Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
1) Must a person review their fiqh often to make sure they don’t forget things? if they forget the fard actions in wudu etc. and they realize this, they must repeat it right? but if they forget the sunnahs its ok right?
Walaikum assalam,
Things are easier than you think. Our religion Is easy
Allah Most High said, “And He has not placed any hardship upon you in religion.” (Qur’an, al-Hajj 22: 78)
And the Prophet (Allah bless him & give him peace) said, “I was sent with the easy, upright religion.” (Bu`ithtu bi’l Haneefiyya’tis-Samha) [Reported by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad from Jabir ibn Abdullah and others.]
And he said, “Verily, this religion is easy.” [Reported by Bukhari & Muslim]
Abu Sa`id al-Khadimi explained, “Because difficult and hard moral obligations were lifted from this religion.” [al-Bariqa al-Mahmudiyya Sharh al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya, 1: 131]
A person should implement what they learn. This is the way to preserve knowledge. Knowledge is a means to action, and is not really sought in of itself.
However, one should have a good fiqh manual and refer to it whenever in doubt, and ask those who know when one knows not.
Actions are invalidated if the obligatory elements (such as conditions and integrals) are omitted, not if sunnas are omitted.
Q2) If a person has a habit of having a lot of waswasa regarding their wudus/salahs what can they do? is this because they are newly concentrating on learning and doing their fiqh properly? or is it because of their sins or lack of concentration? what advices do you have for such a person?
The sunna with doubtful misgivings (waswasa) is to ignore it. Whenever you have misgivings, just act one what you do know, ignore them, and then ask or check.
If you ignore misgivings, and stick to the sunna, as explained by the fuqaha, your misgivings will disappear. If you listen to them, they will overwhelm you.
Q3) Could you briefly go over how to perform the sajda of error and when one would do it? if one has doubt about leaving something in salah, one goes with whatever they are more sure of doing right?
See attached email. The Forgetfulness Prostration
If you have doubt that you have left something in your prayer, the default assumption is that you have not left it out.
Q4) Are there partial rewards/partial sins for one action? can you make multiple niyyas for one action? do you need to make niyyas for actions that have several steps, one niyya for each action?
You only need an intention at the beginning of a complete action. The fiqh of intentions is straightforward. (See attached answer.)
‘There is no reward without intention’
Q5) how can one purify their intentions when one feels in their heart that they have some bad niyyas about an action, how can one struggle to remove this? can one having the intention to have pure intentions for an action get reward just for striving to do that action for Allah? or should one just avoid the action altogether?
Ignore doubts. Don’t double-guess yourself. Rather, turn to Allah with love and thanks.
Walaikum assalam,
Faraz Rabbani.