Q. My mother has objected most strongly to my wearing a beard. She said that I must not do this while she is alive or at least until I get married. She has taken the issue so passionately that it has caused a real problem in our family. I feel that she is putting too much pressure on me when I am only trying to do what Islam requires.
S. Masood
A. Some scholars nowadays attach far more importance than necessary to wearing a beard, considering it an Islamic duty. They maintain that if one shaves, one incurs a sin. They are entitled to their view and we pray to God to reward them for it.
It is well known that a scholar who gives a wrong ruling will receive a single reward for having made the effort to arrive at a ruling, but the one giving the correct ruling receives a double reward.
I have mentioned on several occasions that the majority of scholars consider wearing a beard to be a Sunnah, which means that it is not obligatory.
One stands to earn reward from God for doing a Sunnah, but its omission does not incur a sin; nor does such omission make a person liable to punishment.
Your mother seems to have taken the issue too seriously. Maybe she is thinking of what is happening these days, when bearded young people are suspected of belonging to different groups, and she feels that you will be safer without a beard.
If so, she has a valid reason for her opposition. However, she seems to have carried her stand to an extreme.
While you are not obliged to comply with what your mother says on this issue, you have to consider your family situation. If wearing a beard is causing such a problem that you fear that your mother’s vehement opposition will adversely affect your father’s health, then you should comply with your mother’s wishes and you should not wear a beard. God will reward you, if He so pleases, for your intention to act on the Sunnah in the first place, and you stand to earn further reward for pleasing your mother and sparing your father probable ill effects.
Prayer as Qada
Q. What is the ruling about offering a prayer as qada, when one has missed it during its proper time? And if one joins a congregational prayer late, having missed one or two rak’ahs, and then offer them after the congregation has finished, how should he treat the ones he is offering at the end?
T. Baig, Riyadh
A. Some schools of Islamic law say that if you miss an obligatory prayer for any reason, you should offer it as soon as possible when you can do so.
This is what is called as qada, or compensatory prayer. However, the other view that is better supported by evidence is the one that says that prayers can only be offered in their time range.
The only exception is when a person is unconscious of a prayer, as in the case of forgetting it or sleeping through its time, or being actually unconscious, as when one is suffering from an illness. In these cases, one performs the prayer one had missed as soon as possible after one wakes up or when one has remembered the forgotten prayer. In this case, it is offered on time, not as compensatory. This is based on the Hadith that says: “Whoever sleeps through the time of a prayer or forgets it should offer it when he is conscious of it, for that is the time when it is due.”
If one joins a congregation late and completes it after the imam has finished may consider the rak’ahs he is completing to be either the first of his prayer or the last. Scholars have expressed both views.
However, I am more inclined to consider that the first part which one offers with the imam to be his first, even though the rak’ah may be the third or the fourth for the imam. Suppose he offered two rak’ahs with the imam, then the ones he completes are his third and fourth. This is the view I find weightier, but the other view has its validity.
