An acceptable namaz requires an acceptable ablution and an acceptable ghusl. Ibni 'Abidin wrote in his explanation of Durr-ul-mukhtar: "It is fard for every woman or man who is junub and for every woman after haid (menstruation) and nifas (puerperium) to perform a ghusl ablution when there is enough time to perform the time's namaz before that prayer's time expires."

There are uncountable blessings for those who do the fard. And those who do not perform the fard are very sinful. Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) states in a hadith ash-Sharif written in the book Gunyat-ut-talibin: "A person who gets up in order to perform a ghusl ablution will be given as many blessings as the hairs on his body [which means very many], and that many of his sins will be forgiven. His grade in Paradise will be increased. The blessings which he will be given on account of his ghusl are more useful than anything in the world. Allahu ta'ala will declare to the angels: 'look at this slave of Mine! Without showing any reluctance, he thinks of My command and gets up at night and performs a ghusl from janabat. Bear witness that I have forgiven the sins of this slave of Mine.' "

A hadith ash-Sharif written on the ninety-first page of the Turkish book entitled Hujjat-ul- Islam declares: "When you become impure, hasten to perform a ghusl ablution! For, the angels of kiraman katibin get offended with the person who goes about while junub." It is written on the same page: "Hadrat Imam-i Ghazali said he had dreamt of a person saying, 'I remained junub for a while. As a result, they have put a shirt of fire on me. And I am still on fire.' " A hadith ash-Sharif existing in the books Zawajir and Risala-i unsiyya declares; "Angels of (Allah's) compassion do not enter a house wherein there is a picture, a dog, or a junub person. It is written in Zawajir that if a person, whether he performs namaz or not, spends a prayer's time junub, he will be tormented bitterly. For example, a person who becomes junub after the adhan of early afternoon (Zuhr) has to perform a ghusl before late afternoon ('Asr) prayer if he has not performed his early afternoon prayer, and before evening (Maghrib) prayer if he has performed his early afternoon prayer. If he cannot take a bath himself with water he must make a tayammum.

According to the Hanafi Madhhab there are three fards in a ghusl:

1 - To wash the entire mouth very well. Drinking a mouthful of water will do, yet some (savants) said that it would be makruh.

2 - To wash the nostrils. A ghusl will not be accepted if one does not wash under any dried mucus in the nostrils or under any chewed pieces of bread in the mouth. According to the Hanbali Madhhab madmada and istinshaq are fard both in ablution and in ghusl. (See the previously explained eighteen sunnats of ablution).

3 - To wash every part of the body. It is fard to wash every spot on the body if there is no haraj (difficulty) in wetting it. It is not necessary but mustahab to rub the parts gently. Imam-i Malik and Imam-i Abu Yusuf said that it is necessary. It is fard to wash inside the navel, the moustache, the eyebrows and the beard as well as the skin under them, the hair on the head and on the genital area. It is not fard, but mustahab to wash the eyes, the closed ear ring holes and under the foreskin. When a woman washes the skin under her plaited hair it is not necessary to wash the plait. If the skin under the hair cannot be washed it becomes necessary to undo the plait. It is fard to wash all parts of the hair that is not plaited. If a person gets a haircut, it is not necessary to wash the hair cut [or other hairs or nails cut]. It is written on the two hundred and seventy-fifth page of the fifth volume of Ibni 'Abidin (rahmat-Allahi alaih): "It is makruh to shave the groin when one is junub." [Hence it is makruh also to get a haircut or to cut one's nails when one is junub.]

It is not fard to wash under the dirt caused by fleas and flies, under henna, under the skin's natural dirt or under any fluid oil or mud. It is necessary to wash under the waterproof things stuck to the skin such as dough, wax, gum, solid oil, fish scale, a chewed piece of bread [and fingernail polish]. If water does not soak through the food remains in the teeth or cavities, or if the parts under them are not washed, a ghusl will not be acceptable. If a ring is tight it is necessary to take it off or to shift it. So is the case with earrings. If there are no rings in the ring holes, and if the holes are open, when washing the ears, it will be enough to moisten the holes. If they do not get wet you must wet them with your fingers. In doing all these it will be enough to believe strongly that they have become wet. If a person forgets to wash his mouth or some other part and performs namaz and then remembers that he has not washed it, he washes the part and performs the fard namaz again. If there are no secluded places he does not open his private parts near others. He waits until the others leave the place. If the time of namaz becomes short he does not make taharat (clean himself) near others, and he does not wash his pants, either. He performs the namaz with najasat on his person. For it is more blessed to abstain from the haram than doing the fard. Later on when he finds a secluded place he makes taharat, washes his pants and performs the namaz again.

An ablution and a ghusl do not have wajibs. The sunnats of a ghusl are like the sunnats of an ablution. Only, in a ghusl it is not sunnat to wash in the same sequence as done in an ablution. Their mustahabs are the same, too, with the mere difference that in a ghusl one does not turn towards the qibla or recite any prayers. If a person who has gotten soaked in a pool, a river or sea or drenched by rain washes his mouth and nose too, he will have performed an ablution and a ghusl.

To perform a ghusl as prescribed in the sunnat, we must first wash both of our hands and private parts even if they may be clean. Then, if there is any najasat on our body, we must wash it away. Then we must perform a complete ablution. While washing our face we must intend to perform a ghusl. If water will not accumulate under our feet, we must wash our feet, too. Then we must pour water on our entire body three times. To do this, we must pour it on our head three times first, then on our right shoulder three times and then on the left shoulder three times. Each time the part on which we pour water must become completely wet. We must also rub it gently during the first pouring. In a ghusl, it is permissible to pour the water on one limb so as to make it flow onto an other limb, which, in this case, will be cleaned, too. For in a ghusl the whole body is counted as one limb. If in performing an ablution the water poured on one limb moistens another limb, the second limb will not be considered to have been washed. When a ghusl is completed it is makruh to perform an ablution again. But it will become necessary to perform an ablution again if it is broken while making a ghusl. Those who imitate the Shafi'i and Maliki Madhhabs should remember this point. It is permissible to perform it at some other place even if it has not been broken or to perform it again after performing namaz.

In an ablution and a ghusl it is extravagant, which is haram, to use more than the necessary amount of water. With eight ritl of water [which is equal to one thousand and forty dirham-i shar'i or three and a half kilograms], one can make a ghusl as required by the sunnat. Rasulullah (sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam) would perform an ablution with one moud [two ritl or 875 gr.] of water, and he would make a ghusl with water the volume of one Sa', [One Sa' is 4200 grams of water. According to an experiment conducted with lentils by this faqir, one Sa' is 4,2 liters, that is, four liters plus one-fifth a liter].

[In the Hanafi Madhhab, if the area between the teeth and the tooth cavities do not get wet a ghusl will not be acceptable. Therefore, when one has one's teeth crowned or filled without darurat (necessity) one's ghusl will not be sahih (acceptable). One will not get out of the state of janabat. Yes, it is permissible according to Imam-i Muhammad to fasten one's loose teeth with gold wires or to put gold teeth in place of one's extracted teeth. Yet Imam-i azam inferred the ijtihad that gold was not permissible. Imam-i Abu Yusuf, according to some reports, said as Imam-i Muhammad said. It is said (by savants) that the permission given to Arfaja bin Sad, one of the Sahaba, so that he could use a gold nose, is, according to Imam-i azam, peculiar to Arfaja only. As a matter of fact, Zubair and Abdurrahman 'radiallahu ta'ala anhuma' were permitted to wear silk dresses, and this permission is said (by savants) to have been peculiar only to them. But the fatwa is based upon the word of Imam-i Muhammad, which gives permission to wear gold teeth, ears or nose that can be taken out when performing a ghusl. This difference between our imams is on whether or not artificial teeth and the wires fastened to the loose teeth may be of gold, and it is in cases when they can be removed so as not to prevent the performance of a ghusl. But in a ghusl all of our imams say that the teeth must be wetted. In other words, when water does not go under the artificial teeth, which may be made of gold, silver, or any other substance that is not najs, a ghusl ablution will not be acceptable according to all the savants of Hanafi Madhhab.

It is written in Halabi al-kabir: "If food remains are left between the teeth and one cannot wash under them a ghusl will be acceptable. For water is fluid and can infiltrate under the remains. But if the remains have been chewn and become solid, a ghusl will not be acceptable. This is the truth of the matter. For water cannot infiltrate under them. There is no darurat or haraj in this." Qadihan writes referring to Natifi: "If there are food remains between the teeth a ghusl will not be valid. It is necessary to pick them out and to wash the places under them."

It is written in Al-majmuat-uz-zuhdiyya: "Whether little or much, if the food remains between the teeth become solid like dough and thereby prevent water from filtering through, a ghusl will be un acceptable."

It is written in Durr-ul-mukhtar: "There are those (scholars) who have given the fatwa that any thing between the teeth or in any tooth cavity would not harm a ghusl ablution, but if the stuff is solid and does not let water through, a ghusl ablution will not be acceptable. This is the best truth of the matter." In explaining this Ibni 'Abidin (rahmat-Allahi 'alaih) wrote: "The reason why the fatwa was given that it would do no harm was because water would infiltrate under it and wet the part beneath it." The book Khulasat-ul-fatawa writes the same. As it is understood from the fatwa, if water does not go under it, a ghusl will not be accepted. The same is written in the book Hilya. The same is also written in the book of annotation Minyat-ul-musalli, which adds: "If water does not reach the tooth, and there is no darurat or haraj in this."

Tahtawi, explaining Maraqil-falah, wrote: "If water goes under the food remains between the teeth and in the tooth cavities a ghusl will be accepted. If they are too solid to let water through, a ghusl will not be accepted. The same is written in Fath-ul-Qadir.

Allama Sayyid Ahmad Tahtawi wrote in his explanation of Durr-ul-mukhtar: "Because water will infiltrate under the food remains between the teeth and in tooth cavities, they do not prevent the performance of a ghusl. If you doubt whether water infiltrates under them you must take them out, wash in between the teeth and the cavities."

In worshipping and in abstaining from harams, every Muslim should follow the words of the scholars of his Madhhab, such as, "This is the fatwa", "This is the best," "This is the truest word." If something he has done of his own accord hinders him from following it and if there is haraj, difficulty, in eliminating that hindrance, he must follow another word which is declared to be right in his own Madhhab. For example, it is haram to put the date of payment on the promissory-note of a person to whom you lend money; it is interest. But by transferring it to someone else it will be permissible for either of them to pay it on a certain date. If you cannot do so either, sup posing you are in the Hanafi Madhhab, you act following those daif words of the scholars of the Hanafi Madhhab which have not been chosen as a fatwa. (See Endless Bliss II.) If you still can not find a way out, you will have to act by imitating, i.e., following one of the other three Madhhabs. Hanafi scholars report that it is wajib for you to imitate another Madhhab. For example, Ibni 'Abidin, while explaining tazir on page 190, vol. III wrote: "Great 'alim Ibni Amir Haj says in the book Sharh-i Tahrir: 'It is necessary to act upon the word of the mujtahid and to imitate that mujtahid when the necessity arises and this is informed through a Shar'i dalil (proof). The Shar'i dalil is the ayat-i karima "Ask those who know." When you meet with a certain new situation, you inquire into ways of dealing with this situation. If you know that a mujtahid has prescribed how to deal with this situation, it becomes wajib for you to accept that mujtahid's prescription." Hence, it is wajib to imitate another Madhhab (in that case). If it is impossible to follow another Madhhab, you should see if there is darurat to do the thing which causes the haraj.

A - If there is darurat to do something that causes haraj, it will be permissible for you not to do that fard at all, or to commit a haram as far as the darurat forces you to. The same is valid if the haraj is still present when the darurat is over.

B - If the thing causing haraj has been done without darurat or if there are a few alternatives that can be done with darurat and you choose the one in which there is haraj, you are not permitted to omit the fard. Following this rule, scholars of fiqh have solved many problems. For example:

1 - Imam-i Muhammad said, "When a loose tooth is tied with a silver wire, the silver will cause a noxious scent, but a gold wire will not cause it. Because there is darurat, it is not haram to tie it with gold." And Imam-i azam said, "A silver wire will not cause a noxious scent either, so there is no darurat; consequently, it is haram to tie it with a gold wire." Therefore, Imam-i Muhammad's (rahmatallahi ta'ala alaih) solution is to be acted upon. There is no need to follow another Madhhab.

2 - If a man finds out (later) that his wife is his foster-sister by way of one or both having been suckled only once by the saeme mother, their nikah will become void according to Hanafi Madhhab. They will either get divorced or follow the Shafi'i Madhhab. If their walis (guardians, protectors, parents) were not present during their nikah, they have to renew their nikah as prescribed by the Shafi'i Madhhab. If suckling from the same mother took place five times and both children were fully satiated, it will not be possible to follow Shafi'i and divorce will become a must.

3 - A person who is not able to arrive at his destination for evening prayer gets off the bus and performs it in its prescribed time. Afterwards he gets on another bus going in the same direction. Or else it is permissible for him to follow the Shafi'i Madhhab and perform it after its time, that is, together with the night prayer. If he is not able to reach his destination in order to perform the early afternoon prayer in its time, he will have to get off and perform it outside the bus. For, the early afternoon prayer cannot be performed together with evening prayer in the Shafi'i Madhhab, either.

4 - If the zawja (wife) of a person who is poor and not able to provide nafaqa (sustenance) applies to the court and wants to be divorced, a Hanafi Qadi (judge) may not perform it. But a Shafi'i Qadi may do it. The wife in the Hanafi Madhhab must apply to a Shafi'i Qadi. That judge will divorce her. The hukm (Judgement) of this judge will be nafiz (carried out). See the chapter on nafaqa in fiqh books!

A samawi (involuntary) reason that forces one to do something, that is, a reason which happens beyond one's will, is called a darurat. Examples of darurat are a commandment or prohibition of the Shariat, an incurable vehement pain, danger of losing one's limb or life, and compulsory choice without an alternative. When it is difficult to prevent something from hindering the doing of a fard or from causing a haram to be committed, the case is called haraj.

As it has been mentioned above, according to the unanimity of the scholars of the Hanafi Madhhab (rahmat-Allahi alaihim ajmain) the ghusl of a person who has his teeth filled or capped for some reason will not be sahih (accepted). Scholars of the Hanafi Madhhab do not have another statement (on this subject) that a person could follow in order to make his ghusl sahih. Some people say that it is permissible for him to perform a ghusl before having his tooth crowned or filled and then make masah on the crowning or the filling every time, but they are wrong. For, masah on mests is peculiar to the feet and is done not in a ghusl but in an ablution. Nor would it be right to liken the crowning or the filling to a bandage on a wound, which will be elaborated on several pages ahead.

When there is haraj in performing an 'ibadat because of something which is done without darurat, one has to imitate another Madhhab only in doing the fard concerned; this fact is written in many books, e.g. on the fifty-first and the two hundred and fifty-sixth pages of the first volume and the five hundred and forty-second page of the second volume and on the one hundred ninetieth page of the third volume of Ibni 'Abidin, and on the eighteenth page of Mizan, as well as on the final pages of the books Hadiqa and Bariqa and in Fatawa-yi hadithiyya and on the final pages of the section "adab-ul-Qadi" of Fatawa-yi Hayriyya, in the 22nd letter of the third volume of Maktubat of Imam-i Rabbani. It is also written in Ma'fuwwat and in its explanation by Molla Khalil Si'ridis (rahmat-Allahi ta'ala alaih), a Shafi'i alim , and in its annotation. If the person who intends to imitate (Shafi'i Madhhab) performed the present time's namaz before intending to imitate, the namaz will be sahih (valid). But he will have to perform again his previous prayers of namaz which he performed before that. Tahtawi writes as follows on the ninety-sixth page of his explanation of Maraqil-falah and also in its Turkish version Nimat-i Islam: "There is no harm in a Hanafi's imitating the Shafi'i Madhhab for doing something which he cannot do in his own Madhhab. The same is written in the books Bahrurraiq and Nahrulfaiq. But to do this he has to fulfill the conditions of the Shafi'i Madhhab, too. If he imitates without haraj and does not observe the conditions he will be called a Mulaffiq, that is, one who looks for and gathers facilities. This is not permissible. A traveling person's performing late afternoon ('Asr) prayer with the early afternoon (Zuhr) prayer and night (Isha) prayer together with evening (Maghrib) prayer by imitating the Shafi'i Madhhab requires that he will recite the Fatiha (sura) when he performs these behind an imam (in jamaat), and that he will perform an ablution again if his palm touches his own Saw'atayn, that is, his two most private parts, or if his skin touches a woman's skin, except the eighteen women who are eternally haram (illegal) for him to marry. And he must intend for an ablution and avoid even a little najasat." It is also permissible for him to imitate the Maliki Madhhab.

For imitating the Maliki or Shafi'i Madhhab, it is enough to remember that you are following the Maliki or Shafi'i Madhhab when performing a ghusl or an ablution and when intending to perform the namaz. In other words, the ghusl of such a person will be acceptable if, at the beginning, he passes this thought through his heart: "I intend to perform ghusl and to follow the Maliki (or the Shafi'i) Madhhab." When a person in the Hanafi Madhhab who has a crowned or filled tooth intends in this manner his ghusl will be sahih. He will extricate themselves from the state of being junub and become pure. When this person needs to perform namaz or to hold the Qur'an he has to have an ablution as required by the Maliki or the Shafi'i Madhhab, too. For those who imitate the Shafi'i Madhhab, when the skins of those for whom being married is permissible touch one another, even if he or she is very old, or a child who has grown up but has not arrived at the age of puberty, they both must perform an ablution for namaz. Also, when a person (imitating the Shafii Madhhab) touches with his or her palm one of the two organs used for relieving nature on his or her or someone else's body, he or she has to make an ablution for namaz. He must recite the Fatiha at every rakat while performing namaz in jamaat. He must scrupulously avoid najasat. When he is late for the jamaat (for the first rakat of the namaz, for instance), he bows for ruku' together with the imam and does not recite a part or the whole of the Fatiha. Imitating Shafi'i or Maliki Madhhabs is not taqwa, but it is fatwa, rukhsat (permission). Taqwa is to replace the crowned and filled teeth with false teeth.

To attain the compassion expressed in the hadith ash-Sharif, "Differences among the mujtahids of my Ummat are Allah's compassion," which signifies the four Madhhabs, those Hanafis who have filled or crowned teeth can extricate themselves from the state of being junub by following the Maliki or Shafi'i Madhhab. For, it is not fard in the Madhhabs of Shafi'i and Maliki to wash inside the mouth or the nostrils while performing a ghusl. But it is fard to intend to perform a ghusl. For a person imitating another Madhhab (on account of a haraj that makes it impossible for him to follow his own Madhhab in a particular matter), if a second haraj arises preventing his performance from being sahih according to the Madhhab he has been imitating but not according to his own Madhhab or according to a third Madhhab, he goes on doing this matter in accordance with all the three Madhhabs. The kind of talfiq (unification) which scholars such as Izz-ad-din bin Abd-is-salam Shafi'i and Imam-i-Subki and Ibni Humam and Qasim say is permissible is this kind of imitation done because of two different excuses. In case it is impossible to imitate the third Madhhab, his excuse in his own Madhhab becomes darurat and his worship becomes sahih (acceptable). If the second excuse is not a continuous one, the worship he performs during the suspension of this excuse becomes sahih according to this (second) Madhhab. As it is seen, when a person imitates a third Madhhab because of an excuse making it impossible to follow the second Madhhab, this does not mean talfiq (unification of Madhhabs).

Since the ghusl of a person who is in the Hanafi Madhhab will not be sahih (valid) as long as his teeth are crowned or filled, his prayers of namaz will not be sahih, either. He has to perform his prayers again which he had performed until he began to imitate the Shafi'i or Maliki Madhhab. Later on we shall explain how to perform the omitted fard prayers instead of the sunnat of each prayer. (See chapter 23).

Some people have been asking if there are any ayats or hadiths on the washing of the teeth. It should be known quite well that the Adilla-i Shariyya are four. It is a la- madhhabi's attitude to consider only the two. Today there seems to be no qualified scholars on the earth who can derive meanings from ayats and hadiths. Having chosen one of the great scholars who understood the meanings of ayats and hadiths well and explained them in books of fiqh, we have made him our imam, guide, leader, and have been carrying on our acts of worship in a manner shown by him. Our leader is Imam-i azam Abu Hanifa, (may Allah's mercy be upon him). Imitating one of the four Madhhabs means to follow the Qur'an al-karim and the hadith ash-Sharifs.

There are eleven kinds of ghusl, five of which are fard. Two of them involve a woman performing a ghusl to get out of the states of haid (menstruation) and nifas (puerperium.)

Haid is the bleeding that flows for more than three days from the genital organ of a healthy girl over nine years old, or a woman after a period of Full Purity has passed since the last minute of her previous bleeding period. This is also called Sahih Bleeding. If no blood is seen within the fifteen or more days after a bleeding period, and if this duration (of purity) is preceded and followed by days of haid, these days of purity are called Sahih Purity. If there are days of fasid bleeding before or after the fifteen or more days of purity or between two periods of sahih purity, all these days are called (days of) Hukmi purity or Fasid purity. Also, periods during haid which no blood is seen and which last less than fifteen days are called Fasid purity. Sahih purity and Hukmi purity are called Full Purity. Bleedings that are seen before and after a period of full purity and which continue for three days are two separate periods of haid. Any colored liquid, except for a white (colorless) liquid or turbidity is called the blood of haid. When a girl begins haid, she becomes baligha (an adolescent), that is, a woman. A girl who has not begun haid and a boy who does not have mani (sperm) are considered to be baligh (in a state of puberty), if they have lived beyond the age of fifteen. This fact is written in the explanation of the book Durr-i Yakta. The number of days beginning from the moment bleeding is seen until the bleeding comes to an end is called adat (menstruation period). A period of haid is ten days maximum and three days minimum. According to the Shafi'i and Hanbali Madhhabs, it is fifteen days maximum and one day minimum. In the Maliki Madhhab it is fifteen days maximum, and yet the bleeding that is seen first is haid. If the bleeding of a woman who is in the Hanafi Madhhab and who is imitating the Maliki or Shafi'i Madhhab goes on for more than ten days, she will have to make qada of the prayers of namaz she has omitted during this time of excess after she becomes purified.

Menstrual bleeding does not have to be continuous. If the initial bleeding stops but more bleeding is seen again before three days have passed, the days of purity in between are unanimously considered to be menstrual. According to a report Imam-i Muhammad transmits from Imam-i azam Abu Hanifa, if bleeding is seen again before ten days have passed, it will be concluded that the bleeding has continued during these ten days. There is also another report transmitted by Imam-i Muhammad. According to Imam-i Abu Yusuf, in Shafi'i and Maliki all these days of purity are considered menstrual if they are over before a fifteen day period. Suppose a girl bleeds for one day and then does not bleed for another fourteen days; however, she then bleeds again for one day. And suppose another woman bleeds for one day and does not bleed again for ten days, but again bleeds for only one day. And a third woman bleeds for three days and does not bleed again for five days, but when she bleeds again, it is only for a day. According to Imam-i Abu Yusuf, the girl's first ten days are haid; the former woman's days of haid are the same as her adat (previous or usual menstrual period) and all the remaining days (of bleeding) are istihada; the latter woman's nine days are all haid. According to Imam-i Muhammad's first report, only the latter woman's nine days are haid. According to Imam-i Muhammad's second report, only the latter woman's first three days are haid, but the remaining days are not haid. Translating the subject of haid from the book Multaqa, we have written all the following information according to Imam-i Muhammad's first report. One day is (a duration of) exactly twenty- four hours. It is mustahab for married women, all the time, and unmarried (virginal) women, during their menstrual period only, to put a piece of cloth or pure organic cotton called kursuf on the mouth of their vagina, and to apply perfume on it. Synthetic cotton is unhealthy. It is makruh to insert the entire kursuf into the vagina. A girl who sees bloodstains on the kursuf every day for months is considered to be menstruating during the first ten days and having istihada for the remaining twenty days. This will go on until the bleeding, called istimrar, stops.

If a girl sees blood for three days but does not see it for one day, and then sees it for one day but again does not see it for two days, and later sees it for one day but then does not see it for one day, and finally sees it again for one day, all these ten days are menstrual. If she sees blood one day but does not see it the next day, and if this alternating process goes on for ten days every month, she does not perform namaz or fast on the days she sees blood. But she makes ghusl and performs namaz on the following days. [Translated from the book Masail-i sharh-i wikaya.]

Bleeding that goes on for less than three days, that is, seventy-two hours, even if it is five minutes less, or, for a newly pubescent girl, bleeding after the tenth day when it goes on more than ten days or, for one who is not new, bleeding that happens after the adat when it exceeds the days of adat and even ten days, or bleeding of a pregnant or aisa (old) woman or of a girl below nine years of age is not menstrual. It is called istihada or fasid bleeding. A woman becomes aisa around the age of fifty-five. Supposing a woman whose adat is five days sees blood after half of the sun has risen and the bleeding stops as two-thirds of the sun rises on the eleventh morning, in which case the bleeding has exceeded ten days for a few minutes, the blood that comes after five days, her adat, is istihada. For, it has exceeded ten days and ten nights for as long as one-sixth of the sun's time of rising. When the ten days are over, she makes ghusl and makes qada of the prayers of namaz which she did not perform on the days following after her adat.

While a woman is in the days of istihada, she is considered to have an excuse ('udhr), just like someone whose nose frequently bleeds or someone who is not able to control the bladder; hence, she has to perform namaz and fast, and sexual intercourse is permissible despite the bleeding. The bleeding of istihada (menorrhagia) is a sign of a disease. If it continues for a long time it may be dangerous, so the person concerned must see a gynecologist. A red gum powder called sang-dragon (dragon's blood) may stop the bleeding when taken orally with water, one gram in the morning, and in the evening. Up to five grams may be taken per day.

According to a report by Imam-i Muhammad, if a girl over nine years old sees bloodstains one day for the first time in her life and does not see it the following eight days but sees it again on the tenth day, all the ten days are menstrual. But if she bleeds the first and eleventh days only and at no time in between, neither of them is menstrual. Bleeding on both days is istihada, since the days of purity preceding the bleeding after the tenth day, as described above, are not considered to be the days of haid according to Imam-i Muhammad. If she sees bloodstains on both the tenth and eleventh days, the first ten days, including the days of purity in between, make up a menstruation period, while the eleventh day belongs to istihada.

A woman's haid or purity is usually a period of the same number of days every month. In this con text, one 'month' (also a 'menstrual cycle') is the period from the beginning of a menstruation period to the beginning of the next period. When a woman with a certain period of adat sees sahih bleeding for a different number of days, her adat changes. Likewise, the number of the days of purity changes when a different period of purity is seen once. Fasid bleeding or fasid purity does not change the adat.

If the duration of bleeding of the new haid exceeds ten days and if its three or more days do not concur with the time of the former adat, the time of adat changes, but the number of days does not change. If they (three or more days) concur with the time of adat, the number of days concurring with it becomes haid and the rest becomes istihada. If a woman whose adat is five days of bleeding and fifty-five days of purity sees five days of bleeding and then forty-six days of purity and afterwards eleven days of bleeding, the time of her adat changes, but the number of days does not change. If she sees five days of bleeding and then fifty-seven days of purity but later three days of bleeding followed by fourteen days of purity and then one more day of bleeding, the number of the days (of the new haid) becomes three. But its time does not change. The fourteen days of fasid purity here means continuous bleeding. That is, the duration of bleeding for the new haid exceeds ten days. If the duration of bleeding for the new haid does not exceed ten days and if it is followed by sahih purity, all the days of bleeding become a new haid. If it is not followed by sahih (correct) purity, the number of the former days of the adat does not change. It becomes mustahab for her to wait until it gets quite close to the end of the time for namaz within which it stopped and which is after the adat but before the tenth day (of bleeding). Then, after making a ghusl, she performs the time's namaz. Also waty (intercourse) becomes permissible for her. But if she misses the ghusl and the namaz as she waits, intercourse before making a ghusl becomes permissible.

If the first bleeding of a girl or a bleeding that begins fifteen days after the last haid of a woman stops before three days are over, she waits until the end of the namaz time is quite close. Then, making wudu (ablution) only without a ghusl she performs the namaz of that time and those which she did not perform (during the bleeding). If bleeding reoccurs after she has performed that namaz, she discontinues namaz. If it stops again, towards the end of the time of the namaz she makes a wudu only and performs the time's namaz and those which she did not perform, if there are any. She acts likewise until the end of the third day. But waty (intercourse) is not permitted even if she makes a ghusl.

If bleeding continues for more than three days and stops before the end of her adat, waty is not permitted before the end of her adat, even if she makes a ghusl. But if no bloodstains are seen until it is quite close to the end of that particular namaz-time she makes a ghusl and performs the namaz. She does not perform those prayers of namaz which she omitted. She fasts. If bleeding does not reoccur for fifteen days after the day it stops, the day it stops becomes the end of her new adat. But if bleeding reoccurs she discontinues namaz. If it is the month of Ramadan, after Ramadan, she makes qada of the fast which she performed. If bleeding stops she makes a ghusl again towards the end of the namaz-time and performs the namaz and she fasts. She follows the same procedure for ten days. After the tenth day she performs namaz without making a ghusl even if she sees bloodstains, and waty before a ghusl is permissible. But it is mustahab to make a ghusl before waty. If bleeding stops before the breaking of dawn and if she has only time enough to make a ghusl and dress up but not enough also to say "Allahu Akbar" before dawn, she fasts that day, but she does not have to make qada of the night namaz she missed. But if the time is long enough to say "Allahu Akbar," she will have to make the qada. If haid begins before iftar (time for breaking a fast), her fasting becomes invalid, and she performs its qada after Ramadan. If haid begins while performing namaz, her namaz, becomes invalid. When she becomes clean she does not perform qada for that namaz if it is fard, but she performs it if it is supererogatory. If a woman sees bloodstains on her kursuf when she wakes up after dawn, she becomes menstruous at that moment. If a woman sees that her kursuf is clean when she wakes up, her haid stopped while she was asleep. It is fard for both to perform the (previous) night's namaz. A namaz being fard for a woman depends on her being clean at its last minute. A woman whose haid begins before she has performed the time's namaz does not make qada of that namaz.

There must be full purity between two periods of haid. It is declared unanimously (by Islamic scholars) that if this full purity is sahih purity, the bleedings before and after it are two separate periods of haid. Days of purity intervening the days of bleeding within the ten days of haid are considered menstrual, and the days of istihada after the tenth day are considered (days of) purity. If a girl bleeds for three days and then does not bleed for fifteen days and then bleeds for one day and then does not bleed one day and then bleeds again for three days, the first and the last three days of bleeding are two separate periods of haid. Since her adat is three days, the second haid cannot begin with the one day of bleeding in between. This one day makes the previous full purity fasid. Molla Khusraw (rahmat-Allahi ta'ala 'alaih) wrote in his explanation of Ghurar: "If a girl sees one day of bleeding and then fourteen days of purity and later one day of bleeding and then eight days of purity and then one day of bleeding and then seven days of purity and then two days of bleeding and then three days of purity and then one day of bleeding and then three days of purity and then one day of bleeding and then two days of purity and then one day of bleeding, according to Imam-i Muhammad, of these forty-five days only the ten days following the fourteen days (of purity) are menstrual, and the rest are istihada." As a result, since there is not a period of full purity following these ten days, the new haid does not begin. She is not thought of as having bled during the latter days of her purity because these days are not within the duration of her normal haid. "According to Imam-i Abu Yusuf, the first ten days and the fourth ten days with purity on both sides are menstrual." For, according to Imam-i Abu Yusuf, the following days of fasid purity are considered to be menstrual. According to the first of the following (four) cases, the ten days of haid are followed by twenty days of purity and then ten days [the fourth ten days] of haid.

If istimrar (see above) occurs without any intervening days of purity for fifteen days, the calculation is based on her adat. That is, beginning with the end of her adat, the duration of purity is considered to be the same as that of the previous month's and the period of haid is the same as her adat.

If istimrar occurs on a girl, according to the book Manhal-ul-waridin and the Turkish book Murshid un-Nisa, it may be classified in one of the four cases:

1 - If the bleeding which is seen for the first time makes istimrar, the first ten days are considered menstrual and the next twenty days are considered days of purity.

2 - If istimrar occurs after a girl has experienced sahih bleeding and sahih purity, this girl has become a woman with a certain adat. Suppose she has experienced five days of bleeding and forty days of purity, from the beginning of istimrar five days are considered menstrual and forty days are considered days of purity. The case is valid until the bleeding ceases.

3 - If she undergoes fasid bleeding and fasid purity, neither of them is considered to be her adat. If the purity is fasid because it is less than fifteen days, the bleeding which is seen first is considered to have made istimrar. If she undergoes eleven days of bleeding and then fourteen days of purity and afterwards istimrar, the first bleeding is fasid because it exceeds ten days. Its eleventh day and the first five bleeding days of istimrar are (within) the days of purity, and, after the fifth day (of istimrar), ten days of haid and then twenty days of purity keep recurring. If the purity is full purity and is fasid because there are days of bleeding within it, and if the sum of the days of such fasid purity and the days of bleeding does not exceed thirty, again, the first bleeding is considered to have made istimrar. An example of this is istimrar after eleven days of bleeding and fifteen days of purity. Because there is bleeding on the first of the sixteen days, it is a period of fasid purity. The first four days of the istimrar are (within) the period of purity. If their sum exceeds thirty days, the first ten days are menstrual and all the following days until the istimrar are considered days of purity, and after the istimrar, ten days of haid and twenty days of purity continue to reoccur. An example of this is istimrar after eleven days of bleeding and twenty days of purity.

4 - If she undergoes sahih bleeding and fasid purity, the days of sahih bleeding become her adat. The following days are considered days of purity until after the thirtieth day. Suppose istimrar occurs after five days of bleeding and fourteen days of purity, the first five days are days of bleeding and the following twenty-five days are days of purity. To complete these twenty-five days, the first eleven days of the istimrar are considered days of purity. From now on five days of haid and twenty-five days of purity will continue reoccurring. Likewise, if istimrar occurs after three days of bleeding and fifteen days of purity or one day of bleeding and fifteen days of purity, the first three days are days of sahih bleeding and all the following days up to the istimrar are days of fasid purity; hence, three days are menstrual and the next thirty-one days are days of purity. But during the istimrar three days of haid and twenty-seven days of purity reoccur. If the second period of purity were fourteen days, according to Imam-i Abu Yusuf it would be considered a period of continuous bleeding. The first two days would be menstrual, and the next fifteen days would be days of purity, and so on. Since the first three days of bleeding and the next fifteen days of purity are sahih, they are accepted as adats.

A woman who has forgotten the time of her adat is called Muhayyira or Dalla.

Nifas means lochia. Bleeding that occurs after a fetus with developed hands, feet and head has been aborted is also nifas. There is not a minimum duration for nifas. On the day the bleeding stops, she performs a ghusl and resumes namaz. But she cannot have sexual intercourse before the period equaling her previous nifas is over. The maximum is forty days. After forty days she performs a ghusl and begins namaz even if her bleeding continues. Bleeding after the fortieth day is istihada. The nifas of a woman whose bleeding lasted twenty-five days after her first pregnancy is twenty-five days. Therefore, if blood flows for forty-five days after her second pregnancy, the first twenty-five makes up the nifas and the remaining twenty days are istihada. She has to perform qada of those prayers of namaz that she did not perform during these twenty days. Then, it is necessary to memorize one's length of nifas, too. If her bleeding stops before the fortieth day, e.g. in thirty-five days, during the second childbirth, all the thirty-five days are nifas; therefore, her nifas changes from twenty-five to thirty-five days. In Ramadan, if haid or nifas stops after dawn (fajr), she fasts during that day, yet after Ramadan she fasts one day again for that day. If haid or nifas begins after dawn, she breaks her fast even if it begins in the late afternoon.

Namaz, fasting, entering a mosque, reading or holding the Qur'an al-karim, visiting the Kaba, and sexual intercourse are all haram (forbidden) in all of the four Madhhabs on the days of haid and nifas. Later she performs the qada' of those fasts, but not the ritual prayers of namaz she omitted. She will be forgiven for not performing namaz. If at each prayer time she performs an ablution and sits on a sajjada (prayer-rug) and dhikrs and performs tasbih for as long as it normally takes her to perform namaz, she will be given as many blessings as she would normally receive if she performed namaz in the best manner. [When a girl is over eight years old, it becomes fard for her mother or, if she does not have a mother, her grandmothers, elder sisters, paternal and maternal aunts, respectively, to teach her about haid and nifas. If they do not, they them selves and their husbands will have committed a grave sin.]

It is written in the book Jawhara: "A woman must let her husband know when her haid begins. It is a grave sin not to say it when her husband asks. It is also a grave sin if she says that her haid has begun while she is pure. Our Prophet (sallAllahu 'alaihi wa sallam) stated: 'A woman who conceals the beginning and the termination of her haid from her husband is accursed.' It is haram, a grave sin, to have anal intercourse with one's wife both during and after haid." He who does so is accursed. Pederasty is even more sinful. The Surat-ul-anbiya' states that pederasty is an "extremely vile deed." The hadith quoted in Qadizada's commentary to Birghiwi states, "If you catch in the act those who commit pederasty as did the tribe of Lut (the people of Sodom and Gomorra), kill them both!" Some Islamic scholars have said that they both must be burned alive. It has been discovered in America that the horrid disease called AIDS, which has been spreading with great speed among those who practice pederasty, is more fatal with those who eat pork. No medicine has so far been developed to cure this disease, whose virus was diagnosed in 1985.

The third type of ghusl that is fard concerns a person who has become junub. Such a person must wash himself (take a ghusl) when he has to perform namaz. There are three ways of becoming junub: When the tip of the penis (its roundish part under the prepuce) goes into the vulva, when the man's viscous white semen or the woman's yellowish ovum fluid is thrown out lustfully, and by nocturnal emission, that is, when he or she has a lustful dream and sees that semen or mazy has issued when he or she wakes up. In such a case, both the man and the woman become junub. In the Hanafi and Shafi'i Madhhabs, one does not become junub by the issuing of mazy or wadi. But the semen which has issued becomes fluid with the effect of heat and looks like mazy.

To make a ghusl for Friday, for the prayers of the Bayrams ('Iyds) of Fitr and Qurban, and while on the mount of Arafat (which is near Mecca) on Arafa day is sunnat-i zawaid. If a person who has forgotten that he has been junub makes a ghusl for the Friday prayer, he becomes pure. But he will not get the blessings for doing the fard.

It is wajib-i kifaya to wash a Muslim when he is dead. Before a dead Muslim is washed his funeral (janaza namaz) cannot be performed.

When a disbeliever becomes a Muslim, it is mustahab for him to make a ghusl.

Besides these eleven, it is mustahab to make a ghusl before putting on the ihram for hajj and 'umra; when entering Mecca or Medina; when standing for waqfa at muzdalifa; before washing a dead Muslim; after cupping; on Qadr, Arafa and Barat nights; when a mad person becomes sane; and for a child who reaches fifteen years of age. If a woman has sexual intercourse when her haid is over, one ghusl for both is enough. When a person makes a ghusl for some other reason on a Friday or on a day of 'Iyd, he will also be given the blessings for the ghusl of these prayers of namaz.

When sticky liquid called semen issues forth because of being thrashed, lifting something heavy, or falling down from a high place, a ghusl is not necessary in the Hanafi and Maliki Madhhabs. But it is necessary in the Shafi'i Madhhab. A Hanafi person who imitates the Shafi'i Madhhab has to take this into consideration.

If the semen that leaves its place lustfully remains in the urethra and does not go out, a ghusl is not necessary. But if it comes out later, even without lust, it will be necessary to make a ghusl. If a person who has a nocturnal emission, that is, who ejaculates semen in his dream, wakes up and squeezes his penis so that the semen is prevented from coming out, then experiences later on, after his lust has subsided, semen leaking from his organ, a ghusl becomes necessary for him. If a person who has become junub makes a ghusl without urinating and if later on the rest of the semen issues without lust, he has to make another ghusl. If he has performed namaz with his first ghusl, he does not have to perform it again. For this reason, in the Hanafi and Hanbali Madhhabs it is necessary to urinate and thereby wash out the semen that has remained in the urethra and afterwards make a ghusl. In the Shafi'i Madhhab one must make a ghusl again even if one has urinated. But in the Maliki Madhhab one does not have to make a ghusl again even if one has not urinated.

When the tip of the penis goes into the vulva or into a woman's or man's anus, a ghusl is necessary for both persons, regardless of whether semen was discharged or not. Inserting a penis into an animal (sodomy) or into a dead person (necrophilia) does not necessitate a ghusl if semen was not discharged, according to the Hanafi Madhhab. These two acts are done by psychopaths called sadist. Such acts are utterly abominable and grave sins.

If a person who has a nocturnal emission notices some wetness on his bed, on his underwear, or on his legs and finds out that it is the white, fluid liquid called mazy, or if mazy issues from him while awake, a ghusl is not necessary. If he notices some semen without remembering a nocturnal emission, a ghusl is necessary as unanimously communicated (by scholars). If he thinks it may be mazy, as a precaution a ghusl is necessary. If a person remembers that he had a nocturnal emission, but does not see any wetness anywhere, a ghusl is not necessary. After a woman makes a ghusl, if some of her husband's semen comes out, a ghusl is not necessary. If a drunk person sees some se men on himself after he recovers, a ghusl is necessary. The case is the same with a person who has fainted. If both the wife and the husband see some semen in their bed when they wake up, a ghusl is necessary for both, even though they do not remember having a nocturnal emission. If a genie disguised as a human being has sexual intercourse with a person, a ghusl is necessary for that person. If the genie does not come in a human figure, the person who has an experience from this does not make a ghusl. If the man's semen, which was discharged by rubbing his penis on a part of the woman's body except her vulva, goes into the vulva, the woman does not have to make a ghusl. However, if she becomes pregnant as a result, she has to make a ghusl and perform the prayers of namaz again which she has performed since the incident occurred.

When such things as a child's penis, an animal's penis, a dead person's penis, or anything like a penis, such as a finger or a penis with a condom on it is inserted into the vulva, a ghusl is necessary if she is aroused by it. If she does not enjoy it, making a ghusl is preferred. Maraq-il-falah says: "If semen or an ovum is released after looking or daydreaming about each other, a man or woman will become junub. A woman's husband pays money for the water she uses when making a ghusl, an ablution and for her bath. The husband has to meet his wife's needs even if she is rich. If a man's semen is released while urinating, he makes a ghusl if his penis is erect.

If a woman begins menstruating while she is junub, she makes a ghusl immediately if she likes, or she may wait until the menstruation is over and then make one ghusl for both.

Durr-ul-muntaqa says: "It is permissible for men to go to public baths for men, and women also are permitted to go to public baths for women. Covering their private parts with thick and over sized towels is fard; looking at someone else's private parts covered with a thin and tight towel is haram (prohibited). Rubbing a person's thighs and looking at them is permissible for the operator of a public bath, provided they are covered. Either touching or looking at the private parts under the towel is haram. Without lust, a man's or woman's body, except for their private parts, are permissible to be looked at or touched by another man or woman, respectively. It is also prohibited (haram) for a man to look at a woman who is a disbeliever, even without any lust." He who does not attach any importance to a haram (prohibition) conveyed by nass or ijma' will lose his iman (faith) and become a murtad.

If a person who is junub does not make a ghusl until the prescribed time for a particular prayer which he has not performed is over, he will not be sinful. But it is a grave sin for him to delay it any longer. It is not sinful to sleep or to have sexual intercourse when one is junub. It is permissible to make a ghusl by using the same basin or container together with one's wife. It is tanzihi makruh for a person who is junub to eat or drink before washing his hands and mouth. For the water touching his mouth and hands becomes mustamal. And it is makruh to drink water which is mustamal. The case is not so with a woman in haid. For she has not been commanded to make a ghusl while menstruating. [A woman in haid can suckle her baby without washing her breasts. But it is makruh for a woman who is junub to suckle her baby without washing.] The ablution of a woman who suckles her baby is not broken.

It is makruh to read the Qur'an al-karim when one's private parts are exposed or when there is another person close by whose private parts are exposed. Therefore, it is necessary to read (or recite) the Qur'an by keeping one's head outside of the blanket.

If a person who becomes junub at a house where he has been a guest fears that making a ghusl may cause slander or suspicion, he does not make a ghusl. And since it is not permissible for him to make a tayammum while there is water, it is permissible for him to be pretending to make namaz while he is junub, without intending, without saying the takbir of iftitah, without reciting any thing while standing but only by acting as if he is doing the ruku' and sajda. [Also, he who has to perform namaz behind an imam who is a la-Madhhabi reformer, does likewise.]

It is haram to enter a mosque or to even walk through a mosque when one is junub and when a woman has haid. If one has no other way than the one leading through the mosque or if one becomes junub in the mosque or if one cannot find water anywhere but in the mosque, one makes a tayammum and then one can go in and out of the mosque. It is haram in all of the four Madhhabs for one to read (or recite) the Qur'an al-karim, to hold a Mushaf and to visit the Kaba while one is junub. It is haram also to hold the Qur'an al-karim, or anything on which ayats are written, without an ablution. It is permissible to carry the Qur'an al-karim in something not attached to it, e.g. in a bag. It is not haram to recite the Fatiha or the ayats which are said to be the prayer ayats, with an intention to make prayer, (not as the Qur'an) or to say any prayer, yet it is mustahab to say any prayer with an ablution. Tafsirs (interpretations of the Qur'an) are like the Qur'an al-karim. Other books of din are like prayers. It is not permissible to wrap something in any piece of paper on which information of fiqh is written. If Allahu ta'ala's name or names of prophets (alaihim us- salam, may Allah's blessing be on them all) are written on some paper, things can be wrapped in it only after erasing the names. But it is more honorable not to use such things as wrapping papers, for the letters of the Qur'an are also sacred. It is written in the books Hadiqa and Lataif-ul-isharat, "The holy book sent down to Hadrad hud alaihis-salam was in Islamic letters." It is written on the six hundred and thirty-third page of the second volume of Hadiqa, "It is makruh to lay a carpet, mat, or prayer-rug on which there are sacred writings made by way of weaving or painting on the floor and to sit on them and to use them for any purpose. It is also makruh to write sacred writings on coins, mihrabs and walls. But it is not makruh to hang them on the walls." [The case is the same with the pictures of the Kaba. Prayer-rugs without pictures or embroideries on them must be preferred.]

[We repeat that it is fard in the Hanafi and Hanbali Madhhabs to wash inside the mouth while making a ghusl. Then, those who are Hanafi should not have their teeth filled or crowned unless they strongly need to do so. We must not let our teeth decay. To avoid this, we must take care of our teeth as commanded by our din and we must use miswaks. France's valuable medical book entitled Larousse Illustr Medical writes the following about dental care: "All kinds of tooth paste, powder or liquid are harmful. The best method for cleaning them is with a hard brush. Initially it makes the teeth bleed. But you should not fear that. It will strengthen the gums so that they will no longer bleed." Like everybody, I had been using toothpaste. Two of my teeth began to decay. But upon reading the French book I began using a miswak. My teeth stopped decaying. It was more than sixty years ago. Ever since then I have had no complaints about my teeth or stomach. Ibni 'Abidin wrote in Radd-ul mukhtar: "It is sunnat-i muakkada to use a miswak when performing an ablution. A hadith ash-Sharif declares: 'The namaz which is performed after using a miswak is seventy-fold superior to the namaz without a miswak.' A miswak must be straight, as wide as the second small finger, and a span long. The miswak is derived from a branch of the erak (peelo) tree growing in Arabia. [Shaving it about two centimeters from the straight end, you keep this part in water for a couple of hours. When you crush it, it will open like a brush.] When the erak tree cannot be found, a miswak can be made from an olive branch. You should not make it from a pomegranate branch. If an erak or olive tree cannot be found or if one does not have teeth, the sunnat must be carried out with one's fingers. The miswak has more than thirty advantages, which are written in Tahtawi's Hashiyatu Maraq al-falah. Firstly, it causes one to die with iman in one's last breath. It is makruh for men to chew gum without any 'udhr (strong necessity), even when they are not fasting. Women must use chewing gum when they are not fasting in stead of a miswak by intending to do the sunnat."

Question: It is said that all the fuqaha and mujtahids agree that our din gives permission to have one's teeth repaired. If they disagree on whether the repairs will be of gold or silver, does this affect their agreement?

Answer: Having one's teeth repaired means putting a false tooth that can be taken out whenever one wishes in the place of a missing tooth, fastening a tooth which is about to fall out, or having one's teeth filled or crowned. Changing the fatwa of Hanafi scholars (rahmat Allahi ta'ala alaihim ajmain) "it is permissible to fasten a loose tooth with gold" into "there is unanimity about it being permissible to have one's teeth repaired. It is permissible to have one's teeth filled or crowned" means either not to understand the declaration of the fuqaha or to adapt these declarations to one's own insidious and base desires, either of which is both shameful and sinful. Our mujtahids disagreed on whether it would be fastened with gold or silver. In fiqh books of the Hanafi Madhhab tying a loose tooth is called shad or tadbib. Shad (in Arabic) means to fasten hard with wire. For example, shadd-uz-zunnar means to fasten a priest's girdle. It is written in the paragraph about sitting on a sofa made by tadbib in the books entitled Durr ul-mukhtar, which are commentaries of the books Tahtawi and Hindiyya, and also in the books Durr-ul-muntaqa and Jami'ur-rumuz that tadbib means to wind a band around something wide and flat like the sliding iron bar of a door. It is written in Bazaziyya and in Hindiyya: "It is permissible to eat and drink from containers engraved with gold and silver designs. Yet you must not touch the silver or the gold with your hands or mouth. The Imamayn said that it is makruh to use such containers. So is the case with a container that has been made by tadbib. It is permissible to make tadbib of a sofa or the saddle of an animal, but you must not sit on those parts of it consisting of gold and silver. It is permissible to make tadbib on the cover of the Qur'an. But the gold and the silver on it must not be touched." Hence it is inferred that tadbib does not mean to cover the entire surface of something, but it means to place a metal band around something. It is written in books of fiqh: "It is permissible to make tadbib of gold on a loose tooth." This statement means that it is permissible to fasten a loose tooth with a gold wire or band in order to prevent it from falling. This is because water penetrates under such teeth. Furthermore, as today's prostheses can be taken out while making a ghusl, the tying wires and bands can be removed, cleaned, and replaced after a ghusl. Otherwise, the food that remains between them would cause stench and damage in the mouth. To say that they said that it was permissible to crown a loose tooth is to slander the scholars of fiqh. For, a loose tooth cannot be crowned, but it can be tied. As seen, a real man of din would not concoct the fatwa: "It is permissible to crown teeth," by interpreting the word "tadbib" as "crowning." Books of fiqh do not contain any passages writing: "It is permissible to have decaying teeth filled or crowned," nor any statement about having them filled or crowned with silver or gold.

Those who have little information on fiqh and who do not understand what the mujtahids declared, confuse the statement "having an artificial tooth made or fastening a loose tooth" with the statement "having one's teeth filled or crowned." They strive to make the declarations of mujtahids comprise all these. They say that since there is a necessity, all of these are permissible. These poor people do not realize that there is no need for searching for a necessity concerning tying a loose tooth or for having a movable tooth mounted in place of a missing tooth. A necessity is searched for when you have to do something that is not permissible to do. Since it is not prohibited to fasten one's tooth or to mount a false tooth, why should one look for a necessity? In an attempt to convince Muslims that the fillings and crowns in their own mouths do not harm their ghusl and seeing that there is a necessity for fastening the teeth with gold instead of silver wires, some people seized the great weapon, i.e. the word 'necessity,' and clamored: "It has been declared unanimously that it is a necessity to have one's teeth repaired." Thus they confused the Muslims in the Hanafi Madhhab and blocked the divine way. These people point as a proof to the declaration that the tottering teeth can be fastened unconditionally. However, the wires tying the teeth tightly and false teeth can be taken out, cleaned and put back in their places. The declaration by our savants (rahmatullahi ta'ala alaihim ajmain) refers to the wires and the teeth that can be taken out when making a ghusl. It would be an abominable slander against those great scholars to say that they permitted such obstacles as crowns and fillings, which do not let water through, while there is the fact that they declared: "It is fard to wash tooth cavities and in between the teeth when making a ghusl." Those scholars did not only say that it was permissible to use a gold false tooth, but also said that it was permissible to wear a silver ring. Permission to wear a silver ring does not mean that the skin under it will be exempt from being washed. They said that it was necessary to moisten the skin under the ring by taking it off or by shifting it. They said that an ablution or a ghusl would not be sahih if the skin under a tight ring was not moistened. Having a tooth crowned is like wearing a ring. Since the tooth under a filling or crown is not moistened, the ghusl will not be acceptable.

Question: It is not a requirement to make water reach very difficult parts while making a ghusl. It is for this reason that washing inside the eyes, inside the foreskin, and for women under their plaits, is excused. If a person with a headache cannot make a masah on his head, making masah on his head is not obligatory for him. When the teeth are repaired because of necessity, doesn't the washing of the teeth become non-obligatory?

Answer: There is not a general rule stating that if some part is haraj (extremely difficult) to wash it is excusable not to wash it. This rule concerns something that exists on the body as a result of darurat or which occurred by itself or as a result of carrying out a commandment of the Shariat, and is not something brought about by an individual.

The great scholars of fiqh and the mujtahids declared different rules of haraj concerning something done by a person. A severe headache is a darurat which occurred by itself. Not being able to touch one's head in this case is haraj. Therefore, one will be exempted from washing, making masah of, one's head. Yes, it is declared (by scholars) that after a wound has healed it is not permissible to make masah on the medicine, ointment, or bandage put over it, and that it is necessary to remove these and wash (the skin) under them. It is said (by fiqh scholars) that if there is haraj in removing these things, since these things are not included in the category of darurats that occurred by themselves, the person concerned imitates another Madhhab. In case it is impossible to imitate another Madhhab, he is exempted from washing under them because they have been placed there due to some darurat, that is, to cure the wound. As a matter of fact, since washing the whole body when making ghusl is fard (obligatory) in all the other three Madhhabs as well, it is impossible to imitate one of the other three Madhhabs. When a haraj and a darurat caused by the person himself coexist, he imitates one of the other three Madhhabs. And when it is impossible to imitate one of them, he will be exempted from washing the problematic part. It is fard for a woman with plaits to moisten only the bottom of her hair. Ibni 'Abidin (rahmat ullahi ta'ala 'alaih) writes: "Because women are prohibited from shaving their hair, they have been excused from undoing their plaits. Men do not have this necessity. The fact that it is sunnat for men to cut their hair is written in the fifth volume of Ibni 'Abidin. For this reason men have to undo and wash their plaited hair." Women not undoing their plaited hair does not prevent men from undoing their plaited hair. This is because there is darurat and haraj in the former. However, there is no darurat for men though there is haraj.

There is no haraj (difficulty) in removing artificial teeth while making a ghusl. They can easily be removed and the skin under them can be washed easily. The possibility of having artificial teeth that can be removed while making a ghusl has prevented the crowning or filling of the teeth from being a darurat.

Question: Imam-i azam said that the strong necessity of having one's teeth repaired could be met by using silver. I read this in an imam's book. The same book writes that Itqani says that Imam-i Muhammad may have said as follows: "We do not admit that the necessity of having one's teeth repaired will have been met by using silver. For something that causes a noxious scent on the nose causes it on the teeth, too." So, it is quite obvious that having one's teeth repaired is a darurat, the book adds. What do you say about this?

Answer: It must be untrue that the book you have read was written by an imam. A person who conveys the books of fiqh so incorrectly is either a very ignorant man, an abject liar, or someone set on deceiving. Notice what Radd-ul-mukhtar writes in its section called Al- hazar wal-ibaha: "Imam-i-azam discriminated between tying a tooth and making an artificial nose. As a consequence of the fact that silver would cause a noxious scent if an artificial nose were made from silver, he said that it was permissible to have an artificial nose made from gold. The reason is: something which is haram can be permissible (mubah) only when there is darurat. But when silver is used for the teeth, darurat will no longer exist. There will no longer be a need for using gold, which is the best. Itqani said that in order to help Hadrat Imam-i Muhammad a person might say: 'We do not admit that the darurat in tying the teeth with gold is eliminated by using silver. For silver will cause a scent on the teeth as well as on the nose.' As it is seen, neither Imam-i azam nor Imam-i Muhammad 'rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaihima' (may Allah increase them both in rank) said: There is darurat in having one's teeth repaired." A person who had crowned teeth fabled this darurat lest he would be lowered in the eyes of the Muslims and so that he would have the sympathy of those who had their teeth crowned. Concerning tying teeth our imams said: "When silver causes a noxious scent, the darurat of fastening with gold occurs. If using silver does not cause a scent, this darurat will no longer exist." It is not for us common men of din, who are not mujtahids, to say whether or not there is darurat. Our din authorizes mujtahids to talk on this matter. Those men of din who are not mujtahids do not have the right to talk on this matter. If they talk, their words will have no value. Our scholars have declared unanimously that after the four hundredth year of the Hegira there have not been any scholars educated in the grade of ijtihad. Finding mujtahids' fatwas, our savants have written them in books of fiqh. It is written clearly in books of fiqh that a ghusl will not be acceptable when water does not penetrate under the food remains within tooth cavities and that there is no darurat or haraj in this. We have explained this above. For, it is possible to remove the remnants of food in tooth cavities and between the teeth when you are making a ghusl, and there is no haraj, difficulty in doing this. It is written in the translation of Qamus: "Darurat either arises from compulsion, e.g. women growing their hair long - the Shariat has prohibited them from cutting their hair - or it is intended to cure an ailing limb or to feed the body and protect it against dangers. Or, it is because there is no other way." And these things become darurat when it is impossible to imitate another Madhhab. Only the second type of darurat can be thought of in having one's teeth filled or crowned. That is, they are done in order to save the teeth from decaying, deteriorating, or to prevent severe pain. In this respect our scholars have given authority not to the ignorant, false, parvenu, and deceitful men of din, but to specialized scientists. On the other hand, no specialized Muslim doctor has been heard to say: "You will save yourself from loosing your teeth if you get them filled or crowned; you will become sick if you don't have your teeth crowned or filled." But they have often said to their patients that their decaying teeth must be taken out and movable false teeth called prosthesis be put in their place.

A person with a decaying or aching tooth must go to a pious Muslim dentist. The dentist relieves him from his vehement pain by putting cotton with medicine into his tooth. Later, the cotton will be taken out; the tooth with the pain has been relieved. The dentist then gives his patient two alternatives: The first way, he will say, is to extract the decaying tooth and replace it with an artificial one; the second way is to kill the nerve attached to the decaying tooth and to fill or crown it. If the decay in the tooth is new, it is filled in and the decaying is stopped for some time. Depending on the dentist's skill, this tooth can be used very well for many long years. In serious cases filling is impossible. In such cases the tooth root is utilized by way of crowning. In case the root also has decayed, the tooth is extracted and a prosthesis is used. A prosthesis is not as practical as a crowning, and so is the case with a crowning when compared with a filling. Crowning or filling does not cure an ailing tooth. Nor does it restore it to its former healthy condition. It only helps to use the ailing tooth without suffering pain. When a person with a tooth filled or crowned imitates the Maliki or Shafi'i Madhhab, he or she attains the same thawab as gained by people without any excuse. If it were impossible to imitate these Madhhabs, filling or crowning would become a darurat and his or her prayers of namaz would be sahih. Yet, because he or she would have an excuse, his or her thawab would be less. As it is seen, imitating another Madhhab not only causes much thawab, but also saves the teeth from being extracted.

It would be wrong to assert that filling or crowing your teeth is darurat by saying, "A tooth is a limb, too. Isn't it darurat to have a decaying tooth cured? You yourself said that it was darurat to tie a loose tooth." But to crown or fill a tooth does not mean to cure it. It means to remove the nerve from the decaying tooth and to use the dead tooth like a prosthetic, i.e. artificial tooth. The artificial tooth is permissible since it is movable, while crowns and fillings are not permissible since they are not movable. Today, making prostheses for aching teeth is not very painful or difficult. But killing the nerve of a tooth causes a lot of pain and trouble. Imitating Shafi'i is permissible also for one who says, "There is haraj in using an artificial tooth, but there is no haraj in using a crowning or filling." In the process of time the root of a crowned or filled tooth becomes a home for microbes and causes various diseases in the other organs. False teeth, on the other hand, do not produce any microbes.

Those who have gotten their teeth crowned as ornamentation or their teeth filled without (the cause of) a tooth-ache or decay should imitate the Shafi'i Madhhab when performing a ghusl. It is written clearly in Ibni 'Abidin at the end of the chapter on the prayer times that when there is haraj it is not a condition that darurat should also exist. We also noted above that it is not darurat to crown or fill the teeth due to some ache or decay. Therefore, we should not deem those Muslims who had their teeth repaired as unclean, nor should we have a bad opinion of them.

It would be quite wrong to think that the fact that it is mubah to use gold on the teeth though gold is haram for men to use otherwise will show that crowning or even tying the teeth is darurat. Though men have been prohibited from using silver utensils, they have been permitted to wear silver rings. As it would be quite wrong to think that wearing a ring is necessary because silver rings have become permissible or to think it is necessary to use gold or silver noses and ears because it is permissible to use them, so it would be wrong, slanderous and sinful to say that Islamic scholars agreed on the fact that crowning the teeth was necessary.

As the last and strongest proof, we shall inform you that this faqir has the (Turkish) Booklet of Namaz which the profound scholar Sayyid Abdulhakim Arwasi (rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih), who was an expert in the four Madhhabs along with their subtle particulars, prepared in his blessed handwriting. He states in the booklet: "In the Shafi'i Madhhab a ghusl has two fards. The first one is intention. That is, one must think, 'I intend to make a ghusl in order to purify myself of janabat,' as water first touches each limb, i.e. the hands, the face, etc. In other words, it is to keep this intention in one's heart while washing each limb. This intention is not compulsory in the Hanafi Madhhab. The second fard is to wash the whole body with water. It is also fard to remove all najasat, if there is any, from the body. It is not fard in the Shafi'i Madhhab to wash inside the mouth and nose, that is, to make water reach these parts. But in the Hanafi Madhhab, it is fard to make water reach these parts. For this reason, those who are in the Hanafi Madhhab cannot crown or fill their teeth because in that case water will not reach these parts. Those who have al ready crowned or filled their teeth because of darurat will have to imitate the Shafi'i Madhhab."

[It is stated in Al-muqaddamat-ul-izziyya, "In the Maliki Madhhab, if some najasat falls into clean water in a container, it is sahih to use it for ablution or ghusl, yet it is makruh. So is the case with ma-i mustamal (water used for ghusl or ablution). One should enter a toilet taking the left foot first and with something covering one's head. Urine and excrement of animals with edible flesh are clean. The corpses, bones, nails, horns, skins of these animals or of human beings, semen, mazi, alcoholic drinks are all najs (dirty, foul). Namaz on a thick cloth laid on a najs place or when you are smeared with blood or pus covering an area smaller than a palm, is sahih (accepted). It is fard to make a niyyat before beginning a ghusl, to make delk of the whole body [to rub gently with the palm or with a towel], to observe the muwalat [to wash the limbs one right after another], to make khilal of the hair and beard (to comb them with the fingers), to undo the tightly plaited hair and to make khilal of it thoroughly. It is sunnat to wash inside the mouth, nostrils and ears, and to wash the hair. If one remembers later that one forgot to wash a certain part on one's body, be it a month later, one washes that part immediately. If one does not wash it immediately, one's ghusl becomes null and void. An ablution is made before or after each ghusl.

Also, it is fard (fard) to make a niyyat before beginning an ablution or when washing the face, to make masah on all the head, on the hanging parts of the hair, on the beard when it is so scarce that the skin under it can be seen, to wash the beard that is thick, to observe muwalat, that is, to wash the limbs one immediately after the other, and to make delk on the limbs washed before they become dry. It is unnecessary to undo plaited hair. It nullifies the ablution to touch one's penis with one's palm or with the inner parts of the fingers, to doubt whether one has made an ablution or whether one's ablution has broken, to touch a boy's or a na-mahram young woman's skin or hair with lust. [If one touches them without having a sexual appetite and does not feel any lust when one touches, one's ablution will not be broken. Those Shafi'is who cannot help touching women during their daily life, such as while walking, traveling on vehicles or shopping, ought to imitate the Hanafi or Maliki Madhhab.] Bleeding or other excretions from the body will not break an ablution. A masah is made on the inner and outer parts of the ears with newly moistened fingers. Cutting one's nails or having a haircut will not break one's ablution. There are disagreements on whether cutting or shaving one's beard will break one's ablution. Manual istibra is wajib. Masah is not made on the mests put on after making a tayammum. There is not a limit for the duration within which masah is permissible. The time for the late afternoon prayer lasts until the time called isfirar. The latest time for the night prayer is the first one-third of the night. It is necessary for a person staying in Mecca to turn towards the Kaba and for a person outside of Mecca to turn in the direction of Mecca (when performing namaz). It is fard to say 'Allahu Akbar' when starting to perform namaz, to recite the Fatiha (while standing in namaz), to stand upright at qawma (after a ruku'), to sit upright at jalsa (between the two sajdas), to make the salam to one side in the sitting posture, and to say 'As-salamu 'alaikum' when making the salam. It is a sunnat to recite the zamm-i-sura in the first two rakats, to sit in the two tashahhuds (sitting postures), to recite the tahiyyat and salawat, and to make the second salam. It is mustahab to recite the (prayers termed) Qunut in the second rakat of the morning prayer, and to raise the pointing finger during the tashahhud (sitting posture). When something which is sunnat (to do or say during namaz) is forgot ten, it is necessary to make sajda-i-shaw. It is sunnat to perform the namaz of 'Iyd and the namaz of janaza. A sinner cannot be an imam. It is permissible to follow an imam who is in another Madhhab or who has an excuse.

The distance of safar in the Maliki Madhhab is the same as it is in the Shafi'i Madhhab, that is, it is eighty kilometers. In a safar (journey) that is not sinful, it is sunnat to perform two rakats of those fard prayers that have four rakats. One becomes muqim (settled) at a place where one intends to stay for four days. It is makruh for a musafir and a muqim to be an imam for each other. This rule applies for those Hanafis who imitate the Maliki Madhhab, too. It is better not to make jam' of the two prayers of namaz (not to perform them one right after the other within the time allotted for either one of them). It is sunnat to say the Takbir-i-tashrik after the Witr prayer and after the fard of each of the fifteen prayers of namaz during the Bayram ('Iyd)."]

It is not taqwa for those who have had their teeth crowned or filled because of some darurat to imitate the Maliki or Shafi'i Madhhab in ghusl, ablution, and in namaz. Imitating another Madhhab is a way of fatwa, a remedy for a difficulty. The zindiqs have been neglecting many of the fards by using such statements as "There is no difficulty, only facility in the din" as a weapon. The true meaning of this statement is: It is easy to do all the commandments of Allahu ta'ala; He has not commanded anything difficult. Contrary to what those with weak iman say, it does not mean that Allahu ta'ala will forgive the things that come difficult to the nafs or that everybody must do what comes easy to him or that He is so compassionate that He will accept them all. Imitating the Shafi'i or Maliki Madhhab because of the teeth is not a difficulty, it is a facility.

Because calcifications called tartar are formed spontaneously by glandular emissions around the root of the teeth, and since there is no medicine to prevent this, there is darurat here. In all the four Madhhabs, it is not necessary to wash under the tartar that is impossible or hard to remove because it is considered similar to the boil on the skin, a crust or pellicle formed on a wound. There is no need to imitate another Madhhab. They say, "The problem of crowning and filling the teeth has been solved, the fatwa has been given that they are permissible. The matter has been settled. It has been conveyed that they are not harmful." They have been giving the name fatwa to subversive propaganda which those politicians and turban-wearing freemasons who had infiltrated into the religious sphere and interfered with the religious during the Party of Union spread in order to slander great religious scholars and to defile religious knowledge. The fatwa book entitled Majmua-i jadida writes in its second edition, which was printed in Istanbul in 1329 A.H. [1911]: "If while making a ghusl water does not reach a tooth cavity of a person whose tooth cavity has been filled, and if a ghusl is darurat in this manner, the ghusl becomes accepted." It writes that this fatwa was given by Hasan Hayrullah Effendi, the 113th Shaikh-ul-Islam. But the fatwa does not exist in the first edition [in 1299] of the book. And Hayrullah Effendi, in his turn, became the Shaikh-ul-Islam for the second time on 18 Rabi-ul-awwal 1293, coinciding with May 11, 1876, and retired on Rajab 15, 1294, which coincided with December 26, 1877. If he had given the so-called fatwa, it should exist in the first edition of the book. It is written in the preface of the second edition: "Commanded by the time's Shaikh-ul-Islam, Musa Kazim, we have added several fatwas that are not in the first edition." While each fatwa is appended to the name of the fiqh book from which it is derived, together with what it communicates, no such references are given with the above mentioned fatwa on teeth. We must be vigilant so as not to undermine our iman and worships by believing novel writings and fatwas such as these which have been prepared insidiously in order to mislead Muslims.

We do not want to say that the ghusl and the namaz of those who have had their teeth crowned or filled will not be sahih. We want to say that by imitating the Maliki or Shafi'i Madhhab the ghusl and the namaz of those Hanafis will be sahih who have had their teeth crowned or filled. We want to show the easy way, the right way to our brothers in Islam who are in this situation. We do not say you should not crown or fill your teeth. We do not advise you not to perform namaz behind an imam who has crowns or fillings, either. See also Chapter 23, p.289. We state the facility shown by religious superiors to those who have crowns and fillings. We write at length for those who are in the Hanafi Madhhab and who want to worship as prescribed by their Madhhab, that is, for those who esteem the Madhhabs highly. We do not write for those who slight the books of the Madhhabs and who want to worship according to their own minds, opinions and thoughts. Ibni 'Abidin (rahmatullahi 'alaih), while explaining Ramadan's crescent, states: "Many of the ahkam change with changing times (conditions). When there is haraj, daif riwayat is acted upon." It is understood from this (statement) that the changing of ahkam with time means that when one is in a difficult situation one can act upon the non-mashhur (not widely known) ijtihads of the Madhhab scholars. It does not mean that everyone should do what comes easy for him. It is written on the hundred and ninetieth page of the third volume of Durr-ul-mukhtar: "A person who goes out of his Madhhab is to be punished with tazir; that is, he is thrashed and imprisoned." The fatwa of Sirajiyya states the same. Ibni 'Abidin writes on this subject: "It is feared that a person who abandons his Madhhab for worldly advantages may die without iman."

For those who have had their teeth crowned or filled to imitate the Shafi'i or Maliki Madhhab does not mean to leave the Hanafi Madhhab or to change their Madhhab. They obey the conditions and mufsids in the Shafi'i or Maliki Madhhab along with the Hanafi Madhhab only in ghusl, ablution and namaz. It is stated in the chapter about ablution in Ibni Abidin and in the two hundred and eighty-sixth letter of Imam-i-Rabbani's Maktubat that it is mustahab for those who do not have an excuse to observe the fards and mufsids of another Madhhab. While something is permissible in the Shafi'i and Maliki Madhhabs but not in the Hanafi Madhhab, a Hanafi Muslim cannot act upon it without any darurat or haraj. For example, a healthy person, or someone who is in the Hanafi Madhhab but who is imitating the Maliki Madhhab because he has a crowned tooth, has to renew his ablution in case of a bleeding on his skin or if he discharges (even a drop of) urine. He performs the witr as wajib. He cannot be considered a traveler at a place less than 104 kilometers away, and he cannot make jam' of his prayers at a place where he will be a traveler for less than four days. On the other hand, a Hanafi Muslim who can not control his urinary excretion because of illness or old age, that is, as a result of a darurat, is up against a haraj, a difficulty because he has to renew his ablution (each time he discharges urine); therefore he immediately begins to imitate the Maliki Madhhab, which in turn will make him a person with an 'udhr and save him from the state of having lost his ablution. (See the last part of the ninth chapter.) Ibni Amir Hajj, who explained the book Tahrir, says, "The forty- third ayat of Nahl sura and the seventh ayat of Anbiya sura declare: 'Ask the men of dhikr,' which means: When you encounter an event ask those who know what you are to do. This ayat-i karima shows that it is wajib to follow a mujtahid and to imitate another Madhhab. If, while doing something in accordance with the Madhhab you have been following, a darurat and a haraj arise at the same time, this thing must be done by imitating one of the other three Madhhabs. An example of this is a Hanafi Muslim's imitating the Shafi'i or the Maliki Madhhab because he has a filled or crowned tooth. If there is a darurat and a haraj in the other three Madhhabs, too, it will be permissible not to do that thing at all. If there is a haraj in taking out the bandage on a wound and washing the wound, for instance, one will be exempted from washing the wound (when making an ablution or a ghusl). It is not permissible for us who are not mujtahids but muqallids to interpret ayats and hadiths and act upon our own understanding by saying that the Sahaba did so." When beginning to explain the taharat, Ibni Abidin states, "It is not necessary for a muqallid to inquire about the proofs and documents for the information coming from a mujtahid."] [See Endless Bliss II, Chapter 34].