Q. My mother suffers from an illness that makes it painful for her to bend her knees. Can she use a chair and a table when she prays instead of bending to prostrate herself?
A. Sajid
A. Indeed, she may use whatever tool and position that enable her to pray in comfort. What is important is not to neglect or abandon prayer. That is not permissible for anyone who is conscious and aware of what he or she says. But when a person is in pain taking a particular position, that position is dispensed with. Thus, if one cannot stand up, one prays seated, or lying down, as may be one’s most comfortable position. A person who cannot bend his knees to do the prostration, may signal that with bending only his head for either rukoo’ or sujood or both.
The important thing to realize is that such a person does whatever he or she can do comfortably and signals what they cannot do with whatever movement of body or head they may be able to do comfortably. Suppose a person is too ill to move any part of his body, he prays lying down, signaling his movements with his eyes only, if that is all that he can move without pain.
Prayer and Postnatal Discharge
Q. When does a woman who has given birth to a child resume her prayers? I read that the maximum period of postnatal discharge is 40 days, but I also read in a different book that it is 60 days. Please explain.
A. Hussein • Sydney
A. A woman is exempt from prayer and fasting during the period when she has postnatal discharge, following the birth of her baby. However, she needs to compensate for fasting, but not for prayer. There is no minimum limit to the postnatal period. It ends when the discharge is ended. If it stops after a couple of days, then the woman concerned should offer her prayers normally. As for its maximum limit, it is 40 days. This is based on a Hadith reported by Umm Salamah, the Prophet’s wife, who is quoted as saying: “During the Prophet’s lifetime, a new mother observed a period of 40 days.” (Related by Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawood and Ibn Majah).
Al-Tirmidhi comments by saying: “All scholars among the Prophet’s companions, the tabieen and in following generations agree that a newly delivered mother stops praying for 40 days, unless she stops bleeding before then. In this case, she takes a bath and resumes her prayer. If she continues to discharge blood after 40 days, most scholars say that she prays nevertheless.”
Some scholars say that the maximum period is 60 days, arguing that the maximum menstrual period is 15 days, and since postnatal discharge is normally equivalent to four menstruations, then the maximum for a new mother is 60 days. This, however, does not fit with the Hadith quoted above, which is highly authentic.
A Dubious Situation
Q. After performing the pilgrimage, a person stayed several days in Makkah. One day he was in the Haram when he fell asleep close to the outside gates. He woke up after nightfall, and he went straight to his accommodation. He was very depressed that this should have happened in the Haram. He wonders how should he compensate for his sin? Could you please explain and also tell us if the same compensation applies, should the same thing happen in Madinah.
S. Kamran
A. I am not clear what the reader is talking about. Does he consider the mere fact that a person was overtaken by sleep in the Haram to be a sin? If so, then he is grossly mistaken. People do fall asleep in the Haram because they are tired or have not slept well the previous night. It is true that people should not use a mosque, let alone the Haram in Makkah, for sleeping, but if they sleep or have a nap there, no sin is incurred.
Or perhaps the reader means that this person had a wet dream when he was asleep. This may be what he means by his usage of the phrase “night fall” in his description. Anyway, if this is what he means, then again there is no sin involved. Sleeping people are unconscious and cannot be responsible for what happens to them during their sleep. Besides a wet dream is a physiological function over which a man has no control. God holds us to account only for actions that we do consciously and deliberately. A wet dream does not fall into this category.
All that this person had to do was to go to his lodgings, have a shower and offer his prayers normally. He should not be in distress over something in which he had no say.
Balancing Different Considerations
Q.1. I frequently visit a country where people with a beard, particularly Muslim foreigners, are suspected of involvement in terrorist activities, and are often subjected to harassment and what may be even worse. Is it permissible not to wear a beard in this case? What if wearing a beard causes difficulties at work?
Q.2. Is it permissible to make friendship on the Internet with members of the opposite sex, where people may chat and exchange letters and general conversation?
(Name and address withheld)
A.1. Wearing a beard is said by some scholars to be obligatory to Muslim men, but other scholars maintain that it is a Sunnah. This latter view is perhaps more weighty. If we accept the view that it is a Sunnah, then there is no obligation on a Muslim man to wear a beard and one can choose according to one’s circumstances. Even if we consider it obligatory, the obligation is waived if compliance exposes a person to serious danger. One must balance all considerations. There is certainly no virtue in unnecessarily exposing oneself to serious danger, as a result of maintaining what is essentially a Sunnah. If the case is true, it is permissible to try to avoid that danger by pretending that one does not belong to what exposes him to that danger.
A.2. Normally talking to members of the opposite sex is permissible, but what is said could change this verdict to make it reprehensible or even forbidden, as the case may be.
The Prophet and his companions talked to women who were not related to them. Muslims used to go to the Prophet’s wives and ask them about matters relating to the Prophet’s life or to aspects of religion.
Talking without seeing the other person, as happens on the net, is also perfectly permissible. However, forming such a friendship often leads to familiarity which could progress to intimacy. When this happens, the conversation changes in character and may develop into what may be forbidden. One has to watch what one says and always maintain the Islamic standards of propriety.
Arab News Islam 1 August 2003
