Dought&clear, - If he apostatized then repented,and he owed prayers, fasts or zakaah before he apostatized, then he must make them up

There is someone who apostatized, and before he apostatized, he had
some prayers and fasts that he had to make up but did not. If he comes
back to Islam, does he still have to make them up, or is everything
erased and does he become like someone who is new in Islam?
Praise be to Allah
Firstly:
If the apostate repents, he does not have to make up prayers or fasts
that he did not do during the time of apostasy, because repentance
erases what came before it.
Shaykh Ibn Baaz (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked:
Does the apostate have to make up prayers and fasts if he comes back
to Islam and repents?
He replied:
He does not have to make them up; whoever repents, Allah accepts his
repentance. If a person does not pray, or he does something that
nullifies Islam, then Allah guides him and he repents, then he does
not have to make them up.
This is the correct scholarly view, because Islam erases that which
came before it, and repentance erases that which came before it.
Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, said:"Say to those who have
disbelieved, if they cease (from disbelief) their past will be
forgiven" [al-Anfaal 8:38]. Here Allah, may He be glorified and
exalted, states that if the disbeliever becomes Muslim, Allah will
forgive him everything that he did in the past.
The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said:
"Repentance erases that which came before it, and Islam erases that
which came before it."
End quote fromMajmoo' Fataawa Ibn Baaz, 29/196
See also the answer to question no. 197247
Secondly:
But if before he apostatized, the apostate had missed some prayers or
fasts or zakaah, then he must make them up, according to the majority
of scholars.
It says inal-Mawsoo'ah al-Fiqhiyyah(22/201-202):
If the apostate who has repented owed some prayers or fasts or zakaah
that he missed before he apostatized, does he have to make them up?
The majority of Hanafi, Shaafa'i and Hanbali fuqaha' are of the view
that it is obligatory to make them up, because omitting an act of
worship is a sin, and sins remain after apostatizing. End quote.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: In
the case of the apostate, he is not obliged to make up prayers, zakaah
and fasts that he missed during his apostasy, according to the
well-known scholarly view, but he has to make up anything that he
missed before he apostatized, according to the well-known view.
End quote fromMajmoo' al-Fataawa, 22/10
And Allah knows best.

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Dought&clear, - He thought of becoming a Christian; did he commit apostasy?

I have been living in Britain for four years, and a few months ago I
decided to become a Christian! But I did not do it. When I made that
decision, I was saying to myself: If any of them asks me, what is your
religion, I will say that I am a Christian and that Jesus is the "son
of God" (I ask Allah to forgive me for that). But I also used to say
to myself: No; Islam is the only true religion.
Then one day I heard an exhortation of yours on YouTube, and it moved
me deeply. I cancelled that intention that I had made to become
Christian; in other words, I did not go to the church and did not do
anything of that nature.
My question is: are the words that I said to myself sufficient to have
made me become a Christian? And therefore do I have to go to a mosque
and utter the twin declaration of faith (shahaadatayn)?
Praise be to Allah
We praise Allah, may He be exalted, for having opened your eyes to the
seriousness of what you did and your decision to turn to a religion
other than Islam, and for His blessing you so that you changed your
mind before it was too late. We would like to point out two things to
you here:
Firstly:
What you did of deciding to become a disbeliever, and making your mind
up to become a Christian constitutes apostasy from the religion of
Islam, even if you did not actually enter the church or do any of the
other actions that Christians do. Merely deciding to disbelieve
constitutes disbelief in Allah, may He be exalted. The same applies to
a person's indecision as to whether he should turn to another religion
or remain in Islam.
Imam an-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Deciding to become
a disbeliever in the future constitutes disbelief in the present. The
same applies to indecision as to whether to disbelieve or not; it
constitutes disbelief in the present. That also applies to making
disbelief conditional upon some future matter.
End quote fromRawdat at-Taalibeen, 10/65. Something similar was said
inNihaayat al-Muhtaajand elsewhere. See also:Majma' al-Anhaar(a Hanafi
book), 1/688
InHaashiyat al-Bujayrimi 'ala al-Khateebit says:
Intending to disbelieve now or to disbelieve in the future constitutes
disbelief in the present, because intending to be a Muslim forever is
essential, so if he decides to disbelieve (in the future), he has
already disbelieved.
InHaashiyat al-Jamal(5/122) it says something similar.
Secondly:
It is not one of the conditions of your repentance that you should
announce that in the mosque or Islamic centre, especially since you
made that decision in your own mind and it did not result in spreading
disbelief or mischief among the Muslims. As that is the case, it is
sufficient for you to repent sincerely to your Lord, may He be
glorified and exalted, to utter the Shahaadatayn, and adhere to the
religion of Allah, may He be exalted, in all your affairs, and to
disbelieve in all other religions.
If you do ghusl before that, that would be good, in sha Allah.
We advise you to seek knowledge and devote yourself to acts of worship
and obedience, because the one who does that will increase and
strengthen his faith. You should also be keen to offer supplication
(du'aa'), for it is the weapon of the believer, by means of which
Allah will ward off evil from you and will protect you, by virtue of
your remembrance of Him, from the tricks of your enemy and His enemy.
And Allah knows best.

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Dought&clear, - If a slanderer repents, can his testimony be accepted?

If a slanderer repents from his slander and mends his ways, can his
testimony be accepted or not?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Allaah has stipulated three punishments for slander. They are: the
hadd punishment; rejection of testimony; and describing the slanderer
as an evildoer (Faasiq).
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
"And those who accuse chaste women, and produce not four witnesses,
flog them with eighty stripes, and reject their testimony forever.
They indeed are the Faasiqoon (liars, rebellious, disobedient to
Allaah).
5. Except those who repent thereafter and do righteous deeds; (for
such) verily, Allaah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful"
[al-Noor 24:4-5].
With regard to the hadd punishment, the fuqaha' are unanimously agreed
that the hadd punishment for slander is eighty lashes if the slanderer
is a free person [i.e., not a slave], man or woman, because Allaah
says (interpretation of the meaning):
"flog them with eighty stripes"
[al-Noor 24:4].
As for his testimony not being accepted, the scholars are unanimously
agreed that the testimony of the slanderer should not be accepted so
long as he has not repented, because he has committed a major sin,
namely slander, and has not repented from it, so he cannot be
described as being of good character, and good character is a
condition of testimony being accepted; and because he is a liar and an
evildoer according to the text of the verse: "They indeed are the
Faasiqoon (liars, rebellious, disobedient to Allaah)."
"Why did they not produce four witnesses? Since they (the slanderers)
have not produced witnesses! Then with Allaah they are the liars"
[al-Noor 24:13].
The testimony of the evildoer and liar cannot be accepted, because
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):"And take as witness two
just persons from among you (Muslims)" [al-Talaaq 65:2]. So it is
stipulated that the witness should be of good character, and the
evildoer and liar are not of good character.
If he repents from slander and admits that he was lying, then the
majority of scholars (Maalik, al-Shaafa'i and Ahmad) are of the view
that his testimony may be accepted. They said:
1. Because repentance erases the sins that came before it, so if
he repents his sin and its effects are erased completely, and
non-acceptance of testimony is one of the effects of that sin.
Imam al-Shaafa'i said inal-Umm(7/94):
If he admits that he lied, his testimony may then be accepted, but if
he does not do that then his testimony cannot be accepted, until he
does that, because the sin for which his testimony is rejected is
slander, but if he admits that he was lying then he has repented. End
quote.
2. Because the expression "forever" in the verse applies so long
as he persists in evildoing. Hence after that the verse mentions after
the ruling that he is an evildoer: "and reject their testimony
forever. They indeed are the Faasiqoon (liars, rebellious, disobedient
to Allaah)." If the description of evildoer ceases to apply to him,
then the reason for rejecting his testimony also ceases to exist.
3. It was narrated from 'Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him)
that he said to those who had slandered al-Mugheerah ibn Shu'bah,
after he had carried out the hadd punishment of flogging on them:
"Whoever repents, his testimony will be accepted." Narrated by
al-Bukhaari in a mu'allaq majzoom report.
His repentance means that he admits that he was lying about the
slandered person whom he accused of zina. Hence the words of 'Umar
according to Ibn Jareer were, "Whoever admits that he was lying, his
testimony will be accepted."
If the slanderer repents and mends his ways, his testimony will be
accepted, like any other Muslim of good character.
Al-Mughni(12/386);al-Majmoo'(22/98-101).
And Allaah knows best.

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For children, - Contentment in Islam: Secret of true Happiness,

As we all pass through life looking at people and materialistic things
around us, we often tend to look at people above us and desire to be
like them. But Islam advises us to look at those below us and feel
contempt at what Allah (SWT) has provided us. Listed below would be
some practical suggestions on achieving this contentment and repelling
the greed of want of more.
Note: Contentmentis the neuro-physiological experience of satisfaction
and being at ease in one's situation. It is said that a man complained
about his old shoes until he saw a man who had no feet.
"Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the
realization of how much you already have."
Greedfor More: A Fact of Human Nature
Contentment is one of the most important prerequisites for happinessin
life, and, unfortunately, many of us don't have it. We have a good car
that meets our needs, but we always want a nicer, more expensive one -
a Mercedes or a Jaguar perhaps. We have a nice house, but we always
want a bigger, fancier, more expensive one. More jewelry, fancier
clothes, a boat. The list goes on. We always think about more rather
than saying, "Alhamdulillah," for what we already have.
Prophet Muhammed (saws) said: "Remember death repeatedly. This will
save you from longing for the worldly pleasures. Show gratitude
frequently and this will increase the graces upon you. Pray to Allah
(SWT) so recurrently, because you do not know in which time Allah
(SWT) will respond for your prayer. Beware of tyranny, for Allah (SWT)
has ordained that HE will support those whom are oppressed."
Imam Jafar Sadiq (as) said: "If a son of Adam (as) possessed two vast
valleys wherein gold and silver flowed, he would still wish to search
for the third one."
Imam Musa Kazem (as) said: "The world is like water of the sea, the
man who is thirsty, the more he drinks water of it the more he becomes
thirsty, until the water kills him in the end!"
Things that Lure us Out of Contentment
A good rule for developing contentment is to always look at the people
who have less than us, not the ones who have more. In America, this is
difficult because almost all advertising is geared toward showing us
people who have more than us and enticing us to want it. They show us
beautiful cars, beautiful houses, handsome men, and beautiful women.
And we can get it all with a credit card. If our lives don't match the
ad, we should make a change - buy a new car, get a new wife, give her
a bigger diamond!
"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember
that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."
Muslims Falling Prey to Materialism
Even Muslims have fallen into this trap. Many drive expensive cars far
beyond their needs, not just for dependability, but for prestige or to
make people say, "Wow!" These Muslims have been deceived, duped by the
multi billion dollar advertising industry - the chief enemy of
contentment, the chief advocate of a lifestyle of constant wanting.
Many children are the same. They have grown up surrounded by
advertisements on TV, on the radio, and on billboards. They want
everything they see, and they expect to get it now! But how can we
teach them to be content, if we are not content ourselves? Instead of
wanting everything we see, we need to learn to resist. Instead of
letting our children have everything they want, we need to teach them
to be thankful for what they have.

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