How far is anger forbidden? Is there any method to overcome anger?
Being angry is a condition which cannot be described as permissible or forbidden. Prohibition applies to actions which a person may do of his own free will. Anger is a reaction to some sort of an event which is particularly displeasing to a person.
However, anger tends to cloud one's vision. It causes a person to do things that he may not choose to do in normal circumstances. Therefore, one should try as much as possible to cool one's temper, and not allow his anger to get the better of him. The Prophet has spoken about the need to control anger. He says: "Strength is not the physical ability of a person to overcome others, but strength is to control one's anger."
It is mostly through common sense that a person can resist acting in anger. If he is made angry in a particular situation, it helps if he walks away from it and stays away until his temper has cooled down. [It is recommended to drink some water or perform ablution. It helps to cool down.] It is also a very good advice to refrain from doing anything when angry. One should neither say nor do anything while angry. Even if he is angered by the behavior of a person over whom he has full authority, it is better for him not to react in anger. Let him first of all cool down, then he can deal with the situation in a sensible manner. That is straightforward wisdom.
• Animals for sacrifice — accidental death of
Last year, I intended to sacrifice a sheep on the Eid day. However, after buying the sheep, it got electrocuted through coming in contact with a live electric wire and was killed within two minutes. Do I have to sacrifice another sheep in place of it?
A sacrifice on Eid day is strongly recommended. When we do the sacrifice and give some of its meat to poor people and make presents of some of it to relatives and friends, retaining a portion to ourselves, we earn reward from Allah.
The Prophet says: "Actions are but intentions," which means that when you intend to do something good, you are rewarded for your intentions. When you carry it out, your reward is increased. Now you intended to make the sacrifice and bought the sheep and brought it home, ready to make the sacrifice when it falls due. The fact that it was killed makes its meat forbidden to eat and you cannot sacrifice it. However, Allah rewards you for your intention and for the money you have spent. It is not necessary to buy another sheep, since the occasion has lapsed and it is, in the first place, a recommendation - not an obligation. However, if you had bought and sacrificed another sheep, you would have earned greater reward from Allah. When you did not, it was perfectly in order.
Now it is better that you wait till next Eid, when you do another sacrifice, if you so wish.
• Anniversaries: Observing death anniversaries
Is it proper to commemorate death anniversaries of one's forefathers by conducting feasts or giving charity and reciting parts of the Qur'an with the help of other people, including professional reciters of the Qur'an, as it is customary in certain parts of the Muslim world?
Let us ask ourselves why should we commemorate the death of any person? Is it to remember them and renew our sorrow for their departure? Or is it to organize some sort of occasion which we assume to generate some reward from Allah and hope that this reward will go to the deceased person? If it is for the first purpose, then such commemorations are unnecessary. If the deceased person is dear enough to us, we will always remember him or her. Every time we do, we can pray for the deceased and supplicate to Allah to forgive him or her. If it is for the second purpose, then we have to examine it in the light of Islamic teachings.
The Prophet states very clearly that when a human being dies, "all his actions come to an absolute end, except in one of three ways: a continuous act of charity, a useful contribution to knowledge or a dutiful child who prays Allah for him." The first two are matters that the deceased would have done during his life. A person may decide to make a continuing act of charity, such as by allocating certain capital and ensuring that the proceeds of that investment or capital goes to charity. If, for example, a person decides that certain orchards that he owns should go to charity, he should make it clear that the orchard itself should not be sold. It is kept but the fruits that are produced are either given to the poor directly or sold and the price is given to the poor. Every time this is done, his reward from Allah increases.
The third of these possibilities is prayer by a dutiful child. Now this should not be confined to annual anniversaries of death, but a dutiful child will continue to pray for his deceased parents every day of his life.
If he recites the Qur'an, or passages from it, and prays Allah to give the reward of his recitation to his deceased parents, then it is hoped that this is acceptable to Allah. But it is only in such ways that a human being can do something good to a deceased person. Hiring professional reciter of the Qur'an is certainly not one of them. It is a practice that cannot be sanctioned by Islam.
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