Assalamu alaikum respected brothers. I wish for assistance in some foolishness that I committed. I was speaking to my wife in a sarcastic manner in a “good natured way.” Alhamdu Lillah, she is 8 months pregnant now, and as such, it is natural that she is unable to do everything she has been in the past. I used this shortcoming which she is not to be blamed for to poke fun at her. Then, in a jokingly manner, I suggested to her what means “No more marital relations, huh?” as a joke punishment for her (I had in mind that a wife can withhold herself from her husband if he does not fulfill his duties). I then told her that I- finishing my own joke- won`t be able to fulfill that. Is what I did considered a form of Zihar? If so, am I now obliged to fast for two consecutive months as well as it being counted as one divorce? May Allah forgive me for that shortcoming, but I had neither Zihar or divorce as remotely my intention, but once I said it, I realized that I was joking too far. May Allah forgive all of our shortcomings. Assalamu alaikum.

All praise be to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad.

Although your question is a bit unclear, I don’t see what could be labeled as zihar in this case.
(Zihar = when a man says to his wife: you are as forbidden to me as the back of my mother, or something to that extent where a man would liken his wife to a woman, or part of a woman, who is permanently forbidden to him).

Allah knows best.

Assalamu Alikum
Jazakum ALLAH Kheir for answering my questions. 1) Do I have to pay Zakat on my Apartment back home, this apartment is for me to live in when I visit home overseas and when I will move back home for good. 2) Do I have to pay Zakat on this apartment if I decided to sell it with intention to replace it with better one? 3) Can I give all my Zakat money to my sister; she is a widow with no income. 4) Can I hold Zakat money after it is do and divide it to 12 parts and give to my sister a part every month? 5) Can I give Zakat money before do date if somebody needs it? I apologize for asking more than one question and I pray to ALLAH to bless you all. Assalamu Alikum

All praise be to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad.

1. No, you don’t have to pay Zakat on this apartment.
2. No, you don’t have to pay Zakat as long as you still use it, and it has not become purely merchandise, once you are only keeping it as merchandise, it becomes zakatable.
3. Yes, you may give your sister your Zakat money and all of your relatives except your ancestors and descendents.
4. If you do that for her benefit, you must separate the money from yours and consider it hers, and give it to her in installments. People in your household must know it is your sister’s money. In general, the Zakat must be given away once it is due.
5. Yes, you may give your Zakat money before it is due by up to one year.

May Allah reward you.

Allah knows best.

Bismillah As-Salamu `Alaikum
I would like to ask for a fatwa on an important matter, and I ask you please to put also the reference of eventual madh-haib used. BarakAllah Fik. I have known a girl for marriage, a Muslim girl. Her parents are divorced and remarried, both are Muslims. She lives with her mother in the UK. She will be this year 16 years of age. She’s been married and she’s been divorced once, exactly they told me the divorced was given her by communication of from the former husband to her father, as she was make the marriage abroad in Kuwait, and then turn to UK to her mother, and after some days her father told her, that husband divorced her. The date of divorce is 05-05-2006. She have a brother (from his father and a other wife) visiting her sometimes living on her same country, and 2 little brothers (Form his mother and a step dad) under that are so little less that 10 years I think. I would like know how I can get marry with her and when, who can do her wakil, also, please advice me, BarakAllahu Fik. Abdullatif

All praise be to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad.

The person who will be her guardian (Waley) is her father.
You may marry her after three periods from the divorce, if she had a consummated marriage. If they were only contracted and they didn’t move in together, then there is no waiting period and you may marry her at any time. All of this given she is not pregnant, in which case, she will need to wait until child birth before she gets married.

Allah knows best.

Assalam Alaikum Yet again another question from a Islamic yahoo group. salaam alaikum to those who may not know me my name is “so and so “and I am a convert for 1½ years now alhamdulillah. I got married approx. 11 months ago to a man in Jordan. My husband is still in Jordan where as I came back to America a month or so after our marriage. We have been apart for roughly 10 months. Recently we was talking on the phone when I made a comment about putting on a few extra pounds since he last saw me because I am suppose to go to Jordan in 3 weeks to stay with him until he is able to come to America after Ramadan insha Allah. I then proceeded to joke and say maybe he will give me talaq and find a skinny woman. Then suddenly he did just that “talaq talaq talaq” I was devistated and I said I can’t believe you just divorced me. He said he didn’t that he just said it and in his heart he has no intentions and that I am misunderstanding. I said no I think even if you joke it is still talaq. So I looked up fatwas from sunnipath and other sources, called my local imam, and consulted another scholar they all said that this is talaq and pointed me into the direction of Quran and hadiths. My husband and his family are saying this is not true that the same thing happened to his sister 1 month ago and they went to the shaihk in Jordan and he made her husband pay some money and everything was fine, I asked where in the hadiths is this. because everything I am reading is saying we are really divorced and I have to remarry someone else consummate and get talaq in order to be able to be with my husband again one source said that, and another source said that this only counts as 1 talaq and right now I am in Iddah and he has to accept me back within my iddah and all will be fine. then if he does it again 2 more separate incidents then its 3 talaqs. Please help me because I need to do what Allah wants not what some people say is their version of what’s right. If I am right in my thinking and I have to have another husband could I marry consummate and ask him to divorce me or do I have to start a real marriage all over again. I really don’t want to I just want to be with my husband but I have to set aside what I want and do what Allah decrees. Also no one in his family is accepting what I am suspecting they are disputing me without any quran or sunnah references and I fear if I am right that how can I break this to them? I really don’t know what to do and I just need some competent guidance.

All praise be to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad.

This matter is controversial. While some consider this as three divorces, others consider those three divorces pronounced in the same session to count as one.
I believe they count as one, since this used to be the case during the time of the Prophet, Abu Bakr and the beginning of the rulership of Omar as reported by Muslim from Ibn Abbas. Then, Omar punished those who committed the sin of repeating the talaq trice by counting them as three. This doesn’t change the initial rule, and it seems that those three divorces count as one.
You may go back to your husband, and warn him that what he did was utterly wrong, and one divorce was counted against him and if he divorced you two more times, you can’t go back to him until you have married - for real - another man, and got divorced from him. You can’t get married just to go back to the first one.

Allah knows best.

Salam Alaykom, I am a student in college, I was just accepted into the bio technology program. There has been a lot of discussion about Stem Cell Research. I sit and listen because I do not know the Islamic rulings on this issue. I know this is an extensive subject but, please give some basic rulings on this issue.

All praise be to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad.

Thank you for contacting us and may Allah grant you success in your studies and all of your future endeavors.

Islam is not against stem cell research, yet the issue would be from where we take the cells.
If you take them from an adult person, there would be no harm, but the remaining stem cells in adults are limited. If you take them from the placenta and umbilical cord, that is also Ok. If you take them from spontaneously aborted fetuses, that is Ok as well. But it is forbidden to induce abortion to take them or fertilize human ova to obtain stem cells thereof, likewise would be cloning for stem cells, since all kinds of human cloning are forbidden even if they were in the very early stages of genesis.

Allah knows best.