Below are a selection of questions that have been answered by Dr Musharraf Hussain, if you have a question, then please use the contact form to get in touch.
Q: I have downloaded the Quran on my iPad for ease of reading as well as other useful features the application came with. My question is how am I to go about treating with this in terms of: 1) Do I have to make wudu before launching this application? 2) Do I have to make sure nothing is on top the iPad because it contains the Quran?
A: This is a wonderful acquisition, congratulations! You don’t have to have wudu to read from your iPad, the Quran says; “do not touch it except when you are in the state of purity”. This refers to touching the pages of the Quran, I suggest that as long as you don’t use your finger on the Quranic words it’s permissible to read them without wudu, so you can launch it without wudu. This is a virtual Quran, so it’s good to respect it. The Quran teaches us “whoever respects the signs of Allah that is truly the piety”
Q: How come we do not know when Eid is and can we find out in advance?
A: The Islamic calendar is lunar and is based on the sighting of the moon, the messenger (peace be upon him) said;” begin the fast by seeing the crescent and end the month by seeing it, if it is cloudy then complete thirty days”. Unfortunately, Muslims in Britain do not have a supreme body that can decide the beginning of the month, sadly there are too many external influences that create unnecessary conflict. However, recently Muslim astronomers have been able to present a convincing case for the use of astronomical data to predict the possibility of the visibility of the moon. Some scholars are therefore using this data to help to determine the beginning of the Islamic month. This method is becoming increasingly popular and more accurate as well. I think in the next 5-10 years it will be accepted universally and we will be able to accurately predict the beginning of Ramadan and the Eid.
