Q.1. If a person offers night worship very often but misses out on some nights due to oversleeping, when should he pray witr?
Q.2. If one is reading the Qur’an sitting on the floor, and someone close to him is sitting on a sofa, should the one reading the Qur’an move over to sit at a higher position?
Q.3. Should Zakah Al-Fitr be paid on behalf of a dead person in the first month of Ramadan after his death?
Q.4. What is the distance of travel that enables a Muslim to use the concession to shorten his prayers. Can one continue to do so if he is staying in a town for 10 days? Should he better pray the normal length.
N.R. Elkazi
A.1. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked Abu Bakr and Umar when they prayed witr. Abu Bakr told him that he prayed early in the night while Umar said he prayed late at night. The Prophet said that Abu Bakr resorted to the more cautious practice, while Umar’s way required firm resolve. There is no doubt that to be cautious is to ensure that the witr is prayed on time and not missed.
The other method required firmer resolve and a more determined approach. He did not say to either that the other method was better. This means that you can choose either method. If you regularly wake up for night worship, it is better to pray the witr after you have finished such voluntary night worship. When you feel extra tired at the time you go to bed and fear that you may not wake up for your night worship, then pray witr before you go to sleep. If you do not wake up on the odd night and you have not prayed witr, you can pray it when you offer your dawn or morning prayer, or you may leave it. If you pray witr before you go to bed, and then wake up before dawn for your night worship, there is nothing to stop you praying. You do not need to pray witr again at the end.
A.2. When you read the Qur’an, your position in relation to others does not matter, as long as there is no disrespect, apparent or implied. It happens in every home that someone sits on a sofa while another is sitting on the floor. No one feels that he is in a better position for being on the sofa. Why should such thoughts occur to you? Moreover, it is not where you are seated that matters; it is how you respect the Qur’an and think of its meanings and message.
A.3. No. When a person dies, he no longer has any worship duty to be performed. Zakah Al-Fitr is due on everyone who is alive during Ramadan. Zakah is not due on a person who dies before Ramadan. It should not be paid either from his estate or on his behalf by anyone of his relatives.
A.4. Some schools of thought speak of a distance like 85 kilometers as the shortest travel justifying the use of the concession to shorten 4-rak’ah prayers to make them 2-rak’ah only. However, a more valid point of view is that whatever commonly considered as travel makes this concession usable. Thus, if the common notion among people that when people go from Makkah to Jeddah, they are on travel, then going from one of these cities to the other justifies using the concession. It is the traditional, common view that counts, not distance in miles and kilometers.
Prophets Muhammad and Jesus
Q. Will not the second coming of Jesus affect our belief that Muhammad is the last of God’s prophets and messengers? The Qur’an says that Jesus gave his followers the news that a messenger would be following him at a later time, naming Prophet Muhammad. How come that the Prophet tells us that Jesus will come after him? What sort of physical and mental condition is Jesus in, now that he is more than 2000 years of age?
M. Aly
A. When Prophet Jesus gave the news that Prophet Muhammad would be sent with his message after him, he was speaking in terms of human life on earth. Thus, Prophet Muhammad was sent with God’s final message to mankind early in the seventh century, i.e. 610 years after Jesus. Jesus, however, was raised to heaven as God tells us in the Qur’an. His life there is unlike life on earth. When Prophet Muhammad told us that Jesus would be coming back, this speaks of a second coming to establish God’s message. Now all prophets and messengers taught the same message, based on God’s oneness.
This message was given its final and complete form with the advent of Muhammad (peace be upon him). When Jesus comes back, this is the message that he will advocate, i.e. the complete form of Islam. There is no contradiction here. As to how life in heaven affects Prophet Jesus, physically and mentally, we certainly do not know. What we know is that it is a different life from ours and that aging does not apply to it as it applies to life on earth.
