What is the ruling on the fasting of a mute person?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : We have an employee here who is mute. He fasts and prays. He was healed, and he eats a spoonful of sugar.
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : He eats sugar while fasting. Does this mute person owe an expiation, or does he owe fasting?
The Shaykh : You say he fasts.
The questioner : He fasts.
The Shaykh : And does he know the rulings of fasting?
The questioner : No, he is mute. How would he know? He reads and writes.
The Shaykh : You have not answered me. May Allah guide you. You merely repeated what I understood before, which is that he reads and writes.
The questioner : He does not know the rulings of fasting, but he knows that one does not eat or drink.
The Shaykh : If he does not know the rulings of fasting and is excused by Allah, he is like one to whom the call of Allah has not reached. But if you or someone else knows that he is proficient in reading and writing—I do not know if this is true or not—if you write the rulings of fasting for him, does he understand them?
The questioner : He understands them.
The Shaykh : Then it is obligatory for you to teach him in writing. I once visited a village. Do you remember the name of the village where the teacher of the mute people is?
Abu Layla : ... The Ansaar district.
The Shaykh : The one where there is a man who named his son after me. What is the name of the village?
Abu Layla : A mountain, my Shaykh, from the mountains of Zarqa, named Mount Amir Hassan.
The Shaykh : The point is, we visited a mosque there and found a person whose matter concerned me. He was talking to someone while I was delivering a speech or lecture. Something came to my mind: I am speaking, why is he arguing with me? But later I understood that he was communicating with the mute person. After a while, he began asking me questions related to the mute person, the last of which was that he wanted to perform 'Umrah with them. This means it is possible to teach the mute person the Islamic rulings, even the rituals of Hajj and others. Therefore, the person who is able to teach him the rulings of fasting in writing is responsible if he does not do so, because it is obligatory for him to teach him what is obligatory for him. So teach him. May Allah send blessings upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad.
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : He eats sugar while fasting. Does this mute person owe an expiation, or does he owe fasting?
The Shaykh : You say he fasts.
The questioner : He fasts.
The Shaykh : And does he know the rulings of fasting?
The questioner : No, he is mute. How would he know? He reads and writes.
The Shaykh : You have not answered me. May Allah guide you. You merely repeated what I understood before, which is that he reads and writes.
The questioner : He does not know the rulings of fasting, but he knows that one does not eat or drink.
The Shaykh : If he does not know the rulings of fasting and is excused by Allah, he is like one to whom the call of Allah has not reached. But if you or someone else knows that he is proficient in reading and writing—I do not know if this is true or not—if you write the rulings of fasting for him, does he understand them?
The questioner : He understands them.
The Shaykh : Then it is obligatory for you to teach him in writing. I once visited a village. Do you remember the name of the village where the teacher of the mute people is?
Abu Layla : ... The Ansaar district.
The Shaykh : The one where there is a man who named his son after me. What is the name of the village?
Abu Layla : A mountain, my Shaykh, from the mountains of Zarqa, named Mount Amir Hassan.
The Shaykh : The point is, we visited a mosque there and found a person whose matter concerned me. He was talking to someone while I was delivering a speech or lecture. Something came to my mind: I am speaking, why is he arguing with me? But later I understood that he was communicating with the mute person. After a while, he began asking me questions related to the mute person, the last of which was that he wanted to perform 'Umrah with them. This means it is possible to teach the mute person the Islamic rulings, even the rituals of Hajj and others. Therefore, the person who is able to teach him the rulings of fasting in writing is responsible if he does not do so, because it is obligatory for him to teach him what is obligatory for him. So teach him. May Allah send blessings upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.