A Muslim woman swore that she would not speak to another Muslim woman because of a dispute that had arisen between them. Then the other woman sent her several text messages, repeatedly, so the first woman responded by a text message. Now the first woman is asking: do I have to offer expiation for breaking an oath or not? What should I do if I want to talk to her again?.

I am a young Algerian man married to a foreign Christian woman who has an inclination towards Islam. But Allah has willed that we should separate. My question is: is the kitaabi (Jewish or Christian) woman required to observe ‘iddah and do I have to impose it on her if she refuses to observe ‘iddah? There is a second problem, which is that I am living in her house and I do not have any other accommodation to go to. What is the Islamic ruling concerning that?.

I want to know about ‘Umrah in detail.

Is it permissible to eat food that is distributed on the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)? Some people quote as evidence the idea that because Abu Lahb set free a slave woman on the birthday of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), Allaah reduced the torment for him on that day.

We are three sons, three daughters and a mother. We inherited 14,500 Jordanian dinars from our father and we invested this money in some business; every month we get 215 Jordanian dinars. Is any zakaah due on this amount, because this money belongs to everyone?.

I read your answer about prayer whilst doing surgery or afterwards. I work as a doctor and the day is very short in Canada during the winter; Maghrib comes at 5 p.m. Hence the time between the prayers is very short and I do not know how the surgeon can do his work when this time is very short. Hence I think it is better to make the prayers up afterwards. What is your opinion on that?

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.
 

There was a discussion about the issue of putting one’s trust in Allah (tawakkul) and taking measures; the trust of some of the righteous is like that of Maryam, to whom summer fruits used to come in the winter and vice versa without her taking any measures; rather she focused completely on worship. Please advise us about that, may Allah bless you.

I am a Muslim Arab university student in the United States. I am married and am working temporarily in the distribution centre of a local daily newspaper until I graduate and return to my country, because my family and I need the money urgently and there are few opportunities for halaal work in this country. Is it permissible to work in newspaper distribution?.

Is it permissible to remove janaabah by means of tayammum?.