Q: My wife and I had an argument. I went to the bathroom to do wudu. In my mind I was thinking of her abusive words and imagining we are sitting with a family regarding our fighting in future. And she is using same abusive words. In answer to that in my mind I was saying "Mei tumhe". That was just in my mind. Then in this absent minded state, right after I uttered "Talaq deta hun". I held my tongue realizing what just happened with slip of tongue. I never even had intention of pronouncing this word. I can swear by anything that I did not even have intention of pronouncing it. But it happened with absent minded slip of tongue while thinking/imagining about it in future. Please let me know if one talaq counted.

Q:

1. There are two times for the starting of Asr Salah. The earlier time is according to the Sha'afi madhab, and a later time is according to Hanafi madhab. I recently came to know that even for us as Hanafis, it is wajib to perform Zuhr salah before the start of Sha'afi Asr time, to be on the safe side and avoid the risk of our Zuhr Salah being Qaza. Is this correct?

2. If a Hanafi performs Asr Salah when the time has started according to Sha'afi madhab but according to Hanafi madhab the time has still not entered, is his Salah valid? Does he have to repeat the Salah? (This is a very common problem in many Western countries where Hanafis print out Salah timetables from the Internet and the Asr time displayed there is according to Sha'afi madhab. So these people then perform Asr salah before the Hanafi time).

3. In some non-Hanafi countries, Asr Salah is performed in the Masajid before the Hanafi time. In this case, a Hanafi person has two choices, either to perform Salah with Jamaat before the Hanafi time or to offer it alone later on. What should he do?

4. There is a time before starting of Zuhr salah when it is prohibited to do Sajda or perform any Salah. I was under the impression that this time lasts for only ten or fifteen minutes before Zuhr. However, I came across a Salah timetable where it mentions the 'Makruh' time before Zuhr. For Durban, South Africa for 3rd April, this Makruh time has a duration of 38 minutes, lasting from 11.22 a.m till 12.00 pm. Is this correct?

Q:

1. After reading several questions on your site regarding haidh, I learned that yellow discharge on the last days of haidh would be considered haidh. Before, I was completely unaware of this, and since the yellow discharge during the last days of haidh looks exactly like the discharge I get in normal days, I used to take a shower and start performing salaahs while having yellow discharge. So sometimes I would take a shower and start salaahs while experiencing this discharge, and when discharge would stop, I would keep performing salaah without taking a shower again. Do I have to repeat such saalahs?

2. Since performing salaah without wudhoo is kufr, and although I did perform wudhoo but failed to shower after yellow discharge, would my salaah fall under this kufr category?

3. Someone questioned how often we should check our discharge during the last days of haidh, since we want to know the exact time we are paak so we can start performing salaahs. In response to this, another person said that if during the last days of haidh, if someone has haidh in the morning, then she will be considered to have haidh the whole day. Is this true, or do we have to keep checking after every few hours?

4. During the last days of haidh, in the mornings there is no discharge at all, sometimes even for a few hours after waking up. My habit is that usually on the seventh day I am paak. This time, I checked at night on the seventh day, and I still had some discharge. I was afraid that I might get paak later at night and miss my Fajr saalah of the eighth day, so I set an alarm for about 3:40 AM. But since after sleeping I don't experience any discharge during the last days, at 3:40 AM when I checked I was clean, so I took a shower and prayed Isha and then later Fajr. Later that day I checked and I still had a faint colored discharge. This process continued the next day: In the morning after sleeping, I was clean, but later in the day I was not. In such cases during the last days of haidh, should I continue taking a shower in the morning and praying, despite knowing that after sleeping I see no discharge and later in the day I might?

Q: My friend's husband sent her a divorce letter from union porishod from Bangladesh to America. But both of them were living in America at that time. Are they divorced now?

Q: I want to know what is the significance of sprinkling water and spreading rose petals over the grave. Does this give any benefit to the dead person in that grave?

Q: My mother passed away. How much fidya must we pay to the poor and needy the namaazes which she missed while she was alive?

Q: I was reciting many duas for getting married and finding a good spouse (like rabbi inni lima anzalta ilaiyya min khairin fakeer and innama ashku bassi wa huzni illallah) and I got a proposal a bit strangely. The mother of the boy saw me in the market and started asking my mother questions. Then they came to our house. They seem like very nice people. The problem is that Im still confused, the boy doesnt seem very relegious and he did his graduation from London so he is friends with all kind of people. We asked our imam of the masjid and he said that this proposal is good for me. I have performed istikhara for 7 days and didnt see any dream so mufti sahab asked me to offer 2 rakaht nafal prayer in which I would recite surah kosar 41 times in the first rakat and recite surah nasr 41 times in the 2nd rakaht. I read this nafal for almost 7 days and saw different dreams. One wasnt good and others were good but according to mufti sahab the bad one could be the evil dream but im extremely confused and worried. Please help me out as this decision is the biggest decision of my life and I dont want to regret later on.

Q: If someone invites me to a birthday party, Christmas party, etc. Should I attend?

Q: I have been married for four months. My husband earns a decent salalry and is loving. However the problem arises when my husband leaves me with my in laws and then goes to his office. During the day I'm expected to serve my in laws, which obviously they dont acknowledge. On his return from the office, which is around late 11'o clock, he takes me back to his rented apartment and there he helps me with the daily chores. Needless to mention we do discuss my day which ends up in an argument. On his week off, my husband is supposed to stay with my in laws and he cannot sit or talk to me because that sounds indisciplined to my father in law. If he spends time with me on weekends, I have to face cold vibes from my in laws. I spoke to my husband that its better for our relationship that I stay at our rented apartmnent. Still everyday he drops me off at my in laws. Besides this I asked my mother in law to pay us a little more than 250 rupees daily a month so that we can save and buy our own apartment. She created a fuss that I want all of my husbands salary and I'm being selfish. My husbands salary goes entirely to his parents and he is given 250 rupees daily by his parents. When I tried to clear the misunderstanding that I only asked for dividing his income in two equal parts, they said that I was selfish and a home eater. Also my husband has to seek permision from my father in law whether he can take me out or not. All that makes me feel hatred towards my husband as he cant stand an speak up for me. I want to know if I am wrong if I seek my husbands time and half his earnings? Am I wrong in saying that I dont want my father in law to decide for us? Should I be patient or ask them for my rights?

Q: Please advise. I performed my ghusl as per usual. About an hour later I found some “dirt” in the crevice of my ear, like maybe old skin cells or maybe like the texture of tears once it has dried up. Is my ghusl counted? My concern is that the water did not pass over the area where the “dirt” was found and as such my ghusl might not be counted. Please advise.