wedding celebrations, just as they would look at slave women, since seeing them and hearing their voices involved no temptation. This, then, is less seriously prohibited than deliberately committing injustice; the lesser of two prohibited acts must not be prevented by committing the graver one.

As for men singing to men, no report has reached us that this occurred during the time of the Companions. There remains the matter of women singing to women at weddings. As for free women singing to men with a tambourine, this is sanctioned on joyous occasions, as in the hadith of the woman who made a vow and sang while accompanying herself with it.

However, engaging a female singer to perform for women and men is objectionable in all circumstances, unlike a woman for whom singing is not a profession. The same applies to receiving payment for it. And Allah knows best.

He was asked:

A man undertook a financial guarantee for someone to whose family he belonged, the guarantor being married to that man’s daughter. The guarantor spent five months in prison and incurred expenses of three hundred dirhams. Is the man on whose behalf he gave the guarantee liable for the expenses he incurred during his imprisonment?

He replied:

Yes. Whatever the guarantor was compelled to bear because of the wrongdoing of the person on whose behalf he gave the guarantee—for example, if that person was able to pay but absented himself until the creditor had the guarantor detained and made him incur those expenses—the guarantor is entitled to recover it from the person who wronged him.