Q. A Canadian company gave its 30 Muslim workers space for prayers. Some of them claim that it is not permissible to organize Friday prayer in this space, because there is a mosque at about 10 minutes walk, and the workers in this company could use their lunch break to attend the prayer in the mosque. Please comment.
Masuma
A. Different schools of Fiqh specify certain conditions for the validity of Friday prayers. These normally relate to the number of people in attendance and the place where the prayer is offered, and the sort of sermon, or khutbah, given. A highly reputable scholar analyzed these conditions and concluded that none of them carries much weight. Indeed there is no specific Hadith that requires the Friday prayer to be conducted in a place designated as a mosque. Like all prayers, it can be performed in any place. It does not have to be in a mosque.In the situation you have mentioned, it is the convenience that should be the determining factor.
These employees can go to the mosque to attend the prayer during their lunch hour, but they will be without lunch, which could be a strain affecting their performance at work. It is certainly more convenient for them and their employers that they should organize their Friday prayer at their workplace. They can have a quick lunch before or after the prayer. This is a much better arrangement all round. There is nothing in Islam that prevents them from doing so. Their number is more than sufficient for Friday prayers. They should go ahead and organize it.
Who Gets the Dowry
Q. I am about to be married, but when my prospective wife’s parents spoke to me about her dowry, I felt that they want to take the dowry for themselves.
Is this correct? I thought that the dowry goes to the wife, not to her parents. Please advise, as I am a new Muslim.
Abd Al-Rahman
A. You are right. The dowry, or mahr, belongs to the wife, and she is its sole owner. No one else can claim any share in it. It is her right as part of her becoming lawful to her husband. She can do with it whatever she wants, including spending, investing it, or indeed giving any part of it as a gift to anyone she chooses, or keeping it for herself. She may, if she decides without any pressure from anyone, forgo part or all of it, making that portion of it a gift to her husband. But this must be her free choice, with no pressure brought to bear on her to do so.
If your prospective wife has agreed with her parents to gift them her dowry, she is free to do so. It could be that they are poor and in need of help, and she wants to help them. In this case, she is acting out of dutifulness. On the opposite extreme, they may be greedy and they want to deprive her of it. In this case, they need to be told that they have no right to it. In between these two opposite ends, there are many possibilities.
What you should do is to speak to your prospective wife and ascertain what she wants to do. If she is forced to relinquish her dowry without any real need on the part of her parents, then you should try to help her retain it. On the other hand, if she is being dutiful, she will earn rich reward from God for being kind to her parents.
How to Choose a Wife
Q. When looking for a wife, is it true that one should first consider relatives, then neighbors, then friends, then the local area? It is only when all such endeavors bring no result that one can broaden one’s search and look elsewhere. If this is true, could you please let me have the supporting evidence for it, either in the Qur’an or in the Hadith?
S. Sallu
A. This may be a social tradition in some communities, but it is certainly not Islamic. Indeed the reverse is true. The Prophet spoke about the advisability of marrying from different tribes and peoples. A certain Hadith mentions that it is preferable to get married to someone from a different tribe, and when one’s son is getting married, it is preferable to seek a wife from a third tribe. With every marriage in the family, an attempt is encouraged to broaden the scope and seek a new tribe. Needless to say, this is far more advantageous, as it brings tribes and peoples closer together and strengthens ties and bonds between people. It also ensures that hereditary diseases have little chance of being transmitted to one’s own children. There is no virtue in marrying one’s cousin, but it is perfectly permissible to do so.
Abortion in Early Pregnancy
Q. On the basis of past experience, a woman knows that she goes through very hard times during pregnancy. Now she is in her early days of pregnancy and is very much worried about the outcome. She has been told that abortion is permissible during the first 40 days, as it is at that time that the spirit is breathed into the fetus. Is this correct?
F. Faisal
A. The breathing of the spirit takes place after 120 days according to the best interpretation of the Hadith. But we cannot make this Hadith the basis of a ruling concerning abortion. We do not know the nature of the spirit, how it is breathed into a fetus, and what effect it has on it. God states in the Qur’an: “They ask you about the spirit. Say: ‘Knowledge of the spirit belongs to my Lord. You have been given but scanty knowledge.’” (17: 85)
Scholars in the past differed a great deal about the question of abortion in the early period of pregnancy. However, with our more advanced knowledge of the nature of the fetus and its growth, we realize that a potential life is in existence from the very first moment of conception. Therefore, scholars who look into such matters carefully have ruled that abortion is forbidden right from the first day of conception, except for medical reasons. When the pregnancy constitutes a risk of death for the mother, abortion is permissible at any time. In other situations, we need to look at every case on its own merits. The couple should consult a properly skilled doctor and present his opinion regarding the pregnancy to a trustworthy scholar of broad knowledge. This is the only way to determine such a case.
