When I was working in my country, away from my hometown, where Muslims are in minority, I had to rent a room with a non-Muslim family. I felt I could not tell them my faith, because the least they would have done was to turn me out. It would have been very difficult for me to find accommodation. I had to hide the fact that I am a Muslim throughout my stay with them. Was my action wrong?
Necessities are measured by their particular circumstances. It is permissible for a Muslim to hide his faith when he is in a situation where he may be in danger if it is known that he is a Muslim. In your circumstances, you are the best judge on what to do in order to be safe and to have a reasonable living. I understand that you were in very difficult circumstances, but the degree of difficulty and the alternatives available to you are something that I cannot judge properly without much more detailed information.
If it was easy for you to seek accommodation with a Muslim family, even though it may be further away in the city, the situation would not then be one of emergency. If that was not possible, then a less difficult arrangement might still have been found. It is all a matter of weighing up alternatives. What you should do now is to seek God's forgiveness and to be more determined to own up to the fact that you believe in Islam.
• Faith: Imposing certain practices on others
Some people try to impose on others their method and practices, when religion is a matter of faith, and a relationship between God and man. Does Islam sanction any such imposition?
No, nobody may impose anything on another, whether by physical force or any other method. God says in the Qur’an: "No compulsion is admitted in matters of religion." This fits perfectly with the Islamic view that religion is a personal choice which must be made in complete freedom, without any coercion.
Some people may wonder why a child of ten may be beaten if he does not offer his prayers. This is simply a method of upbringing and education. A child should be encouraged to pray when he is seven years of age. If he refuses to pray, then at the age of ten, a method more serious than mere order may be employed to get him to pray, so that he would have formed the habit of attending to his prayers regularly when prayer becomes obligatory to him on attaining puberty. At this age, corporal punishment is frequently used by parents to instill some discipline into the child. This must always remain very mild, because the aim is to get the child to understand the seriousness of the matter.
When the child is older, this method must stop, because it will no longer be effective in getting the child to pray regularly. Moreover, when prayer becomes obligatory to a child, he should offer it in discharge of his duty, not because he fears to be beaten. I am afraid those who try to compel people to offer their worship in a certain way often exceed the limits allowed by Islam. The worth of worship is in the fact that it is offered at one’s own behest, in response to God’s command, not for fear of any human authority.
What is the Islamic view concerning falling in love?
If we are speaking about the emotion which we call love, then we are simply speaking of a feeling. What we feel toward a particular person is not of great importance, until our feeling is expressed in a particular action. Now if that action is permissible, then well and good. If it is forbidden, then we have incurred something that Allah does not approve of.
If it is love between a man and a woman, the emotion itself is not the subject of questioning on the Day of Judgment. If you feel you love someone, then you cannot control your feeling. If that love prompts you to try to see that woman in secret and to give expression to your feelings in actions permissible only within the bond of marriage then what you are doing is forbidden.
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