Request for a Fatwa Concerning Returning to Islam, Making Up Missed Acts of Worship, Bequests, and Following a Madhhab
Question
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, I was born into a non-Muslim family. I later embraced Islam and began following the Maliki madhhab. After that, I followed Twelver Shiism and the Ja‘fari school for a period of time. I then left Islam and remained outside the religion for approximately ten years. I now sincerely wish to return to Sunni Islam, repent to Allah, and resume practising the religion correctly. I would therefore be grateful if you could answer the following questions. 1. Accepting a bequest of all my non-Muslim mother’s property My mother is not Muslim. Apart from a few cousins, she has no other family or close relatives. My father is also not Muslim and is still alive. My mother and father have never been married to each other, either through a religious marriage or a civil marriage. My mother wishes to leave all of her property to me legally, as I am her only child. The value of this property is considerably more than one-third of her total estate. After I return to Islam, would it be permissible for me to accept the entirety of the property that she leaves to me? Is there a lawful Islamic way to resolve this matter without giving my mother the impression that Islam prevents her from transferring more than one-third of her property to her only child? Please explain the ruling separately for the following two situations: if we are living in a Muslim country; if we are living in a non-Muslim country. This is because we may in the future live either in a Muslim country or in a non-Muslim country. Please also clarify whether, during her lifetime, my mother may give me her property as a gift, transfer legal ownership of it to me, or use another lawful legal and Islamic arrangement to fulfil her wish. 2. Missed prayers and Ramadan fasts during the period when I was outside Islam After returning to Islam, must I make up the obligatory prayers and Ramadan fasts that I missed during the approximately ten years in which I was outside Islam? Or does sincere repentance and returning to Islam remove the obligation to make up the acts of worship relating to that period? 3. Validity of the acts of worship performed while following the Ja‘fari school Are the obligatory prayers and Ramadan fasts that I performed while following the Ja‘fari school considered valid and sufficient from the perspective of Sunni jurisprudence? If some or all of those acts of worship are not considered valid, must I make them up after returning to Sunni Islam? 4. Following the Maliki madhhab and adopting a recognised opinion from another madhhab I am not a specialist in the Islamic sciences. When I first began practising Islam, I followed the Maliki madhhab. Am I therefore required to follow the Maliki madhhab in every issue? Where there is genuine hardship, such as in the matter of a bequest or inheritance, may I follow a recognised opinion from another Sunni madhhab under the guidance of a qualified and trustworthy scholar? Would doing so be considered: impermissible combination of rulings from different madhhabs, known as talfīq; or the improper pursuit of dispensations and the easiest opinions based on personal desire? 5. Completely changing to another Sunni madhhab Would it be permissible for me to leave the Maliki madhhab and adopt another Sunni madhhab completely, and then follow that madhhab consistently and in a disciplined manner? If my main reason for changing madhhab is to find a lawful Islamic solution concerning the property that my mother wishes to leave to me, would that be permissible? There is also a secondary reason: I no longer live in a region or country where the Maliki madhhab is widespread. Malikis are either very few or entirely absent where I currently live. If the main motive for changing madhhab is to benefit from its ruling concerning this bequest or estate, would this be considered following personal desire or using a legal stratagem to circumvent Islamic law? Or may I, under the supervision of a qualified scholar, adopt another Sunni madhhab in its entirety and thereafter follow it consistently? I am not seeking to circumvent Islamic law, manipulate the religion, or obtain property through an unlawful means. I am seeking the least burdensome path that remains genuinely permissible under Islamic law and allows me to act with a clear conscience. I have included all these questions in one message because they appear closely connected. If each question should instead be submitted separately, please let me know. Jazakum Allahu khayran.
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salamu alaykum wa-rahmatullahi wa-barakatuh.
Brother in Islam,
We welcome you back to Islam with joy, and we ask Allah to keep you firm. Know that sincere repentance wipes out what came before it, and that the door you have come to is a door that never closes. Your questions are connected and we will take them in order.
Regarding the first question, the property of your mother. Islamic inheritance law does not apply between a Muslim and a non Muslim, so you will not inherit from your mother as an heir. What she leaves you comes to you either as a gift in her lifetime or as a bequest at her death. A gift in her lifetime is the cleanest route. She may transfer any part or all of her property to you while she lives, and it becomes yours with no restriction, in any country. As for a bequest, the rule that limits a bequest to one third of the estate is a rule for the protection of the heirs of a Muslim testator. Your mother is not a Muslim, her estate passes under her own law, and you would in any case be her sole heir under that law, so no one's Islamic entitlement is being diminished. Her relatives are not Muslims and their rights among themselves are governed by their own law. Accordingly, it is permissible for you to accept the entirety of what she leaves you by will, and this applies whether you live in a Muslim or a non Muslim country, since the ruling turns on her religion and not on the location. There is therefore no need to trouble her with the one third rule, and no need to change your school to resolve this. We would still advise the lifetime gift, because it removes every possible complication, including those of the local law.
Regarding the second question, the Hanafi school holds that a person who leaves Islam and returns is not required to make up the prayers and fasts missed during the period he was outside Islam, because the obligation of worship is not addressed to a disbeliever, and his return to Islam brings him in fresh. What he had missed before leaving Islam, while he was a Muslim, remains due after his return. So the ten years are not to be made up, and you begin your obligations from the day of your return. The Maliki school holds the same regarding the period of disbelief.
Regarding the third question, the answer depends first on what you believed during the period you followed the Ja'fari school, and only then on how the acts were performed. Twelver Shiism contains beliefs that take a person outside the fold of Islam, such as the belief that the Quran in our hands is incomplete or altered, the belief that the Imams possess knowledge of the unseen or authority equal to or above that of the Prophets, or the declaration that the Companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and in particular Abu Bakr, Umar, and Aishah, were disbelievers. If you held any belief of this kind during that period, then you were not a Muslim at that time, the rulings of that period are the same as the rulings of the ten years that followed, and nothing from it is to be made up. Your obligations begin from the day of your return. If, on the other hand, you followed that school in its practice without holding any belief that takes a person out of Islam, then you remained a Muslim, and the prayers and fasts of that period are judged by their form. Your fasts of Ramadan were valid, since the fast in that school covers the whole day and is not different in what it requires. The prayers are valid only where their conditions were met. The ablution in that school is performed by wiping the feet rather than washing them, and a prayer performed with such an ablution is not valid, so any prayer you performed with the feet only wiped is to be made up. As for the combining of prayers outside their times, this is also an important consideration. If you find that many of the prayers of that period were performed with an invalid ablution, estimate their number to the best of your ability and make them up gradually, a few each day alongside your daily prayers, without letting this become a burden that discourages you. Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity.
Regarding the fourth and fifth questions, a person who is not a scholar is required to follow qualified scholarship, and the sound way to do that is to adhere to one of the four schools so that his practice is consistent. You are not bound to remain Maliki for life. It is permissible to move to another Sunni school in its entirety and to follow it consistently thereafter, and living in a place where there are no Maliki scholars to consult is a sound reason to do so. What is not permissible is to gather the easiest opinion from each school according to desire, or to combine parts of different schools in a single act in a way that no school would accept. Taking a recognized opinion of another school in a specific matter of genuine hardship, under the guidance of a qualified scholar, is permissible. As explained above, your mother's property does not require any of this, so the question of changing school for that reason does not arise. Since you now live where the Hanafi school is the one practised and taught, we would advise you to adopt it fully and to study its rulings of purification, prayer, and fasting with a teacher, so that your worship is built on a firm foundation.
Finally, do not let the question of missed prayers or past errors weigh on you more than the gratitude for your return. Allah says that He forgives all sins for those who turn to Him. Begin with what is due today, learn as you go, and He will complete the rest for you.
Allah knows best
Mufti Mirza-Zain Baig
Canadian Centre for Islamic Research and Iftaa · This answer is provided for general guidance.