The Creed of Compassion-Islamic Teachings & Answering Doctrinal Misconceptions

Issue No. 1211- If a person has to offer his own qaḍā prayer and offer his own qaḍā fasts, and also wishes to offer the qaḍā prayer and fasts of his parents, whichever he offers first will be correct.

Issue No. 1216- A person who is hired to offer prayer or fast or any other acts of worship on behalf of a dead person, should specify the dead person while making the intention; it is not necessary that he know his/her name though. Hence, it is sufficient if he specifies him with a certain indication in his intention.

Issue No. 1225- If the hired person dies before completing the task, and if he himself had some qaḍā prayers of his own, it should be paid from his estate to hire someone to perform the prayer that he had been hired for and in case it was agreed that he himself should perform the qaḍā, a proportionate amount of wages for the remaining prayers should be returned. However, for his own qaḍā prayer, they cannot take from his estate unless with the heirs’ permission or that he has willed that one-third of his estate should be spent to perform the qaḍā of his qaḍā prayers.

Issue No. 1231- A person who gets obsessive during prayer so much that it leads to its invalidity; if he finds that he will get rid of his obsession if he offers his prayer in congregation, he must offer prayer in congregation.

Issue No. 1233- When an imam is leading a congregation for the daily prayers, one can follow him for any of the daily prayers. For example, if the imam is offering ẓuhr prayer, and one has already offered his ẓuhr prayer, he can offer his ‘aṣr prayer following the imam. However, if the imam is repeating his prayer in order for precaution, he (the follower) cannot offer his prayer with him, unless both of the prayers are similar in terms of precaution.

Issue No. 1234- If the imam is offering qaḍā prayer, it is permissible to follow him. However, if he is offering precautionary qaḍā prayer, it is not permissible to follow him as an obligatory precaution.

Issue No. 1235- One cannot follow an imam if he does not know whether the imam is performing an obligatory prayer or recommended prayer.

Issue No. 1269- Ifa person was previously known to be just (‘ādil), however one later doubts whether he is still just or not, he should consider him as just unless proven otherwise.

Issue No. 1245- The followers should not stand ahead of the imam. Therefore, if a follower, at the start of the congregation or during it, stands ahead of the imam, his prayer in congregation would be void. The obligatory precaution also, is that he should not stand in an equal line with the imam. Rather, he should stand at least a little behind the imam. This condition should be observed in all parts of the prayer including rukū‘ and sajdah.

Issue No. 1241- In the congregational prayer, there is no problem if the place where followers stand is higher than where the imam stands. However, in case the imam stands in the main part of the mosque [for instance] and some of the followers are located on the balcony or on the roof in a manner that it would not be called a congregational prayer; in this case, the prayer would not be valid. The same applies when the imam stands on the ground floor and the followers stand on the other floors, which are far from the congregation.

Issue No. 1249- If because of a valid excuse the follower turns his intention into individual prayer after the imam has recited sūrah al-fātiḥa and the sūrah, it will not be necessary for him to recite them. However, if he makes the intention of individual prayer before the imam has completed sūrah al-fātiḥa and the sūrah, he should recite the part that the imam has not recited.

Issue No. 1250- If because of a valid excuse the follower turns his intention into individual prayer during the congregational prayer, he cannot revert back to congregational prayer. Also, if he becomes doubtful whether he should change his intention to individual prayer or not, and eventually decides to continue the prayer with the congregation, the rulings of congregational prayer [as an obligatory precaution] do not apply to his prayer. However, if he doubts whether or not he had made the intention of individual prayer, he should consider that he had not made the intention.