Q: If I smoke cigarettes, will 40 days salat not be accepted. Is it true? I mean, does smoking cigarettes have any effect on my salaah?

Q: I am able to fast though I am not in good health. Lately I am suffering from bouts of fever for no apparent reason. I know that fever means that I have to break my fast. If I develop fear say an hour before Ifthaar, how long can I postpone Ifthaar and how close to Ifthaar can I break my fast so that my fast would still be valid for the day?

Q: I would like to know if I get the Imam in Ruku in Jamat, should I read Surah Fatiha first after takbir then go to Ruku or should I go to Ruku directly?

Q: I am a publisher of magazines and have now entered into newspaper publishing. There are businesses that wish to have their adverts appear in our publications e.g. haraam butcheries, supermarkets advertising alcohol and the people that claim to “bring back lost love” and other claims to the supernatural. Am I allowed to publish these kinds of adverts?

Q: In my town, an Islamic organisation has built a bank on a land that had been donated as sawaab jariyah. Is this correct?

Q: A couple got married 3 years ago and the agreement of nahr was on mahr fatimi. On the day of the nikka the groom did not have the full amount so the agreement was that he would pay it off later. The amount of 3000 was given and the remaing amount is 7700. 3 years has past and no payment was made. The husband and wife have an understanding that the husband will give it by the end of the year inshallah. The brides father keeps asking and embarrassing the groom. I just wanted to know if the brides father have a say in this matter?

Q: I purchased two sets of books published by Dar-us-Salam publications, Riyad-us-Saliheen (English translation w/commentary) and Tafsir Ibn Kathir (English translation). After purchasing these I realized that Dar-us-Salam books have Salafi influence and I found some contradicting statements in one of the books. I have since stopped reading them all. What should be done with these books that preserves the honor and respect of the Quranic Ayaat and Ahadith contained within them?

Q: I want to ask about my brother. He is very disobedient and extremely cruel to our parents. If we part ways until he dies, is that ok?

Q: I am undergoing my therapy for anxiety, fears and phobias, guilt and other issues here in Pakistan with a trained muslim psychotherapist. He recently prescribed Me doing EFT tapping to control my anxiety and issues. I did it for few days and felt better and more in control over anxiety and low mood that was disturbing me.

He has asked me to just form a short problem statement and a simple affirmation in which there is nothing unethical, unislamic or anything which could be shirk. And while repeating these statements you tap on 9 meridian points.

I wanted to ask you if it is okay for me to continue this self help technique to feel better and have focus on positive things.

Q: I am a 20 year old girl living in a western country since birth. I come from a very strict cultural family from Pakistan who are very conservative in their mindset and often mix culture with Islam. Nevertheless I want to state that I do respect my parents despite our clashing mindsets. Since the last few years my father especially gets extremely angry, shouting and saying horrible irrational things about my character, threatening to pull me out of Uni etc. over ridiculously minute things such as me wearing a bit of makeup or wearing jeans etc. He uses the excuse of Islam and constantly tells me I am a terrible muslim and a disgrace because I don't have that outward image of a "perfect muslim girl" despite me knowing in my heart that I try my best to be a good muslim in my own way-I do my best to pray 5 times a day, be a good, kind person and am slowly building up my islamic knowledge.

While I understand that wearing hijab and modest clothing is fardh in islam and that it may be one of my weaknesses (and everyone has their own weaknesses), I do not dress outrageously bad (eg. show too much skin or wear anything too tight) or any different to that of most muslim women in our western society, even those who wear hijab. I know my own limits and islamically for them to force it upon me to dress like women do in my father's village is unrealistic and incorrect.

I don't mean to say i'm an amazing muslim and he is a horrible one or a horrible parent but the mentality he was raised with does not allow him to see beyond his own beliefs. For him not wearing makeup, wearing hijab and long, loose clothing, but NOT praying or reading Quran or having internal faith, is better than me doing my best to practise and be a good person but not have that "ideal" outward appearance ie. he cares more about following the norms of the society he was brought up in but uses religion as an excuse. He doesn't even attempt to understand that I have grown up in a western society, (even though he's the one who brought us here) that my thinking is more open and that he cannot compare me to women living in his village, it is just completely unrealistic.

I know how important respecting and obeying your parents is in Islam and even though my parents think I try to "hurt them" on purpose by doing these things which make them angry, I know in my heart I do not and how much it hurts me that they do not understand things from my point of view. I cannot help but react negatively at times when such arguments and incidents happen as I too feel suffocated but at the same time feel guilty as I don't know how I can live my life and please my parents without being their little puppet and doing everything as per their terms because ultimately I am an adult and I will answer to Allah myself.

I feel extremely stuck and need the opinion of someone with more islamic knowledge than me. I just want to practise my religion in my own way and at my own pace but don't want to hurt my parents either or make them feel like I have betrayed them/ disrespect them.