The following question come  from a Brother in Malaysia:

Question

A young family member asked a question regarding Salaah, etc. aboard the international space station and sent some Fataawa from the Malaysian Fatwa Council regarding it. Please find file in attachment with the Fatwa.

       People generally stay in space on these space station’s for approx. 6 months at a time. Some years back the Malaysian Fatwa Council wrote up some Fataawa regarding the performance of Salaah and Saum etc. for the person aboard the space station. 

   Please comment on the Fataawa as they have taken general rulings for Tayamum, Salaah of a person who is bed-ridden and when a person is starving to death to eat haraam, etc., and used it to prepare their fatwa. Please advise. Is their fatwa valid?

Answer

It will suffice to say that the  chaps who issued the so-called ‘fatwa’ for performing Salaat, etc. in space, are morons. They are jaahils who lack understanding of the Deen and the objective  for which Allah Ta’ala has  placed man on earth.

Firstly, it is not permissible for a Muslim to voluntarily place himself in a situation where he will not be able to execute the teachings of Islam correctly as ordained by Allah Ta’ala. It is haraam  for him to become bedfellows  with kuffaar who wallow in janaabat and kuffaar, and  to spend  days or weeks or months  with them in space consuming  their haraam, filthy food, remaining in  the state of janaabat and najaasat and abstaining  from  performing  Salaat, etc.  correctly. All of these evils are by volitional choice, and this is haraam. How can a man of Imaan  feel snug in the company of  kuffaar? Only a man  who is either bereft of Imaan or whose Imaan dangles by a thread in readiness  for extinction will be able to tolerate the Jahannami situation in which the kuffaar revel.

The morons are misguided. The ‘ibaadaat’ which the Muslim astronaut performs in space after  having voluntarily  cast himself into the haraam  situation together  with  kuffaar colleagues,  are not valid. On return to earth, he will have to make qadha of all the Salaat and Fasts which he had missed. The so-called ‘tayammum’, etc. presented as the basis  for their stupid extrapolation are of no validity in this  satanic scenario. Their fatwa is  baseless and corrupt.

Assuming that space travel ever becomes a reality such as plane-travel, then it will devolve on the Ulama at that time to issue the correct fatwa. For the present, our Fatwa is that the Malaysia fatwa is bunkum. The nonsensical  opinions are devoid of Shar’i substance and the so-called ‘fatwa’ is fit for the dirt bin.

THE MAJLIS VOL 26 NO 08