Q.1. My wife was pregnant when Ramadan approached. She was doing poorly most of the time, and a doctor advised her not to fast as fasting was not good for her health. How and when does she compensate for her not-fasting?
Q.2. I am the only wage earner in my family and I support my parents and other members of the family, in addition to my wife and children. This means that only very little is left of my salary at the end of any month. I have only a small amount of savings and the jewelry which my wife wears. What is my zakah liability?
Z.A. Zinde, Al-Kharj
A.1. Pregnancy and breast-feeding may represent considerable strain for a woman. Fasting also may affect some people considerably, particularly those who are weak or having to cope with much strain. Hence, Islam allows women who are pregnant or breast-feeding not to fast in Ramadan. Should a reliable doctor advise a pregnant woman not to fast, then she should surely act on his advice in order not to bear considerable strain which may affect her health or the health of her baby.
There are two types of compensation for not fasting as a result of a valid exemption. These are: 1) fasting at a later date, one day for each day which a person does not fast in Ramadan; and 2) feeding a poor person two meals for each day. The first type is the one to be followed in all cases where it is possible, such as a person who travels in Ramadan and avails himself of the concession for travelers. He fasts after the month is over when he is no longer a traveler. The other type is for a person who is chronically ill, or an old person who finds fasting too much of a strain. A pregnant or breast-feeding lady may make compensation in this way, particularly if her general health is not very sound. She may also do that if she does not fast one year for pregnancy and the following year for breast-feeding, and then again for pregnancy, etc. That makes her miss several months of fasting. Compensation by fasting may become a heavy burden for her, particularly if she ends up having to fast for several months. She may compensate by feeding a poor person, or several poor persons, two meals per person for each day. The meals should be of the average type she eats at home.
A. 2. You have to differentiate between your zakah liability and that of your wife. You speak of your wife’s jewelry as if it was your own. Who owns it? If it is hers, then she is responsible for its zakah, if it is liable to zakah. If all her jewelry was bought by you, and you gave it to her as a gift, she still owns it. However, if you told her at the time that it is yours but she may wear it, then it is yours. In this case, it is liable to zakah. If it is hers and she holds it for her personal use, then it is not liable to zakah, unless she considers it a form of saving. In this latter case, i.e. jewelry kept as savings, it is zakahable.
Your savings in the bank are too small to be liable to zakah. These savings are below the threshold of zakah, which is equivalent to the value of 85 grams of gold. Unless you own that amount above what you need for your family’s expenses, then you are not liable to pay any zakah. This means that if the jewelry your wife uses is yours, then you should pay zakah for both the jewelry and savings because in this case, you have more than the threshold of zakah.
Promoting sinful actions, disbelief, etc.
Q. I have recently made a research on sins that could take the sinner out of the fold of Islam. However, I could not determine which sins are of the cardinal type and which would land a person into disbelief in Islam. Moreover, I was puzzled because I felt that most of these are often committed by most people who are Muslims. Could you please clear my doubts.
S.N. Hussain, Jeddah
A. The reader’s letter is long and full of examples of the sins he has researched. As he is only 18, it is not surprising that the research he has undertaken has landed him in confusion. Apparently he has been looking at literature which we may describe as taking a hard-line view of things. This some scholars do in order to help people try to steer a sin-free course of life. Their effort is commendable as long as it continues to remind people that God’s door remains always open for any sinner to turn a new page, declare his or her repentance and start with a new, clean sheet. They must assure people that God’s forgiveness is always available. Otherwise, people may formulate a misconception showing God to be vindictive, waiting for people to commit a sin so that He could punish them. Far is it from God to be so. He is the God of mercy, compassion and forgiveness. He forgives sins, no matter how great, whenever a sinner turns to Him with sincere repentance and a resolve to abide by His rules and directives.
None of the offenses our reader has mentioned in his long letter ranks with “cardinal” sins. None carries a specified punishment. Yet he asks in many cases whether the offense he has mentioned is a kabeerah, i.e. cardinal sin, or an act of kufr or disbelief in Islam. We do not say that all of them are not serious. Indeed some of them are, such as backbiting and ridiculing and embarrassing a person in public only because he does something that Islam requires or recommends. Others, however, are subject to different opinions on whether they are forbidden or not. Yet here he is asking whether they could take him out of Islam altogether.
The point we would like to emphasize is that Islam is not a religion that has a harsh legal code it wants to implement by force or intimidation. It is a faith that is easy to apply, laying down principles that are not difficult to implement. It recognizes people’s weaknesses and tries to help them overcome such weaknesses by keeping the door open to admit them back into the fold, every time they stir outside.
Moreover, what takes a person out of the fold of Islam is a question of faith. Should a person deny one of the essentials of the Islamic faith, then such a denial makes him a non-Muslim. But if a Muslim commits a sin, even a cardinal one, he remains a Muslim, but he needs to seek God’s forgiveness. The Prophet was asked about some of the cardinal sins, such as theft and adultery, and whether they may be committed by a believer, and he confirmed that they may.
I will remind my reader of a Hadith in which the Prophet has illustrated this principle very clearly, citing the case of a criminal who killed 99 people. Then he thought that he would be standing in front of God with all those sins burdening him. He decided to repent and seek God’s forgiveness. Yet the task daunted him, because he was not sure whether God would accept his repentance and forgive him or not. When he inquired, he was directed to put this question to a priest of broad knowledge. When the priest opened the door, he put to him his question. The priest said: “With such a record, killing 99 people, I do not think that you could ever earn God’s forgiveness.” The man killed the priest.
On further inquiries, he was directed to another priest with high reputation. Again he went to him and asked whether he could repent after having killed 100 people. The priest said: “And what would stop you from repenting of your sinful past and earning God’s forgiveness! God’s door is always open. However, our land here is not conducive to encourage you. I suggest that you go to this city, (which he named), where the people are more God-fearing. There you will have all the support you need.” The man left the priest and proceeded to that city. He died on the way.
“Angels of mercy and angels of punishment arrived to gather his soul. They disputed where he should be taken. The angels of punishment said that the man never did a good deed in his life. The angels of mercy said that he was heading to the land of goodness with a heart full of sincere repentance. As they were disputing, God sent them an angel to arbitrate. When they put the matter to him, he said: Measure the distance to the two cities. If he is closer to the land of sin, then the angels of punishment should gather him, and if he is closer to the land of obedience, then the angels of mercy have a better claim to him. As they started to measure, God ordered the land of sin to draw more distant, and the land of obedience to draw closer. Thus he was gathered by the angels of mercy.”
This Hadith gives the perfect answer to our reader. May God guide him away from sin, and may He make it easy for him to repent whenever he deviates from the right course.