It is permissible for men to dye their hair or beard any colour except black. Also there are those savants who have said that it is permissible to dye it black, too. It is not permissible for them to dye their hands, feet, or nails. For it would be an act of imitating a woman. It is permissible for a woman to dye those parts with a dye, provided that it will not prevent them from being washed in an ablution and in a ghusl, and provided they will not show them to men.
It is written on the twelve hundred and twenty-ninth page of the second volume of the 1284 - Istanbul edition of the book Berîqa by hadrat Muhammad Hâdimî (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih): “It is not permissible for women to shave their hair and for men to shave their beard. If a woman has a beard she is permitted to shave it. A hadîth-i sherîf declares: “Shorten your moustache! Grow your beard.”According to this command, it is against the sunnat to shave the beard. If this hadîth-i sherîf denoted wujûb, it would be harâm to shave the beard. The book Tâtârhâniyya says, borrowing from Tajnis[170], that this hadîth-i sherîf means: ‘Do not shave your beard, nor grow it shorter than a small handful’. Such statements as, ‘A person who shaves his beard or who grows it shorter than a handful is not permitted to be the imâm. Also the namâz which he performs alone becomes mekrûh. He is accursed and refused both in this world and in the next,’ which are said to have been derived from Tahtâwî, or words like them that are said to have been derived from Tafsîr-i Qurtubî[171], do not have any foundation, nor have they been proven to be true.” It is written on the thirteen hundred and thirty-sixth page, “It is also harâm for women to slenderize their eye-brows by plucking them, and it is permissible for them to pull out or to shave the hairs growing on their foreheads, cheeks, and chins.” After cutting the hair, the beard or other hairs, the hairs cut must be buried or put on a grave or on a place that is not trodden upon, or in the sea. It is not sinful to throw them away. It is mekrûh to throw them into toilets or into wash-basins where kitchen utensils are washed. It is mekrûh to cut the nails with the teeth. It causes the disease called speckles. It is harâm for women to show their cut parts to men.
It is sunnat for men to shave their head or to grow their hair and comb it by parting it into two. It is mekrûh for them to curl or plait their hair. It is written in the book Bahr-ur-râiq, in the chapter Al-karîhiyya: “It is permissible for a man to shave the top of his head and grow the surrounding hair. Yet it is mekrûh to curl and plait it. To plait the hair is to be like some kafirs (disbelievers.)” Also it is seen that it is mekrûh, not harâm to do something forbidden because it is like the customs of disbelievers. Therefore, thehadîth-i sherîfs “Do not be like mushriks (polytheists). Grow a beard!” and “Perform your salât with na’ls on. Do not be like the Jews!” show that it is mekrûh, not harâm to shave the beard and to perform salât with bare feet. See the chapter on the mekrûhs of namâz, article 25!
It is mekrûh to fast only on Fridays or to perform the namâz of tahajjud (the namâz performed after midnight) only on Friday nights. It is harâm to perform any namâz when the sun is right on top, [that is, during the time beginning from the moment as long before the time of early afternoon prayer as the time called Tamkîn till the early afternoon prayer.] A more dependable word is that of those savants who say that it is harâm to perform any namâz during that time even on Fridays.
On Fridays souls come together and meet one another. Graves are visited. Torment in graves is stopped on that day. According to some savants, Believers’ torment does not begin again. But a disbeliever’s torment continues until Rising Day except on Fridays and in Ramadân. Those Believers who die on that day or during that night are never tormented in their graves. Hell is not very hot on Friday. Hadrat Adam (alaihissalâm) was created on Friday. He was taken out of Paradise on Friday. Those who will be in Paradise will see Allahu ta’âlâ on Fridays.
The following passage is translated from Riyâd-un-nâsihîn:
Allahu ta’âlâ has assigned Friday to Muslims. He declares at the end of Jum’a sûra:“O my slaves who have been honoured with imân! When the adhân (azân) of early afternoon prayer is said on Friday run to the mosque to listen to the khutba and to perform Friday prayer. Stop buying and selling! Friday prayer and the khutba are more useful to you than your other businesses. After performing Friday prayer you may leave the mosque and disperse so that you can do your wordly affairs. You work, and expect your sustenance from Allahu ta’âlâ. Remember Allahu ta’âlâ very often so that you will be saved!” After the namâz those who want to work may go out to work, and those who want to spend their time reading the Qur’ân al-kerîm and praying may stay in the mosque. Buying and selling is sahîh during the prayer time, yet it is sinful. Rasûlullah (sallallâhu alaihi wasallam) declared: “If a Muslim makes a ghusl and goes to the mosque for Friday prayer, his week’s sins will be forgiven and he will be given blessings for each step.” A hadîth-i sherîf declares: “The most valuable of days is Friday. Friday is more valuable than the days of ’Iyd and the day of Ashûra (the tenth day of Muharram). Friday is the Believers’ day of feast in this world and in the next.” Another hadîth-i sherîf declares: “Allâhu ta’âlâ seals the hearts of those who do not perform the Friday prayer. They become unaware.” Another hadîth declares: “If a person does not perform three Friday prayers though there is no hindrance, Allahu ta’âlâ seals his heart. That is, he can never do any good.” A person who does not perform a series of three Friday prayers without a good excuse becomes a munâfiq. Abû Alî Daqqâq[172] advised three things as he died: “On Friday perform a ghusl! Every night go to bed with an ablution! Remember Allahu ta’âlâ every moment!” A hadîth-i sherîf declares: “On Fridays there is a moment when any prayer a Believer sends is not refused.” Some savants said that that moment is between the late afternoon and evening azâns. Another hadîth-i sherîf declares: “If you say a certain prayer, ‘Estaghfirullâh-al-azîm-allazî lâ ilâha illâ huwal hayyal qayyûma wa atûbu ilayh,’ before the morning prayer of Friday all your sins will be forgiven.” [But this is conditioned upon your having paid all your (material and spiritual) debts which you owe to creatures, performed the prayers of namâz which you have omitted, and ceased from committing harâms.] Another hadîth declares:“If a person says the sûra of Ikhlâs and the sûras of Mu’awwazatayn seven times after Friday prayer Allahu ta’âlâ protects him against calamities, troubles and evil deeds for one week.” Worships done on Friday are given at least twice as many blessings as those that are given for worships done on other days. And sins committed on Friday are registered two-fold. A hadîth-i sherîf declares: “As Saturday was given to Jews and Sunday to Christians, Friday has been given to Muslims. On this day there are uses, barakats and goodnesses for Muslims.”
The following prayer of istighfâr must be said on Fridays and every day:"Allâhummaghfirlî wa Ii âbâî wa ummahâtî wa li ebnâî wa benâtî wa li ihvetî wa ahawâtî wa li-a'mâmî wa ammâtî wa li ahwâlî wa hâlâtî wa li zawjatî wa abawayhâ wa li-esâtizetî wa li-l-mu’minîna wa-l-mu'minât wa-l-hamdu-li-llâhi Rabb-il-'âlemîn!"
22 – THE NAMÂZ OF ’IYD
The first of the month of Shawwâl is the first day of the ’Iyd of Fitr and the tenth of Zilhijja is the first day of the ’Iyd of Qurbân. On these two days it is wâjib for men to perform two rak’ats of ’Iyd namâz at the time of ishrâq, that is, after the time of karâhat[173] has passed following the sunrise. The conditions for the namâz of ’Iyd are like the conditions for the Friday prayer. But in the former, the khutba is sunnat and is said after the namâz. In the ’Iyd of Fitr it is mustahab to eat something sweet [dates or candy], to make a ghusl, to use the miswâk, to wear the newest clothes, to give the fitra before the namâz, and to say the takbîr softly on the way.
In the ’Iyd of Qurbân it is mustahab not to eat anything before the namâz, to eat the meat of Qurbân first after the namâz, to say the takbîr-i teshrîq loudly, but softly for those who have an excuse, when going for the namâz.
It is written in Halabî-yi kebîr, “The namâz of ’Iyd consists of two rak’ats. It is performed in jamâ’at. It cannot be performed individually. In the first rak’at, after the Subhânaka the takbîr-i zawâid is said three times, that is, the hands are lifted up to the ears three times; in the first and second times, they are let down hanging on both sides, and after the third time they are clasped under the navel. After the imâm says the Fâtiha and the additional sûra aloud, they (the imâm and the jamâ’at) bow for the rukû’. In the second rak’at the Fâtiha and an additional sûra are said first, then the hands are lifted up to the ears three times, and after each time they are let down hanging on both sides. In the fourth takbîr you do not lift your hands up to your ears but instead prostrate for the rukû’. In the first and second rak’ats five and four takbîrs are said respectively. And in order not to forget where you will put your hands in those nine takbîrs, you memorize this procedure as follows: “Hang them twice and clasp them once. Hang them thrice and then prostrate.” It is stated in Mâ-lâ-budda[174], “A person who misses the jamâ’at does not make qadâ of ’Iyd prayer. If they cannot perform it for some excuse, they perform it on the second day of ’Iyd-i-fitr and on the third day of ’Iyd-i-adhâ.”
’Iyd means bayram. Those days are called ’Iyd because every year Muslims’ sins are forgiven in the month of Ramadân and on the Arafa Day and their joy and felicity come back on those days. If the first day of ’Iyd is a Friday, both the namâz of ’Iyd and the namâz of Friday will be performed according to the Hanafî Madhhab. They are performed in their appointed times. If there is a janâza (funeral) on the morning of the ’Iyd the namâz of ’Iyd is performed first. The namâz of janâza is performed after that because the namâz of ’Iyd is wâjib for everybody. However, the namâz of janâza is to be performed before the khutba of the ’Iyd.
It is mekrûh for those who are not on Arafât to assemble at some place and do as the hadjis do on Arafa day (the day before the first day of the ’Iyd of Qurbân). But it is permissible to assemble in order to listen to some Islamic preaching or for doing any other worship. [Please see the seventh chapter in the fifth fascicle of Endless Bliss.]
According to the Imâmayn, from morning prayer on the Arafa day, that is, the day preceding the ’Iyd of Qurbân, until late afternoon prayer on the fourth day, which amounts to twenty-three prayers of namâz in all, it is wâjib for everyone, for men and women, for hadjis and for those who are not making the hajj, for those who are performing namâz in jamâ’at and for those who are performing it alone to say the Takbîr-i teshriq (Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar. Lâ ilâha illallah. Wallahu akbar. Allahu akbar wa lillahil-hamd) once immediately after making the salâm in any namâz that is fard or when making qadâ of any fard namâz for the days of this ’Iyd. This (takbîr) is said after the prayers of Friday, too. It is mustahab to recite it after ’Iyd prayer. It is not said after the namâz of janâza. It is not necessary to say it after leaving the mosque or if you have talked (after the namâz). If the imâm forgets the takbîr, the jamâ’at must not omit it. Men may say it loudly. The second, third and fourth days of the ’Iyd of Qurbân are called Ayyâm-i teshrîq.
It is written in the book Ni’met-i Islâm: “It is sunnat to do the following things on the ’Iyd days: to get up early; to make a ghusl; to clean the teeth with miswâk; to put on perfume [without alcohol]; to put on new and clean clothes; to show that you are happy; to eat sweetmeat before the prayer of the ’Iyd of Fitr; to eat dates; to eat an odd number of them; for one who performs the qurbân, to eat first the meat of qurbân; to perform morning prayer in the masjid of one’s quarter and to go a large mosque for the ’Iyd prayer; to wear a ring on that day; to go to the mosque early and to go on foot; to say the ’Iyd takbîrs softly on the ’Iyd of Fitr and loudly on the ’Iyd of Adhâ; to take a different route on one’s way back [from the mosque]. This is because the places where one offers one’s ibâdat and the routes that one takes when going for ’ibâdat will stand as witnesses on the Day of Judgement; to welcome the Believers [Muslims] with a smiling face and by saying ‘Salâmun ’alaykum’; to give alms generously to the poor [and to give help to those who are working to disseminate true Islam]; to give the sadaqa-i fitr before the ’Iyd prayer.” It is sunnat also to reconcile those who are cross with one another; to visit one’s relatives and brothers-in-Islam, and to give them presents. Finally, it is sunnat for men to visit graves.
[It is stated as follows in hadîth-i sherîfs: “Man takes to those who do them favours,” and “Give presents to one another and you will love one another.” The most valuable and the most useful present is a smiling face and honeyed words. You should always treat everybody with a smiling face and soft words, whether they are friends or enemies, Muslims or disbelievers, unless they are bid’at holders. You should not quarrel with anybody. Quarreling will mar friendship. It will aggravate hostilities. You should not become angry with anybody. A hadîth-i-sherîf admonishes: “Do not become angry!”At times of fitna, mischief, when you see people worshipping a cow, feed straw to the cow lest you should anger them.
23 – THE QADÂ NAMÂZES [OMITTED PRAYERS]
Being an Ibâdat-i badaniyya (physical worship), namâz cannot be performed on behalf of someone else. Everyone has to perform it himself. A person who is seriously ill or very old cannot give fidya [money] to the poor in place of performing namâz. However, he can give fidya as a substitute for fasting when he is not able to fast.
It is written in Halabî-yi kebîr: “A person who has omitted a namâz with an excuse or without an excuse has to make qadâ of it (has to perform it later). Since only in the Hanbalî Madhhab a person who omits a namâz without an excuse becomes a renegade, he does not have to make qadâ of a namâz. He has to make his tawba for disbelief first.” It is written on its sixth page, “Because it is definitely fard to perform namâz, he who disbelieves it becomes a kâfir. A person who believes it but does not perform it becomes sinful. The case is the same with all the fards that are declared clearly by the Qur’ân, by the sunnat (the Prophet’s hadîths), and by the ijmâ (unanimity of the Sahâba). Those fards that have been inferred through ijtihâd are called muqayyad. A person who disbelieves them does not become a kâfir.” [One who slights these, who follows his own mind, and who despises the word of a mujtahid becomes a kâfir.]
Master Ibrâhim Muhammad Neshât ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, representative of Jâmi’ul azhar in the Republic of Cameroon, says on the twenty-fifth page of the sixth book of the series on Islamic Culture: “All savants have declared that it is a grave sin to omit namâz and that it is necessary to make qadâ of it. Ibn-i Taymiyya said that a person who omitted namâz without a good reason would not have to make qadâ of it, that it was not sahîh to make qadâ of it, that the person would have to perform many supererogatory prayers, do many favours, do many good things, and recite istighfâr a great deal, instead. And an earlier Muslim thinker, Ibn Hazm, too, put forth such heretical thoughts.” Attaching wrong meanings to âyats and hadîths, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Hazm disagreed with the Ahl as-Sunna in this respect too, and fanned the flames of the heretical idea that good deeds could replace namâz. This has been one of the most harmful wounds that they inflicted on Islam.
It is written on the two hundred and fifty-sixth page of Durr-ul-mukhtâr: “It is harâm to perform the fard namâz after its prescribed time is over, that is, to leave it to qadâ, without a good excuse.” It is written on its four hundred and eighty-fifth page: “It is a grave sin to perform namâz after its prescibed time without an excuse, [that is, without one of the good reasons prescribed by the Sharî’at]. This sin is not forgiven when the namâz is performed later. In addition to making qadâ of it, it is necessary to make tawba and to make hajj. When the qadâ is made, only the sin of not having performed the namâz is forgiven. If you make tawba without making qadâ of the namâz, neither the sin of omitting the namâz nor the sin of delaying it is forgiven. The basis for this is that acceptance of the tawba requires eliminating the sin.”
[Some preaching books say that the namâz of four rak’ats is performed in the name of Kaffârat-i namâz after the last Friday prayer of the blessed month of Ramadân. They even write the prayers to be said at each rak’at and after the salâm. This namâz, they say, will serve as the kaffârat for all the prayers of namâz that you have omitted previously, and all of them will be forgiven. This statement is true. But this namâz, like all other worships done at sacred times, is for the admittance of the tawba which you perform for the forgiveness of the sin of not having performed the fard prayers of namâz during their appointed times, provided that you should have made qadâ of them. The omitted prayers of namâz will never be forgiven unless you make qadâ of them. Likewise, the kaffârat for fasting does not make up for the debt of fasting; it is necessary also to make qadâ for as many days as you did not fast.]
The following writing has been translated from Durr-ul-mukhtâr:
When performing the fard of the five daily prayers and the namâz of Witr and when making qadâ of them, it is necessary to observe the tertîb. That is, when performing namâz it is necessary to pay attention to the order of time. Also the fard of Friday prayer must be performed at the time of the day’s early afternoon prayer. A person who cannot wake up for the morning prayer has to make qadâ of it as soon as he remembers it, even if he remembers it during the khutba. Unless a person performs a prayer, it is not permissible for him to perform the five prayers following it. A hadîth-i sherîf declares: “If a person who has over-slept or forgotten a prayer remembers it while performing the following prayer in jamâ’at, he must finish the prayer together with the imâm and then make qadâ of the previous prayer! Then he must perform again the one that he has performed with the imâm!”
Performing any namâz in its prescribed time is called adâ. When you begin to perform a supererogatory prayer, it will be its time. Performing any namâz for the second time before its time is over is named iâda. If a namâz is not performed in its time, performing it after its prescribed time is over is named qadâ. It is fard to make qadâ of a fard. It is wâjib to make qadâ of a wâjib. We are not commanded to make qadâ of a sunnat. If a person makes qadâ of a sunnat the namâz that he has performed becomes supererogatory and he does not get the blessings of the sunnat.
[It is written in a Shiite book, “If a person who has not performed his prayers of namâz with good excuses dies, his protector performs them or has them performed by someone else for money. It is permissible to save a dead person from his debts by having his other worships performed by someone else for money, too.”]
The qadâ can be performed at any time except the three times cited in the tenth chapter. If a person remembers that he did not perform the witr before he begins the morning prayer or as he performs it, his morning prayer will not be accepted. The morning prayer will be accepted only in case there is only enough time so as to be able to perform the witr namâz before sunrise. This means to say that if at the end of a prayer time there is not enough time to make the qadâ also, the necessity to make the qadâ first lapses. If a person who performed the fard of the time’s namâz while thinking that there was very little time left finds out later that there is enough time, he makes the qadâ and then performs the time’s fard again. If he forgets that he has a namâz of qadâ as he begins the time’s namâz or as he performs the namâz, the namâz that he performs is accepted even if he remembers the qadâ after the namâz. For it is an excuse to forget.
Another reason that excuses the necessity of performing the prayers of qadâ in order of time is when the number of the prayers of qadâ equals six. A person who omitted six successive fard prayers, or performed them but they were unacceptable is not a person with tertîb. In this case he does not have to pay attention to the sequence of time between the prayers of qadâ themselves or between the qadâ prayers and the daily prayers that he is to perform in time. For example, if a person who has not performed a fard prayer performs the five daily prayers though he remembers it, the five prayers will not be accepted and as a result the number of prayers that he has not performed will be six. The namâz of witr is not taken into consideration here. But those fard prayers that have not been performed before are added into the calculation.
The fourth reason that eliminates the necessity of observing the order of time among the prayers of namâz is not to know the fact that time order is necessary. It is excusable not to know something on which there is no Nass or ijmâ’. For example, if a person who has not performed the morning prayer performs the early afternoon prayer though he remembers it, the early afternoon prayer is not acceptable. Then if he makes qadâ of the morning prayer and performs the late afternoon prayer, the late afternoon prayer is acceptable. For he thinks that the early afternoon prayer that he performed has been accepted. If a person has more than five prayers of qadâ and if, as he makes qadâ of them, the number of prayers which he did not perform becomes fewer than six, the necessity of observing the time order does not reapply. He may perform the remaining prayers without paying attention to their sequence.
If a person has fewer than six prayers that he did not perform, the daily prayers that he performs without observing this time order are not accepted. But this, according to Imâm-i a’zam, depends on a condition. When the number of prayers that he has performed later and the number of prayers left to qadâ add up to six, the prayers that he has performed later become acceptable again. For example, if a person does not perform one fard prayer or the witr, the prayers that he performs later are not accepted. If he makes qadâ of the prayer which he has omitted before having performed the fifth prayer, the prayers that he has performed become supererogatory prayers. If the time of the fifth prayer is over before he performs the omitted prayer, the number of prayers not accepted, when added to the omitted prayer, becomes six. In this case, the five prayers which he has performed become acceptable again. However, during each prayer that he performs he must remember that he has a prayer of qadâ. If he has not remembered during a few of them, they are not added into the calculation. If a person who has not performed the morning prayer performs the following prayers, as the sun rises the following day, all the five prayers he has performed become acceptable.
According to the Imâmayn, the unacceptability of the prayers that are performed with no regard to time order does not depend on any conditions; it is categorical.
A person who cannot stand, or who may suffer harm or feels dizzy if he stands, performs the fard prayers sitting at the place where he makes the sajda. He bows for the rukû’ and places his head on the floor for the sajda. For a person who can stand for a little while by leaning on a wall, on a stick or on a person, it is fard to say the takbîr while standing up and to remain standing at least long enough for that. A person who is unable to prostrate for the sajda must make the sajda on something hard that is less than 25 cm high and which has been put on the floor beforehand. A person who has a wound on his forehead puts only his nose on the floor, and a person with a wound on his nose puts only his forehead on the floor. A person who has excuses both on his nose and on his forehead, and who therefore cannot put his head down on the floor or on a similar hard thing, performs the namâz sitting, with signs, even if he can stand. That is, he bends a little for the rukû’, and bends even more for the sajda. To make the sajda, it is tahrîmî mekrûh for him or for someone else to lift up something from the floor in order to make sajda on it. As is written in the books Fath-ul-qadîr, Marâqîl-falâh, Halabî, and Majmâ’ul anhur, one day Rasûlullah (sallallâhu alaihi wasallam) visited a sick person. When he saw that the person lifted up a pillow and made the sajda on it, he removed the pillow. This time the sick person picked up a piece of wood and made the sajda on it. Rasûlullah removed the piece of wood, too, and stated: “Make the sajda on the floor if you can! If you cannot bend down to the floor do not lift something up to your face to make sajda on it! Perform the namâz by signs and for the sajda bend more than you do for the rukû’!” If a person bends more than he does for the rukû’ when making the sajda on something propped up, he will have performed the namâz by signs, and his namâz will become sahîh. Therefore, it is unnecesary to lift up something with hands.
Ibrâhîm Halabî (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih) says on the six hundred and eighteenth page of Halabî-i kebîr, “If the medicine put on a person’s tooth in order to stop vehement pain prevents him from saying the prayers, he follows the imâm if there is little amount of time left. If there is not an imâm he performs the namâz without saying the prayers.”
A person who cannot sit properly because of some pain in one of his limbs, sits as he likes. He may even stretch his legs towards the qibla in order to sit. He leans against a pillow or something else, or someone may support or hold him and prevent him from falling. It is not permissible for him to sit on something high and perform the namâz with signs. [The namâz of a person who performs it sitting in a chair is not acceptable. For there is no darûrat for sitting on a chair. He who can sit on a chair can sit on the floor as well, and therefore he has to perform namâz sitting on the floor. Someone should help a sick person stand up who cannot stand up from the floor, even if he can stand up easily from a chair, after namâz. Or, the sick person can perform the namâz sitting without hanging his feet down from a divan laid towards the qibla. After namâz, he can hang down his feet from one side of the divan and can stand up as he would from a chair.] A sick person who cannot sit up on the floor, lean up against something, or be held up by someone else must perform namâz lying on his back. He stretches his feet towards the qibla. He puts a pillow under his head, thus his face being turned towards the qibla, or he lies on his right or left with his face towards the qibla. He makes signs with his head for the rukû’ and the sajda. A conscious but sick person who cannot perform his prayers of namâz even by such signs does not make qadâ of any of them, even if he cannot perform namâz for more than a day. So is the case with a person who, for some reason not caused by himself or due to an illness, remains unconscious or oblivious so as to forget the number of sajdas or rak’ats for more than a period comprising five salâts. One who becomes unconscious by taking alcoholic drinks, narcotics or a medicine has to make qadâ of all the prayers he has not performed even if they stretch over a period of several days.
A person who finds himself on his de