Question
im muslim. but my parents are christian and they had hung up a cross and a painting in living room and when i reverted i heard it is good to change salah locations so i prayed in that living room but i didnt remove that cross and painting. i remember my intention was to pray to Allah alone but i fear it was stiill shirk. and later on they brought another painting that was very disturbing and full of shirk. and i sat down while facing that painting in that living room. did i commit shirk when i prayed or when i sat down while that painting was there. now my parents have removed all the paintings and that cross and can i now sit there in that living room
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salamu alaykum wa-rahmatullahi wa-barakatuh.
Sister in Islam,
May Allah keep you firm on the faith He has guided you to, and may He guide your parents.
In principle, associating partners with Allah is a matter of belief and of worship directed to other than Him. It happens when a person believes that something besides Allah shares in His divinity, or when a person directs an act of worship to something besides Him. It does not happen by being in a room where a religious object of another faith is present, nor by praying to Allah in that room, nor by facing an object while sitting. Your prayer was directed to Allah alone, as you have said, and that is what makes it worship of Allah. The cross on the wall had no share in it.
Accordingly, you did not commit any act of association with Allah, neither when you prayed in that room nor when you sat in it. Your prayers were valid. What the scholars say is that it is disliked to pray toward an image or a religious symbol, because of the resemblance to those who worship such things, so the preferable course would have been to pray in another spot or to face away from it. That is a matter of preference and not of validity, and it carries no sin for a new Muslim who did not know.
Now that your parents have removed the paintings and the cross, you may sit in the living room without any hesitation, and you could have done so even before, since sitting in a room is not worship. We advise you to put these fears out of your mind, because they are the whisperings that come to a sincere person to trouble her faith, and the way to deal with them is to disregard them and to go on with your worship in confidence. You have been given the greatest gift, which is faith, and Allah does not take it away from a person because of a picture on a wall.
Allah knows best
Mufti Mirza-Zain Baig
And Allah Ta'ālā knows best.
Answered by
Mufti Mirza-Zain Baig
B.Ed, CSAA
Montréal, Canada · Canadian Centre for Islamic Research and Ifta
Have a question of your own?
Ask a Question