to what he pointed out, believing that it would become better, then we are on very dangerous grounds. Thus, when the Prophet said that he does not stay all night in his devotion, then to advocate this practice, apart from the few nights in which we seek the Night of Power, believing that it is better than what the Prophet has recommended takes us out of the fold of Islam altogether.

Having said that, we have to point out two more things: the first is that to pray Fajr without having a fresh ablution other than the one we performed for Isha is no virtue whatsoever. In fact, it is against the natural physiological functions of the body. A human being needs to answer the call of nature. To suppress it is bad for his health and highly censured if one is to pray or spend time in devotion. The second is that it is certainly not correct that Abu Haneefah did this for forty years. This report is not only poor on authenticity; it is false.