The Creed of Compassion-Islamic Teachings & Answering Doctrinal Misconceptions

Issue No.821- It is befitting not to offer prayer in the following places:Bathroom; salt marsh; facing a person who is either sitting or standing; facing an open door; on roads or sidewalks of streets provided that it does not cause inconvenience to others. )If it does, it is haram). Similarly, if one performs prayer facing fire or a lamp, in the kitchen, and at any place where there is a furnace, facing a well or a pit for waste water, and facing the picture or statue of living creatures, (unless it is covered) and at a place where there is a picture, even if it may not be placed in front of him; facing a grave, on the grave and in the graveyard.

Issue No.726- While offering prayer, a man should cover his private parts even if no one is looking at him, and it is better that he should cover his body from his navel down to the knees. It would be preferred to dress perfectly in the way he dresses before eminent people.

Issue No.727- A woman should cover her entire body while offering prayer, including her head and hair. It is not necessary for her to cover the [religious] radius of the face (the part of the face which is washed while performing wuḍū) or the hands up to the wrists, or the feet up to the ankles. Nevertheless, in order to ensure that she has covered the obligatory parts of her body adequately, She should also cover a little more of the face, wrists and ankles as an obligatory precaution.

Issue No.735- There are six conditions for the clothes of the person praying:1- It should be ṭāhir. 2- It should not be usurped, as an obligatory precaution. 3- It should not be made of the parts of a dead body. 4- It should not be made of a haram meat animal. 5&6- If a person who offers prayer is male, his clothes must not be made of pure silk or be embroidered with gold. The details of these will follow.

Issue No.736- If a person intentionally performs prayer with a najis body or clothes, his prayer would be void, even if the reason behind this was due to [his] failure in learning the rulings concerning it.

Issue No.746- The clothes that a person uses for offering prayer, as an obligatory precaution, should be permissible, and if he offers prayer with usurped clothes intentionally, even if a piece of thread or a button of it is be usurped, he should offer the prayer again. However, if he did not know that it was usurped, and offered prayer in it, his prayer would be correct. Similarly, if he knew that it was usurped but then forgot about it, and offered prayer with it, his prayer would be valid, provided that he himself is not the usurper. If he himself had usurped something and then forgot that he had usurped it and offered prayer with it, the obligatory precaution in this case, is to repeat the prayer.

Issue No.750 - The clothes with which a person offers prayer should not be made of the parts of the dead body of a blood gushing animal. And the obligatory precaution is that even if the clothes have been made with the parts of the dead body of a non-blood gushing animal (for example fish or snake), it should not be used while performing prayer.

Issue No.753- The clothes of a person who offers prayer should not be made out of the parts of the body of a haram meat animal. Hence, if one carries on himself even one hair of such an animal while performing prayer, his prayer would be void.

Issue No.760- It is not permissible for men to perform prayer with clothes embroidered with gold and this will make the prayer void. However, there is no problem in women wearing it, as long as it is not considered to be extravagant. Anyhow, it is haram for men even not in prayer to wear clothes embroidered with gold.

Issue No.763- It is haram for men to wear pure silken clothes, including silky skullcaps or suspenders, and prayer with them is void; even the lining of clothes should not be made of pure silk. However, women are allowed to wear silken clothes whether in prayer or not.

Issue No.774- In the following six cases, the prayer offered by a person whose body or clothes are najis is correct.1- If his body or clothes are stained with the blood of a wound or an abscess. 2- If the blood on the body or clothes isless than a dirham (which is almost equal to the upper joint of the forefinger). 3- If his small clothes, like socks and skullcap, are najis.4- A najis object carried by a prayer performer. 5- A babysitter's clothes. 6- If he has no alternative but to offer prayer with a najis body or clothes; for instance, he is stuck somewhere and his najis clothes cannot be replaced, or the prayer time is too short for making them ṭāhir; in these cases because of the urgency, his prayer in najis clothes is correct. Rules of these issues will be explained in detail.

Issue No.775- First: If there is blood of a wound, sore or abscess on the body or clothes of the prayer performer, and the condition is such that rinsing the body or clothes is hard, he may offer prayer with that blood so long as the wound or abscess does not heal up. And the same rule applies to the pus which has come out with blood, or a medicine applied to the wound that has become najis. However, if the wound heals up soon and the blood on the body or clothes can be washed off easily, then it should be washed and made ṭāhir.