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Practical Laws of Islam

    • Rules of Taqlīd
    • Rules on Purity
    • Prayer
      • Importance and Conditions of Prayer
      • Prayer Times
      • Qiblah
      • The Place of Praying
      • Rules of a Masjid
      • Rules Regarding Other Religious Places
      • Clothes of the Praying Person
      • Wearing and Using Gold and Silver
      • Adhān and Iqāmah
      • Recitation [of the Fātiḥah and the Other Chapter] and its Rules
      • Dhikr of Prayer
      • Rules of Prostration
      • Things that Invalidate Prayer
      • Rules of Greeting in Prayers
      • Doubt in Prayers
      • Qaḍā’ Prayer
      • Qaḍā’ Prayers of the Parents
      • Congregational Prayers
      • Rule of Incorrect Recitation by a Congregational Prayer Imam
      • Congregational Prayer Led by a Person Lacking a Body Part
      • Women’s Attendance in Congregational Prayer
      • Performing Congregational Prayer behind Sunnīs
      • Friday Prayer
      • The Two ‘Īd Prayers
      • A Traveler’s Prayer
      • Someone for Whom Traveling Is a Job or a Preliminary for the Job
      • Rule of Students
      • Intent of Traveling the Shar‘ī Distance and Staying for Ten Days
      • Tarakhkhuṣ Limit
      • A Travel for the Purposes of Committing a Sin
      • Rules Regarding the Watan
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        Rules Regarding the Watan
         
        Q 680: My birthplace is Tehran but my parents are originally from the city of Mahdishahr. They usually travel to Mahdishahr several times a year, and I go with them. As I do not intend to return to my parents’ town to live there, but have decided to stay in Tehran, what rule is applied to my prayer and fasting?
        A: Based on the above assumption, your prayer and fasting in the original watan of your parents will be in accordance with that of a traveler.
         
        Q 681: I live six months in one city during the year, and six months in another which is my birthplace as well as my place of residence and that of my family. However, my stay in the first city is not continuous, but intermittent. For example, I stay there for two weeks, ten days, or less, and then return to my birthplace where my family resides. My question is: Does the rule of a traveler apply to me if I intend to stay in the first city for less than ten days?
        A: If you live there for a period of time so that you are not considered –according to common view - as a traveler there, your prayer there is full and your fast is valid.
         
        Q 682: Someone wants to stay in a place temporarily, how long should he intend to be there so that his prayer is full and his fast is valid?
        A: If he is to live there for one or two years at least, his prayer is full and his fast is valid.
         
        Q 683: A person’s watan is Tehran. Recently he decided to take up residence in one of the towns near Tehran and make it his watan. But, since his daily business and work is in Tehran, he cannot stay in this city for ten days, let alone six months, so that it may become a watan for him. He goes to his work every day and returns at night to this town. What is the rule of his prayer and fasting in this town?
        A: For a place to become one’s new watan, it is not a condition to stay there continuously after deciding to consider it as his/her watan and place of residence. Rather, after selecting a place as a new watan and residing there with this intention — even only at nights — for a while, it becomes his/her watan.
        Also, if he does the acts that normally one does so when he wants to make it as his watan, like preparing a house and choosing a place for work/business, it is considered as his watan even before staying there for a while.
         
        Q 684: My wife and I were born in the city of Kashmar. After my employment in a government office, I moved to the city of Neyshabour, while our parents still live in our birthplace. At the beginning of our move to Neyshabour, we abandoned our original watan (Kashmar) (i.e. we ceased to consider it as our watan anymore), but fifteen years later we changed our mind. Please answer the following questions:
        i. What is our duty with respect to our prayers whenever we visit our parents and stay with them for several days?
        ii. What is the duty of our children, who were born in our current place of residence (Neyshabour) and now they are ritually mature, during our visit to our parents’ town (Kashmar) and in the course of our several days’ stay in Kashmar?
        A: After you abandon your original watan (Kashmar), it is not considered as your watan any more unless you return to live there again permanently or for a long time (even if it is for a few months every year) or without specifying a period, provided that you provide the necessities of life there or stay there for a while after intending to live there permanently. As far as your children are concerned, this city is not ruled as their watan, and the rules of a traveler apply to all of you in that city.
         
        Q 685: Someone has two watans. Therefore, he performs full prayer in both places and fasts. Please answer this question: Do his dependants, i.e. wife and children, have to follow their guardian in this matter, or may they act independently on their own?
        A: It is permissible for the wife not to adopt the new watan of her husband as her own, but as for the children, if they are minors and dependent in making decisions and in earning money, or they are subject to their father’s decision with respect to this matter, the new watan of their father will be considered their watan as well.
         
        Q 686: If a mother, to deliver her baby, has to travel for a few days to a maternity hospital located outside the watan of the baby’s father and return after the delivery, where will be the baby’s watan?
        A: Simply being born in a city is not sufficient to make it its watan. The baby’s watan will be the parents’ watan where it is brought after birth, lives in with its parents and grows up.
         
        Q 687: Someone has been living in Tehran for several years, but he has not taken it as a second watan. What will be the rule of his prayer and fasting in this city when he leaves Tehran, travels more or less than the shar‘ī distance and returns?
        A: In the given case that he is not considered as a traveler as per common view, he should make full prayers and fast there.
         
        Q 688: I am an Iraqi and would like to abandon Iraq as my watan. Should I take Iran as a whole as my watan, or one of its areas, and do I have to buy a house so that I might take a watan?
        A: For taking a new watan, it is necessary to make the intention of adopting a particular city as watan and to do the act which one normally does for taking a new place as watan, e.g. to buy/rent a house or to get a shop for business or to stay there for one-two month.
         
        Q 689: A person migrated from his birthplace to another city before being ritually mature, and was not aware of the issue of abandoning ones watan. Having reached the age of maturity now, what is his duty concerning his prayer and fasting in his birthplace?
        A: If he migrated from his birthplace following his father, and his father intended not to return there for living, the watan’s rule will not apply to him in that place.
         
        Q 690: Someone has a watan where he does not live at present, but goes there sometimes with his wife. Should his wife perform full prayer there, like him, if she goes along with him to that place? What rule will apply to her prayer if she goes there alone?
        A: The mere fact that a place is the husband’s watan does not entail that it is a watan for the wife as well so that the watan’s rule should apply to her while being there.
         
        Q 691: Does the rule of watan apply to one’s place of work?
        A: To work at a place does not make it one’s watan. However, one is not ruled as a traveler and he should perform full prayer and fast there if one resides there and is to stay there at least for one year.
         
        Q 692: What is meant by abandoning one’s watan? If a girl gets married and travels with her husband to the place he wishes, will it amount to abandoning her watan?
        A: It is materialized by leaving one’s watan with the intention not to return to it or if one knows/is confident that it is not possible to return. Her mere going to the husband’s house in another city does not entail abandoning her original watan.
         
        Q 693: Please explain your opinion on the issue of original and second watan.
        A: The original watan is the place where one grows up and flourishes for the most of his early life (means childhood and adolescence). While the second watan is a place where one surely decides to live there permanently, for a long time (even several months every year) or without determining the period of stay.
         
        Q 694:  My parents are from the city of Savah. However, they were born and resided in Tehran. After marriage, they went to Chalus and resided there because my father was working there. Therefore, I was born in Tehran but I did not reside there. How should I pray in Tehran and Savah?
        A: In the given case, you are ruled as a traveller there.
         
        Q 695: I was born in Kermanshah but have been living in Tehran for six years. I have not abandoned my original watan, while I intend to adopt Tehran as watan as well. If I move from one locality of Tehran to another every one or two years, what rule will apply to my prayer and fasting while I am here? Since we have been living in the new locality (inside Tehran) for more than six months, does the watan rule apply to us here? How will our prayers and fasting be when we travel between different areas of Tehran during the day?
        A: If you make the intention to take the present Tehran, or one of its areas, as watan, it will be your watan as a whole, and the watan rule, namely the obligation to perform prayer in full and validity of fasting, will apply to you in all areas of the present Tehran, and the traveler’s rule will not apply to your traveling around inside present Tehran.
         
        Q 696: Someone belongs to a village but works and lives in Tehran at present. His parents live in the village where they own some land and wells. He travels to the village to visit his parents or to help them, but is not interested at all in returning to live there. Given that he was born in this village, what is the rule of his prayer and fasting there?
        A: If he does not want to, rather he has resolved not to, return to that village to live there, the watan rule will not apply to him there.
         
        Q 697: Is one’s birthplace considered their watan even if they do not live there?
        A: If they stayed there for a period of time (i.e. during childhood and adolescence), grew up and flourished there,  the watan’s rule will apply to it unless he abandons it; otherwise, it will not.
         
        Q 698: What rule applies to the prayer and fasting of someone who has been living for a long time (nine years) in a place which is not his watan and is presently forbidden from returning to his watan, but is certain that he will return some day?
        A: In the given case, he is not ruled as a traveler and he should say full prayer and fast there.
         
        Q 699: I spent six years of my life in a village, and eight years in a city before I came to Mashhad, where I now study. What is the rule of my prayer and fasting in each of these places?
        A: You should say full prayer and fast in the village of your birth if it is considered as your original watan as per the common view. If there is doubt about its being considered as your watan, you should observe caution. If you were not born there and doubt about its being considered as your watan, the rules of watan are not applicable. As for the city where you resided for several years, if you took it as your watan, the watan rule will apply to it as long as you do not abandon it. But Mashhad is not considered as your watan unless you make the intention of making it your watan. However if you are to reside there for at least one/two year(s), you should say full prayer and fast there.

         

      • Wife’s and Children’s Following as far as Watan Is Concerned
      • Rules of Large Cities
      • Prayer Performed by Hiring
      • Āyāt Prayer
      • Nāfilahs
      • Miscellaneous Issues of Prayers
    • Fasting
    • Khums
    • Jihad
    • Enjoining the Good and Forbidding Evil
    • Ḥarām Gains
    • Chess and Gambling Instruments
    • Music and Ghinā’
    • Dancing
    • Clapping
    • Non-maḥrams’ Pictures and Films
    • Satellite Television Equipment
    • Theatre and Cinema
    • Painting and Sculpture
    • Magic, Conjuring, and Evocation of Spirits and Jinn
    • Hypnosis
    • Lottery
    • Bribery
    • Medical Issues
    • Teaching, Learning and Their Proprieties
    • Copyrights
    • Dealing with non-Muslims
    • Working for Oppressive States
    • Rules on Clothing and Conspicuous ones
    • Treating the West
    • Smoking and Narcotics
    • Shaving the Beard
    • Attending Gatherings of Debauchery
    • Writing Supplications and Istikhārah
    • Religious Events
    • Hoarding and Extravagance
    • Buying and Selling
    • Miscellaneous Issues in Business
    • Rules Concerning Ribā
    • Right of Pre-emption
    • Hiring, Renting, and Lease
    • Surety
    • Pawning and Mortgaging
    • Partnership
    • Presents and Gifts
    • Debt and Loan
    • Ṣulḥ
    • Power of Attorney
    • Mustaḥabb Alms
    • Deposits and Loaned Properties
    • Leaving a Will
    • Usurpation
    • Placement under Guardianship and Signs of Maturity
    • Silent Partnership
    • Banking
    • State Property
    • Endowments
    • Rules Concerning Graveyards
    • Glossary
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