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Ask the Scholar (Fatwa Session)

Dr. Muhammad Salama
08 November, 2020

Dear Brothers/Sisters,

Thank you very much for joining us in this Fatwa session. We would like also to thank our guest, Dr. Muhammad Salama, for answering the questions directed to him. You will find the answers of your questions below.

Sunday, Nov. 08, 2020 | 10:00 - 12:00 GMT

Session is over.
DISCLAIMER
Views expressed by hosts/guests on this program (live dialogue, Facebook sessions, etc.) are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.  

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Q:

I am a Muslim woman who believes that if we die as a non Muslim we will never enter into Paradise. I know someone who is christian for whom I always pray to Allah swt that may Allah swt bless him as a Muslim as he can get a life of Muslim and can die as a Muslim. Is it permissible in Islam?

A:

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad. 

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It is permissible to pray for a non-Muslim to be guided to Islam. One of the Prophet’s Companions named al-Tufayl ibn Amr came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and said to him, “Daws (his tribe) have been given to disobedience and rejection [of Islam]. So, invoke Allah against them.” He said, “O Allah, guide Daws and bring them [to Islam].” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim) 

It is also reported that the Jews would sneeze in the presence of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) hoping that he would say “May Allah have mercy upon you”, but he would rather say “May Allah guide you and set your affairs aright.” (Al-Tirmidhi)

But is it not permissible to seek forgiveness for non-Muslims or invoke Allah’s Mercy upon them as indicated by the aforementioned hadith as well as by the Quranic verse that reads, “It is not for the Prophet and those who believe to seek forgiveness for the idolaters- even if they are [their] close relatives- after it has become clear to them that they are the Companions of Hellfire.” (At-tawbah 9:113)

Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

I am a revert Muslim and I had a sex change operation from male to female and now, as a female, I am very happy and at peace with my body. The reason I had sex reassignment surgery was because I was suffering from severe gender dysphoria (distress between what gender I have identified closer to as a child to adult and between what my body was developing as biologically) and several suicide attempts prior to SRS. 

As someone who went through this journey as a transsexual (a person that has surgery and identifies and transitions to the opposite sex), to transition from the wrong sex (male) to the correct sex (female) is the only solution to have medicine and surgeries to affirm one’s gender and correct their sex to the right sex rather than suffer in the wrong sexed body. Are sex reassignment surgeries allowed in Islam to alleviate severe gender dysphoria, as a final option, and prevention of suicide attempts and thoughts?

A:

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

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All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

Allah has created males and females, each for a specific role to play in the development of humankind. Although most of the Shariah rulings are shared by both men and women, still there are certain rules and rulings that are specifically related to men and others specifically related to women.

The identification of one’s sex is naturally determined on the basis of anatomical facts, not psychological tendencies. It is the genital system that distinguishes males from females. As long as one’s biological sex is clearly determined on this basis, it is utterly prohibited to change it. 

The Quran speaks about how Satan promised to mislead mankind and drive them to commit the abhorrent crime of changing the creation of Allah, for being not pleased with it, “They call upon nothing besides Him (Allah) but [false] female [deities]. And they call upon nothing but a rebellious Satan whom Allah has cursed, and who has [himself] said [to Allah]: I shall most surely take hold of an appointed portion of Your servants. And I shall, most surely, lead them astray. Moreover, I shall, most surely, fill them with fancies. Thus, I shall command them: And they shall slit the ears of cattle [in false ritual]. And I shall command them: And they shall [seek unnatural] change [to] the creation of Allah. But whoever takes Satan as a patron, apart from Allah, has most surely suffered a manifest loss.” (An-Nisaa 4:117-119) 

Therefore, Muslim scholars are in agreement that this is an enormous sin and that such apparently sex transformation has no consequences with regard to shari`ah rulings related to one’s assigned/biological sex. 

Gender identity disorders are defined as “disorders in which an individual exhibits marked and persistent identification with the opposite sex and persistent discomfort (dysphoria) with his or her own sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex.” 

This is obviously a psychological disorder that needs treatment so that the patient becomes content with his/her biological sex. Islamic psychology can provide successful treatment in this regard. Surgical intervention is allowable only in the case of a hermaphrodite who has both male and female sex organs to determine the proper sex identity based on medical and anatomical reports. 

Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

As-Salamu Alaykum,

I need to ask Islamic opinion for the girl and family on the situation stated below. Parents were planning to marry the girl and they engaged her with her cousin, the girl got married without the consent of parents and left home without letting anyone know, Parents brought her back the got her divorced. The girl was married latter to the cousin and had children. After many years now the girl want to leave her husband and and marry the first guy again, however her husband doesn’t want to give her divorce. What parents and family is expected to do in the light of Islam. 

A:

Wa alaykum assalam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.

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In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

This case is a real tragedy. The family mistreated the problem and made it worse. On the one hand, the girl’s first marriage was invalid since her wali (guardian, (father in this case),) was absent when the marriage contract was concluded and did not even approve it later on. 

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “A woman who marries without her wali’ s permission her marriage is invalid, her marriage is invalid, her marriage is invalid.” (Al-Tirmidhi)

On the other hand, parents may not force a girl to marry without her consent. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have said, “A previously married woman may not be married until she is consulted and a virgin woman may not be married until her permission is sought.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim) In fact, the validity of a marriage concluded without the woman’s consent is a controversial issue. 

The issue at hand is quite sensitive and needs to be handled wisely.  Either family manages to convince the wife to continue her marital life willingly or she has the right to end it. It is the family’s responsibility to bear the consequences of their wrong approach to the problem. Regarding the other man she wants to marry, if the family has no solid reasons to reject him, they should allow them to get married with their approval.

Finally, all parts are advised to fear Allah, be conscious of His watchfulness and seek His pleasure, not the fulfilment of their own desires. 

Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

I have started to think that I need my own money to be independent so I decided to find a way to make it. 

Is it Haram to get money by playing games?

Is it allowed to earn money by using apps that makes you do tasks like completing a survey, watching ads, or finding typos in text?

And is it inappropriate as a teen to be concerned about making money or getting rich? Is it not good to be preoccupied about making money and living the ^good life^?

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Thank you for your hard work!

A:

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

There is nothing wrong in thinking about earning money and having a good financial situation, even if you are still a teen. What really matters is how to earn the money through halal and permissible means and how to spend them without incurring the wrath of Allah.

With regard to earning from playing games, you did point out how you earn money this way. The details of the process are important and critical to form a sound judgment, for many of these games involve hidden types of gambling. Besides, the game itself has to be free from any prohibited content and to leave no negative effects on the players. 

As for using apps to do tasks for which you earn money, this is permissible with the following conditions:

  1. The tasks required have to be permissible from Shariah perspective. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “He who calls for guidance will get the same reward as the rewards of those who follow him without their rewards being diminished in the least. And he who calls for misguidance will be as sinful as those who follow him without their sins diminished in the least.” (Muslim)
  2. The payment you receive for a task has to be known to you before you do it. In other words, the reward given for a task has to be published and known beforehand.

Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

Aoa .I am having a  very  big problem. I study in co education school and there is a problem so I donknow what to do not want to shift from that school.I try to sit at a angle where I cannot see girls .The girls dont wear hijab or scarf.Whatever I try I cannot  lower my gaze .When I lower my gaze I cannot look at the board and important work is left out and my teachers say I dont focus. BUT when I dont lower  my gaze and see the board i tell to myself my intention is to study not looking at girls. THEN my mind says to me look how beautiful she is etc and i feel sinful. PLS suggest me a way to lower gaze and maintain study without getting sinful.

A:

Wa alaykum assalam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

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All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

May Allah protect you and help you overcome this test. You need to strengthen your relation with Allah and to develop and enhance your sense of God-fearing and your awareness of divine watchfulness. This is what will help you avoid gazing at women everywhere.

Practically, the best solution, if you can do it, is to find another single-sex school. If this solution is unavailable, then you may try some other techniques, such as sitting in the front row or where you cannot see the girls. Drive away Satan’s whispers regarding your female classmates by constant remembrance of Allah.

Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

If part of halal food becomes changed in colour,toxic & harmful to eat for microbes or other reasons, does it become impure & haram to hold these by hands before discarding? Is there scholarly consensus about this impurity? What is told in Quran & hadith about it? 

A:

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

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There is no correlation between harmfulness or toxicity of a substance and its najasah (ritual impurity). The circle of harmful substances is much wider than the circle of ritually impure ones. To judge a substance as najis (ritually impure) requires a Shariah textual evidence.  

Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

There are on many websites Ads Poping up which In many ads there are women’s Not covered if you see them Is it Haram and if you see those ads you have to click on them to open the website you wanted to open to thing to wanted to see

A:

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

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In principle, a Muslim has to lower his gaze and abstain from looking at women forbidden to them. Allah says what means, “Say [also] to the believing men, [O Prophet,] that they should lower their gaze [from women that are forbidden to them] and safeguard [the chastity of] their secret parts. That is most pure for them. Indeed, Allah is all-aware of all that they do.” (An-Nur 24:30)

Therefore, it is prohibited to intentionally visit such websites with the intention of viewing images of women. 

But if one browses a website for a permissible purpose and then a woman’s image pops up, he has to immediately lower his gaze and skip or close it without having a second look. One of the Prophet’s Companions, named Jarir ibn Abdullah, asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) about accidental glance at women and he said, “Turn away your eyes.” (Muslim)

In another hadith, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, to Ali, “Do not follow a look [at a woman] with a second one; for the first one is [pardonable] for you, whereas the second one is not.” (Abu Dawud)

Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

I want to know is that squirrel and chipmunk are halal to eat

A:

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

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There is a difference of opinion among scholars whether squirrels and chipmunk are halal to be eaten or not. Those who deem them haram to be eaten consider them analogous to rats, whereas those who deem them halal consider them analogous to jerboa. A number of eminent jurists give preference to the opinion that deems them halal. Still, to be on the safe side, one should abstain from eating them as long as there is another alternative.

Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

Assalamu Alaikum. I would like to ask you something that has been striking my curiosity lately. I’m intrigued on whether individuals who are born Christians are accountable for being Christians when in fact, it is the reality they are born to. Like, if they do actions that are prohibited in Islam but not so in Christianity, will it be weighed among their bad deeds on the Day of Judgement? Because, again, it is the faith that they were born into and I know plenty of Christians who are themselves religious and they pursue these things that, while prohibited in Islam, are not necessarily prohibited in Christianity.

A:

Wa alaykum assalam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

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All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

A Muslim has to cherish an unshakable belief that, “Indeed, Allah does not wrong people in anything. But rather, [it is] people [who] wrong themselves.” (Yunus 10:44) 

Allah has created humankind for a purpose explicitly stated in a Quranic verse that reads, “And I have not created [either] jinn or human beings [for any other end] but to worship Me [alone].” (Adh-Dhariyat 51:56)

The Quran in many verses asserts that this worldly life is but a test to distinguish those who follow the divine guidance from those who choose other paths. Allah has given man reason as well as other necessary faculties that enable him to look for the truth and follow the right path. 

We read in the Quran what means, “Indeed, it is We [alone] who have created man from a sperm-drop of mingled fluid to try him [in life]. Thus did We make him [a being endowed with] hearing and seeing. Indeed, it is We [alone] who have shown him the way to be either thankful or ungrateful.” (Al-Insan 76:2-3)

Prophets and messengers were sent to guide people and to leave no excuse for anyone to go astray. Allah says what means, “They were messengers- bearers of glad tidings and forewarners- so that after [the coming of] the messengers people would have no argument before Allah [to justify their misdeeds]. Indeed, ever is Allah overpowering, all-wise.” (An-Nisaa 4:165) 

Therefore, Allah will rebuke and scold those who have turned deaf ear to Allah’s messengers and the sings of truth, “O fellowship of jinn and humans! Did there not come to you messengers from among yourselves relating to you My [revealed] signs and forewarning you of the [inevitable] Meeting of this Day of yours? They will say: We do so bear witness against ourselves! For the life of the world [utterly] deluded [the disbelievers among] them. Thus they [who denied the messengers] shall bear witness against themselves that they were, indeed, disbelievers.” [6:130] 

Islam is the true religion of Allah with the essence of which He sent all prophets and messengers. To disbelieve in the true religion of Islam is enough for a non-Muslim to enter the Hellfire as long as he/she has come to know about it, no matter how much good deeds he/she might have done in this world. The Quran declares “And so, anyone [after this] who seeks [submission to Allah through] a religion other than Islam [as revealed to all the prophets]- never shall it be accepted from him! Moreover, in the Hereafter, he shall be among the losers” (Aal Imran 3:85) and says, “And We shall turn to the deeds they have done and turn them into scattered dust.” (Al-Furqan 25:23)

Non-Muslims receive the reward of their good deeds in this world, for Allah never wrongs anyone in the least. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “The unbeliever will be rewarded for his good deeds in this world insomuch that when he comes in the Hereafter he will have no good deed to be rewarded for.”  (Muslim)  The unbeliever’s evil deeds are additional reasons for more torment in the Hellfire.

Non-Muslims will not be held accountable for being born as non-Muslims, but for their refusal or indifference to follow the true religion of Islam after having come to know about it. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “By Him in whose Hand Muhammad’s soul is, anyone of these people, a Jew or a Christian, who hears of me and then dies without believing in my message, will be among those who will go to the Hellfire.” (Muslim)

Following the footsteps of the forefathers and adhering to their religions and traditions have always been the excuse of the unbelievers. The Quran says what means, “And so it is that We have never sent before you a forewarner to any community, without its affluent saying: Indeed, we found our forefathers adhering to a certain religion. And upon their traces, we shall follow. [Thus each messenger] said: [Will you continue thereupon] even if I bring you [to] a more guided way than the [path] to which you have found your forefathers [adhering? Always], they said: Indeed, we are disbelievers in all that you [claim to] have been sent with [from Allah].” (Az-Zukhruf 43-23-24) 

Only if a non-Muslim has never heard about the true religion (because he lived in an isolated island, for example,) or has happened to have a mental or physical defect (such as insanity or being deaf and blind) that has disallowed him/her from knowing the truth, this will be an excuse; since this person had no chance to know of the divine guidance. Such a person will be tested on the Day of Resurrection. 

According to a prophetic report, people with such excuses will be asked on the Day of Resurrection to give a pledge to obey Allah’s command. Then He will send a messenger to them commanding them to enter the Hellfire. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “By the One in Whose Hands Muhammad’ soul is, if they enter it, it will be cool and safe for them.”  (Ahmad)

It is a test for unquestionable obedience to Allah and thus those who will disobey will bear the consequences. 

 Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

I’ve been doing online surveys online and I’ve been making some little money. The surveys require specific people. So in order to increase my chances of getting a survey I make up some information for example I might say I’m 30 when I’m not. What is the ruling on this?.

A:

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

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The lawfulness of the money earned through such surveys depends on two factors:

  1. The product for which the survey is conducted has to be permissible, from a Shari` perspective. Money gained through services related to products or commodities prohibited by the Shariah is prohibited as well. A clear Quranic injunction dictates, “You shall help one another to virtuousness, and to the fear of God. But you shall not help one another to sin and to aggression.” (Al-Ma’idah 5:2)
  2. The information provided in the survey has to be true and correct. Money earned through cheating is prohibited also. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “He who cheats us is not one of us.” (Muslim)

Almighty Allah knows best.

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Q:

There are many fatwas that clearly tell us how some games can be Haram (Nudity, gambling,music etc) but when it comes to violence i.e killing a person on the other team to win, there is no clear fatwa on this, So my qustion is< is it haram to play games in which we have to kill the players of enemy team to win(please not that we do not kill people who are innocent but are armed to fight against us, Thank You.

A:

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving.

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon his Prophet Muhammad.

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Video games have undeniable psychological impacts on their players; particularly children, and often affect their behaviors. The impact could be positive or negative, based on the nature of each game as asserted by recent researches. 

Caution, thus, must be taken so that no negative impact should be incurred via these games and parents should have control over their children in this regard. 

From an Islamic perspective, playing such video games will be haram if they:

  • Involve gambling,
  • Contain immoralities such as nudity, sexuality, etc.,
  • lead to negligence of religious duties and obligations,
  • Promote violence, aggression, hatred, corruption, 
  • Inculcate non-Islamic beliefs, values and concepts,
  • Degrade or deride of Islamic teachings or beliefs,
  • Leave any negative psychological effect on the player,
  • Or cause addiction.

In the light of these precautions, you may judge any type of video game. So, if playing the game you are asking about involves any of these precautions, it will be haram; otherwise, it will be permissible.

Almighty Allah knows best.