4 – GHUSL

An acceptable namāz requires an acceptable ablution and an acceptable ghusl. Ibni ’Ābidīn wrote in his explanation of Durr-ul-mukhtār: “It is fard for every woman or man who is junub and for every

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woman after haid (menstruation) and nifās (puerperium) to perform a ghusl ablution when there is enough time to perform the time’s namāz before that prayer’s time expires.”

There are uncountable blessings for those who do the fard. And those who do not perform the fard are very sinful. Rasūlullah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) states in a hadīth-i sherīf written in the book Ghunyat-ut-tālibīn: “A person who gets up in order to perform a ghusl ablution will be given as many blessings as the hairs on his body [which means very many], and that many of his sins will be forgiven. His grade in Paradise will be increased. The blessings which he will be given on account of his ghusl are more useful than anything in the world. Allahu ta’ālā will declare to the angels: ‘Look at this slave of Mine! Without showing any reluctance, he thinks of My command and gets up at night and performs a ghusl from janābat. Bear witness that I have forgiven the sins of this slave of Mine.’ ”

A hadīth-i sherīf written on the ninety-first page of the Turkish book entitled Hujjat-ul-islām declares: “When you become impure, hasten to perform a ghusl ablution! For, the angels of kirāman kātibīn get offended with the person who goes about while junub.” It is written on the same page: “Hadrat Imām-i Ghazālī said he had dreamt of a person saying, ‘I remained junub for a while. As a result, they have put a shirt of fire on me. And I am still on fire.’ ” A hadīth-i sherīf existing in the books Zawājir and Risāla-i unsiyya declares; “Angels of (Allah’s) compassion do not enter a house wherein there is a picture, a dog, or a junub person. It is written in Zawājir that if a person, whether he performs namāz or not, spends a prayer’s time junub, he will be tormented bitterly. For example, a person who becomes junub after the adhān of early afternoon (Zuhr) has to perform a ghusl before late afternoon (’Asr) prayer if he has not performed his early afternoon prayer, and before evening (Maghrib) prayer if he has performed his early afternoon prayer. If he cannot take a bath himself with water he must make a tayammum.

According to the Hanafī Madhhab there are three fards in a ghushl:

1 - To wash the entire mouth very well. Drinking a mouthful of water will do, yet some (savants) said that it would be makrūh.

2 - To wash the nostrils. A ghusl will not be accepted if one does not wash under any dried mucus in the nostrils or under any chewed pieces of bread in the mouth. According to the Hanbalī

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Madhhab madmada and istinshaq are fard both in ablution and in ghusl. (See the previously explained eighteen sunnats of ablution).

3 - To wash every part of the body. It is fard to wash every spot on the body if there is no haraj (difficulty) in wetting it. It is not necessary but mustahab to rub the parts gently. Imām-i Mālik and Imām-i Abū Yūsuf said that it is necessary. It is fard to wash inside the navel, the moustache, the eyebrows and the beard as well as the skin under them, the hair on the head and on the genital area. It is not fard, but mustahab to wash the eyes, the closed ear ring holes and under the foreskin. When a woman washes the skin under her plaited hair it is not necessary to wash the plait. If the skin under the hair cannot be washed it becomes necessary to undo the plait. It is fard to wash all parts of the hair that is not plaited. If a person gets a haircut, it is not necessary to wash the hair cut [or other hairs or nails cut]. It is written on the two hundred and seventy-fifth page of the fifth volume of Ibni ’Ābidīn (rahmatullāhi alaih): “It is makrūh to shave the groin when one is junub.” [Hence it is makrūh also to get a haircut or to cut one’s nails when one is junub.] It is not fard to wash under the dirt caused by fleas and flies, under henna, under the skin’s natural dirt or under any fluid oil or mud. It is necessary to wash under the waterproof things stuck to the skin such as dough, wax, gum, solid oil, fish scale, a chewed piece of bread [and fingernail polish]. If water does not soak through the food remains in the teeth or cavities, or if the parts under them are not washed, a ghusl will not be acceptable. If a ring is tight it is necessary to take it off or to shift it. So is the case with earrings. If there are no rings in the ring holes, and if the holes are open, when washing the ears, it will be enough to moisten the holes. If they do not get wet you must wet them with your fingers. In doing all these it will be enough to believe strongly that they have become wet. If a person forgets to wash his mouth or some other part and performs namāz and then remembers that he has not washed it, he washes the part and performs the fard namāz again. If there are no secluded places he does not open his private parts near others. He waits until the others leave the place. If the time of namāz becomes short he does not make tahārat (clean himself) near others, and he does not wash his pants, either. He performs the namāz with najāsat on his person. For it is more blessed

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to abstain from the harām than doing the fard. Later on when he finds a secluded place he makes tahārat, washes his pants and performs the namāz again.

An ablution and a ghusl do not have wājibs. The sunnats of a ghusl are like the sunnats of an ablution. Only, in a ghusl it is not sunnat to wash in the same sequence as done in an ablution. Their mustahabs are the same, too, with the mere difference that in a ghusl one does not turn towards the qibla or recite any prayers. If a person who has gotten soaked in a pool, a river or sea or drenched by rain washes his mouth and nose too, he will have performed an ablution and a ghusl.

To perform a ghusl as prescribed in the sunnat, we must first wash both of our hands and private parts even if they may be clean. Then, if there is any najāsat on our body, we must wash it away. Then we must perform a complete ablution. While washing our face we must intend to perform a ghusl. If water will not accumulate under our feet, we must wash our feet, too. Then we must pour water on our entire body three times. To do this, we must pour it on our head three times first, then on our right shoulder three times and then on the left shoulder three times. Each time the part on which we pour water must become completely wet. We must also rub it gently during the first pouring. In a ghusl, it is permissible to pour the water on one limb so as to make it flow onto another limb, which, in this case, will be cleaned, too. For in a ghusl the whole body is counted as one limb. If in performing an ablution the water poured on one limb moistens another limb, the second limb will not be considered to have been washed. When a ghusl is completed it is makrūh to perform an ablution again. But it will become necessary to perform an ablution again if it is broken while making a ghusl. Those who imitate the Shāfi’ī and Mālikī Madhhabs should remember this point. It is permissible to perform it at some other place even if it has not been broken or to perform it again after performing namāz.

In an ablution and a ghusl it is extravagant, which is harām, to use more than the necessary amount of water. With eight ritl of water [which is equal to one thousand and forty dirham-i shar’ī or three and a half kilograms], one can make a ghusl as required by the sunnat. Rasūlullah (sallallāhu alaihi wa sallam) would perform an ablution with one moud [two ritl or 875 gr.] of water, and he would make a ghusl with water the volume of one Sā’, [One Sā’ is 4200 grams of water. According to an experiment

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conducted with lentils by this faqīr, one Sā’ is 4,2 litres, that is, four litres plus one-fifth a litre].

[In the Hanafī Madhhab, if the area between the teeth and the tooth cavities do not get wet a ghusl will not be acceptable. Therefore, when one has one’s teeth crowned or filled without darūrat (necessity) one’s ghusl will not be sahīh (acceptable). One will not get out of the state of janābat. Yes, it is permissible according to Imām-ż Muhammad to fasten one’s loose teeth with gold wires or to put gold teeth in place of one’s extracted teeth. Yet Imām-i a’zam inferred the ijtihād that gold was not permissible. Imām-i Abū Yūsuf, according to some reports, said as Imām-i Muhammad said. It is said (by savants) that the permission given to Arfaja bin Sa’d, one of the Sahāba, so that he could use a gold nose, is, according to Imām-i a’zam, peculiar to Arfaja only. As a matter of fact, Zubayr and Abdurrahmān ‘radīallahu ta’ālā anhumā’ were permitted to wear silk dresses, and this permission is said (by savants) to have been peculiar only to them. But the fatwā is based upon the word of Imām-i Muhammad, which gives permission to wear gold teeth, ears or nose that can be taken out when performing a ghusl. This difference between our imāms is on whether or not artificial teeth and the wires fastened to the loose teeth may be of gold, and it is in cases when they can be removed so as not to prevent the performance of a ghusl. But in a ghusl all of our imāms say that the teeth must be wetted. In other words, when water does not go under the artificial teeth, which may be made of gold, silver, or any other substance that is not najs, a ghusl ablution will not be acceptable according to all the savants of Hanafī Madhhab.

It is written in Halabī-i kebīr: “If food remains are left between the teeth and one cannot wash under them a ghusl will be acceptable. For water is fluid and can infiltrate under the remains. But if the remains have been chewn and become solid, a ghusl will not be acceptable. This is the truth of the matter. For water cannot infiltrate under them. There is no darūrat or haraj[1] in this.” Qādihān writes referring to Nātifī: “If there are food remains between the teeth a ghusl will not be valid. It is necessary to pick them out and to wash the places under them.”

It is written in Al-majmū’at-uz-zuhdiyya: “Whether little or much, if the food remains between the teeth become solid like

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[1] For definition see the following pages.

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dough and thereby prevent water from filtering through, a ghusl will be unacceptable.”

It is written in Durr-ul-mukhtār: “There are those (scholars) who have given the fatwā that anything between the teeth or in any tooth cavity would not harm a ghusl ablution, but if the stuff is solid and does not let water through, a ghusl ablution will not be acceptable. This is the best truth of the matter.” In explaining this Ibni ’Ābidīn (rahmatullahi ’alaih) wrote: “The reason why the fatwā was given that it would do no harm was because water would infiltrate under it and wet the part beneath it.” The book Khulāsat-ul-fatāwā writes the same. As it is understood from the fatwā, if water does not go under it, a ghusl will not be accepted. The same is written in the book Hilya. The same is also written in the book of annotation Minyat-ul-musallī, which adds: “If water does not reach the tooth, and there is no darūrat or haraj in this.”

Tahtāwī, explaining Marāqil-falāh, wrote: “If water goes under the food remains between the teeth and in the tooth cavities a ghusl will be accepted. If they are too solid to let water through, a ghusl will not be accepted. The same is written in Fath-ul-qadīr.

Allāma Sayyid Ahmad Tahtāwī wrote in his explanation of Durr-ul-mukhtār: “Because water will infiltrate under the food remains between the teeth and in tooth cavities, they do not prevent the performance of a ghusl. If you doubt whether water infiltrates under them you must take them out, wash in between the teeth and the cavities.”

In worshipping and in abstaining from harāms, every Muslim should follow the words of the scholars of his Madhhab, such as, “This is the fatwā”, “This is the best,” “This is the truest word.” If something he has done of his own accord hinders him from following it and if there is haraj, difficulty, in eliminating that hindrance, he must follow another word which is declared to be right in his own Madhhab. For example, it is harām to put the date of payment on the promissory-note of a person to whom you lend money; it is interest. But by transferring it to someone else it will be permissible for either of them to pay it on a certain date. If you cannot do so either, supposing you are in the Hanafī Madhhab, you act following those daīf words of the scholars of the Hanafī Madhhab which have not been chosen as a fatwā. (See Endless Bliss II.) If you still cannot find a way out, you will have to act by

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imitating, i.e., following one of the other three Madhhabs. Hanafī scholars report that it is wājib for you to imitate another Madhhab. For example, Ibni ’Ābidīn, while explaining ta’zīr on page 190, vol. III wrote: “Great ’ālīm Ibni Āmīr Hāj says in the book Sharh-i Tahrīr: ‘It is necessary to act upon the word of the mujtahid and to imitate that mujtahid when the necessity arises and this is informed through a Shar’ī dalīl (proof). The Shar’ī dalīl is the āyat-i kerīma “Ask those who know.” When you meet with a certain new situation, you inquire into ways of dealing with this situation. If you know that a mujtahid has prescribed how to deal with this situation, it becomes wājib for you to accept that mujtahid’s prescription.” Hence, it is wājib to imitate another Madhhab (in that case). If it is impossible to follow another Madhhab, you should see if there is darūrat to do the thing which causes the haraj.

A - If there is darūrat to do something that causes haraj, it will be permissible for you not to do that fard at all, or to commit a harām as far as the darūrat forces you to. The same is valid if the haraj is still present when the darūrat is over.

B - If the thing causing haraj has been done without darūrat or if there are a few alternatives that can be done with darūrat and you choose the one in which there is haraj, you are not permitted to omit the fard. Following this rule, scholars of fiqh have solved many problems. For example:

1 - Imām-i Muhammad said, “When a loose tooth is tied with a silver wire, the silver will cause a noxious scent, but a gold wire will not cause it. Because there is darūrat, it is not harām to tie it with gold.” And Imām-i a’zam said, “A silver wire will not cause a noxious scent either, so there is no darūrat; consequently, it is harām to tie it with a gold wire.” Therefore, Imām-i Muhammad’s (rahmatullahi ta’ālā alaih) solution is to be acted upon. There is no need to follow another Madhhab.

2 - If a man finds out (later) that his wife is his foster-sister by way of one or both having been suckled only once by the same mother, their nikāh will become void according to Hanafī Madhhab. They will either get diovorced or follow the Shafi’ī Madhhab. If their walīs (guardians, protectors, parents) were not present during their nikāh, they have to renew their nikāh as prescribed by the Shafi’ī Madhhab. If suckling from the same mother took place five times and both children were fully satiated, it will not be possible to follow Shāfi’ī and divorce will become a must.

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3 - A person who is not able to arrive at his destination for evening prayer gets off the bus and performs it in its prescribed time. Afterwards he gets on another bus going in the same direction. Or else it is permissible for him to follow the Shāfi’ī Madhhab and perform it after its time, that is, together with the night prayer. If he is not able to reach his destination in order to perform the late afternoon prayer in its time, he will have to get off and perform it outside the bus. For, the late afternoon prayer cannot be performed together with evening prayer in the Shāfi’ī Madhhab, either.

4 - If the zawja (wife) of a person who is poor and not able to provide nafaqa (sustenance) applies to the court and wants to be divorced, a Hanafī qādī (judge) may not perform it. But a Shāfi’ī qādī may do it. The wife in the Hanafī Madhhab must apply to a Shāfi’ī qādī. That judge will divorce her. The hukm (judgement) of this judge will be nāfiz (carried out). See the chapter on nafaqa in fiqh books!

A samāvī (involuntary) reason that forces one to do something, that is, a reason which happens beyond one’s will, is called a darūrat. Examples of darūrat are a commandment or prohibition of the Shārī’at, an incurable vehement pain, danger of losing one’s limb or life, and compulsory choice without an alternative. When it is difficult to prevent something from hindering the doing of a fard or from causing a harām to be committed, the case is called haraj.

As it has been mentioned above, according to the unanimity of the scholars of the Hanafī Madhhab (rahmatullāhi alaihim ajma’īn) the ghusl of a person who has his teeth filled or capped for some reason will not be sahīh (accepted). Scholars of the Hanafī Madhhab do not have another statement (on this subject) that a person could follow in order to make his ghusl sahīh. Some people say that it is permissible for him to perform a ghusl before having his tooth crowned or filled and then make masah on the crowning or the filling every time, but they are wrong. For, masah on mests is peculiar to the feet and is done not in a ghusl but in an ablution. Nor would it be right to liken the crowning or the filling to a bandage on a wound, which will be elaborated on several pages ahead.

When there is haraj in performing an ’ibādat because of something which is done without darūrat, one has to imitate

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another Madhhab only in doing the fard concerned; this fact is written in many books, e.g. on the fifty-first and the two hundred and fifty-sixth pages of the first volume and the five hundred and forty-second page of the second volume and on the one hundred ninetieth page of the third volume of Ibni ’Ābidīn, and on the eighteenth page of Mīzan, as well as on the final pages of the books Hadīqa and Berīqa and in Fatāwā-i hadīthiyya and on the final pages of the section “adab-ul-Qādī” of Fatāwā-i Hayriyya, in the 22nd letter of the third volume of Maktūbāt of Imām-i Rabbānī[1]. It is also written in Ma’fuwwāt and in its explanation by Mollā Khalīl Si’ridīs (rahmatullāhi ta’ālā alaih), a Shāfi’ī ’ālim, and in its annotation. If the person who intends to imitate (another Madhhab) performed the present time’s namāz before intending to imitate, the namāz will be sahīh (valid). But he will have to perform again his previous prayers of namāz which he performed before that. Tahtāwī writes as follows on the ninety-sixth page of his explanation of Marāqil-falāh and also in its Turkish version Ni’mat-i Islām: “There is no harm in a Hanafī’s imitating the Shāfi’ī Madhhab for doing something which he cannot do in his own Madhhab. The same is written in the books Bahrurrāiq and Nahrulfāiq. But to do this he has to fulfill the conditions of the Shāfi’ī Madhhab, too. If he imitates without haraj and does not observe the conditions he will be called a Mulaffiq, that is, one who looks for and gathers facilities. This is not permissible. A travelling person’s performing late afternoon (’Asr) prayer with the early afternoon (Zuhr) prayer and night (Ishā) prayer together with evening (Maghrib) prayer by imitating the Shāfi’ī Madhhab requires that he will recite the Fātiha (sūra) when he performs these behind an imām (in jamā’at), and that he will perform an ablution again if his palm touches his own Saw’atayn, that is, his two most private parts, or if his skin touches a woman’s skin, except the eighteen women who are eternally harām (illegal) for him to marry. And he must intend for an ablution and avoid even a little najāsat.” It is also permissible for him to imitate the Mālikī Madhhab.

For imitating the Mālikī or Shāfi’ī Madhhab, it is enough to remember that you are following the Mālikī or Shāfi’ī Madhhab when performing a ghusl or an ablution and when intending to perform the namāz. In other words, the ghusl of such a person will be acceptable if, at the beginning, he passes this thought through his

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[1] See the 34th chapter of Endless Bliss I.

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heart: “I intend to perform ghusl and to follow the Mālikī (or the Shāfi’ī) Madhhab.” When a person in the Hanafī Madhhab who has a crowned or filled tooth intends in this manner his ghusl will be sahīh. He will extricate themselves from the state of being junub and become pure. When this person needs to perform namāz or to hold the Qur’ān he has to have an ablution as required by the Mālikī or the Shāfi’ī Madhhab, too. For those who imitate the Shāfi’ī Madh-hab, when the skins of those for whom being married is permissible touch one another, even if he or she is very old, or a child who has grown up but has not arrived at the age of puberty, they both must perform an ablution for namāz. Also, when a person (imitating the Sāfi’ī Madh-hab) touches with his or her palm one of the two organs used for relieving nature on his or her or someone else’s body, he or she has to make an ablution for namāz. He must recite the Fātiha at every rak’at while performing namāz in jamā’at. He must scrupulously avoid najāsat. When he is late for the jamā’at (for the first rak’at of the namāz, for instance), he bows for rukū’ together with the imām and does not recite a part or the whole of the Fātiha. Imitating Shafi’ī or Mālikī Madhhab is not taqwā, but it is fatwā, rukhsat (permission). Taqwā is to replace the crowned and filled teeth with false teeth.

To attain the compassion expressed in the hadīth-i sherīf, “Differences among the mujtahids of my Ummat are Allah’s compassion,” which signifies the four Madhhabs, those Hanafīs who have filled or crowned teeth can extricate themselves from the state of being junub by following the Mālikī or Shāfi’ī Madhhab. For, it is not fard in the Madhhabs of Shāfi’ī and Mālikī to wash inside the mouth or the nostrils while performing a ghusl. But it is fard to intend to perform a ghusl. For a person imitating another Madhhab (on account of a haraj that makes it impossible for him to follow his own Madhhab in a particular matter), if a second haraj arises preventing his performance from being sahīh according to the Madhhab he has been imitating but not according to his own Madhhab or according to a third Madhhab, he goes on doing this matter in accordance with all the three Madhhabs. The kind of talfīq (unification) which scholars such as Izz-ad-dīn bin Abd-is-salām Shāfi’ī and Imām-i-Subkī and Ibni Humām and Qāsim say is permissible is this kind of imitation

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done because of two different excuses. In case it is impossible to imitate the third Madhhab, his excuse in his own Madhhab becomes darūrat and his worship becomes sahīh (acceptable). If the second excuse is not a continuous one, the worship he performs during the suspension of this excuse becomes sahīh according to this (second) Madhhab. As it is seen, when a person imitates a third Madhhab because of an excuse making it impossible to follow the second Madhhab, this does not mean talfīq (unification of Madhhabs).

Since the ghusl of a person who is in the Hanafī Madhhab will not be sahīh (valid) as long as his teeth are crowned or filled, his prayers of namāz will not be sahīh, either. He has to perform his prayers again which he had performed until he began to imitate the Shāfi’ī or Mālikī Madhhab. Later on we shall explain how to perform the omitted fard prayers instead of the sunnat of each prayer. (See chapter 23).

Some people have been asking if there are any āyats or hadīths on the washing of the teeth. It should be known quite well that the Adilla-i shar’iyya are four. It is a lā-madhhabī’s attitude to consider only the two. Today there seems to be no qualified scholars on the earth who can derive meanings from āyats and hadīths. Having chosen one of the great scholars who understood the meanings of āyats and hadīths well and explained them in books of fiqh, we have made him our imām, guide, leader, and have been carrying on our acts of worship in a manner shown by him. Our leader is Imām-i a’zam Abū Hanīfa, (may Allah’s mercy be upon him). To imitate one of the four Madhhabs means to follow the Qur’ān al-kerīm and the hadith-i sherīfs.

There are eleven kinds of ghusl, five of which are fard. Two of them involve a woman performing a ghusl to get out of the states of haid (menstruation) and nifās (puerperium.)

Haid is the bleeding that flows for more than three days from the genital organ of a healthy girl over nine years old, or a woman after a period of Full Purity has passed since the last minute of her previous bleeding period. This is also called Sahīh Bleeding. If no blood is seen within the fifteen or more days after a bleeding period, and if this duration (of purity) is preceded and followed by days of haid, these days of purity are called Sahīh Purity. If there are days of fāsid bleeding

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before or after the fifteen or more days of purity or between two periods of sahīh purity, all these days are called (days of) Hukmī purity or Fāsid purity. Also, periods during haid wherein no blood is seen and which last less than fifteen days are called Fāsid purity. Sahīh purity and Hukmī purity are called Full Purity. Bleedings that are seen before and after a period of full purity and which continue for three days are two separate periods of haid. Any coloured liquid, except for a white (colourless) liquid or turbidity is called the blood of haid. When a girl begins haid, she becomes bāligha (an adolescent), that is, a woman. A girl who has not begun haid and a boy who does not have manī (sperm) are considered to be bāligh (in a state of puberty), if they have lived beyond the age of fifteen. This fact is written in the explanation of the book Durr-i Yaktā. The number of days beginning from the moment bleeding is seen until the bleeding comes to an end is called ādat (menstruation period). A period of haid is ten days maximum and three days minimum. According to the Shāfi’ī and Hanbalī Madhhabs, it is fifteen days maximum and one day minimum. In the Mālikī Madhhab it is fifteen days maximum, and yet the bleeding that is seen first is haid. If the bleeding of a woman who is in the Hanafī Madhhab and who is imitating the Mālikī or Shāfi’ī Madhhab goes on for more than ten days, she will have to make qadā of the prayers of namāz she has omitted during this time of excess after she becomes purified.

Menstrual bleeding does not have to be continuous. If the initial bleeding stops but more bleeding is seen again before three days have passed, the days of purity in between are unanimously considered to be menstrual. According to a report Imām-i Muhammad transmits from Imām-i a’zam Abū Hanīfa, if bleeding is seen again before ten days have passed, it will be concluded that the bleeding has continued during these ten days. There is also another report transmitted by Imām-i Muhammad. According to Imām-i Abū Yūsuf, and also in Shāfi’ī and Mālikī all these days of purity are considered menstrual if they are over before a fifteen day period. Suppose a girl bleeds for one day and then does not bleed for another fourteen days; however, she then bleeds again for one day. And suppose another woman bleeds for one day and does not bleed again for ten days, but again bleeds for only one day. And a third woman bleeds for three days and does not bleed again for five days, but when she bleeds again, it is only for a day. According to Imām-i Abū Yūsuf, the girl’s first ten days are haid; the former woman’s days of haid

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are the same as her ādat (previous or usual menstrual period) and all the remaining days (of bleeding) are istihāda; the latter woman’s nine days are all haid. According to Imām-i Muhammad’s first report, only the latter woman’s nine days are haid. According to Imam-i Muhammad’s second report, only the latter woman’s first three days are haid, but the remaining days are not haid. Translating the subject of haid from the book Multaqā, we have written all the following information according to Imām-i Muhammad’s first report. One day is (a duration of) exactly twenty-four hours. It is mustahab for married women, all the time, and unmarried (virginal) women, during their menstrual period only, to put a piece of cloth or pure organic cotton called kursuf on the mouth of their vagina, and to apply perfume on it. Synthetic cotton is unhealthy. It is makrūh to insert the entire kursuf into the vagina. A girl who sees bloodstains on the kursuf every day for months is considered to be menstruating during the first ten days and having istihāda for the remaining twenty days. This will go on until the bleeding, called istimrār, stops.

If a girl sees blood for three days but does not see it for one day, and then sees it for one day but again does not see it for two days, and later sees it for one day but then does not see it for one day, and finally sees it again for one day, all these ten days are menstrual. If she sees blood one day but does not see it the next day, and if this alternating process goes on for ten days every month, she does not perform namāz or fast on the days she sees blood. But she makes ghusl and performs namāz on the following days. [Translated from the book Masāil-i sharh-i wikāya.][1]

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[1] [In the Mālikī Madhhab, red, yellowish or turbid blood that isues from the front of a girl that has reached the age of nine is called blood of haid (menorrhoea). It is haid as soon as the bleeding starts. As the bleeding continues, it is menstrual until immediately before the fifteenth day, and its continuation thereafter, (as it may be the case,) is judged to be istihāda (menorrhagia). If her ādat changes the next month, her new ādat is the longest period of ādat she has so far had plus three days. Bleeding that continues thereafter, as well as bleeding that continues after the fifteenth day in any case, becomes istihāda. When the kursuf (pad, tampon, sanitary towel) is found to be dry, or colourless although it may be wet, this case must be taken as the end of the menstrual period. Bleeding that a woman past the age of seventy undergoes is not haid; it is istihāda. In case a woman's bleeding continues intermittently, the days spent without bleeding are to be taken as days of purity. The number of running days of purity is

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Bleeding that goes on for less than three days, that is, seventy-two hours, even if it is five minutes less, or, for a newly pubescent girl, bleeding after the tenth day when it goes on more than ten days or, for one who is not new, bleeding that happens after the ādat when it exceeds the days of ādat and even ten days, or bleeding of a pregnant or āisa (old) woman or of a girl below nine years of age is not menstrual. It is called istihāda or fāsid bleeding. A woman becomes āisa around the age of fifty-five. Supposing a voman whose ādat is five days sees blood after half of the sun has risen and the bleeding stops as two-thirds of the sun rises on the eleventh morning, in which case the bleeding has exceeded ten days for a few minutes, the blood that comes after five days, her ādat, is istihāda. For, it has exceeded ten days and ten nights for as long as one-sixth of the sun’s time of rising. When the ten days are over, she makes ghusl and makes qadā of the prayers of namāz which she did not perform on the days following after her ādat.

While a woman is in the days of istihāda, she is considered to have an excuse (’udhr), just like someone whose nose frequently bleeds or someone who is not able to control the bladder; hence, she has to perform namāz and fast, and sexual intercourse is permissible despite the bleeding. The bleeding of istihāda (menorrhagia) is a sign of a disease. If it continues for a long time it may be dangerous, so the person concerned must see a gynaecologist. A red gum powder called sang-dragon (dragon’s blood) may stop the bleeding when taken orally with water, one gram in the morning, and the same amount in the evening. Up to five grams may be taken per day.

According to a report by Imām-i Muhammad, if a girl over nine years old sees bloodstains one day for the first time in her life and does not see it the following eight days but .

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.fifteen minimum. Bleeding that recurs before these fifteen days is istihāda. Such days of purity are infinite, (i.e. there is not a maximum limit.) If a bleeding stops and recurs fifteen days later, it is haid. Bleeding undergone before a childbirth is haid. If the baby is lifted out of the woman's womb through an opening cut in her abdomen, the bleeding that occurs in the immediate aftermath is not nifās (puerperal discharge). Puerperal period is sixty days maximum. If the puerperal bleeding stops and does not recur within the following fifteen days, (the puerperal period has ended and) the woman undergoing nifās has become tāhir (clean, purified). Bleeding that occurs thereafter is haid.]

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sees it again on the tenth day, all the ten days are menstrual. But if she bleeds the first and eleventh days only and at no time in between, neither of them is menstrual. Bleeding on both days is istihāda, since the days of purity preceding the bleeding after the tenth day, as described above, are not considered to be the days of haid according to Imām-i Muhammad. If she sees bloodstains on both the tenth and eleventh days, the first ten days, including the days of purity in between, make up a menstruation period, while the eleventh day belongs to istihāda.

A woman’s haid or purity is usually a period of the same number of days every month. In this context, one ‘month’ (also a ‘menstrual cycle’) is the period from the beginning of a menstruation period to the beginning of the next period. When a woman with a certain period of ādat sees sahīh bleeding for a different number of days, her ādat changes. Likewise, the number of the days of purity changes when a different period of purity is seen once. Fāsid bleeding or fasid purity does not change the ādat.

If the duration of bleeding of the new haid exceeds ten days and if its three or more days do not concur with the time of the former ādat, the time of ādat changes, but the number of days does not change. If they (three or more days) concur with the time of ādat, the number of days concurring with it becomes haid and the rest becomes istihāda. If a woman whose ādat is five days of bleeding and fifty-five days of purity sees five days of bleeding and then forty-six days of purity and afterwards eleven days of bleeding, the time of her ādat changes, but the number of days does not change. If she sees five days of bleeding and then fifty-seven days of purity but later three days of bleeding followed by fourteen days of purity and then one more day of bleeding, the number of the days (of the new haid) becomes three. But its time does not change. The fourteen days of fāsid purity here means continuous bleeding. That is, the duration of bleeding for the new haid exceeds ten days. If the duration of bleeding for the new haid does not exceed ten days and if it is followed by sahīh purity, all the days of bleeding become a new haid. If it is not followed by sahīh (correct) purity, the number of the former days of the ādat does not change. It becomes mustahab for her to wait until it gets quite close to the end of the time for namāz within which it stopped and which is after the ādat but before the tenth day

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(of bleeding). Then, after making a ghusl, she performs the time’s namāz. Also waty (intercourse) becomes permissible for her. But if she misses the ghusl and the namāz as she waits, intercourse before making a ghusl becomes permissible.

If the first bleeding of a girl or a bleeding that begins fifteen days after the last haid of a woman stops before three days are over, she waits until the end of the namāz time is quite close. Then, making wudū (ablution) only without a ghusl she performs the namāz of that time and those which she did not perform (during the bleeding). If bleeding reoccurs after she has performed that namāz, she discontinues namāz. If it stops again, towards the end of the time of the namāz she makes a wudū only and performs the time’s namāz and those which she did not perform, if there are any. She acts likewise until the end of the third day. But waty (intercourse) is not permitted even if she makes a ghusl.

If bleeding continues for more than three days and stops before the end of her ādat, waty is not permitted before the end of her ādat, even if she makes a ghusl. But if no bloodstains are seen until it is quite close to the end of that particular namāz-time she makes a ghusl and performs the namāz. She does not perform those prayers of namāz which she omitted. She fasts. If bleeding does not reoccur for fifteen days after the day it stops, the day it stops becomes the end of her new ādat. But if bleeding reoccurs she discontinues namāz. If it is the month of Ramadān, after Ramadān, she makes qadā of the fast which she performed. If bleeding stops she makes a ghusl again towards the end of the namāz-time and performs the namāz and she fasts. She follows the same procedure for ten days. After the tenth day she performs namāz without making a ghusl even if she sees bloodstains, and waty before a ghusl is permissible. But it is mustahab to make a ghusl before waty. If bleeding stops before the breaking of dawn and if she has only time enough to make a ghusl and dress up but not enough also to say “Allahu ekber” before dawn, she fasts that day, but she does not have to make qadā of the night namāz she missed. But if the time is long enough to say “Allahu ekber,” she will have to make the qadā. If haid begins before iftār (time for breaking a fast), her fasting becomes invalid, and she performs its qadā after Ramadān. If haid begins while performing

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namāz, her namāz becomes invalid. When she becomes clean she does not perform qadā for that namāz if it is fard, but she performs it if it is supererogatory. If a woman sees bloodstains on her kursuf when she wakes up after dawn, she becomes menstruous at that moment. If a woman sees that her kursuf is clean when she wakes up, her haid stopped while she was asleep. It is fard for both to perform the (previous) night’s namāz. A namāz being fard for a woman depends on her being clean at its last minute. A woman whose haid begins before she has performed the time’s namāz does not make qadā of that namāz.

There must be full purity between two periods of haid. It is declared unanimously (by Islamic scholars) that if this full purity is sahīh purity, the bleedings before and after it are two separate periods of haid. Days of purity intervening the days of bleeding within the ten days of haid are considered menstrual, and the days of istihāda after the tenth day are considered (days of) purity. If a girl bleeds for three days and then does not bleed for fifteen days and then bleeds for one day and then does not bleed one day and then bleeds again for three days, the first and the last three days of bleeding are two separate periods of haid. Since her ādat is three days, the second haid cannot begin with the one day of bleeding in between. This one day makes the previous full purity fāsid. Molla Khusraw (rahmatullāhi ta’ālā ’alaih) wrote in his explanation of Ghurar: “If a girl sees one day of bleeding and then fourteen days of purity and later one day of bleeding and then eight days of purity and then one day of bleeding and then seven days of purity and then two days of bleeding and then three days of purity and then one day of bleeding and then three days of purity and then one day of bleeding and then two days of purity and then one day of bleeding, according to Imām-i Muhammad, of these forty-five days only the ten days following the fourteen days (of purity) are menstrual, and the rest are istihāda.” As a result, since there is not a period of full purity following these ten days, the new haid does not begin. She is not thought of as having bled during the latter days of her purity because these days are not within the duration of her normal haid. (According to Imām–i Abū Yūsuf, the first ten days and the fourth ten days with purity on both sides are menstrual.) For, according to Imām-ż Abū Yūsuf, the following days of fāsid purity are considered to be menstrual. According to the first of the following (four) cases, the ten days of haid are followed by twenty

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days of purity and then ten days [the fourth ten days] of haid.

If istimrār (see above) occurs without any intervening days of purity for fifteen days, the calculation is based on her ādat. That is, beginning with the end of her ādat, the duration of purity is considered to be the same as that of the previous month’s and the period of haid is the same as her ādat.

If istimrār occurs on a girl, according to the book Manhal-ul-wāridīn and the Turkish book Murshid un-Nisā, it may be classified in one of the four cases:

1 - If the bleeding which is seen for the first time makes istimrār, the first ten days are considered menstrual and the next twenty days are considered days of purity.

2 - If istimrār occurs after a girl has experienced sahīh bleeding and sahīh purity, this girl has become a woman with a certain ādat. Suppose she has experienced five days of bleeding and forty days of purity, from the beginning of istimrār five days are considered menstrual and forty days are considered days of purity. The case is valid until the bleeding ceases.

3 - If she undergoes fāsid bleeding and fāsid purity, neither of them is considered to be her ādat. If the purity is fāsid because it is less than fifteen days, the bleeding which is seen first is considered to have made istimrār. If she undergoes eleven days of bleeding and then fourteen days of purity and afterwards istimrār, the first bleeding is fāsid because it exceeds ten days. Its eleventh day and the first five bleeding days of istimrār are (within) the days of purity, and, after the fifth day (of istimrār), ten days of haid and then twenty days of purity keep recurring. If the purity is full purity and is fāsid because there are days of bleeding within it, and if the sum of the days of such fāsid purity and the days of bleeding does not exceed thirty, again, the first bleeding is considered to have made istimrār. An example of this is istimrār after eleven days of bleeding and fifteen days of purity. Because there is bleeding on the first of the sixteen days, it is a period of fāsid purity. The first four days of the istimrār are (within) the period of purity. If their sum exceeds thirty days, the first ten days are menstrual and all the following days until the istimrār are considered days of purity, and after the istimrār, ten days of haid and

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twenty days of purity continue to reoccur. An example of this is istimrār after eleven days of bleeding and twenty days of purity.

4 - If she undergoes sahīh bleeding and fāsid purity, the days of sahīh bleeding become her ādat. The following days are considered days of purity until after the thirtieth day. Suppose istimrār occurs after five days of bleeding and fourteen days of purity, the first five days are days of bleeding and the following twenty-five days are days of purity. To complete these twenty-five days, the first eleven days of the istimrār are considered days of purity. From now on five days of haid and twenty-five days of purity will continue reoccurring. Likewise, if istimrār occurs after three days of bleeding and fifteen days of purity or one day of bleeding and fifteen days of purity, the first three days are days of sahīh bleeding and all the following days up to the istimrār are days of fāsid purity; hence, three days are menstrual and the next thirty-one days are days of purity. But during the istimrār three days of haid and twenty-seven days of purity reoccur. If the second period of purity were fourteen days, according to Imām-i Abū Yūsuf it would be considered a period of continuous bleeding. The first two days would be menstrual, and the next fifteen days would be days of purity, and so on. Since the first three days of bleeding and the next fifteen days of purity are sahīh, they are accepted as ādats.

A woman who has forgotten the time of her ādat is called Muhayyira or Dālla.

Nifās means lochia. Bleeding that occurs after a fetus with developed hands, feet and head has been aborted is also nifās. There is not a minimum duration for nifās. On the day the bleeding stops, she performs a ghusl and resumes namāz. But she cannot have sexual intercourse before the period equalling her previous nifās is over. The maximum is forty days. After forty days she performs a ghusl and begins namāz even if her bleeding continues. Bleeding after the fortieth day is istihāda. The nifās of a woman whose bleeding lasted twenty-five days after her first pregnancy is twenty-five days. Therefore, if blood flows for forty-five days after her second pregnancy, the first twenty-five makes up the nifās and the remaining twenty days are istihāda. She has to perform qadā of those prayers of namāz that she did not perform during these twenty days. Then, it is necessary to memorize one’s length of nifās, too. If her bleeding stops before the

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fortieth day, e.g. in thirty-five days, during the second childbirth, all the thirty-five days are nifās; therefore, her nifās changes from twenty-five to thirty-five days. In Ramadān, if haid or nifās stops after dawn (fajr), she fasts during that day, yet after Ramadān she fasts one day again for that day. If haid or nifās begins after dawn, she breaks her fast even if it begins in the late afternoon.

Namāz, fasting, entering a mosque, reading or holding the Qur’ān al-kerīm, visiting the Ka’ba, and sexual intercourse are all harām (forbidden) in all of the four Madhhabs during the days of haid and nifās. Later she performs the qadā’ of those fasts, but not the ritual prayers of namāz she omitted. She will be forgiven for not performing namāz. If at each prayer time she performs an ablution and sits on a sajjāda (prayer-rug) and dhikrs and performs tasbīh for as long as it normally takes her to perform namāz, she will be given as many blessings as she would normally receive if she performed namāz in the best manner. [When a girl is over eight years old, it becomes fard for her mother or, if she does not have a mother, her grandmothers, elder sisters, paternal and maternal aunts, respectively, to teach her about haid and nifās. If they do not, they themselves and their husbands will have committed a grave sin.]

It is written in the book Jawhara: “A woman must let her husband know when her haid begins. It is a grave sin not to say it when her husband asks. It is also a grave sin if she says that her haid has begun while she is pure. Our Prophet (sallallāhu ’alaihi wa sallam) stated: ‘A woman who conceals the beginning and the termination of her haid from her husband is accursed.’ It is harām, a grave sin, to have anal intercourse with one’s wife both during and after haid.” He who does so is accursed. Pederasty is even more sinful. The Sūrat-ul-anbiyā’ states that pederasty is an “extremely vile deed.” The hadīth quoted in Qādizāda’s commentary to Birgiwī states, “If you catch in the act those who commit pederasty as did the tribe of Lūt[1] (the people of Sodom and Gomorrah), kill them both!” Some Islamic scholars have said that they both must be burned alive. It has been discovered in America that the horrid disease called AIDS, which has been

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[1] Inhabitants of the ancient city of Sodom (Sodomites), who were famous for their immoralities.

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spreading with great speed among those who practise pederasty, is more fatal with those who eat pork. No medicine has so far been developed to cure this disease, whose virus was diagnosed in 1985.

The third type of ghusl that is fard concerns a person who has become junub. Such a person must wash himself (take a ghusl) when he has to perform namāz. There are three ways of becoming junub: When the tip of the penis (its roundish part under the prepuce) goes into the vulva, when the man’s viscous white semen or the woman’s yellowish ovum fluid is thrown out lustfully, and by nocturnal emission, that is, when he or she has a lustful dream and sees that semen or mazy has issued when he or she wakes up. In such a case, both the man and the woman become junub. In the Hanafī and Shāfi’ī Madhhabs, one does not become junub by the issuing of mazy or wadī. But the semen which has issued becomes fluid with the effect of heat and looks like mazy.

To make a ghusl for Friday, for the prayers of the Bayrams (’Iyds) of Fitr and Qurbān, and while on the mount of Arafāt (which is near Mekka) on Arafa day is sunnat-i zawāid. If a person who has forgotten that he has been junub makes a ghusl for the Friday prayer, he becomes pure. But he will not get the blessings for doing the fard.

It is wājib-i kifāya to wash a Muslim when he is dead. Before a dead Muslim is washed his funeral (janazā namāz) cannot be performed.[1]

When a disbeliever becomes a Muslim, it is mustahab for him to make a ghusl.

Besides these eleven, it is mustahab to make a ghusl before putting on the ihrām for hajj and ’umra; when entering Mekka or Medīna; when standing for waqfa at muzdalifa; before washing a dead Muslim; after cupping; on Qadr, Arafa and Barāt nights; when a mad person becomes sane; and for a child who reaches fifteen years of age. If a woman has sexual intercourse when her haid is over, one ghusl for both is enough. When a person makes a ghusl for some other reason on a Friday or on a day of ’Iyd, he will also be given the blessings for the ghusl of these prayers of namāz.

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[1] Salāt (namāz) of janāza is explained in detail in the fifteenth chapter of the fifth fascicle of Endless Bliss.

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When sticky liquid called semen issues forth because of being thrashed, lifting something heavy, or falling down from a high place, a ghusl is not necessary in the Hanafī and Malikī Madhhabs. But it is necessary in the Shāfi’ī Madhhab. A Hanafī person who imitates the Shāfi’ī Madhhab has to take this into consideration.

If the semen that leaves its place lustfully remains in the urethra and does not go out, a ghusl is not necessary. But if it comes out later, even without lust, it will be necessary to make a ghusl. If a person who has a nocturnal emission, that is, who ejaculates semen in his dream, wakes up and squeezes his penis so that the semen is prevented from coming out, then experiences later on, after his lust has subsided, semen leaking from his organ, a ghusl becomes necessary for him. If a person who has become junub makes a ghusl without urinating and if later on the rest of the semen issues without lust, he has to make another ghusl. If he has performed namāz with his first ghusl, he does not have to perform it again. For this reason, in the Hanafī and Hanbalī Madhhabs it is necessary to urinate and thereby wash out the semen that has remained in the urethra and afterwards make a ghusl. In the Shāfi’ī Madhhab one must make a ghusl again even if one has urinated. But in the Mālikī Madhhab one does not have to make a ghusl again even if one has not urinated.

When the tip of the penis goes into the vulva or into a woman’s or man’s anus, a ghusl is necessary for both persons, regardless of whether semen was discharged or not. Inserting a penis into an animal (sodomy) or into a dead person (necrophilia) does not necessitate a ghusl if semen was not discharged, according to the Hanafī Madhhab. These two acts are done by psychopaths called sadist. Such acts are utterly abominable and grave sins.

If a person who has a nocturnal emission notices some wetness on his bed, on his underwear, or on his legs and finds out that it is the white, fluid liquid called mazy, or if mazy issues from him while awake, a ghusl is not necessary. If he notices some semen without remembering a nocturnal emission, a ghusl is necessary as unanimously communicated (by scholars). If he thinks it may be mazy, as a precaution a ghusl is necessary. If a person remembers that he had a nocturnal emission, but does not see any wetness anywhere, a

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ghusl is not necessary. After a woman makes a ghusl, if some of her husband’s semen comes out, a ghusl is not necessary. If a drunk person sees some semen on himself after he recovers, a ghusl is necessary. The case is the same with a person who has fainted. If both the wife and the husband see some semen in their bed when they wake up, a ghusl is necessary for both, even though they do not remember having a nocturnal emission. If a genie disguised as a human being has sexual intercourse with a person, a ghusl is necessary for that person. If the genie does not come in a human figure, the person who has an experience from this does not make a ghusl. If the man’s semen, which was discharged by rubbing his penis on a part of the woman’s body except her vulva, goes into the vulva, the woman does not have to make a ghusl. However, if she becomes pregnant as a result, she has to make a ghusl and perform the prayers of namāz again which she has performed since the incident occurred.

When such things as a child’s penis, an animal’s penis, a dead person’s penis, or anything like a penis, such as a finger or a penis with a condom on it is inserted into the vulva, a ghusl is necessary if she is aroused by it. If she does not enjoy it, making a ghusl is preferred. Merāqil-felāh says: “If semen or an ovum is released after looking at or daydreaming about each other, a man or woman will become junub. A woman’s husband pays money for the water she uses when making a ghusl, an ablution and for her bath. The husband has to meet his wife’s needs even if she is rich. If a man’s semen is released while urinating, he makes a ghusl if his penis is erect.

If a woman begins menstruating while she is junub, she makes a ghusl immediately if she likes[1], or she may wait until the menstruation is over and then make one ghusl for both.

Durr-ul-munteqā says: “It is permissible for men to go to public baths for men, and women also are permitted to go to public baths for women. Covering their private parts with thick and oversized towels is fard; looking at someone else’s private parts[2] covered with a thin and tight towel is harām (prohibited).

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[1] If she chooses to do so, she will have to make another ghusl when her period is over.

[2] Parts of a person's body that should be under cover in company, (and/or during certain acts of worship,) are termed awrat parts. Please ; see chapter 8 for details.

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Rubbing a person’s thighs and looking at them is permissible for the operator of a public bath, provided they are covered. Either touching or looking at the private parts under the towel is harām. Without lust, a man’s or woman’s body, except for their private parts, are permissible to be looked at or touched by another man or woman, respectively. It is also prohibited (harām) for a man to look at a woman who is a disbeliever, even without any lust.” He who does not attach any importance to a harām (prohibition) conveyed by nāss or ijmā’ will lose his īmān (faith) and become a murtad.

If a person who is junub does not make a ghusl until the prescribed time for a particular prayer which he has not performed is over, he will not be sinful. But it is a grave sin for him to delay it any longer. It is not sinful to sleep or to have sexual intercourse when one is junub. It is permissible to make a ghusl by using the same basin or container together with one’s wife. It is tenzīhī makrūh for a person who is junub to eat or drink before washing his hands and mouth. For the water touching his mouth and hands becomes musta’mal[1]. And it is makrūh to drink water which is musta’mal. The case is not so with a woman in haid. For she has not been commanded to make a ghusl while menstuating. [A woman in haid can suckle her baby without washing her breasts. But it is makrūh for a woman who is junub to suckle her baby without washing.] A woman’s suckling her baby will not break her ablution.

It is makrūh to read the Qur’ān al-kerīm when one’s private parts are exposed or when there is another person close by whose private parts are exposed. Therefore, it is necessary to read (or recite) the Qur’ān by keeping one’s head outside of the blanket.

If a person who becomes junub at a house where he has been a guest fears that making a ghusl may cause slander or suspicion, he does not make a ghusl. And since it is not permissible for him to make a tayammum while there is water, it is permissible for him to be pretending to make namāz while he is junub, without intending, without saying the tekbīr of iftitāh, without reciting anything while standing but only by acting as if he is doing the rukū’ and sajda. [Also, he who has to perform namāz behind an

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[1] Please see chapter 7 for kinds of water.

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imām who is a lā-Madhhabī reformer, does likewise.]

It is harām to enter a mosque or to even walk through a mosque when one is junub and when a woman has haid. If one has no other way than the one leading through the mosque or if one becomes junub in the mosque or if one cannot find water anywhere but in the mosque, one makes a tayammum and then one can go in and out of the mosque. It is harām in all of the four Madhhabs for one to read (or recite) the Qur’ān al-kerīm, to hold a Mus’haf and to visit the Ka’ba while one is junub. It is harām also to hold the Qur’ān al-kerīm, or anything on which āyats are writen, without an ablution. It is permissible to carry the Qur’ān al-kerīm in something not attached to it, e.g. in a bag. It is not harām to recite the Fātiha or the āyats which are said to be the prayer ayāts, with an intention to make prayer, (not as the Qur’ān) or to say any prayer, yet it is mustahab to say any prayer with an ablution. Tafsīrs (interpretations of the Qur’ān) are like the Qur’ān al-kerīm. Other books of dīn are like prayers. It is not permissible to wrap something in any piece of paper on which information of fiqh is written. If Allāhu ta’ālā’s name or names of prophets (alaihim us-salām, may Allah’s blessing be on them all) are written on some paper, things can be wrapped in it only after erasing the names. But it is more honorable not to use such things as wrapping papers, for the letters of the Qur’ān are also sacred. It is written in the books Hadīqa and Latāif-ul-ishārat, “The holy book sent down to Hadrad Hūd ‘alaihis-salam’ was in Islamic letters.” It is written on the six hundred and thirty-third page of the second volume of Hadīqa, “It is makrūh to lay a carpet, mat, or prayer-rug on which there are sacred writings made by way of weaving or painting on the floor and to sit on them and to use them for any purpose. It is also makrūh to write sacred writings on coins, mihrābs and walls. But it is not makrūh to hang them on the walls.” [The case is the same with the pictures of the Ka’ba. Prayer-rugs without pictures or embroideries on them must be preferred.]

[We repeat that it is fard in the Hanafī and Hanbalī Madhhabs to wash inside the mouth while making a ghusl. Then, those who are Hanafī should not have their teeth filled or crowned unless they strongly need to do so. We must not let our teeth decay. To avoid this, we must take care of our teeth as commanded by our dīn and we must use miswāks. France’s valuable medical book entitled Larousse Illustré Medical writes the following about dental care: “All kinds of tooth paste, powder or liquid are

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harmful. The best method for cleaning them is with a hard brush. Initially it makes the teeth bleed. But you should not fear that. It will strengthen the gums so that they will no longer bleed.” Like everybody, I had been using toothpaste. Two of my teeth began to decay. But upon reading the French book I began using a miswāk. My teeth stopped decaying. It was more than sixty years ago. Ever since then I have had no complaints about my teeth or stomach. Ibni ’Ābidīn wrote in Radd-ul mukhtār: “It is sunnat-i muakkada to use a miswāk when performing an ablution. A hadīth-i-sherīf declares: ‘The namāz which is performed after using a miswāk is seventy-fold superior to the namāz without a miswāk.’ A miswāk must be straight, as wide as the second small finger, and a span long. The miswāk is derived from a branch of the erāk (peelo) tree growing in Arabia. [Shaving it about two centimetres from the straight end, you keep this part in water for a couple of hours. When you crush it, it will open like a brush.] When the erāk tree cannot be found, a miswāk can be made from an olive branch. You should not make it from a pomegranate branch. If an erāk or olive tree cannot be found or if one does not have teeth, the sunnat must be carried out with one’s fingers. The miswāk has more than thirty advantages, which are written in Tahtāwī’s Hāshiyatu Marāq al-falāh. Firstly, it causes one to die with īmān in one’s last breath. It is makrūh for men to chew gum without any ’udhr (strong necessity), even when they are not fasting. Women must use chewing gum when they are not fasting instead of a miswak by intending to do the sunnat.”

Question: It is said that all the fuqahā and mujtahids agree that our religion gives permission to have one’s teeth repaired. If they disagree on whether the repairs will be of gold or silver, does this affect their agreement?

Answer: Having one’s teeth repaired means putting a false tooth that can be taken out whenever one wishes in the place of a missing tooth, fastening a tooth which is about to fall out, or having one’s teeth filled or crowned. Changing the fatwā of Hanafī scholars (rahmat ullāhi ta’ālā alaihim ajma’īn) “it is permissible to fasten a loose tooth with gold” into “there is unanimity about it being permissible to have one’s teeth repaired. It is permissible to have one’s teeth filled or crowned” means either not to understand the declaration of the fuqahā or to adapt these declarations to one’s own insidious and base desires, either of which is both shameful and sinful. Our mujtahids disagreed on whether it would be fastened with gold or

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silver. In fiqh books of the Hanafī Madhhab tying a loose tooth is called shad or tadbīb. Shad (in Arabic) means to fasten hard with wire. For example, shadd-uz-zunnār means to fasten a priets’s girdle. It is written in the paragraph about sitting on a sofa made by tadbīb in the books entitled Durr ul-mukhtār, which are commentaries of the books Tahtāwī and Hindiyya, and also in the books Durr-ul-muntaqā and Jāmi’ur-rumūz that tadbīb means to wind a band around something wide and flat like the sliding iron bar of a door. It is written in Bezzāziyya and in Hindiyya: “It is permissible to eat and drink from containers engraved with gold and silver designs. Yet you must not touch the silver or the gold with your hands or mouth. The Imāmayn said that it is makrūh to use such containers. So is the case with a container that has been made by tadbīb. It is permissible to make tadbīb of a sofa or the saddle of an animal, but you must not sit on those parts of it consisting of gold and silver. It is permissible to make tadbīb on the cover of the Qur’ān. But the gold and the silver on it must not be touched.” Hence it is inferred that tadbīb does not mean to cover the entire surface of something, but it means to place a metal band around something. It is written in books of fiqh: “It is permissible to make tadbīb of gold on a loose tooth.” This statement means that it is permissible to fasten a loose tooth with a gold wire or band in order to prevent it from falling. This is because water penetrates under such teeth. Furthermore, as today’s prostheses can be taken out while making a ghusl, the tying wires and bands can be removed, cleaned, and replaced after a ghusl. Otherwise, the food that remains between them would cause stench and damage in the mouth. To say that they said that it was permissible to crown a loose tooth is to slander the scholars of fiqh. For, a loose tooth cannot be crowned, but it can be tied. As seen, a real man of religion would not concoct the fatwā: “It is permissible to crown teeth,” by interpreting the word “tadbīb” as “crowning.” Books of fiqh do not contain any passages writing: “It is permissible to have decaying teeth filled or crowned,” nor any statement about having them filled or crowned with silver or gold.

Those who have little information on fiqh and who do not understand what the mujtahids declared, confuse the statement “having an artificial tooth made or fastening a loose tooth” with the statement “having one’s teeth

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filled or crowned.” They strive to make the declarations of mujtahids comprise all these. They say that since there is a necessity, all of these are permissible. These poor people do not realize that there is no need for searching for a necessity concerning tying a loose tooth or for having a movable tooth mounted in place of a missing tooth. A necessity is searched for when you have to do something that is not permissible to do. Since it is not prohibited to fasten one’s tooth or to mount a false tooth, why should one look for a necessity? In an attempt to convince Muslims that the fillings and crowns in their own mouths do not harm their ghusl and seeing that there is a necessity for fastening the teeth with gold instead of silver wires, some people seized the great weapon, i.e. the word ‘necessity,’ and clamoured: “It has been declared unanimously that it is a necessity to have one’s teeth repaired.” Thus they confused the Muslims in the Hanafī Madhhab and blocked the divine way. These people point as a proof to the declaration that the tottering teeth can be fastened unconditionally. However, the wires tying the teeth tightly and false teeth can be taken out, cleaned and put back in their places. The declaration by our savants (rahmatullāhi ta’ālā alaihim ajma’īn) refers to the wires and the teeth that can be taken out when making a ghusl. It would be an abominable slander against those great scholars to say that they permitted such obstacles as crowns and fillings, which do not let water through, while there is the fact that they declared: “It is fard to wash tooth cavities and in between the teeth when making a ghusl.” Those scholars said not only that it was permissible to use a gold false tooth, but also that it was permissible to wear a silver ring. Permission to wear a silver ring does not mean that the skin under it will be exempt from being washed. They said that it was necessary to moisten the skin under the ring by taking it off or by shifting it. They said that an ablution or a ghusl would not be sahīh if the skin under a tight ring was not moistened. Having a tooth crowned is like wearing a ring. Since the tooth under a filling or crown is not moistened, the ghusl will not be acceptable.

Question: It is not a requirement to make water reach very difficult parts while making a ghusl. It is for this reason that washing inside the eyes, inside the foreskin, and for women under their plaits, is excused. If a person with a headache cannot make a masah on his head, making masah on his head is not obligatory

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for him. When the teeth are repaired because of necessity, doesn’t the washing of the teeth become non-obligatory?

Answer: There is not a general rule stating that if some part is haraj (extremely difficult) to wash it is excusable not to wash it. This rule concerns something that exists on the body as a result of darūrat or which occurred by itself or as a result of carrying out a commandment of the Sharī’at, and is not something brought about by an individual.

The great scholars of fiqh and the mujtahids declared different rules of haraj concerning something done by a person. A severe headache is a darūrat which occurred by itself. Not being able to touch one’s head in this case is haraj. Therefore, one will be exempted from washing, making masah of, one’s head. Yes, it is declared (by scholars) that after a wound has healed it is not permissible to make masah on the medicine, ointment, or bandage put over it, and that it is necessary to remove these and wash (the skin) under them. It is said (by fiqh scholars) that if there is haraj in removing these things, since these things are not included in the category of darūrats that occurred by themselves, the person concerned imitates another Madhhab. In case it is impossible to imitate another Madhhab, he is exempted from washing under them because they have been placed there due to some darūrat, that is, to cure the wound. As a matter of fact, since washing the whole body when making ghusl is fard (obligatory) in all the other three Madhhabs as well, it is impossible to imitate one of the other three Madhhabs. When a haraj and a darūrat caused by the person himself coexist, he imitates one of the other three Madhhabs. And when it is impossible to imitate one of them, he will be exempted from washing the problematic part. It is fard for a woman with plaits to moisten only the bottom of her hair. Ibni ’Ābidīn (rahmatullāhi ta’ālā ’alaih) writes: “Because women are prohibited from shaving their hair, they have been excused from undoing their plaits. Men do not have this necessity. The fact that it is sunnat for men to cut their hair is written in the fifth volume of Ibni ’Ābidīn. For this reason men have to undo and wash their plaited hair.” Women’s not

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undoing their plaited hair does not prevent men from undoing their plaited hair. This is beause there is darūrat and haraj in the former. However, there is no darūrat for men though there is haraj.

There is no haraj (difficulty) in removing artificial teeth while making a ghusl. They can easily be removed and the skin under them can be washed easily. The possibility of having artificial teeth that can be removed while making a ghusl has prevented the crowning or filling of the teeth from being a darūrat.

Question: Imām-i a’zam said that the strong necessity of having one’s teeth repaired could be met by using silver. I read this in an imām’s book. The same book writes that Itqānī says that Imām-i Muhammad may have said as follows: “We do not admit that the necessity of having one’s teeth repaired will have been met by using silver. For something that causes a noxious scent on the nose causes it on the teeth, too.” So, it is quite obvious that having one’s teeth repaired is a darūrat, the book adds. What do you say about this?

Answer: It must be untrue that the book you have read was written by an imām. A person who conveys the books of fiqh so incorrectly is either a very ignorant man, an abject liar, or someone set on deceiving. Notice what Radd-ul-mukhtār writes in its section called Al-hazar wal-ibāha: “Imām-i-a’zam discriminated between tying a tooth and making an artificial nose. As a consequence of the fact that silver would cause a noxious scent if an artificial nose were made from silver, he said that it was permissible to have an artificial nose made from gold. The reason is: something which is harām can be permissible (mubāh) only when there is darūrat. But when silver is used for the teeth, darūrat will no longer exist. There will no longer be a need for using gold, which is the best. Itqānī said that in order to help Hadrat Imām-i Muhammad a person might say: ‘We do not admit that the darūrat in tying the teeth with gold is eliminated by using silver. For silver will cause a scent on the teeth as well as on the nose.’ As it is seen, neither Imām-i a’zam nor Imām-i Muhammad ‘rahmatullāhi ta’ālā ’alaihimā’ (may Allah increase them both in rank) said: There is darūrat in having one’s teeth repaired.” A person who had crowned teeth fabled this darūrat lest he would be lowered in the eyes of the Muslims and so that he would have the sympathy of those who had their teeth crowned. Concerning tying teeth our imāms said: “When silver causes a noxious scent, the darūrat

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of fastening with gold occurs. If using silver does not cause a scent, this darūrat will no longer exist.” It is not for us common men of dīn, who are not mujtahids, to say whether or not there is darūrat. Our dīn authorizes mujtahids to talk on this matter. Those men of dīn who are not mujtahids do not have the right to talk on this matter. If they talk, their words will have no value. Our scholars have declared unanimously that after the four hundredth year of the Hegira there have not been any scholars educated in the grade of ijtihād. Finding mujtahids’ fatwās, our savants have written them in books of fiqh. It is written clearly in books of fiqh that a ghusl will not be acceptable when water does not penetrate under the food remains within tooth cavities and that there is no darūrat or haraj in this. We have explained this above. For, it is possible to remove the remnants of food in tooth cavities and between the teeth when you are making a ghusl, and there is no haraj, difficulty in doing this. It is written in the translation of Qāmūs: “Darūrat either arises from compulsion, e.g. women growing their hair long – the Sharī’at has prohibited them from cutting their hair – or it is intended to cure an ailing limb or to feed the body and protect it against dangers. Or, it is because there is no other way.” And these things become darūrat when it is impossible to imitate another Madhhab. Only the second type of darūrat can be thought of in having one’s teeth filled or crowned. That is, they are done in order to save the teeth from decaying, deteriorating, or to prevent severe pain. In this respect our scholars have given authority not to the ignorant, false, parvenu, and deceitful men of dīn, but to specialized scientists. On the other hand, no specialized Muslim doctor has been heard to say: “You will save yourself from loosing your teeth if you get them filled or crowned; you will become sick if you don’t have your teeth crowned or filled.” But they have often said to their patients that their decaying teeth must be taken out and movable false teeth called prosthesis be put in their place.

A person with a decaying or aching tooth must go to a pious Muslim dentist. The dentist relieves him from his vehement pain by putting cotton with medicine into his tooth. Later, the cotton will be taken out; the tooth with the pain has been relieved. The dentist then gives his patient two alternatives: The first way, he will say, is to extract the decaying tooth and replace it with an artificial one; the second way is to kill the nerve attached to the decaying tooth and to fill or crown it. If the decay in the tooth is new, it is filled in and the decaying is stoopped for some time. Depending on the dentist’s skill, this tooth can be used very well for many long years. In serious cases filling is impossible. In such cases the tooth root is utilized by way of crowning. In case the root also has decayed, the tooth is

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extracted and a prosthesis is used. A prosthesis is not as pratical as a crowning, and so is the case with a crowning when compared with a filling. Crowning or filling does not cure an ailing tooth. Nor does it restore it to its former healthy condition. It only helps to use the ailing tooth without suffering pain. When a person with a tooth filled or crowned imitates the Mālikī or Shāfi’ī Madhhab, he or she attains the same thawāb as gained by people without any excuse. If it were impossible to imitate these Madhhabs, filling or crowning would become a darūrat and his or her prayers of namāz would be sahīh. Yet, because he or she would have an excuse, his or her thawāb would be less. As it is seen, imitating another Madhhab not only causes much thawāb, but also saves the teeth from being extracted.

It would be wrong to assert that filling or crowing your teeth is darūrat by saying, “A tooth is a limb, too. Isn’t it darūrat to have a decaying tooth cured? You yourself said that it was darūrat to tie a loose tooth.” But to crown or fill a tooth does not mean to cure it. It means to remove the nerve from the decaying tooth and to use the dead tooth like a prosthetic, i.e. artificial tooth. The artificial tooth is permissible since it is movable, while crowns and fillings are not permissible since they are not movable. Today, making prostheses for aching teeth is not very painful or difficult. But killing the nerve of a tooth causes a lot of pain and trouble. Imitating Shāfi’ī is permissible also for one who says, “There is haraj in using an artificial tooth, but there is no haraj in using a crowning or filling.” In the process of time the root of a crowned or filled tooth becomes a home for microbes and causes various diseases in the other organs. False teeth, on the other hand, do not produce any microbes.

Those who have gotten their teeth crowned as ornamentation or their teeth filled without (the cause of) a tooth-ache or decay should imitate the Shāfi’ī Madhhab when performing a ghusl. It is written clearly in Ibni ’Ābidīn at the end of the chapter on the prayer times that when there is haraj it is not a condition that darūrat should also exist. We also noted above that it is not darūrat to crown or fill the teeth due to some ache or decay. Therefore, we should not deem those Muslims who had their teeth repaired as unclean, nor should we have a bad opinion of them.

It would be quite wrong to think that the fact that it is mubāh

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to use gold on the teeth though gold is harām for men to use otherwise will show that crowning or even tying the teeth is darūrat. Though men have been prohibited from using silver utensils, they have been permitted to wear silver rings. As it would be quite wrong to think that wearing a ring is necessary because silver rings have become permissible or to think it is necessary to use gold or silver noses and ears because it is permissible to use them, so it would be wrong, slanderous and sinful to say that Islamic scholars agreed on the fact that crowning the teeth was necessary.[1]

As the last and strongest proof, we shall inform you that this faqīr[2] has the (Turkish) Booklet of Namāz which the profound scholar Sayyid Abdulhakīm Arwasī (rahmatullāhi ta’ālā ’alaih), who was an expert in the four Madhhabs along with their subtle particulars, prepared in his blessed handwriting. He states in the booklet: “In the Shāfi’ī Madhhab a ghusl has two fards. The first one is intention. That is, one must think, ‘I intend to make a ghusl in order to purify myself of janābat,’ as water first touches each limb, i.e. the hands, the face, etc. In other words, it is to keep this intention in one’s heart while washing each limb. This intention is not compulsory in the Hanafī Madhhab. The second fard is to wash the whole body with water. It is also fard to remove all najāsat, if there is any, from the body. It is not fard in the Shāfi’ī Madhhab to wash inside the mouth and nose, that is, to make water reach these parts. But in the Hanafī Madhhab, it is fard to make water reach these parts. For this reason, those who are in the Hanafī Madhhab cannot crown or fill their teeth because in that case water will not reach these parts. Those who have already crowned or filled their teeth because of darūrat will have to imitate the Shāfi’ī Maddhab.”

[It is stated in Al-muqaddamat-ul-izziyya, “In the Mālikī Madhhab, if some najāsat falls into clean water in a container, it is sahīh to use it for ablution or ghusl, yet it is mekrūh. So is the case with mā-i musta’mal (water used for ghusl or ablution). One should enter a toilet taking the left foot first

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[1] For the sake of fluency and simplicity in the delivery of our argument, we have used the word 'necessity' for the technical word 'darūrat', which in turn is explained at various places in the text.

[2] The blessed Islamic scholar, Husayn Hilmi bin Sa'īd Ishiq 'quddisa sirruh', means himself.

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and with something covering one’s head. Urine and excrement of animals with edible flesh are clean. The corpses, bones, nails, horns, skins of these animals or of human beings, semen, mazī, alcoholic drinks are all najs (dirty, foul). Namāz on a thick cloth laid on a najs place or when you are smeared with blood or pus covering an area smaller than a palm, is sahīh (accepted)[1]. It is fard to make a niyyat before beginning a ghusl, to make delk of the whole body [to rub gently with the palm or with a towel], to observe the muwālāt [to wash the limbs one right after another], to make khilāl of the hair and beard (to comb them with the fingers), to undo the tightly plaited hair and to make khilāl of it thoroughly. It is sunnat to wash inside the mouth, nostrils and ears, and to wash the hair. If one remembers later that one forgot to wash a certain part on one’s body, be it a month later, one washes that part immediately. If one does not wash it immediately, one’s ghusl becomes null and void. An ablution is made before or after each ghusl.

Also, it is fard (farz) to make a niyyat before beginning an ablution or when washing the face, to make masah on all the head, on the hanging parts of the hair, on the beard when it is so scarce that the skin under it can be seen, to wash the beard that is thick, to observe muwālāt, that is, to wash the limbs one immediately after the other, and to make delk on the limbs washed before they become dry. It is unnecessary to undo plaited hair. It nullifies the ablution to touch one’s penis with one’s palm or with the inner parts of the fingers, to doubt whether one has made an ablution or whether one’s ablution has broken, to touch a boy’s or a nā-mahram young woman’s skin or hair with lust. [If one touches them without having a sexual appetite and does not feel any lust when one touches, one’s ablution will not be broken. Those Shāfi’īs who cannot help touching women during their daily life, such as while walking, travelling on vehicles or shopping, ought to imitate the Hanafī or Mālikī Madhhab.] Bleeding or other excretions from the body will not break an ablution. A masah is made on the inner and outer parts of the ears with newly moistened fingers. Cutting one’s nails or having a haircut will not break one’s ablution. There are disagreements on whether cutting

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[1] According to a second authentic report in the Mālikī Madhhab, najāsat, regardless of its kind and amount, is not a hindrance to namāz. It is sunnat, not fard, to wash it off.

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or shaving one’s beard will break one’s ablution. Manual istibrā[1] is wājib. Masah is not made on the mests put on after making a tayammum. There is not a limit for the duration within which masah is permissible. The time for the late afternoon prayer lasts until the time called isfirār. The latest time for the night prayer is the first one-third of the night. It is necessary for a person staying in Mekka to turn towards the Ka’ba and for a person outside of Mekka to turn in the direction of Mekka (when performing namāz). It is farz to say ‘Allāhu ekber’ when starting to perform namāz, to recite the Fātiha (while standing in namāz), to stand upright at qawma (after a rukū’), to sit upright at jalsa (between the two sajdas), to make the salām to one side in the sitting posture, and to say ‘As-salāmu ’alaikum’ when making the salām. It is a sunnat to recite the zamm-i-sūra in the first two rak’ats, to sit in the two tashahhuds (sitting postures), to recite the tahiyyat and salawāt, and to make the second salām. It is mustahab to recite the (prayers termed) Qunūt in the second rak’at of the morning prayer, and to raise the pointing finger during the tashahhud (sitting posture)[2]. When something which is sunnat (to do or say during namāz) is forgotten, it is necessary to make sajda-i-shaw. It is sunnat to perform the namāz of ’Iyd and the namāz of janāza. A fāsżk[3] cannot be an imām. It is permissible to follow an imām who is in another Madhhab or who has an excuse(‘udhr).

The distance of safar in the Mālikī Madhhab is the same as it is in the Shāfi’ī Madhhab, that is, it is eighty kilometres. In a safar (journey) that is not sinful, it is sunnat to perform two rak’ats of those farz prayers that have four rak’ats. One becomes muqīm

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[1] Lexical meaning of 'istibrā' is 'to exert yourself, to free yourself from something disagreeable or impure'. In the Islamic branch of Fiqh, it means 'after urination, to make sure that there is no urine left in the urethra lest it should drop into your pants afterwards and dirty them and break your ablution'. Istibrā is done by gently squeezing urine drops out of the penis (manual istibrā), by walking up and down for a while (about twenty minutes), or by lying on your left-hand side for a while. Istibrā has yet another meaning in the branch of Fiqh, used in matters pertaining to conjugal relationships. It is extraneous to the subject being dealt with.

[2] Please see the thirteenth chapter of the third fascicle of Endless Bliss.

[3] Fāsiq means a Muslim who commits sins habitually and frankly. Please see the tenth chapter for a more detailed definition.

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(settled) at a place where one intends to stay for four days. It is mekrūh for a musāfir and a muqīm to be an imām for each other. Those Hanafīs who imitate the Mālikī Madhhab, can be imām for one another whether they are muqīm or musāfir. It is better not to make jam’ of the two prayers of namāz (not to perform them one right after the other within the time allotted for either one of them)[1]. It is sunnat to say the Takbīr-i-teshrīk[2] after the Witr prayer and after the farz of each of the fifteen prayers of namāz during the Bayram (’Iyd).” To imitate another Madhhab while performing a certain act of worship does not mean to leave your own Madhhab. It means to observe the fards and mufsids in that Madhhab, (i.e. to obey the rules that the second Madhhab you are to imitate has established concerning that act of worship and to avoid doing whatsoever the second Madhhab has pronounced to be detrimental to that act of worship.) In wājibs, makrūhs, and sunnats, you follow your own Madhhab. Suppose a Hanafī Muslim imitating the Mālikī Madhhab makes a long-distance journey[3] with the intention of spending four days at his destlnation (and he stays there for four days). He performs all four rak'ats of those fard prayers, (the fard parts of early and late afternoon prayers and that of night prayer,) which consist of four rak'ats, since it is fard to do so (in the Mālikī Madhhab, which he has been imitating, when his sojourn exceeds three days). Because it is makrūh in the Mālikī Madhhab, and sunnat in the Hanafī Madhhab, for a musāfir, (i.e. Muslim making a long-distance journey,) to perform a namāz in jamā'at conducted by an imām who is muqīm, (i.e. who is not a musāfir,) or to conduct, as the imām, a namāz in jamā'at joined by Muslims who are muqīm, in either case he may follow his own Madhhab and perform the so-called prayer (in jamā'at). Performing a certain act of worship by imitating one of the other three Madhhabs is conditional on there being a haraj (difficulty, predicament) in your own Madhhab. Such imitation is not allowable in the absence of a difficulty.]

It is not taqwā for those who have had their teeth crowned or

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[1] This statement does not mean that they must not be performed at all. It means that it is better to perform each prayer in its prescribed

[2] To say "Allāhu ekber, Allāhu ekber, lā ilāha il-l-Allāhu wallāhu ekber, Allāhu ekber wali-llāh il hamd." Please see chapter 22.

[3] Please see chapter 10 for the definition of 'making jem' of two prayers.

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filled because of some darūrat to imitate the Mālikī or Shāfi’ī Madhhab in ghusl, ablution, and in namāz. Imitating another Madhhab is a way of fatwā, a remedy for a difficulty. The zindīqs have been neglecting many of the fards by using such statements as “There is no difficulty, only facility in the dīn” as a weapon. The true meaning of this statement is: It is easy to do all the commandments of Allahu ta’ālā; He has not commanded anything difficult. Contrary to what those with weak īmān say, it does not mean that Allahu ta’ālā will forgive the things that come difficult to the nafs or that everybody must do what comes easy to him or that He is so compassionate that He will accept them all. Imitating the Shāfi’ī or Mālikī Madhhab because of the teeth is not a difficulty, it is a facility.

Because calcifications called tartar are formed spontaneously by glandular emissions around the root of the teeth, and since there is no medicine to prevent this, there is darūrat here. In all the four Madhhabs, it is not necessary to wash under the tartar that is impossible or hard to remove because it is considered similar to the boil on the skin, a crust or pellicle formed on a wound. There is no need to imitate another Madhhab.

They say, “The problem of crowning and filling the teeth has been solved, the fatwā has been given that they are permissible. The matter has been settled. It has been conveyed that they are not harmful.” They have been giving the name fatwā to subversive propaganda which those politicians and turban-wearing freemasons who had infiltrated into the religious sphere and interfered with the religious matters during the Party of Union spread in order to slander great religious scholars and to defile religious knowledge. The fatwā book entitled Majmūa-i jadīda writes in its second edition, which was printed in Istanbul in 1329 A.H. [1911]: “If while making a ghusl water does not reach a tooth cavity of a person whose tooth cavity has been filled, and if a ghusl is darūrat in this manner, the ghusl becomes accepted.” It writes that this fatwā was given by Hasan Hayrullah Efendi, the 113th Shaikh-ul-Islām. But the fatwā does not exist in the first edition [in 1299] of the book. And Hayrullah Efendi, in his turn, became the Shaikh-ul-Islām for the second time on 18 Rabī-ul-awwal 1293, coinciding with May 11, 1876, and retired on Rajab 15, 1294, which coincided with December 26,

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1877. If he had given the so-called fatwā, it should exist in the first edition of the book. It is written in the preface of the second edition: “Commanded by the time’s Shaikh-ul-Islām, Mūsā Kāzżm, we have added several fatwās that are not in the first edition.” While the name of the fiqh book from which each fatwā is derived, together with what it communicates, is appended to the fatwā, no such references are given with the abovementioned fatwā on teeth. We must be vigilant so as not to undermine our īmān and worships by believing novel writings and fatwās such as these which have been prepared insidiously in order to mislead Muslims.

We do not want to say that the ghusl and the namāz of those who have had their teeth crowned or filled will not be sahīh. We want to say that by imitating the Mālikī or Shāfi’ī Madhhab the ghusl and the namāz of those Hanafīs will be sahīh who have had their teeth crowned or filled. We want to show the easy way, the right way to our brothers in Islam who are in this situation. We do not say you should not crown or fill your teeth. We do not advise you not to perform namāz behind an imām who has crowns or fillings, either. See also Chapter 23, p.295. We state the facility shown by religious superiors to those who have crowns and fillings. We write at length for those who are in the Hanafī Madhhab and who want to worship as prescribed by their Madhhab, that is, for those who esteem the Madhhabs highly. We do not write for those who slight the books of the Madhhabs and who want to worship according to their own minds, opinions and thoughts. Ibni ’Ābidīn (rahmatullahi ’alaih), while explaining Ramadān’s crescent, states: “Many of the ahkām change with changing times (conditions). When there is haraj, daīf riwāyat is acted upon.” It is understood from this (statement) that the changing of ahkām (rule of Islam) with time means that when one is in a difficult situation one can act upon the non-mashhūr (not widely known) ijtihāds of the Madhhab scholars. It does not mean that everyone should do what comes easy for him. It is written on the hundred and ninetieth page of the third volume of Durr-ul-mukhtār: “A person who goes out of his Madhhab is to be punished with ta’zīr; that is, he is thrashed and imprisoned.” The

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Fatwā of Sirājiyya states the same. Ibni ’Ābidīn writes on this subject: “It is feared that a person who abandons his Madhhab for worldly advantages may die without īmān.”

For those who have had their teeth crowned or filled to imitate the Shāfi’ī or Māliki Madhhab does not mean to leave the Hanafī Madhhab or to change their Madhhab. They obey the conditions and mufsids in the Shāfi’ī or Māliki Madhhab along with the Hanafī Madhhab only in ghusl, ablution and namāz. It is stated in the chapter about ablution in Ibni Ābidīn and in the two hundred and eighty-sixth letter of Imām-i-Rabbānī’s Mektūbāt that it is mustahab for those who do not have an excuse to observe the fards and mufsids of another Madhhab. While something is permissible in the Shafi’ī and Mālikī Madhhabs but not in the Hanafī Madhhab, a Hanafī Muslim cannot act upon it without any darūrat or haraj. For example, a healthy person, or someone who is in the Hanafī Madhhab but who is imitating the Mālikī Madhhab because he has a crowned tooth, has to renew his ablution in case of a bleeding on his skin or if he discharges (even a drop of) urine. He performs the witr as wājib. He cannot be considered a traveller at a place less than 104 kilometres away, and he cannot make jam’ of his prayers at a place where he will be a traveller for less than four days. On the other hand, a Hanafī Muslim who cannot control his urinary excretion because of illness or old age, that is, as a result of a darūrat, is up against a haraj, a difficulty because he has to renew his ablution (each time he discharges urine); therefore he immediately begins to imitate the Mālikī Madhhab, which in turn will make him a person with an ’udhr and save him from the state of having lost his ablution. (See the last part of the ninth chapter.) Ibni Emir Hajj, who explained the book Tahrīr, says, “The forty-third āyat of Nahl sūra and the seventh āyat of Anbiyā sūra declare: ‘Ask the men of dhikr,’ which means: When you encounter an event ask those who know what you are to do. This āyat-i kerīma shows that it is wājib to follow a mujtahid and to imitate another Madhhab. If, while doing something in accordance with the Madhhab you have been following, a darūrat and a haraj arise at the same time, this thing must be done by imitating one of the other three Madhhabs. An example of this is a Hanafī Muslim’s imitating the Shāfi’ī or the Mālikī Madhhab because he has a filled or crowned tooth.

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If there is a darūrat and a haraj in the other three Madhhabs, too, it will be permissible not to do that thing at all. If there is a haraj in taking out the bandage on a wound and washing the wound, for instance, one will be exempted from washing the wound (when making an ablution or a ghusl). It is not permissible for us who are not mujtahids but muqallids to interpret āyats and hadīths and act upon our own understanding by saying that the Sahāba did so.” When beginning to explain the tahārat, Ibni Ābidīn states, “It is not necessary for a muqallid to inquire about the proofs and documents for the information coming from a mujtahid.”] [See Endless Bliss II, Chapter 34].