It is written in Nur-ul izah and in its marginal notes by Tahtawi, at the end of the namaz of qada in Halabi and Durr-ul mukhtar, in Multaqa, in Durr-ul muntaqa, in Wikaya, in Durar, in Jawhara, at the end of the explanation of Kadizada's Birghiwi Vasiyetnamesi, and in other valuable books that it is necessary to perform isqat and dawr for a deceased person who has enjoined it (in his will). For example, it is written in the marginal notes by Tahtawi, "There are nass (ayats and hadith with clear meanings) about isqat (absolution) of the (sin for the) omitted fastings by giving fidya. All savants unanimously declare that, because the namaz is more important than fasting, as with fasting, isqat is to be performed for the prayers of namaz which a person missed for some reason justified by the Sharia and which he could not make qada of [To make qada of any religious precept means to perform it later, if one has not been able to perform it within its prescribed time.] later because he took to his death-bed though he wished to perform them. A person who says that isqat cannot be performed for namaz must be ignorant. For he objects to the agreement of savants. A hadith ash-Sharif declares, 'A person cannot fast or perform namaz on behalf of another person. But he can feed the poor for his (the other person's) fasting or namaz.' " As we have heard recently, some people, who cannot realize the superiorities of the savants of Ahl-as sunnat and who suppose that our imams of Madhhabs express their personal illusions, as they themselves do, say, "There is no isqat or dawr in Islam. Isqat resembles Christians' redemption." Such words of theirs expose them to risk. For our Prophet (sallallahu 'alaihi wasallam) declared, "My Umma do not come together in deviation." And "Something which believers consider beautiful is beautiful according to Allahu ta'ala, too." These hadith ash-Sharifs are written on the 94th page of the book Bariqa, and they prove that to make dawr is certainly true in Islam. He who does not believe in dawr will have denied the hadith ash-Sharifs quoted above. It is written at the end of the namaz of Witr in Ibn Abidin, "A person who disbelieves the knowledge of ijma; i.e. the essential religious knowledge which is known even by the ignorant, becomes a kafir (disbeliever)." Ijma' means the unanimity of savants. How can isqat ever be likened to redemption? Under the pretext of redemption, priests are rooking people. But in Islam men of religion cannot perform isqat. Isqat can be performed only by the deceased person's wali, and the money is given not to men of religion but to the poor.

Today there is next to no place where the business of isqat and dawr are being performed suitably with the Sharia. If the cavillers of isqat said that "the isqats and dawrs being performed today are incompatible with the Sharia" instead of being opposed to isqat and dawr, they would have done well, and we would be supporting them; by saying so, they would both be safe against a great danger and be serving Islam. Ibn Abidin explains how to perform isqat and dawr as prescribed by the Sharia at the end of the subject about the namaz of qada. If a person has faita salat, [that is, prayers of salat which he left to qada because he could not perform them for some 'udhr], and if he has still not performed them even with signs though he could have, it is wajib for him to enjoin in his will that the isqat should be done for their kaffarat when he is about to die. But he does not have to enjoin the isqat if he has not had the power to perform them. Likewise, if a musafir or a sick person who did not fast in Ramadan-i Sharif dies before having time to make qada, he does not have to enjoin the isqat. Allahu ta'ala will accept the 'udhrs of such people. [The isqat for a sick person's kaffarat is performed by his wali after his death. It is not performed before he dies. It is not permissible for a living person to have the isqat performed for himself. It is stated in the Shafi'i book Anwar, "It is not wajib according to the Shafi'i Madhhab to give fidya for the prayers of namaz omitted by a dead Muslim. The fidya given, if any, will not stand for isqat." Imam-i- Birghiwi 'rahmat-ullahi ta'ala 'alaih', a Hanafi scholar, states in his book Jila-ul qulub that if a person owes debts to Allahu ta'ala or to people it is wajib for him to say his will in the presence of two witnesses or to read to them what he has written. And (to say or write) a will is mustahab for a person without debts].

For the isqat of kaffarat, the deceased person's wali, that is, the person to whom he has instructed to distribute his property to the appropriate places, or his heir, gives alms as much as the fitra amount, that is, half a sa' [five hundred and twenty dirhams or seventeen hundred and fifty grams] of wheat for each prayer of salat and that much for each salat of witr and that much for a day's fasting for which qada is necessary, as fidya to the poor [or to their deputy], from the third part of this property.

If the deceased person did not enjoin in his will that the isqat of kaffarat be done, his wali does not have to perform the isqat of kaffarat in Hanafi Madhhab. It is stated in Naf'ul-anam fi isqat-is-salati wa-s-siyam, a book (written by scholars) in Shafi'i Madhhab: "Bajuri [Bajuri Ibrahim was a professor in Jami'ul azhar. He passed away in 1276 [A.D. 1859].] states in his explanation of Ibni Qasim's explanation of Abu Shuja: Fidya is not given for the prayers of namaz missed by the deceased person. There is yet another report saying that it is given. It will be good to do isqat for them by imitating Hanafi Madhhab. According to an earlier report in Shafi'i Madhhab, the deceased person's wali (guardian) makes qada of the prayers of namaz and fasts missed by the deceased person." In all the (four) Madhhabs, the guardian has to pay the deceased person's debts to creatures (people) for the property he has left behind even if the deceased did not enjoin it in his last request. In fact, the creditors may appropriate their dues without a law court decision if they can obtain the property. If he enjoined the fidya for the fasts he had left to qada, i.e. that they must be paid by giving property, it is wajib to fulfill it. For it is a commandment of the Shariat. If the deceased person did not enjoin it, his inheritor can perform it with his own property. If he enjoined (the payment for) namaz (which he had missed), it is permissible, but not wajib, to give fidya for it. Even if these last two performances are not accepted (by Allahu ta'ala), they will at least produce thawab of alms, which in turn will help forgiveness for the deceased person's sins. Hadrat Imam-i- Muhammad also said so. It is written in Majma'ul-anhur, "If a person, being deceived by his nafs and the shaitan, did not perform his prayers of salat and then, towards the end of his life, became penitent [and began to perform his daily prayers of salat and make qada of the past ones], it is written in Mustasfa that it is permissible for this person to enjoin the isqat for his prayers of salat which he has not been able to make qada of."

It is written in Jila ul-qulub: "Other's rights include debts to be paid, dues resulting from practices such as consignment, extortion, theft, employment and purchase, physical rights proceeding from acts of encroachment such as battery, injury and unjust employment, and spiritual rights ensuing from acts of wrongdoing such as blackguardism, mockery, backbiting and slander. If one-third of the property of the deceased person who has made a will suffices for the isqat, the guardian has to give the fidya out of that property. It is written in Fath-ul Qadir that, if it does not suffice, the heir can donate the deficit of the one-third. Likewise, if the deceased person enjoined in his will the performance of the hajj which was fard for him, it is not permissible for his heir or someone else to present the money for hajj. If he does not enjoin it before dying and if his heir performs the isqat or the hajj with his own money, his debt of hajj will have been paid. Some (savants) say that these things are not permissible with the money of someone other than the heir. But the authors (rahmat Allahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) of the book Durr-ul mukhtar, Maraqil-falah and Jila-ul qulub said that they are permissible.

Only in the Hanafi Madhhab in lieu of wheat, flour, one sa' of barley, dates or grapes can be calculated and given for the isqat of kaffarat. [Because these things are more valuable than wheat, they are more useful to the poor]. Instead of any of these, gold or silver of the same value can be given. It is permissible for (people belonging to one of) the other three Madhhabs to imitate the Hanafi Madhhab. [The isqat cannot be performed with paper money]. It is not necessary to give fidya for sajda-i tilawat.

If the money to be given for fidya exceeds one-third of the property, the wali cannot spend more than the one-third without the inheritors' consent. It is written in the book Qunya that if the deceased had debts, it is not permissible to carry out his will even if his creditors give approval for the fulfillment of the will. For, the Sharia commands that the debts must be paid first. Paying the debts cannot be postponed with the creditor's consent. In case it is not known at what age the person who enjoined the isqat of all his prayers of namaz died, his will is acceptable when one-third of the property he has left does not suffice for the isqat of his prayers of namaz. If one-third of the property equals and even exceeds (the amount to be spent for) the isqat, his will is not acceptable; it becomes invalid. For, when the one-third does not suffice for the isqat, the number of the prayers of namaz for which the isqat is to be performed with the one-third will be known, and so his will will be sahih (valid) for those prayers of namaz; and (the part of) his will concerning his remaining prayers of namaz will become laghw, that is, empty words. When the one- third is in excess, his lifetime, and hence the number of his prayers of namaz, will not be known, and so his will will become invalid. Kadizada says in his explanation of the Birghiwi:

To avoid the risk of a wrong or invalid practice, if the deceased guardian wants to perform the isqat with his own property he will perform dawr. But the guardian does not have to perform the dawr. To perform the dawr, the guardian borrows as much gold or silver -gold coins, gold five lira pieces, bracelets, rings, valid silver coins- as will suffice for a month's or a year's isqat. The years of debt are calculated by subtracting twelve years -if the deceased person is a man -or nine years- if the deceased person is a woman- from a lifetime. Ten and a half kilograms of wheat is to be given for one day's six prayers of namaz and three thousand and eight hundred kilograms for a solar year. For example, if one kilogram of wheat costs 1.80 liras today, for the isqat of a year's namaz six thousand, eight hundred and ninety-eight or, let us say, six thousand and nine hundred, liras will be required. Since one gold coin [which weighs seven grams and twenty centigrams], costs a hundred and twenty liras today, which means that one kilogram of wheat costs one-tenth [1/9.26] gram of gold, the isqat of a month's (debt of) namaz requires four plus three quarters [4.75] gold coins, and consequently the isqat of a year's namaz requires fifty-seven and a half, or, circumspectly, sixty, gold coins. The deceased person's guardian borrows five gold coins, or bracelets with the same weight, and finds one or more, e.g. four, poor people who are not fond of worldly things and who know and love their religion. [These people must be poor enough to be exempted from the liability of giving the fitra and to be among those who can be given zakat. If they are not (so) poor, the isqat will not be acceptable]. The deceased person's guardian, that is, the person to whom he has made his will, or one of his inheritors or the person deputizing one of his inheritors gives the five gold coins, to the first poor person, with the intention of alms, saying, "I give you these five golds as compensation for the isqat-i salat of the deceased ......... Bey." When giving the alms to the poor person it is permissible to say, "I give you these as a present." Then the poor person, (taking possession of the gold coins), says, "I accept and take them, and I present them to you," and gives them to the inheritor or to the inheritor's deputy, who takes possession of them. Thus, one dawr (circulation; rotation) will be completed by giving (the golds) to one poor person four times or to each of the four poor people once and taking them back. With one dawr (the deceased person) will have been absolved of twenty gold coins of kaffarat of salat. If the deceased person was a man and was sixty years old, 48x60=2880 gold coins will be necessary for forty-eight years' salat. So, the dawr is to be done 2880:20=144 times. If the number of gold coins is ten, 72 dawrs will be done, and if the number of gold coins is twenty, thirty-six dawrs will be completed. If the number of poor people is ten and the number of gold coins is ten, too, twenty-nine dawrs will be completed.

The number of the years during which he (the deceased person) did not perform the namaz x the number of gold coins for one year=the number of the poor x the number of gold coins circulating x the number of dawrs. This applied to the example we have given:

48x60=4x5x144=4x10x72=4x20x36=10x10x29

As it is seen, for determining the number of the dawrs (to be done) for the isqat of salat, the number of the gold coins (required) for one year will be multiplied by the number of the years of debt of salat. Then the number of the gold coins circulating will be multiplied by the number of the poor individuals. The result of the first multiplication will be divided by the second. The result of the division will indicate the number of dawrs. Wheat's and gold's equivalent in paper money vary at approximately the same rate during the course of time. In other words, the value of gold and the value of wheat always go up and down correspondingly. For this reason, as the amount of wheat for a year's isqat does not change, so the number of gold coins for one year's isqat, i.e. sixty gold coins, as we have calculated above, remains almost the same. Therefore, in the calculation of isqat the circumspectly accepted formula is:

Five gold coins for the isqat of a month's salat. One gold for the isqat of a month's fasting in Ramadan.

The number of gold coins to be circulated and the number of circulations will be calculated accordingly.

If no gold coins are available, the guardian borrows some gold articles such as bracelets or rings from a woman he knows. Weighing these, he puts an amount equal to the (number of years during which the deceased person omitted his prayers of namaz x 7.2 grams) in a handkerchief. There are now as many gold coins as the number of years during which the dead person omitted his namaz in the handkerchief. When sixty of them are divided by the number of the poor Muslims taking part in the dawr, the result shows the number of dawrs (circulations) to be performed. If the gold pieces are insufficient, half the amount in the former case is weighed. In this case the number of dawrs will be twice the number that would be performed in the former case. According to our example, six dawrs will be performed with ten poor people if we have 48x7.2=350 grams of gold, and the number of dawrs will be thirty if the amount of gold possessed weighs 70 grams. When the process of dawr is over, the poor Muslim occupying the final position gives the gold as a gift to the guardian, who in his turn gives them back to the person he has borrowed them from. If the guardian has gold coins, the dawrs are performed with as many gold coins as the number of years during which the deceased person did not perform namaz. When the number 60 is divided by the number of the poor people sitting for the dawr, the result is the number of dawrs to be performed. If the gold coins are several times fewer than the number of years of debt of namaz, the number of dawrs should be as many more. According to the example given above, if you have 48 gold coins, you will make 60 dawrs with one poor person, 15 dawrs with four poor people, and 6 dawrs with ten poor people. If the number of gold coins is 10, the number of years will be supposed to be 50 instead of 48 and 75 dawrs will be performed with four poor people. If the poor people are ten, 30 dawrs will be performed.

After the isqat for the namaz is finished, for the isqat of the forty-eight years' fasts omitted, that is, for the ones that must be made qada of, he (the inheritor or his deputy) makes three dawrs with five gold coins and four poor people. For, the isqat for the kaffarat of a year's (thirty days') fasting requires fifty-two-and- a-half kilograms of wheat, or 5.25 grams of gold, i.e. 0.73 gold coins. Hence, one gold coin absolves the kaffarat of a year's fasting; and hence, it is necessary to give forty-eight gold coins for forty-eight years. Completing one dawr with five gold coins and four poor people means having given twenty gold coins. After the performance of the isqat of the fasts requiring qada, a few dawrs must be done first for zakat and then for the qurban, then for the sadaqa-i-fitr and then for nazr and then for rights of other people whose inheritors are not known.

In the Madhhabs of Maliki and Shafi'i, the report saying that fidya is made for the (omitted) namaz is observed by giving the fidya for five prayers of namaz for each day, since the namaz called Witr is a sunnat. It is written in (the books) Al-Anwar and Naf'ul- anam that according to these two Madhhabs one mud' of wheat is to be given as the fidya of one prayer of namaz and one fasting. Since one mud' is 173.3 dirhams, the fidya for a day's five prayers of namaz is 2.1 kilograms of wheat, which makes 63 kilograms of wheat, or 0.875 gold coins, for a month, and 705 kgr. of wheat, or 10.5 gold coins, for a year, while the fidya for a month's fast is 5.2 kilograms of wheat or 0.07 pieces of gold coins. For imitating Hanafi Madhhab, people who are in one of the Madhhabs of Maliki and Shafi'i should calculate the fidya for a month's prayers of namaz as five gold coins and a month's fast as one gold coin.

Doing the kaffarat of one oath requires ten poor people in one day, and the kaffarat of one day's fast that was broken without any acceptable excuse and for which the kaffarat is necessary requires sixty poor people in one day; and, one poor person cannot be given more than half a sa' of wheat in one day. That is, the kaffarats for several oaths cannot be given to ten poor people within the same day. Then, the dawrs for the kaffarats of oaths and (broken) fasts cannot be done in one day. Please see the sixth chapter of this book! If (the deceased person) enjoined (the isqat) for his oaths, you give two kilograms of wheat or flour, or its equivalent in other property such as gold and silver, to each of ten poor people in one day. Or, you may give the same amount to one poor person every day for ten successive days. Or, (calculating and) giving (the whole expense in) paper money to a poor person, you must say to him, "I appoint you my deputy. With this money you shall buy yourself food and eat it for ten days, twice each day, once in the morning and once in the evening!" If he buys other things, such as coffee and newspapers instead of feeding himself as advised, it will not be acceptable. The best way to do it is to bargain with a restaurant and give the ten days' expense to the restaurant and have the poor person eat there every morning and every evening for ten days. So is the case with the kaffarat of a fast that was broken after the niyya and with the kaffarat of zihar; in either of these two cases, for one day's kaffarat you give half a sa' of wheat or other property of the same value to each of sixty poor people in one day or to one poor person for sixty days or feed him twice a day (for sixty days).

It is not necessary to perform the isqat of zakat not enjoined (by the deceased person). The fatwa permits the inheritor to perform the dawr for the isqat of zakat by his own volition.

While making dawr, the wali should intend in every circulation for the isqat of salat and fast. The poor person also should say, "I give (this) as a gift," as he gives back the gold and the guardian should reply, "I have received (it)." The book Ashiat-ul lama'at, in its discourse on the kinds of people who are not permitted to accept alms or zakat, states that Aisha (radiallahu 'anha) related," Rasulullah (sallallahu 'alaihi wasallam) came to my room. There was boiling meat in the pot. I served him bread and some other food that I had in the house. He said, 'I see (some) meat cooking.' 'That was the meat given to our maid Barira as alms. I haven't served this meat, for you don't take alms (zakat).' 'That meat is alms for Barira. But the meat that she gives us becomes a gift,' he said." The poor can give zakat they have received back to the rich. What they give becomes a gift. It is allowed (halal) for the rich to take this. For, the poor has given it out of his or her own property. Rasulullah (sallallahu 'alaihi wasallam) accepted all gifts given to him without discriminating between rich and poor. In return, he used to give much more." [If the guardian will not be able to perform the isqat, he appoints a non-relative as his deputy to perform the isqat for the deceased person; this deputy is preferred to others in doing the isqat and the dawr].

[It is written in the final part of Vasiyyetname, by Imam Birghiwi, and in its explanation by Kadizada Ahmad Bey 'rahmat Allahi ta'ala 'alaihima': It is a condition that the poor people must not have the nisab amount (of property). It is permissible for them to be the dead person's relatives. When giving (the gold coins) to the poor person, the guardian must say, "I give these to you for the isqat of so-and-so's so and so many prayers of salat." And the poor person must say, "I have accepted them," and must know that the gold coins belong to himself when he takes possession of them. If he does not know this he must be taught beforehand. And this poor person, showing kindness, gives the gold coins to another poor person of his own accord, saying, "I give these to you for the isqat of so-and-so's salat." The latter, taking possession of them, must say, "I accept them." When he takes possession of them he must know that they are his property. The dawr will not be acceptable if he takes them as a deposit for safe-keeping or as a present. And this second poor person, after saying, 'I take and accept them,' gives them to a third poor person by saying, "I give these to you the same way." Thus, dawrs must be done for prayers of namaz, for fasts, for zakats, for qurbans, for sadaqa fitrs, for votive offerings, for (violated) human and animal rights. Fasid and batil [Kinds of buying and selling prohibited by she Sharia. There is detailed information about buying and selling in the Turkish original of Endless Bliss.] buying, and selling are among (violated) human rights. It is not permissible to do dawr for the kaffarats of an oath or fasting.

After the dawr is finished, the last poor person taking possession of the gold coins shows kindness and presents them to the guardian of his own volition and of his own will. The guardian takes them, saying, "I accept them." If he (the poor person) does not present them, they cannot be taken by force, for they are his own property. The guardian gives the poor person some gold coins or some paper money or some of the deceased person's property and presents the thawab for the alms to the deceased person's soul. A poor person who is in debt must not join the business of dawr. For, it would be fard for him to pay his debts as soon as he takes possession of the gold coins. It would not be permissible for him to give the gold coins to the next person for the deceased person's kaffarat instead of paying his debt. The dawr would be acceptable, but he himself, let alone earning any thawab, would become sinful. It is written in Ibn Abidin that a child's giving a present is not sahih].

If a deceased person without any property enjoined in his will the performance of dawr, it is not wajib for the guardian to do the dawr. It is wajib for the dying person to will as much of his property as sufficient for the isqat, provided that it shall not be more than one- third of the inheritance. Thus, the isqat will be performed without dawr being necessary. He will be sinful if he enjoins that the dawr should be done with less than one-third of his property while one-third of his property would suffice for the isqat. It is written in the two hundred and seventy-third page of the fifth volume of Ibn Abidin, "If a sick person has small children or poor big children who will need his inheritance, who have reached the age of puberty and who are pious, it is better for him to leave his property to his pious children instead of willing it for (the performance of) supererogatory pious deeds and services." The book Bazaziyya writes in its discourse on presents, "One should spend one's property on pious deeds and services instead of leaving it to one's sinful children (if they are so). For, it would mean to support sins. And one should not give one's sinful child money or property more than his subsistence."

If a person has numerous debts of salat, fasting, zakat, qurban and oath, it is not permissible for him to enjoin in his will that dawr should be done with less than one-third of the inheritance he leaves behind and that the rest of the property should be spent on pious deeds such as reading Qur'an al-karim, khatm-i tahlil and mawlid. A person who pays or takes money for such religious services becomes sinful. It is permissible to pay or take money to learn or teach (how to read) Qur'an al-karim. Yet it is not permissible for reading it.

It is not permissible for the inheritors or for any other person to make qada of the deceased's omitted prayers of namaz or fasts. Yet it is permissible and even good to perform supererogatory salat and fasts and to present the thawabs to the deceased's soul.

It is permissible for the deputy appointed by the deceased to make qada of the deceased's debt of hajj with the deceased's money; this will relieve the deceased from his debt (of hajj). For, hajj is a worship which is done both with body and with property. Supererogatory hajj can always be performed on someone else's behalf. But the hajj which is fard can be performed by a deputy only on behalf of a person who will not be able to perform it in person till his death.

It is written in Majma'ul anhur and in Durr-ul muntaqa, "The deceased's isqat must be performed before the burial. It is written in Quhistani that it is permissible also after the burial."

In the performance of the isqat of the kaffarats of namaz, fasting, zakat and qurban for the deceased, one poor person can be given more than the amount of nisab. In fact, all the gold coins can be given to one poor person.

It is not permissible for a person on his deathbed to give the fidya for his omitted prayers of namaz. If a person is so old that he cannot fast, it is permissible for him to give the fidya for his fasts that he cannot perform. A sick person has to perform his salat at least by moving his head. If a person is so sick that he cannot perform his prayers of salat for more than a day even with such movements (of his head), he will be absolved from the obligation of performing these prayers of salat. He will not have to make qada of these prayers if he recovers later. But when he recovers he will have to perform his fasts which he could not perform. If he dies before recovering, (his sin of not performing) these fasts will be pardoned.