Dought & clear - Is the husband obligedto give zakaat al-fitr on behalf of his Christian wife?

There is a Muslim man living in a western country, and he is married
to a Christian woman. Does he have togive zakaat al-fitr on her
behalf?
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
Zakaat al-fitr must be paid on behalf of every free Muslim, male or
female, old or young. With regard to the non-Muslim, zakaat al-fitr is
not obligatory for him, because of the hadeeth of Ibn 'Umar (may Allah
be pleased with him) who said: The Messenger of Allaah (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him) enjoined zakaat al-fitr upon the people at
the end of Ramadan, a saa' of dates or a saa' of barley, upon
everyone, free or slave, male or female, among the Muslims. Narrated
by al-Bukhaari (1504) and Muslim (984).
It says inMughni al-Muhtaaj(2/122): No zakaat al-fitr is required of
one who is originally a non-Muslim, because the Prophet (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him) said: "of the Muslims", and this is the
consensus of the Muslims. al-Maawardi said: … because it is a
purification, and he (the non-Muslim) is not one of its people [i.e.,
it is a purification from sin, and there is no purification from sin
for the non-Muslim unless he becomes Muslim]. Endquote.
Abu Ishaaq ash-Shiraazi said inal-Muhadhdhab: Nothing is required of
him except the zakaat al-fitr of a Muslim. If the one on whose behalf
he is giving it is a non-Muslim, he is not required to give zakaat
al-fitr on his behalf, because of the hadeeth of Ibn 'Umar, "[it was
enjoined] upon everyone, male or female, free or slave, among the
Muslims". Moreover, the purpose of zakaat al-fitr is purification of
the one on whose behalf it is given, and the disbeliever cannot be
purified [of sin]. End quote.
An-Nawawi said: ash-Shaafa'i and his companions said: He is not
obliged to give anything except the zakaat al-fitr of a Muslim; if he
has a relative or a wife or a slave who is a non-Muslim, he is obliged
to spend on them, but he is not obliged to give zakaat al-fitr on
their behalf. There is no difference of opinion concerning this matter
among us. This was also stated by Maalik, Ahmad and Abu Thawr. End
quote fromal-Majmoo'(6/74)
Al-Hijjaawi said inZaad al-Mustaqni': He should pay it on his own
behalf and on behalf of any Muslim on whom he spends.
Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said inash-Sharh
al-Mumti'(6/155): It may be understood from the author's words (may
Allah have mercy on him) that he should not give zakaat al-fitr on
behalf of a non-Muslim wife or a non-Muslim slave. End quote.
To sum up: the Muslim husband does not have to pay zakaat al-fitr on
behalf of his non-Muslimwife.
And Allah knows best.

Dought & clear - Eating iftaar with one whose wealth is haraam

Should we accept the Aftar which is given by aperson who is getting
almost HARAM money.
Praise be to Allaah.
If most of the man's wealth is haraam, then it is permissible to
accept his invitation.
The Prophet(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) accepted
invitations to meals withthe Jews, even though Allaah had described
them as consuming riba (usury) and consuming the people's wealth
unlawfully. One of the salaf said concerning such cases: It is a gain
for you and his sin is against him.
It is also permissible for you not to accept his invitation as a
rebuke to him for his haraam earnings. This is preferable if that will
make him give up the evil that he is doing.
And Allaah knows best.

Islamic Ideology, Nafs, Rooh, Soul, Spirit, Nafs-e-Ammara, Nafs-e-Lawwama, Nafs-al-Mutmainnah

Knowing one's self:Before we talk about practical solutions and life's
experiences relativeto "shaping one's self," we must know our Nafs
(Nafs is an Arabic word meaning self) and find out in what way we can
re-shape, train, nourish, and transform it from its lower position to
a higher level of existence.
We are aware that there are various orders and systems in the world
and each one has defined man and his Nafs in its own way. One of these
systems in our age is the materialist order of Marxism which has
engulfed half of our globe and ideologically ithas seriously clashed
with our Islamic ideology. Marxism has simply defined man as ananimal.
Physiology and Biology:In Marxism man is like an animal who conducts
his activities solely for the sake of his enjoyments; there is no
spiritual beyond this existence. Even those Marxists who try to bestow
a 'spirit' on man simply resort to a definition of him as a material
phenomenon; a definition which is rejected by us. Stalin, oneof the
leaders and ideologues of the Marxists had a popular saying; "Man's
perceptiveactivities revolve around his personal (material) gains."
Thus with such a definition man's Insaniat (humanity) and his Nafs
come to a halt.
We pass all other schools and come to the Divine school in which we
come across two kinds of human beings; man made of mud and Insan made
of the Divine essence. And man's goal in this life is to go through an
evolutionary cycle in order to become transformed into a Divinelike
Insan; namely, to create a gigantic leap in man. In order to
accomplish this task we run across the Divine school which extends
from minus infinity to plus infinity.
In order to know man Islamtakes three distinct levels into
consideration;Jism (body, physique),
Nafs (personality, character), and
Rooh (soul, spirit).
Namely, in one of the philosophical outlooks ofIslam, man is composed
of three parts;Jism,the physique which is of material substance and we
deal with it in physiology and biology. Thus our bodies are known to
various systemsand as far as these scientific areas are concerned
Islam has no disagreement with anyone.
Nafs:Nafs in man is the totality of sentiments, tendencies, desires,
wishes, experiences, and our heredity characteristics; in short, itis
man's personality.
What creates a differencebetween one man and another is Nafs rather
than Rooh. It is man's Rooh which transform and evolves.
Rooh:Based upon the Qur'anic verse; "They ask thee concerning the
spirit (of inspiration). SayThe spirit cometh by command of my Lord:
of Knowledge it is only a little that is communicated to you, (O
men!)." (Holy Qur'an 17:85) This verse teaches us that the spirit is
an 'Amr' i.e. the work of Allah. In other words, it isa created thing,
not self-existent. The Holy Qur'an does not go beyond telling us that.
It does not tell us the nature of the spirit. However, just like our
ignorance of the nature of electricity or magnetism does not prevent
us from taking full advantage of these wonders of creation, we can
advance ourselves spiritually by taking full advantage of the
functions of the spirit.
Rooh is something which descends to man from God and we interpret it
as our 'inside Prophet' namely, it is a representative from the Lord
inside Insan. And this what is interpreted as 'Gabriel' in the case of
the Prophet as was the Holy Spirit in Jesus (pbuh). It is the
relationship of God with man that appears under various names in
different Prophets. This spirit is clean and innocent and it cannot
err. Rooh never appears in plural form in the Holy Qur'an(although
common men have pluralized it; 'Arwah') since it is a single reality.
So there is no difference between your soul and my soul, the two of
them 'is' a reality like the sun which radiates its, light upon all
men. While the plural of Nafs is Anfos (or Nafus). And when and entire
group of people get killed we say; "Their Nafus died rather than their
Arwah," since the latter, being God's manifestation, cannot be killed.
Where man develops the capability, aptitude, and the worth to discover
Rooh, he will be aided by the latter. And when a disease attacks and
the body andNafs loose their natural balance Rooh falls into disuse
and cannot establish relationship with man.
What distinguishes one man from another is Nafswhich contains our
personalities. And in our opinion the part of us which is responsible
in front of the Lord in the final day is the Nafs of each of us. And
it is Nafs which errs not the Rooh. The body is not that important
since it is in constant process of change and transformation.
However,what we believe to be the essence of man was placed in the
Nafs, and it is Nafs which will be interrogated in the last day.
In order to talk about theshaping of one's self we must concentrate
upon the analysis and examination of Nafs. Once we reach this stage we
come right across the sacred Islamic school and we are proud that
Islam has conducted in-depth and extensive analysis in this area
unparalleled in any other school or system.

SEARCH FOR TRUTH: The Truth Found

I was born of staunch Catholic Christian parents.My father was a
preacherwho knew the Bible almost by heart my mother, an orthodox
Catholic, would only give us the morning coffee after her return from
Church.
Even from my youngest days, I was made to memorize certain verses from
the Bible.
By the time I had completed the study of all the four Gospels and knew
many important verses, in those four books, by heart.
My father sometimes took me along with him when he went to preach, and
from the special attention he paid to my knowing certain controversial
points, and his teaching me the methods of explaining to the others
those intricacies, it was quite obvious that he wanted me to succeed
him in his profession. The strong desire of the paternal love to make
me a priest was implemented by educating me with a detailed knowledge
of the Bible and the science of ministering it to others. By the time
I reached the Form IV in school I could preach the gospels in my own
way, supervised by my father. Many senior missionaries admired my
knowledge of the important doctrines of the faith. I passed the Form
VI and joined College. There I came in contact with several classmates
who were Protestants, and some of whom were wellversed in the study of
theProtestant Bible.
I often met my Protestantclassmates and discussed matters regarding
differences in our faith and the performance of rituals. There were
also some Muslim students, but I met them only in the play ground as I
hated meeting Muslims whom I took to be dangerous fanatics. By the
time I completed the first year in College, I wassufficiently grounded
in the knowledge of the Christian faith as held by the Catholic Church
and had also considerable knowledge of the Protestant view point.
Appreciating this knowledge of the Catholic faith in my young age I
was given a scholarship from the church funds and in return for the
help I received, I was required to receive special coaching in the
guidanceof deeper thoughts about certain parts of theHoly Book, under
of the Chief Priest of the Church who loved to teach me very much and
was very intimately attached to me. He used the special devotional
methods of worshiping Jesus and his Holy Mother. Having appeared in
the first group for my intermediate course I used to sit working at
hissubjects till late at night.
One night when all were asleep and I was absorbed in my studies an
idea suddenly struck my mind to examine the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity, the Basic formula of the Christian faith. The question, how
three different things can be one and the same, arose in my mind i.e.
how anything singularly absolute in its unity with its indivisible
oneness, can ever by itself becomedivided into three separate beings
with three variant native attributes opposed to each other justifying
the distribution into the three different entities.
My failure to reconcile mybelief in the Trinity with the reasoning of
the science of logic, created amental restlessness in me.Days passed
on and manya time I thought of asking my father to help me in solving
the problem which was puzzling my mind. But I knew that my father
would never appreciate the least doubt in the dogmatic belief of the
Catholic School and my venture to discuss anything hated by the
Catholic faith, would onlycreate further problems in my domestic life.
However, one day when Ifound my father in a happy mood, I asked him as
to how he would defend the Christian faithin the Holy Trinity
againstthe attacks from the members of the other religions of the
world. The answer was:
"In matters of faith one has to stop reasoning. One should belief in
the doctrine only by one's heart and mind."
This reply from my father upset me further more and disappointed me to
avery great extent and all my thinking got centeredin the question
which had become a definite problem to puzzle my mind further and I
wondered saying:
"What! Is this the Foundation upon which is built the huge edifice of
the Christian faith? Is the basis of my own faithonly a matter of a
blind following of some dictated belief which cannever stand reasoning
or the independent scrutinyby the dispassionate and impartial
arguments from the clean conscience?"
I became much worried and made up my mind to find some arguments to
somehow make my muchdisturbed mind at least imagine that one could at
one and the same timebe three different persons, and the three
different persons could at the same time remain one.
One day our Mathematics Professor was sitting alone in his room and I
got in with his permission and asked him if he would help me to solve
something whichto me was an intricate and a perplexing problem. He
very kindly asked me what it was. I told him to explain to me in what
sense one and the same person could bethree different beings, and the
same three different beings with their individual differences could at
the same time be the indivisible absolute one?