Posts Tagged "Imam"

Does following an Imam who does not say the Basmalah aloud nullify one's Salah?

Posted by on May 2, 2010 in Featured, Salah | 6 comments

الحمد لله رب العالمين ، وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين، وبالله التوفيق

Imam An-Nawawi says in his Majmu‘,
“There is no disagreement according to us [i.e. the Shafi'is] that it is wajib (obligatory) to recite the Basmalah1 at the beginning of one’s recitation of Surat Al-Fatihah and that Salah is not correct without [reciting] it because it is just like the rest of Fatihah. Ash-Shafi’i and his companions said: And it is Sunnah to recite the basmalah aloud in the prayers that are said aloud and in the [second] surah, and this issue has no disagreement amongst us [Shafi'is].”
[Al-Majmu' Vol 3. page 289 published by Maktabat Al-Irshad, edited by Muhammad Najib Al-Muti'i]
So because it is a Sunnah, here the meaning is a recommended act, to recite the Basmalah aloud in the prayers said aloud (Salat Al-Jahriyyah, i.e. Fajr, Maghrib and ‘Isha’), and not an obligation, it does not nullify one’s Salah if one does not recite it loudly (jahran). If, however, one does not recite the Basmalah at all – even to one’s self (sirran), then one’s Salah is nullified according to the relied upon opinion of the school.
Lastly we would like to mention that it is permitted for the Shafi’i to follow an Imam of another school as long as one is certain that he has not omitted an obligation of the Salah. Ibn Naqib Al-Misri mentions in his ‘Umdat As-Salik, translated by Shaykh Nuh Keller as “Reliance of the Traveller”:
“It is valid for a Shafi`i to follow the leadership of an imam who follows a different school of jurisprudence whenever the follower is not certain that the imam has omitted an obligatory element of the prayer, though if certain the imam has omitted one, it is not valid to follow him. The validity is based solely on the belief of the follower as to whether or not something obligatory has been omitted (والاعتبار باعتقاد المأموم).” [page 183-184 of "Reliance of the Traveller" Revised edition].
والله  أعلم
And Allah Knows Best
Shafiifiqh.com Fatwa Department
  1. which is the saying of Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim [↩]
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Question: What is the Criteria of an Imam in Salah?

Posted by on Jan 28, 2010 in Featured, Salah | 16 comments

Question:

Who is allowed to lead the prayer and who is it permissible for us to pray behind.

Answer

الحمد لله رب العالمين ، وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين، وبالله التوفيق

It is not permissible and invalid to follow an imam who is:

· A person who is known that his salah is invalid like a non-Muslim, one who is insane, a person in a state of ritual impurity (hadath) or who has filth (najasah) on his body or clothing.

· A follower who has belief that his imam’s salah is invalid, such as a Shafiʿi following a Hanafi who touched his private parts. The muʿtamad view of the madhhab is according to the madhhab of the follower (al-Minhaj 1: 231). However, there is second opinion in our school, and that is the ruling is according to the madhhab of the Imam of Salah, and this is the opinion of Imam al-Qaffal, al-Manṣūṣ and the Jumhur (majority). (al-Najm al-Wahhāj: 2: 347).

· A person following another person (muqtadi) or a person who is compulsory for him to repeat his salah,

· A woman or hermaphrodite leading men,

· Someone who omits or mispronounces a letter of the Fatiha leading someone who knows it, or a mute, or someone who slurs the words so the letters are indistinct from one another, or someone with a lisp.

If after the prayer one finds out that the imam was one of the above, then one must make up the prayer, unless the imam had filth upon him that was concealed, or he was in a state of ritual impurity, in which cases one doesn’t need to make it up. (al-Minhaj 1: 231, Reliance of the Traveller)

It is permissible for:

· A person performing wudhu (ablution) to follow a person performing tayammum (dry ablution) or wiping the khuff (leather socks).

· A person standing to follow the one who is sitting or one who is reclining while leading the Salah.

· A free adult person to follow a mumayyiz child or a slave.

· Non blind to follow the blind, also for the healthy person to follow a person with incontinence of urine (with all its conditions), and a non-bleeding woman to follow a woman who is mustahadah ghayr mutahayyirah (unconfused vaginal bleeding). (al-Minhaj: 1: 232)

والله تعالى أعلم

Allah Most High knows best.

Answered by:

Abdullah Muhammad al-Marbuqi al-Shāfiʿī

Checked by:

Al-Ustadh Fauzi al-Shāfiʿī

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