Thursday, August 30, 2012

Repentance (tawbah) - on compensating for acts of worship deliberately neglected in the past

I have neglected many rights of Allah in the past, such as prayers, fasts, and zakah. Am I required to repeat them or compensate for them?
As far as the five daily prayers are concerned, thepreferred opinion is that the repetition or compensation (or what is known as qadaa' in Arabic), is not obligatory for the reason that prayers are obligatory at a particular time, and once that time has elapsed, there is no way to offer them. However one ought to seek Allah's forgiveness and offer as many nawafil (voluntary prayers) as possible.
As for fasting-yes, if a person was a Muslim at the time they became obligatory and he did not fast, then their performance is required, accompanied by feeding of a poor Muslim for everyday of fast that was not observed during previous years. What is required is always a day for a day-no more, no less.
Example 1: A person did not fast three days of Ramadan of the year 1400 A.H., and five days ofRamadan of the year 1401 A.H., all out of negligence. He must now fast 8 days, and feed eightpoor Muslims in compensation.
Example 2: A girl reached puberty in the Ramadan of the year 1400 A.H. but out of shame and modesty did not inform anyone of her menstruation, and, rather,continued fasting say for eight days of her period. Thereafter, she repented. She would then be required to redo eight days of fasting.
It may also be pointed out here that this is the predominant position. A minority opinion is that the ruling for fasting is the same as that for the prayers, i.e., there is no qadaa' (making up) for fasting in the case of a person who did not fast and did not have a valid reason for not fasting.
As for he who did not offer the obligatory zakah, it is necessary for arepentant to them for all previous unpaid years, forit is, from one angle, Allah's right, while from another, the poor people'sright. (See Madaarij Al-Salikin for further details).
Excerpts from the book"I would like to repent BUT..."

:-* key word:- Tawbah/ - - - :-> Transtors: 1.http://free-translation.imtranslator.net/lowres.asp 2.http://translate.google.com/m?twu=1&hl=en&vi=m&sl=auto&tl=en

No comments:

Post a Comment