| | | (Part No. 10; Page No. 371) | |
Does reaching puberty designate the age of accountability for performing Salah  Q: A brother from Riyadh asks: Is reaching puberty considered the limit at which a child is asked to make up for the Salah (prayer) that he missed due to sleeping and other reasons? A: Once a boy or a girl reaches the age of puberty, they have to perform Salah, Sawm (Fast) of Ramadan, Hajj (major pilgrimage) and `Umrah (minor pilgrimage) if they have the ability to do so. They will be deemed sinful for either abandoning this or committing sins. This comes in accordance to the general rules of Shari`ah (Islamic law). Puberty is attained by completing the age of fifteen, discharging semen out of sexual desire (whether during one's sleep or awakening), or growing coarse hair around the frontal genital area, and in the case of girls, this includes having menses.As long as a boy or a girl has not experienced any such things, they are not Mukallaf (person meeting the conditions to be held legally accountable for their actions). They are to be commanded to perform Salah at the age of seven and to be punished for neglecting it when reaching ten years old. They should also be commanded to fast the month of Ramadan and should be urged to do all kinds of good deeds i.e., reciting the Qur'an, performing supererogatory Salah, performing Hajj (major pilgrimage) and `Umrah (minor pilgrimage), saying Subhan-Allah, al-hamdu Lillah, Allahu akbar, and La ilaha illa-Allah. They should also be prevented from all sins, because the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:  Command your children to pray when they become seven years old and beat them for (neglecting) it when they become ten years old; and separate their places [that of boys and girls. Ed.] of sleep. The Prophet (peace be upon him) admonished Al-Hasan ibn `Aly (may Allah be pleased with them both) for eating the date he received in charity and instructed him that it is not permissible for them to take charity and ordered him to leave the one date which he had eaten part of. When the Prophet died, Al-Hasan was only seven years old and a few months. |
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