The Muslim's Way of Life

A Book on Creed, Etiquettes, Good Conduct,

Acts of Worship and Dealings
W ritten by

Shaikh Abu Bakr Jaber AI - Jaza'eri

Translated by

Prof. Omar Abdullah Bagabas

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Scient ific Pu b lishing Centre

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IN THE NAME OF ALLAH,

THE MERCIFUL,
THE MERCY-GIVING

The Muslim's Way of Life

A Book on Creed, Etiquettes, Good Conduct,
Acts of Worship and Dealings
W ri tte n by

Shaikh Abu Bakr Jaber AI - Jaza'eri

Translated by

Prof . Omar Abdullah Bagabas

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Scientific Publishing Ce ntre

King Abd ulaziz University
P.O . Bo x 80200, Jcddah 2 1589
Sa udi Arab ia

 King Abdulaziz University 1427 A.H. (2006 A.D.)

All rights reserved.
1st Edition : 1427 A.H. (2006 A.D.)

This is an authorized translation of "Minhaj-al-Muslim",

12th edition by : Abu Bakr Jaber Al-Jaza'eri.
1994, Dar- al-Shuruq.

King Fahd National Library Cataloguing-in-Publishing Data

Al-Jaza'eri, Abu Bakr
The Muslims way of life : a book on creed,
Etiquettes, good conduct, acts of worship and
Dealings. / Abu Bakr Al-Jazae'ri : Omar Abdullah
Bagabas (translator) - Jeddah , 2006

.. p ; . . cm
ISBN : 9960-06-463-8

1 - Conduct of life 2 - Islamic ethics 3 - Worship

(Islam) I - Omar Abdullah Bagabas (translator)
II - Title
212 dc

1427 / 3462

L.D. no 1427 | 3462

ISBN : 9960-06-463-8

Printed at King Abdulaziz University Press

Contents
Volume I
Acknowledgement .................................................................................................
Preface ....................................................................................................................
Translators Introduction .....................................................................................
Translators Methodology ....................................................................................
Author s Introduction to the First Edition .......................................................
Author s Introduction to the Fourth Edition .....................................................
Section One: Creed ................................................................................................
Chapter I: Belief in the Oneness of Allah .........................................................
Chapter II: Belief that Allah is the True Lord of His Entire Creation ...............
Chapter III: Belief that Allah is the Ilah of the First and the Last (i.e., The
One Who Deserves Worship .......................................................................
Chapter IV: Belief in the Names and Attributes of Allah .................................
Chapter V: Belief in the Angles Peace be upon them ....................................
Chapter VI: Belief in Allahs Books ..................................................................
Chapter VII: Belief in the Noble Quran ............................................................
Chapter VIII: Belief in Allahs Messengers Peace be upon them ...................
Chapter IX: Belief in Muhammads Mission ....................................................
Chapter X: Belief in Judgment Day ...................................................................
Chapter XI: Punishment and Delight in the Grave ............................................
Chapter XII: Belief in Destiny and Divine Decree ............................................
Chapter XIII: Maintaining the Unity of Worship ..............................................
Chapter XIV: Seeking Means of Nearness to Allah ..........................................
Chapter XV: The Party of Allah and their Karamat and the Party of Satan
and their Misguidances ................................................................................
Chapter XVI: Belief in the Obligatoriness of Enjoining Good and Forbidding
Evil and their Etiquettes ...............................................................................
Chapter XVII: Belief in the Obligatoriness of Loving the Companions of
Prophet Muhammad & their Merits and Giving Due Respect to the
Scholars of Islam and Obedience to Muslim Rulers ...................................
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Section Two: Etiquettes (Aadab) ........................................................................

Chapter I: Purity of Intention .............................................................................
Chapter II: Love and Fear of Allah (Servitude to Allah) ...................................
Chapter III: Etiquettes with Respect to the Book of Allah, the Noble Quran ..
Chapter IV: Love of and Respect for Allahs Messenger ..................................
Chapter V: Disciplining the Self ........................................................................
Chapter VI: Etiquettes toward People ...............................................................
Chapter VII: Loving and Hating for the Sake of Allah .....................................
Chapter VIII: Taking Seats in Gatherings .........................................................
Chapter IX: Eating & Drinking .........................................................................
Chapter X: Hospitality (Honouring the Guest) ..................................................
Chapter XI: Travelling .......................................................................................
Chapter XII: Dress .............................................................................................
Chapter XIII: Characteristics of Fitrah (Natural Acts of Cleanliness) ..............
Chapter XIV: Going to Bed ...............................................................................

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Section Three: Good Conduct ..............................................................................

Chapter I: Good Conduct and its Manifestation ................................................
Chapter II: Patience and Endurance of Hardship ..............................................
Chapter III: Placing Trust in Allah and then Reliance on the Self ....................
Chapter IV: Giving Preference to Others above the Self and the Love of What
is Good .........................................................................................................
Chapter V: Justice and Moderation ...................................................................
Chapter VI: Mercy .............................................................................................
Chapter VII: Modesty ........................................................................................
Chapter VIII: Doing Good (Perfection) .............................................................
Chapter IX: Truthfulness ...................................................................................
Chapter X: Generosity and Hospitality ..............................................................
Chapter XI: Humility and Dispraise of Arrogance ............................................
Chapter XII: A Number of Dispraised Qualities: Injustice, Envy, Deception,
Showing off, Conceitedness, Weakness and Laziness ................................

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Section Four: Acts of Worship .............................................................................

Chapter I: Purification .......................................................................................
i: Ruling (hukm) of purification and explanation of its types ......................
ii: Means of attaining the state of purification .............................................
iii: Definition and types of filth (najasah) ...................................................
Chapter II: Etiquettes of Relieving Oneself .......................................................
i: What should be done prior to relieving oneself or going to the lavatory ...
ii: The use of water or stones (sods) to clean ones private parts after passing urine or stool ......................................................................................
iii: What should be done after relieving oneself ..........................................

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Contents
Chapter III: Ablution .........................................................................................
i: Legal basis for ablution and its merits ......................................................
ii: Integrals of ablution, its recommended measures and its offensive acts .
iii: How to perform ablution ........................................................................
iv: Acts which invalidate ablution ...............................................................
Chapter IV: Purificatory Baths ..........................................................................
i: Legal basis for ghusl and when it becomes obligatory .............................
ii: Integrals of the purificatory bath, its recommended and offensive acts ..
iii: How is ghusl taken .................................................................................
iv: Forbidden acts when someone is in a state of major ritual impurity.......
Chapter V: Dry Ablution ...................................................................................
i: Tayammums legal basis and for whom it is permissible .........................
ii: Integrals of tayammum and its recommended acts ..................................
iii: What nullifies tayammum and what may be performed with it .............
iv: How to make tayammum ........................................................................
Chapter VI: Wiping Over Leather Socks and Casts or Plasters ........................
i: Legality of wiping over leather socks and casts .......................................
ii: Conditions of wiping over leather socks .................................................
iii: How to wipe over leathersocks ..............................................................
Chapter VII: Menstruation and Puerperium ......................................................
i: Definition of the menstrual period ...........................................................
ii: Signs by which a woman determines her purity ......................................
iii: Forbidden and permissible acts during the menstrual period and puerperium ....................................................................................................
Chapter VIII: The Prayer ...................................................................................
i : The status of the prayer, its rationale and merits .....................................
ii: Categories of prayers: obligatory, supererogatory and voluntary ...........
iii: Conditions to be met before offering the prayer ....................................
iv: Integrals of the prayer, its recommended and offensive acts, the acts
that invalidate it and the permissible acts in it .......................................
v: The prostration for forgetfulness .............................................................
vi: How to offer prayer ..........................................................................
vii: The congregational prayer, imamate, and the latecomer to a congregational prayer ..........................................................................................
viii: The call to prayer (adhan) and the call to commence prayer (iqama).
ix: Shortening & combining prayers, prayer of the sick and prayer of peril .
x: The Friday Prayer ...................................................................................
xi: Witr prayer (the final prayer at night), two confirmed units before
dawn prayer, commendable sunan prayers and unlimited supererogatory prayers ...................................................................................
xii: The two Eid Prayers ..............................................................................

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xiii: The prayer at the time of solar & lunar eclipse ....................................
xiv: The prayer for rain ................................................................................
Chapter IX: Rulings Related to Funerals ..........................................................
i: What should be done from the time someone falls sick until his death ....
ii: What should be done from the time of death until the burial of the deceased ......................................................................................................
iii: What should be done after burial ...........................................................
Chapter X: Paying Zakat ...................................................................................
i: Ruling of zakat, wisdom behind it and ruling regarding whoever withholds it ......................................................................................................
ii: Types of goods on which zakat is payable ..............................................
iii: Conditions that must be met and the nisab that must be reached by all
items before zakat is due and also the due amount as zakat ..................
iv: The recipients of zakat ............................................................................
v: Zakat-ul-fitr .............................................................................................
Chapter XI: Fasting ...........................................................................................
i: Definition of fasting and when it was prescribed for believers ................
ii: Virtues and benefits of fasting .................................................................
iii: Days on which fasting is recommended, disliked and forbidden............
iv: Obligation to observe fast in Ramadan and its virtues ...........................
v: Virtues of good deeds in Ramadan ..........................................................
vi: Confirmation that Ramadan has started .................................................
vii: Conditions of observing fast in Ramadan, rulings related to fasting of
traveller, sick, elderly, pregnant female and breast-feeding mother ...
viii: Pillars of fast, its recommended and offensive acts .............................
ix: Acts that nullify fast, permissible and pardoned acts for a fasting person ..........................................................................................................
x: The ransom (kaffarah) and its justification .............................................
Chapter XII: The Hajj (Pilgrimage) and the Umra ...........................................
i: Ruling (hukm) of performing Hajj and Umra and their rationale ............
ii: Pre-requisites (conditions) of the Hajj and the Umra .............................
iii: Merits of Hajj and Umra, exhortation to perform them and the admonition against failure to perform them ..............................................
iv: The first pillar (rukn) of Hajj and Umra: Entering into a State of Ihram .......................................................................................................
v: The second pillar of Hajj (i.e., circumambulation) or the tawaf .............
vi: The third pillar of Hajj, the sai between Safa and Marwah ................
vii: The fourth pillar of Hajj: Presence at the Plain of Arafah and subsequent obligatory acts ..........................................................................
viii: Detention (ihsar) ..................................................................................
ix: The farewell tawaf ..................................................................................

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Contents

xxxxvii

x: The way Hajj and Umra are performed ...................................................

Chapter XIII: Visiting Prophets Mosque and Greeting When Standing in
Front of his Grave ........................................................................................
i: Merits (excellence) of Al-Madinah and its residents and the merits of
the Prophets Mosque ...............................................................................
ii: Visiting the Prophets Mosque and extending greetings of peace to the
prophet and his two companions ............................................................
iii: Visiting other places of significance in Al-Madinah .............................
Chapter XIV: Sacrifice on Eid Al-Adha and Sacrifice for the Newborn (Aqiqa) .................................................................................................................
i: Sacrifice on Eid Al-Adha: .........................................................................
ii: The aqiqa (the sacrifice for the newborn) ...............................................

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Volume II
Section Five: Dealings ...........................................................................................
Chapter I: Jihad .................................................................................................
i: Ruling of jihad, its types and justification behind it ................................
ii: Merits of jihad .........................................................................................
iii: Guarding the frontiers of an Islamic state, its ruling and merits ............
iv: Obligatoriness of military preparation for jihad .....................................
v: Pillars of jihad .........................................................................................
vi: Essential rules observed by the mujahed before the battle is launched ..
vii: Strategies of jihad ..................................................................................
viii: Protection agreement of the dhimmi and relevant rulings ....................
ix: Truce, agreement and peace treaty .........................................................
x: Distribution of the spoils of war, the fai (property abandoned by the
enemy or taken from him without a formal war), kharaj, poll tax (jizyah) and nafl ............................................................................................
Prisoners of war ...........................................................................................
Chapter II: Race Contests, Competitions in Marksmanship, Sports and Mental Exercises ..................................................................................................
i: Objective of all kinds of sports .................................................................
ii: Sports where bets (rahan) are permissible and other sports where they
are forbidden ...........................................................................................
iii: The way the bet or the prize money is placed in the race and in marksmanship ..................................................................................................
iv: The way the race or archery is run and the conditions observed in the
race and marksmanship ..........................................................................
v: Games where placing prize money or any other reward is forbidden .....
Chapter III: Transactions ...................................................................................
i: Ruling of sale, wisdom behind its permissibility and its pillars (arkan)...

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ii: Permissible and forbidden conditions in transactions .............................

iii: Ruling related to the option to keep or cancel a sale at the time of the
agreement ................................................................................................
iv: Some types of prohibited transactions ....................................................
v: The sale of fruits on the trees ...................................................................
vi: Riba (usury) and money exchange .........................................................
vii: As-salam sale .........................................................................................
viii: Shufaa (pre-emption) and its relevant rulings .....................................
ix: Iqala (termination of the sale contract) ..................................................
Chapter IV: Business Contracts .........................................................................
i: Partnership ................................................................................................
ii: Mudaraba (a profit-sharing venture) .......................................................
iii: Musaqaah and muzaraah......................................................................
iv: Ijarah (renting or hiring peoples services) ............................................
v: Al-juaalah (job wages) ...........................................................................
vi: Hawalah (transferring the right to collect a debt) ..................................
vii: Dhaman (guaranteeing payment), kafalah (guaranteeing another s appearance), rahn (putting up collateral, wakalah (commissioning
another person to do something), and sulh (settlement of or resolving
a conflict) .............................................................................................
viii: Cultivating a dead land, abundant water, land donation, and closed
(protected) pasture .............................................................................
Chapter V: Rulings on Several Issues ...............................................................
i: Personal loans (qardh) ..............................................................................
ii: Wadiah (deposits for safekeeping) .........................................................
iii: Aariya (lending something for use) .......................................................
iv: Ghasb (usurpation of anothers property) ...............................................
v: Lost and found items and the foundling ..................................................
vi: Suspension of children and the insane from dealings (hajr) and bankruptcy (taflis) ..........................................................................................
vii: Bequests (wasiyyah) ..............................................................................
viii: Waqf (endowment)................................................................................
ix: Hibah (donation), umraa and rughba ....................................................
Chapter VI: Marriage, Divorce and Other Family Matters ...............................
i: Nikah (marriage) .......................................................................................
ii: Divorce ....................................................................................................
iii: Khula (wife s release from the husband for payment) ..........................
iv: Forswearing ones wife more than four months (ielaa) .........................
v. Zihar .......................................................................................................
vi: Lian (i.e., public imprecation) ...............................................................
vii: Idda (i.e., womans waiting period) .......................................................
viii: Financial support ..................................................................................

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Contents
ix: Hadhana (child care and custody) .........................................................
Chapter VII : Laws of Inheritance and their Rulings ........................................
i: Ruling of inheritance ...............................................................................
ii: Causes, Preventives and Conditions of Inheritance ................................
iii: Male and female heirs............................................................................
iv: Estate division obligatory shares ...........................................................
v: Taasib ....................................................................................................
vi: Hajb (i.e., elimination) ..........................................................................
A: Definition of hajb (i.e., elimination) .................................................
vii: The position and share of the grandfather ............................................
viii: Correction of obligatory shares ............................................................
ix: Estate division .......................................................................................
x: Munasakha ..............................................................................................
xi: The share of an heir whose sex has not been fully determined (a hermaphrodite) ............................................................................................
xii: Share of an infant still to be born, share of an heir who has been lost
and those who get drowned ..................................................................
xiii: Extended family members as possible heirs .......................................
Chapter VIII: Oath and Vows ............................................................................
i: Oaths .........................................................................................................
ii: Vows .......................................................................................................
Chapter IX: Animal Slaughter, Game (Hunting), Permissible Food and Drink
i: Animal slaughter ......................................................................................
ii: Game (hunting wild animals) ..................................................................
iii: Foods and drinks ...................................................................................
Chapter X: Injurious Crimes and their Rulings .................................................
i: An injurious crime committed against an innocent human being............
ii: Rulings related to injurious crimes .........................................................
iii: Injurious crimes on limbs .......................................................................
iv: Indemnity (diyyah) ................................................................................
Chapter XI: Restrictive Ordinances of God .......................................................
i: Prescribed punishment for drinking alcohol (khamr) ..............................
ii: Prescribed punishment for slander .........................................................
iii: Zina (fornication) ...................................................................................
iv: The prescribed punishment for theft .......................................................
v: Punishment for highway robbery ............................................................
vi: Those who rebel against the Muslim caliph ...........................................
vii: Those on whom the death penalty is inflicted .......................................
viii: Taazir (disciplinary action) .................................................................
Chapter XII: Rulings Related to Judgeship and Witnessing .............................
i: Judgeship ..................................................................................................
ii: Witnessing and testifying ........................................................................

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TheMuslims Way of Life

iii: Acknowledgement .................................................................................

Chapter XIII: Slavery ........................................................................................
i: Slavery.......................................................................................................
ii: Rulings related to the slavery ..................................................................
Translator s References .......................................................................................

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