Majmuat Asila Tuhimm al-Usra al-Muslima
- Author died
- 1421 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Waṭan lil-Nashr
Majmuat Asila Tuhimm al-Usra al-Muslima (A Collection of Questions Concerning the Muslim Family) is a compilation of Islamic legal responsa (fatwas) delivered by the Saudi jurist Ibn Uthaymin (d. 1421 AH / 2001 CE), addressing practical jurisprudential questions related to women, children, and domestic life.
Overview and Structure
The work is organized in a question-and-answer format, compiling inquiries directed to Ibn Uthaymin on matters affecting the daily lives of Muslim households. The collection was published with an introduction by the Scientific Committee of the Shaykh Muhammad bin Salih al-Uthaymin Charitable Foundation. The questions cover diverse areas of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), focusing primarily on ritual purity, dress, personal grooming, family interactions, and child-rearing.
Major Themes
Adornment and Dress
A significant portion of the compilation discusses guidelines for women's attire and cosmetics:
- Facial and body hair: Plucking eyebrow hair (nams) is treated as strictly prohibited and classified among major sins based on prophetic tradition, while removing unnatural facial hair (such as a mustache or cheek hair) is deemed permissible because it rectifies a deformity.
- Hairstyles: Piling hair atop the head is addressed as forbidden under the hadith warning against hair arranged like camel humps; styling hair lower on the neck is permissible at home, but prohibited when going out if it produces an outline visible through the cloak (aba’ah). Ibn Uthaymin notes differing scholarly views regarding cutting hair to the shoulders, identifying disapproval (karahah) as the well-known position in the Hanbali school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, while explicitly prohibiting any cut that imitates men or adopts trends exclusive to non-Muslims.
- Cosmetics and footwear: The use of kohl is recommended for treatment and encouraged for women seeking adornment for their husbands. Makeup for a husband is permitted provided it causes no physical harm; however, nail polish is ruled impermissible for praying women because it forms a barrier that prevents water from reaching the nail during ritual ablution (wudu). High-heeled footwear is declared impermissible if it departs from customary modesty and causes ostentatious display (tabarruj).
- Clothing and imitation: Wearing clothing made of denim (jeans) is deemed permissible for a Muslim woman if it is tailored in a manner distinct from the specific styles and forms worn by non-Muslims.
Purification and Financial Transactions
The work addresses physiological and commercial situations faced in domestic routines:
- Menstruation and purity: Ibn Uthaymin explains that once a woman attains certain ritual purity at the end of menstruation (marked by the white discharge, al-qassah al-bayda), subsequent spotting, brownish fluid, or yellowish discharge is disregarded and does not invalidate prayers, fasting, or marital relations.
- Exchanging gold: The book clarifies that exchanging old or damaged gold for new gold while paying the monetary difference directly to the jeweler is unlawful as usury (riba); instead, the owner must sell the old gold for cash in an independent transaction and then purchase new gold.
Family Etiquette and Child-Rearing
The collection includes rulings concerning privacy, seclusion (khalwa), and children's upbringing:
- Gender boundaries: It is impermissible for a woman to be alone in a vehicle or home with her husband's brother, citing the prophetic warning that the in-law (al-hamw) is akin to death, and reiterating the general ban on unlawful seclusion and traveling without a legal guardian (mahram).
- Modesty before boys: Applying أَوِ الطِّفْلِ الَّذِينَ لَمْ يَظْهَرُوا عَلَى عَوْرَاتِ النِّسَاءِ (Quran 24:31), Ibn Uthaymin explains that once a young boy begins to recognize and understand women's physical attributes or gazes attentively, women must veil in his presence.
- Rules regarding young children: It is forbidden to dress male children in attire prohibited for adult males—such as garments bearing pictures, garments specific to females (e.g., gold or silk), or excessively trailing garments (isbal). Shaving a newborn girl's head on the seventh day is not a Sunnah practice as it is for newborn boys, though trimming hair for therapeutic benefit is permitted.
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