Aqaaid

Girls born in the early morning

Q: In my culture, the baby girls who are born in the early mornings are known as mangli. There's a saying for such girls that their marriage happens to be late (which I have seen to be true as my aunt married when she was at late 20's) and their married lives are disastrous. Can you give any hadith reference in regard  to whether this has any basis or not? A well known astrologer too commented on such girls by saying that they have a suffering married life. Please answer me about this astrologer's comment and about the girls being born in the early morning.

Superstitions

Q: I have a problem. My brother in-law has some business problem. He went to see a person and it seems that now his problem is solved, am seeing that his business is flourishing. I don’t know what they did. But till that day, I can notice that his “bad luck” is following my husband and me. I am a religious person, I perform my salaat daily, I read Quran and other duas on a regular basis. My brothers in law, his wife are not at all religious. I can see that they are getting the reward for all the prayer that I am a doing. Moreover, all the projects that me and my husband are planning to do failed and we face lot of difficulties in doing something.

Which mazhab should one follow?

Q: My question is regarding which madhab to follow? Growing up I was told that I am a Shafee. My mother is a Hanafi and I have only been trained in the Hanafi Madhab. We also live in South Africa which is a majority Hanafi country. Kindly advise on how should I proceed with my religious obligations?

Associating with shias

Q: Many of my muslim friends say that you can't eat at a shias house but I believe as long as they are muslims and share the kalima, there is nothing wrong as long as it is within the halaal limits. Kindly clarify because i have many ithn ashari friends and wouldn't like to cross Allah's hukum.

Accepting Islam and changing one's name

Q: I am looking at converting to Islam and have several questions. Is my name permissible, or should I change it due to it having un-Islamic meanings? Todd means fox, dog, clever or wily (intending to be deceitful), and Christopher means Christ-bearer. My next question is hair on men, my hair is long, it is past my shoulders but is neat and kept clean, am I commanded to cut it or shave it if I convert? Also, what is the rule on piercings, I have several. My last question is I still am researching and trying to clear doubts, should I take my Shahadah now or wait and clear my doubts first and say it with a clear mind, and is it better to say it in private or in public like a mosque?

Studying through correspondence

Q: I have recently finished hifz in a boarding Madrasah and now I am doing full time aalim class local. I am finding it very different to maintain my hifz I tried to go back boarding madrasah but my heart weren't there. So I came back to my alim class locally but now I feel like going college im 19 I was thinking about how I will make a living in the future can you give me some advice.