Question 342 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 4

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Question 342

1) What we have learned, through Allah’s granting of success, from you-may Allah send prayers and peace upon you, your fathers, and your family-and what we have derived from the book The Laws of Islam is that the expiation for intentionally breaking the fast on one day of the month of Ramadan is either freeing a slave, fasting two consecutive months, or feeding sixty poor people, with the person free to perform whichever of them he wishes for that. If he is unable to free a slave or feed sixty poor people, he must fast two consecutive months. If he is also unable to fast them, he fasts eighteen days. If he is completely unable to fast, he seeks Allah’s forgiveness, and that is his expiation. Breaking the fast with something prohibited during the daytime of the month of Ramadan requires three expiations: freeing a slave, feeding sixty poor people, and fasting two consecutive months. With something permissible, it is an expiation by choice, as we explained. If he cannot find a slave, he pays its price to the Imam or his successor. A: If the expiation applicable to one who intentionally broke the fast for one day in the month of Ramadan is seeking forgiveness, and after seeking forgiveness he becomes able to perform one of the expiations, such as freeing a slave or feeding sixty poor people-or, after seeking forgiveness, he becomes able only to fast the two consecutive months-what is required in this case, my master? B: If he cannot find a slave, he pays its price to the Imam, his successor, or those whom they appoint for that. What is the amount for freeing a slave in this age? 2) My master, you mentioned in The Laws, the second objective, the fourth paragraph of the Book of Fasting: ‘If he breaks the fast during a time that he vowed specifically to fast, he must make it up and offer a major expiation by choice.’ A: What is meant by vowing specifically to fast it? B: What is the manner of making it up? Is it one day made up for every day on which he broke the fast, or what? And what is the major expiation by choice for one who breaks the fast during such a time? 3) This is a group of separate questions that also appeared on the forum: A: My master, you mentioned that hair growth is among the signs of puberty. Is what is meant coarse hair on the pubic region and the armpit, or is growth in either one alone sufficient as a sign of puberty? B: What is the price of a gram of silver in the dowry of al-Zahra (a)? Is the price per gram in the dowry the price of raw silver by the gram-that is, bullion-or the price of worked (fashioned) silver by the gram? There is a difference between their prices. 4) My master, you answered an earlier question concerning what a woman must cover with the following answer: The Exalted said: ‘Tell the believing women to lower their gaze, guard their private parts, and not display their adornment except what appears thereof; and let them draw their head coverings over their bosoms, and not display their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their women, those whom their right hands possess, male attendants having no sexual desire, or children who are not yet aware of women’s private aspects; and let them not strike their feet so that what they conceal of their adornment may be known. Turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, so that you may succeed’ (^[95]). What a woman may show before unrelated men is the face, hands, and feet. What a woman may show before her unmarriageable relatives is the necklace and what is above it, what she needs to uncover of the hands during ablution, and the middle of the shin and what is below it. Her husband may see her entire body. I read your answer, my master-my Lord’s prayers be upon you-and you unveiled for us truths that we did not know before. Through you, the Ahl al-Bayt-Allah’s peace be upon you-we have been illuminated by your light. I ask Allah to increase me in knowledge of you and allow me to draw ever more from your spring. I ask you, my master, because some matters remained unclear to me. I hope you will clarify them for us so that the benefit may become general. They are branches of the preceding issue: A: What is meant by ‘adornment’ in the noble verse, and what does it encompass for a woman? What is the age limit of ‘children who are not yet aware of women’s private aspects’? What is meant by His, the Exalted’s, statement, ‘and let them not strike their feet so that what they conceal of their adornment may be known’? B: I read your answer, my master, in which you clarified what a woman must cover, but I did not learn the limits of what a woman must cover when the one looking at her is her mother; a grandmother through either parent, however high; or legally responsible women such as a sister through either parent, her daughters, the daughters of a brother or sister however low, a daughter, a husband’s daughter after consummation, a paternal aunt or an aunt of either parent, or a maternal aunt or an aunt of either parent. What are the limits of what a woman must cover before a discerning child, whether the child is male or female, from among her children however low, her sisters, or discerning children unrelated to her? What are the limits of what a woman must cover when the one looking at her is one of her male or female children, or someone else, above the age of discernment but below the age of legal responsibility?

Source: The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 4; Author: Imam Ahmed Al-Hasan; Question 342; Page Not available; AL-JAWAB-AL-MUNIR-V4-Q342. View Arabic source · Open the original Arabic source ↗