Aqaaid

Doing a school project on Diwali and Hindu gods

Q: I really need to know something so badly! In my art project at school last year in year 13, it was about festivals so I looked into Diwali and wrote about what they believe in and I also did an observational drawing of one of their deity who sits on a lotus flower. I didn’t have any intention of worship at all and I did rip it out of my book but I did leave an image of one of the deity in my sketchbook and recently saw it and ripped it out. At the time I didn’t know what shirk was really and I didn’t think what I done was bad because to me it was all part of my coursework for school and the beliefs I wrote about never was something I believed. I did write about the stories and the hindu gods and wrote down what the Hindus referred to them as but I know they’re not lord or god but I had to write down that because that is what Hindus believe and so that’s what I was meant to write but it all looks so bad that I think about it. Did I do shirk?

Committing oneself to following one mazhab

Q: I am a resident of UK, originally from Kurdistan, Iraq. I did not follow a particular mazhab/fiqh before as I was unaware of the four mazhabs. I met a Muslim friend in my university and we prayed zuhr salah together. He informed me about the sunnah salah before the fard salah of zuhr which I never knew was sunnah because I have only prayed the fard salah in the past without ever praying anything before or after. We prayed Asr together as well and he said to wait because he followed the Hanafi Mazhab and the time for Asr starts later according to the Hanafi Mazhab.

He explained to me the various sunnah salah associated with the daily five prayers and told me that people form Kurdistan follow the Shafi'i Mazhab. He gave me a breakdown of the daily salahs as mentioned below but he said this is according to the Hanafi Mazhab. He did not know if it was the same according to the Shafi'i Mazhab. Can you tell me the Salah breakdown below for the Shafi'i Mazhab? What will be different?

Fajr - 2 Sunnah Muakkadah, 2 Fard

Zuhr - 4 Sunnah Muakkadah, 4 Fard, 2 Sunnah Muakkadah, 2 Nafl

Asr - 4 Sunnah Ghair Muakkadah, 4 Fard

Maghrib - 3 Fard, 2 Sunnah Muakkadah, 2 Nafl

Esha - 4 Sunnah Ghair Muakkadah, 4 Fard, 2 Sunnah Muakkadah, 2 Nafl, 3 Witr Wajib, 2 Nafl

Jumuah - 4 Sunnah Muakkadah, 2 Fard, 4 Sunnah Muakkadah, 2 Sunnah Muakkadah, 2 Nafl