Do pregnant and breastfeeding women have to fast?
Pregnant and breastfeeding women are required to fast. However, if fasting causes them harm or unusual hardship, they may break their fast but must make up for the missed days later.
If they break their fast solely out of fear for the fetus or the child, then they must both make up the fast and give fidyah (feeding a needy person for each missed day), as the benefit of breaking the fast was only for the child.
What is the Du`a (supplication) of Istikhara (guidance prayer)?
O Allah, I consult You as You are All-Knowing and I appeal to You to give me power as You are Omnipotent, I ask You for Your great favor, for You have power and I do not, and You know all of the hidden matters. O Allah! If you know that this matter (then he should mention it) is good for me in my religion, my livelihood, and for my life in the Hereafter, or he said: "for my present and future life" then make it (easy) for me. And if you know that this matter is not good for me in my religion, my livelihood and my life in the Hereafter, or he said: "for my present and future life" then keep it away from me and take me away from it and choose what is good for me wherever it is and please me with it."
Should one who doesn`t perform prayer out of laziness make it up later, and how should he/she do so?
All perfect praise be to Allah,The Lord of The Worlds He/she is obliged to make up missed prayers by offering with each obligatory prayer another one, and if he/she offers two, then it is better. And Allah Knows Best.
What is the ruling on the prayer of the individual following the imam whose prayer is broadcasted via television?
Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our Master, the Messenger of Allah.
Among the conditions for the validity of following an Imam (Sihhat al-Iqtida’) is that the Imam and the follower (Ma’mum) must be in the same location. Therefore, the prayer of one who follows an Imam whose prayer is being broadcast via television from a distant location is not valid. However, if the follower is with the Imam in the same mosque, the prayer is valid. And Allah the Exalted knows best.
