. J "" (cont.)

But that is due to other evidences that demonstrate that in the case of doubt or a questionable aspect, one does not apply the full legal punishments; and mistakes, forgetfulness and coercion are considered doubtful or questionable. Furthermore, since the sin has been removed from the act, there is actually no room to punish the person. The punishment is meant to be for the sin that the person committed. That leaves only two areas left open for this hadith to have any worldly effect. The first area is the "rights of Allah", such as prayer, fasting and so forth. If a person does an act that would normally invalidate one of these acts of worship but he does it by mistake, out of forgetfulness or due to coercion, 1 An example of this nature is where a person drinks an alcoholic beverage believing that it was not an alcoholic beverage. Under such circumstances, the person will not be punished for what he drank if he had drank it by mistake or forgetfulness. 2 An example of this nature would be the consumption of another person's wealth while believing it to be one's own wealth. 121 1 Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi does that mean that the act is still considered valid? It seems that those who argue that this hadith also covers the worldly rulings must answer positively, that the act is still valid. The others, the Hanafis and those who accept their interpretation of this hadith, would answer in the negative and say that those acts are invalidated. But even with respect to the "rights of Allah", the Shafi'ees, such as al­ Hisni, do not liberally apply the principle that they derive from this hadith. Note the following conclusions from al-Hisni's work based on the Shafi'ee school: (i) If a person becomes certain that he performed the prayer in the wrong direction by mistake, there is no sin upon him (based on this hadith) but his prayer is not valid. He must repeat his prayer. (ii) If a person forgets to make ablution, his prayer is not valid. (iii) If a person speaks a lot during the prayer out of forgetfulness, his prayer becomes void. (iv) If a person forgets and performs the act of ablution in the wrong order, then his ablution is not valid and he must repeat his ablution and any prayers he performed based on that ablution. 1 (v) If someone forgets that he has some impurity on his clothing, then his prayer performed with such impurity on his clothing is not valid. (vi) If someone has two bowls of water and he believes that one of them has pure water and he makes ablution from it and then later he determines that it was impure, he must repeat his ablution and any prayers he said afterwards. (vii) If a person gives zakah to another person thinking him to be poor but it turns out that he is rich, he has not fulfilled his obligation of zakah and he must still pay the zakah to the poor.2 Al-Hisni tries to argue that the proof that one must make up what one has missed by mistake or forgetfulness is based on the hadith, .... 'IP ... ,,,. :;; ,,,. ,,.. .... ,,,. "' o .... { ge :; 4-J o)\.£. :; i:?e 1 ࣉ o࣊ :; "Whoever forgets a prayer must pray it when he remembers it. And there is no expiation for it except that." (Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.) In other 1 Concerning items (iv)-(vii), al-Hisni points out that there is a difference of opinion among the Shafi'ees. In al-Shafi'ee's old opinion (when he was in Iraq), such deeds would have been overlooked. However, in the new school (when al-Shafi'ee was in Egypt) and the correct opinion of the school, such deeds are not overlooked. See al-Hisni, vol. 2, pp. 278-279. This fact leads to the following provocative question: Did al-Shafi'ee change his understanding of this hadith, "Allah has pardoned ... " from the time he was in Iraq to the time he was in Egypt? ls it possible that due to discussions with the Hanafis in Iraq he changed from his old view (which was consistent with what is considered the Maliki or Madinan approach) to a new view that says that such deeds are not overlooked and only the sin of those deeds are overlooked? Unfortunately, those questions require some research and are beyond the scope of this particular work. 2 Al-Hisni, vol. 2, pp. 273-279. Hadith #39: "Allah has pardoned . . . " words, what he is saying is that this hadith establishes a principle that restricts the application of the hadith, "Allah has pardoned ... " And all those cases mentioned above, therefore, are simply analogous cases to the case of the person who has forgotten a prayer. 1 However, that argument is not acceptable.