Q.1. A person is working in an entertainment company which provides all types of channels. He wants to leave his job as he considers it unacceptable from the Islamic point of view, but the company would not release him to a different employer. He is the only wage earner in his family, and if he leaves, both his parents and his own family would suffer. What is he to do?

Q.2. After the death of a relative, people organize some functions after 3 days and after 40 days, inviting relatives, neighbors and friends, and distributing food. Is this according to Sunnah or not?

A. Hussain

A.1. As this person is the only wage earner in his family, he must not leave his job until he has secured an alternative. However, he must try his best to secure a different job which gives him satisfaction and a reasonable salary. He may try to speak to his employer and explain why he wants to leave, or he may get a prospective employer to take up his case with his present employer.

If all routes are closed and he must remain with this company, then he should try to move to a job that does not involve anything forbidden. He should continue to try to move into something better and more acceptable from the Islamic point of view, praying to God to help him to find a more suitable job.

A.2. All these customs and traditions are cultural, not Islamic. This is why you do not find them practiced in the same way in all Muslim countries. In Islam, death is considered a beginning of a new phase, not the end of all life.

Therefore, our attitude should be one of total acceptance, as this is part of God’s will. We pray for the deceased, but the customs done by people on particular days and anniversaries are un-Islamic. A deceased person is no less in need of our prayers on the fourth, 12th or 50th day of his death than the third, 10th or 40th day. Nor do anniversaries signify anything from the Islamic point of view.

A question of inheritance

Q. A man died leaving behind his wife, one daughter, one brother and two sisters. How is his property divided among his heirs.

Noor Muhammad, Jubail

A. The deceased’s property is divided after the payment of his funeral expenses, settling any outstanding debts and paying any bequests he made by will. A Muslim is allowed to leave by will a maximum amount not exceeding one-third of his property. Such bequests may not be made in favor of any of his heirs.

In this case, the man’s wife takes one-eighth of his property, and his daughter takes one half.

Both these shares are taken from the total property available to the man’s heirs after the payment of the above three commitments.

What remains after the payment of these shares apportioned by God should go to the deceased’s brother and two sisters. It is divided in four shares, one to each of his two sisters and two shares to his brother.

I have already answered your other question in detail. If you have not seen it, please write again.

However, I may tell you in brief that the use of credit cards is permissible if you do not leave yourself open to the payment of interest.