Is It Necessary to Remarry After Embracing Islam?
Adil Salahi, Arab News

Q. My wife and I were married under the civil law of our country, where Muslims are only a minority. At the time, my wife had not yet embraced Islam. Now she is a Muslim, thank God. Do we have to remarry under Islamic law?

N. Militon

A. No you do not have to remarry. Your marriage is valid under Islamic law. During the Prophet’s lifetime, there were many cases of husbands and wives embracing Islam at different times. Sometimes the woman accepted Islam before her husband and sometimes it was the husband who was the first to become a Muslim. The Prophet approved all their marriages. He did not ask any couple to revalidate their marriage under Islamic law. In the case of the Prophet’s own daughter, Zaynab, she embraced Islam many years before her husband. She became a Muslim in the early days of Islam, while he only became a Muslim in year 6 after the Hijrah, i.e. 19 years after the start of the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him). For four years before that, she lived with her father, the Prophet, in Madinah while her husband, Abu Al-Aas, lived in Makkah. Yet when he embraced Islam, they rejoined in marriage, without going through a new marriage contract.

Trading in Shares

Q.1. I trade in shares and this means that at times I keep shares for a long while, and I may sell them on the same day I buy them. Is this permissible? Can I invest in all stocks?

Q.2. Can we read the Qur’an and request that the reward of such reading be given to our dead relatives? In this connection, can we visit dargahs as we visit graves?

Q.3. What is the correct way of ablution, or ghusl, for both husband and wife after intercourse? Can they be naked when they have sex?

Q.4. Is the prohibition of wearing gold by men mentioned in the Qur’an?

Aishah

A.1. To start with, buying and selling shares for profit is permissible. The shares thus bought and sold should be treated in the same way as other merchandise. Therefore, on the day when the holder pays his Zakah, he should include the value of all the shares he is holding, whether he has retained them for a long while or just bought them, as part of his assets and must pay Zakah on them according to their value on the day. The rate of Zakah on such assets is 2.5 percent of the total value. Here we distinguish such a person from one who buys shares in a particular company and retains them as he feels the company is trading well. He is looking to receive dividends for his investment. Such a person pays Zakah on the dividends he receives at the rate of 10 percent. His Zakah is due on the day he receives the dividends.

As for the type of shares one can buy and sell, the important point to clarify is the position of a person so trading in shares for the duration between buying and selling them. Is this person an owner of a portion of the company whose shares he holds, or simply a co-traveler for part of the way, or indeed neither? Equally important is to consider whether by buying and selling these shares he is promoting its business. If he is an owner of part of the business, even though it is a tiny part, he must not hold shares in any business that Islam forbids. Thus, he cannot be a shareholder in wine brewing or selling companies, or in usurious financial institutions, or entertainment companies that rely on practices which Islam forbids. It is indeed far more preferable to avoid dealing in such shares whatever his position is.

A.2. If you want to gift the reward of your Qur’an recitation to your parents or someone else who is deceased, you should make this intention at the time of your reading. You request God to credit this reward to them. You do not need to say that you gift it first to the Prophet and then to your parents. It should be to your parents directly. The Prophet (peace be upon him) receives this reward for all the good deeds Muslims do, because he taught them to do these deeds.

A dargah is a place where someone is buried whom people think to have been a saint. They do some rituals there and appeal to that dead person to help them with things in their lives. Some functions are also held there, particularly on the death anniversary of that person. All this is forbidden in Islam. Some of these practices are tantamount to associating partners with God, and this takes a person out of Islam altogether. Never visit such a place for any reason.

A.3. What is required in grand ablution, or ghusl, is to wash one’s whole body, including one’s head, with water. This is required after sex, or after a wet dream or ejaculation for a man, and after completing her menstrual period and postnatal discharge for a woman. A woman does not need to undo her hair for this ablution. She can take water with her hand and wet her head with it, three times. If the husband and wife are in a closed room, they may be naked.

A.4. The prohibition of wearing gold and silk for men is not mentioned in the Qur’an, but in an authentic Hadith. This means that the prohibition is no less valid because God commands us in the Qur’an to do whatever the Prophet bids us and to refrain from whatever he forbids us.

And whatever the Prophet gives u accept it & whatever he forbids u abstain from” – Surah: Al-Hashr (59); Ayah # 7

 

IMPORTANT: Questions are answered by: Sheikh Adil Salahi. He can be reached at: islam@arabnews.com

Questions on religious matters may be sent to the following address which is being normally forwarded to the appropriate channel for reply and clarification:

Islam in Perspective Section, Arab News, P O Box: 10452, Jeddah-21433, SAUDI ARABIA