The Creed of Compassion-Islamic Teachings & Answering Doctrinal Misconceptions

Issue No.703- Night prayer is one of the most important nawāfil on which the Holy Qur’an and the Islamic narrations have laid a great emphasis [1]. It has a profound effect on peoples’ hearts and minds, making them pure, refining their souls and solving their problems. Certain disciplines have been mentioned in famous supplication books [2] for this prayer especially for the qunūt of the Witr prayer. These disciplines are good to observe yet one can offer the night prayer without observing them. He can offer this prayer in the same way as daily prayers are performed. He, who cannot, for some reasons, get up for the night prayer, may offer it before going to bed.

Issue No.713- One of the prayers, which is good to offer with the hope of gaining Allah’s reward, is ghufaylah prayer which is offered between maghrib and ‘ishā’ prayers. Its time is after maghrib prayer until the disappearance of redness from the west after sunset. In its first rak‘at after sūrah al-fātiḥa, instead of the sūrah, the following verses should be recited:وَ ذَا النُّونِ اِذْ ذَهَبَ مُغاضِباً فَظَنَّ اَنْ لَنْ نَقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ فَنادى فِى الظُّلُماتِ اَنْ لا اِلهَ إلاَّ اَنْتَ سُبْحانَكَ اِنّى كُنْتُ مِنَ الظّالِمينَ فَاسْتَجَبْنا لَهُ وَ نَجَّيْناهُ مِنَ الْغَمِّ وَ كَذلِكَ نُنْجِى الْمُؤمِنينَIn the second rak‘at after sūrah al-fātiḥa, instead of the sūrah, the following verse should be recited:وَ عِنْدَهُ مَفاتِحُ الْغَيْبِ لا يَعْلَمُها إلاَّ هُو وَ يَعْلَمُ ما فِى الْبَرِّ وَ الْبَحْرِ وَ ما تَسْقُطُ مِنْ وَرَقَة إلاَّ يَعْلَمُها وَ لا حَبَّة فِى ظُلُماتِ الاْرْضِ وَ لا رَطْب وَ لا يَابِس إلاَّ فى كِتاب مُبينAnd he should recite in qunūt the following:اَللّهُمَّ اِنّى اَسْئَلُكَ بِمَفاتِحِ الْغَيْبِ الَّتى لا يَعْلَمُهَا إلاَّ اَنْتَ اَنْ تُصَلِّىَ عَلى مُحَمَّد وَ آلِ مُحَمَّد وَ اَنْ تَفْعَلَ بِى ... (here one should mention his wishes).Thereafter, the following Du'a should be recited:اَللّهُمَّ اَنْتَ وَلِىُّ نِعْمَتِى وَ الْقادِرُ عَلى طَلِبَتى تَعْلَمُ حاجَتى فَأَسْئَلُكَ بِحَقِّ مُحَمَّد وَ آلِ مُحَمَّد عَلَيْهِ وَ عَلَيْهِمُ السّلامُ لَمّا قَضَيْتَها لِى

Issue No.739- If a person realises after prayer that his body or his clothes were najis, his prayer is correct whether it is in the time of the prayer or after it.

Issue No.740- If a person rinses his najis body or clothes and becomes sure that it has become ṭāhir and performs prayer in it but after the prayer comes to know that they had not become ṭāhir, his prayer is correct. However, he should make his clothes ṭāhir for the next prayers.

Issue No.737- If a person does not know that his body or clothes are najis and he comes to know about it after having offered the prayer, his prayer is correct. However, if a person forgets that his body or clothes are najis and recollects this while offering prayer, or after having performed the prayer, he should offer the prayer again and if the time prescribed for that prayer has passed he should offer its qaḍā.

Issue No.744- A person who does not have any clothing other than a najis one, and it is not likely that he would get ṭāhir clothes by the end of the prayer time, should offer prayer in the najis clothes.

Issue No.747- If a person realises, during prayer, that his clothes are usurped, and he has something else on his body to cover his private parts, he should take off the usurped clothes and continue offering the prayer. However, if he does not have anything on his body to cover his private parts, he should break the prayer and offer it with non-usurped clothes.

Issue No.748- If a person offers prayer with usurped clothes to safeguard his life or to save the clothes from being stolen by a thief, etc., his prayer is correct.

Issue No.749- If a person purchases some clothes with money whose khums or zakāt has not been paid, his prayer in those clothes is void as an obligatory precaution. Similarly, if he buys some clothes on credit, and at the time of the deal, his intention is to pay for it from the money whose khums or zakāt has not been paid, or his intention is not to pay back his debt at all, his prayer is void as an obligatory precaution.

Issue No.752- One can offer prayer in leather clothes which have been purchased from the Muslim market, although he may doubt whether or not it has been made of the skin of an animal that has been slaughtered according to Islamic rules. However, if he is sure that the leather has been imported from non-Islamic countries and the seller is a heedless individual who has not investigated about it, it is not permissible to offer prayer with it, but if he does not know whether the leather has been imported from a Muslim country or a non-Muslim country, there would be no problem in performing prayer in it.

Issue No.754- If the saliva or nasal mucus or other wetness of a haram meat animal, (e.g. cat) is on the body or clothes of a person, who offers prayer, his prayer is void as an obligatory precaution as long as the substanceis not removed. However if it has become dry and its substance is gone, the prayer is valid.

Issue No.758- These days, artificial leather products are made of plastic or similar materials. Therefore, there is no problem in offering prayer in them, and if one doubts whether a product is made of artificial leather or natural (real) leather of a haram meat animal or of a dead animal, there would be no problem in the prayer offered in that leather.