Q.1. I have two brothers and three sisters. I, together with my unmarried sister, live with my parents in their home. Due to some dispute, my two brothers left the family home and are demanding their shares in it. How could the property be divided according to the law of inheritance?

Q.2. A friend of mine mentions a prophet called Jergeesh. When I told him that I have never heard of him, he said that he was the Prophet killed seven times while fighting for God’s cause. Please comment.

M. Siddique

A.1. If the house belongs to your father, or to both your parents, and they are alive, your brothers have no share in it. How could they? They may have a share if they had paid out some of its price, and their shares would be proportionate to the amount of money they paid in relation to the price of the house at the time. As I understand, this house belongs to your father and he is alive. They have no share in it. Only when your father dies, the law of inheritance applies. The shares are determined on the basis of the heirs who survive him.

A.2. I have never heard of a prophet with the name you have mentioned. As for a person being killed seven times, this is false. God has ordained that life on Earth is once only. No one is returned to this life for any reason. A Hadith mentions the great reward martyrs receive from God. It says that God asks martyrs what would they like more. They could not think of anything because all that they could desire was made available to them. When God insists that they should tell him what they wish, they say: "We would like to be returned to life and carry on with fighting for Your cause and be killed again." God says to them: "This is not possible, because I have decreed that no one is returned to life on Earth." This authentic Hadith is contrary to your friend’s story about this unknown prophet.

The answer to your third question is that the practice you mention is permissible between man and wife.

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.