Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle

excess, his will will become invalid because his lifetime, and hence
the number of the prayers is not known. Qâdi-Zâda says in his
commentary to Birgivî:
To avoid situations called karâhat and fesâd, i.e. lest there
should be any risk of a wrong or invalid practice, if the deceased
person did not have any property, or if one-third of the property
he left behind does not suffice for the isqât, or if he did not make
a will and the guardian (walî) wants to perform the isqât with his
own property, he will perform dawr. [1] But the guardian does not
have to perform dawr. To perform dawr, the guardian borrows as
much gold or silver -gold coins, gold five lira pieces, bracelets,
rings, valid silver coins- as will suffice for a month’s or a year’s
isqât. The years of debt are calculated by subtracting twelve years
-if the deceased person is a man -or nine years –if the deceased
person is a woman- from a lifetime. When a girl is nine years old,
and when a boy is twelve years old, they have reached the age of
discretion and puberty. A person at this age is called a mukallaf
(liable, responsible person). [A girl who is over nine years old and
a boy who is over twelve are said to have become ’âqil-bâligh
(discreet and pubescent). These children are mukallafs, which
means that they have to adapt themselves to Islam. A person who
willingly and knowingly does or says something that is harâm to do
or to say according to all four Madhhabs, becomes an unbeliever.
People who do so will not become unbelievers, however, if they
have to do so as a result of oppression, indulgence, ineluctabilities
involved in making a life, unwillingly and regretfully. Yet they will
still be tormented (in the Hereafter) for having committed harâms,
unless they (repent and) make tawba. Lack of information
concerning halâls and harâms is not an ’udhr (acceptable excuse)
in a country whose people have the freedom to do what they want.
Their sportsmen with exposed knees are safe against becoming
unbelievers, owing to the Hanbalî Madhhab. Girls in high schools
and universities will be absolved from the sin of committing
harâms when they make tawba after graduation. So is the case with
female civil servants. A person who denies a harâm, (i.e. who says
or believes that a certain word or act is not harâm although it is
harâm,) becomes an unbeliever. A person who continues to
commit a certain harâm or harâms is in the danger of being (or
becoming) an unbeliever.] Ten and a half kilograms of wheat is to
be given for one day’s six prayers of namâz and thirty-eight
[1] Its lexical meaning is ‘circulation’.
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