I embraced Islam -praise be to Allah- and now I want to keep myself chaste, but my parents think that the most suitable age of marriage is not until twenty-five or preferably twenty-eight. Even worse than that, one of them thinks that there is nothing wrong with friendship and relationships outside of marriage - Allah forbid. The matter is extremely difficult and I do not know how to talk to them about this matter. I want to keep myself chaste; I want to marry a man who will help me to adhere to my religion, a man who will stand beside me and help me, a man who will live with me, because I am living far away from my parents. They are divorced and each one lives in a different city. I do not know how to explain these details to them in order to convince them that I should get married early; rather they think that getting married at an early age is something that is not appropriate. I am the only daughter of my parents, hence I do not want to disobey them and I do not want to upset them; I do not want them to forsake me either. I want at least to do the marriage contract, then delay consummation until Allah wills.

My questions are:

1. Is it permissible for me to do the marriage contract but delay marriage and the waleemah (wedding feast) and consummation for five years, for example?

2.  Do I have to repeat the marriage contract in front of my family later on and pretend that I was not married? Or is that regarded as coming under the heading of lying? I hope you can advise me because I do not know what to do.
 

In order for a person to be allowed to sit during the obligatory prayers, is it essential that he should be completely unable to stand? Or is it also permissible for a person who is able to stand, but it is possible that it may lead to harm? What is the definition of the inability that makes it permissible to sit during the prayer and not stand, without that incurring sin or punishment?.

I would like to know the proper way to make du’aa’ during prayer, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did it. Is it after the prayer or between the two prostrations or whilst standing or when?.

A very common problem seen in youth in western countries is that their parents allow them to indulge in some form of haram in the hope that will stop them from committing worse haram. An example of this is that parents will say that they allow their children to indulge in music in the hope that will stop them from going out with bad people or leaving their home all together. Parents are afraid that if they enforce the law of Allah in their homes, that their children will leave. 

What is Islam's position on this sort of compromise? Some parents also say that they only have the duty to tell their children something is haram, and then their children have to choose for themselves because they are already young adults (i.e. 13 -18 years old and unmarried, living at home). Don't the parents have to forbid haram by all means, or do they just say that is haram and then leave them be? To what extent do parents have to go to forbid their children from haram?

Parents also believe that once their children reach the age of puberty they are no longer responsible for their sins or actions, and so say they will have no sin if they advise their children something is haram and then leave them. Is this true? Or do parents always have the responsibility of forbidding their children from haram, and will they be responsible if they see their children doing haram and just leave them after advising them?

Did everyone on earth – apart from those who were with Nooh on board the ark – drown when Allah sent the flood? Can everyone who is on earth now be regarded as descendants of those who were on board the ark (ship)?

There is a person who was in a state of janaabah and he wanted to do ghusl for janaabah, but he said: I shall wait until the time for Jumu‘ah comes, then I will do one ghusl for both Jumu‘ah and janaabah. That was after Fajr prayer. But when the time for Jumu‘ah came, he did ghusl for Jumu‘ah and forgot to intend to do ghusl for janaabah. Then he prayed for an entire day, until Zuhr on Saturday, and he led the people in praying Zuhr. Then after Zuhr he remembered. Was his prayer and the prayer of the people valid? Should he tell the people about that?.

I want to serve my Religion, what should I do?