Q: Is it permissible for an employee to claim from the UIF Fund or is it like an insurance plan? Kindly explain the status of this fund.

Q: Recently in my family there has been an episode. My female cousin ran off with a non-Muslim girl and has not come back since. It has been a year now. She told us that she is a lesbian and we have to accept it. What do we do? Can we make dua for her? Is she still Muslim? She recently posted on the internet pictures of Hindu gods with a red string around her hand. What do we do?

Q: I wanted to ask if sitting in a car where the mother is driving the father (wife driving the husband) considered being in a place of sin? Thus one can’t sit in such a car?

Q: My sister has come to know that black magic is being used to disturb and destroy her house. Her husband beats her everyday, threatens her that he’ll divorce her. He is also involved in extramarital affairs. This has been going on for the last 2 years. My sister reads Surah Baqara daily, offers 5 times prayers, and sincerely prays to Allah for relief but she has been in severe pain due to her husband’s attitude towards her. Recently she has come to know that somebody in her family is using black magic against her to destroy her relationship with her husband.

Somebody referred my sister to a guy who can destroy the black magic by using black magic. He claims that she’ll live a happy life with her husband once he is done with his magic. My sister has given him money to use black magic knowledge to destroy the black magic which is being done on her. Now my questions are:

1. What is the Shariah ruling on somebody using black magic to stop black magic?

2. Has my sister committed kufr?

3. Has my sister committed shirk?

4. If she has committed shirk by this way, is there anyway she could be forgiven by Allah?

5. Can she still go to heaven? She has been a pious woman all her life before this.

Q: I wanted to ask a query regarding Shariah compliant index funds. I read from Muft Taqi Usmani's introduction to Islamic finance that investing in stocks is permissible based on 4 main conditions:

1. Majority of business activities being permissible,

2. Portion of income which is from Haram sources must be given to charity,

3. Majority of assets must be in illiquid form

4. One must disapprove of the company's Haram practices at the shareholder meeting.

An index fund is made up of tiny percentages of shares from each company. For example, if you invested $1000 in an index fund made up of 50 companies which are equally weighted, you'd approximately hold $20 worth of shares in each company. One such index fund is called the MSCI Shariah Index - a sample of stocks from which a company called Wealthsimple in Canada would use in creating an investment portfolio. The companies are screened based on liquidity ratios, income sources, and a purification percentage provided every so often to enable the holder of these funds to purify ones wealth. Furthermore the screening takes place to ensure most income from the company and liquidity is up to the level required. I wanted to find out if investing in such a type of scheme is halaal? The only criteria it doesn't seem to meet is the one where one must object to Haram business dealings in a shareholder meeting. As one would own such tiny percentages of these big companies, one wouldn't have the opportunity or even be part of the shareholder meetings. Kindly advise if this would be required in this situation. 

Q: If from a married Muslim couple, either the husband or the wife visits a temple or any other non-Muslim shirk place to seek cure for a certain disease which they do on others. What is the status of their nikaah?

I have seen Muslim men and women enter temples to get cured from chicken pox and I was even advised by an ignorant person to go to a particular temple and say something, but I did not commit that major shirk.

Q: If the imam makes a recitation as short as the first three ayahs of Surah Al-fajr, or the first three ayahs of Surah Yaseen, will the prayer be valid?

Q:

1. While leading the jamaat, if the imaam's wudhu breaks and he leaves the jamaat to perform wudhu, what should the muqtadi do?

2. Is it allowed for the imaam to tell the muqtadi while they are still in prayer that his wudhu broke, and should he also tell them what to do?

Q: I was a musaafir and I was leading the Asr prayer with a muqeem following me. I mistakenly made niyyat of 4 rakaahs, and after standing up for the third rakah, I remembered that I had to pray Qasr. But I continued and completed 4 rakahs. Is the prayer valid?

Q: I'm pretty sure you are aware of how dropshipping works, where someone buys from another person who actually buys from another wholesaler, etc.

So my question is that, would dropshipping be permissible if in the advertisement the following things are stated:

- Time and duration of delivery

- That the actual seller does not have possession of the item

- A thorough description of the item