Belief and ritual

He or she needs to want to do this purely for the sake of discovering and knowing the truth, not just to get engaged or for a marriage proposal, for example. The search for the truth should be the aim. It's very simple and quite easy, you testify and then you start to learn more about Islam and understand what it means to be a Muslim and how to find your way to God through Islamic teachings.

's very simple. You say the shahadah. That is the requirement, saying the shahadah. The actual procedure would involve cleaning oneself, repeating the shahadah and then learn what is allowed and prohibited, and of course learn how to perform salah (prayer).

Yes you can and you are encouraged to but you are also encouraged to understand the meaning of the Arabic when you are reciting a prayer. There is a minority view which says that when it comes to individual duah which you do as part of your salah, that you can do this in your own language. But the majority say that this has to be in Arabic.

Yes of course, but this doesn't mean that you should be satisfied with your lack of understanding. If you want to learn lyrics from a song, you will dig deep, phone a friend, email, go on the Internet to find out what the lyrics mean. If you are interested in something you will do whatever it takes to find out more.

Yes, in fact you have to pray - understanding is not a requirement for the prayer although it's highly recommended.

Yes, if there is a good reason why they can't perform Hajj. It would not be accepted if someone was healthy enough and had the money to go to Hajj but didn't go. But if someone couldn't perform the Hajj because they were ill or did not have the money to go, then close relatives and especially their children can perform the Hajj on their behalf; in fact you can hire someone to do the Hajj on your behalf. The person who performs the Hajj on behalf of others must first go for themselves as you must fulfil your own obligation first, before helping others.

Of course you can. It happened in the Prophet's (pbuh) lifetime. A man came to Him and said "My father passed away before he could to Hajj, so am I allowed to perform Hajj on his behalf?" to which the Prophet (pbuh) replied "Yes." But anyone who goes on the Hajj must first learn how to do it properly.

It's important to remember that there are now lots of facilities to heop you do the Hajj, such as wheelchairs for example. But if they could not fulfil the conditions of the Hajj - for example if they were unable to do the tawaf, or go to Arafat or Mina, it would be very good for you to do it on their behalf.

This is a massive issue of course as there are hundreds of thousands of hadith transmitted, but Imam Shafi famously said that everything that the Prophet said or did is in the Quran and is the basis of the Sunnah. Many other scholars of Hadith also took this view: that every authentic hadith has a basis in the Quran. Therefore the true Sunnah and hadith cannot be incompatible with the Quran.

If a hadith seems to contradict the teachings of the Quran then I would question that hadith and the interpretation of it, as perhaps there has been some misunderstanding in transmission. Part of the problem is that because the oral tradition was so strong, many hadith were not recorded on paper until much later.

If sometimes there are doubts around the hadith, this has to do with the chain of transmission rather than anything to do with the Prophet pbuh himself. It must also be remembered that the scholars who have narrated the hadith were experts in their field as well, distilling the essence of prophetic teaching into Islamic law.

No, definitely not, you can give it anytime during the year. You pay 2.5% of the money you have - and that means everything, including cash, jewellery, shares, investments. You put all such things of value in one pot and pay Zakat of 2.5% throughout one complete calendar year. If you possess the equivalent of 100 grams of gold for a year, you must pay Zakat.You don't pay Zakat for things such as the house you live in or the car you drive.