Q: My non-baaligh brother often has accidents. This time, when he pooped in bed, I threw the bedsheets in the washing machine along with his underwear which was first washed by hand, and set the rinse 2 times for a total of 4 hours. During the second rinse I even threw in some of my clothes. As I was taking everything out of the dryer, the stains from the sheets were completely gone, and all the clothes smelled good, but then his underwear had a very light brownish colour and some odor. Does that mean the underwear is impure and everything else that was washed with the underwear is also impure? I put everything in the dryer before I noticed any of this so does that mean the dryer has to be purified now? What must I do?

Q: I have a savings account in a bank. Someone transferred extra money which does not belong to me into my account. I enquired alot from the bank but they told me that it was from some government court. I called the bank more than 5 times and told them that I have no encounter with the court. They cannot do anything or provide any information. I waited for a long time for the owner to claim their money or contact me but unfortunately nobody claimed it. I'm in need of money for my marriage but my heart does not allow me to touch that amount. Please tell me if the amount is haraam or halaal if I spend it?

Q: A couple are married for 17 years with 3 young kids. The husband intends taking a second wife, but the first wife refuses and seeks divorce on the grounds that she will not be able to live under a polygamous arrangement.

1. What is the correct divorce procedure in this case and what are the rules governing maintenance of the wife?

2. What are the rules governing the division of assets acquired in the marriage between the husband and wife?

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?