I need help with this question

[ssamios67]

Salam Aleikum brothers and sisters.

I am a revert now for about 5 weeks, and have been praying dilligently 5 times a day. I have a number of questions, and I was wondering if anyone can give me advice.

I just read on a website regarding prayer times:

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam) was asked: Which deed is best? He said: “Prayer done on time.” (al-Bukhaari, Muslim)


My questions are:

1) I realised that I have not prayed on time, especially Fajr prayer, which I usually do up to an hour after sunrise. Is this a sign of laziness or hypocrisy?

2) and what must I do when I can't perform the Zuhr prayer because I am at work and there are no clean facilities for wudu? I usually delay the Zuhr prayer to around 5pm some days when I arrive home; is this correct behaviour?

3) I have looked at prayer times on 3 separate (Islamic) websites, and they state prayer times for 6 lots of prayers: Fajr, Sunrise, Zuhr, Asr, Mahgrib and Isha. In all my research and discussions with muslims, I never came across 6 prayers a day; namely the Sunrise prayer. I thought the Fajr prayer WAS the sunrise prayer. Can someone please clarify this please. I'm confused.

I hope Allah forgives and guides me correctly, Insha' Allah.

Thanks brothers and sisters

Mustafa Samios

 

[pcozzy]

Salam Aleikum brothers and sisters.

I am a revert now for about 5 weeks, and have been praying dilligently 5 times a day. I have a number of questions, and I was wondering if anyone can give me advice.

I just read on a website regarding prayer times:

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam) was asked: Which deed is best? He said: “Prayer done on time.” (al-Bukhaari, Muslim)


My questions are:

1) I realised that I have not prayed on time, especially Fajr prayer, which I usually do up to an hour after sunrise. Is this a sign of laziness or hypocrisy?

2) and what must I do when I can't perform the Zuhr prayer because I am at work and there are no clean facilities for wudu? I usually delay the Zuhr prayer to around 5pm some days when I arrive home; is this correct behaviour?

3) I have looked at prayer times on 3 separate (Islamic) websites, and they state prayer times for 6 lots of prayers: Fajr, Sunrise, Zuhr, Asr, Mahgrib and Isha. In all my research and discussions with muslims, I never came across 6 prayers a day; namely the Sunrise prayer. I thought the Fajr prayer WAS the sunrise prayer. Can someone please clarify this please. I'm confused.

I hope Allah forgives and guides me correctly, Insha' Allah.

Thanks brothers and sisters

Mustafa Samios

:salam2:

3.) The prayer times are 5 but schedules always include shurooq which is when the sunrises. That would be after fajr prayer and usually about an hour and half or more. It is not a prayer but a reference to know when it is sunrise. This way if you want to make additional prayers you will be outside the times where voluntary prayers is not recommended by the prophet PBUH hadith. These times are between fajr and sunrise or asr and sunset. But if you have to pray like when entering a mosque or making up missed obligatory prayers you can.

2.) Important to always strive/jihad to make prayer on time. If you are unable to then you must make up. Being you are at work, you can work it out, depends on the management and environment. Before you leave the house to work make wudu, then all you need to do is renew your wudu.

1.) Fajr is to be prayed on time. And you should make full intention to make the prayer on time. Doesn't mean you have to wake up for the day. You can go make wudu and pray fajr prayer then go back to sleep.

Lastly, the best thing a muslim can do is make their prayers in the masjid. Of course we are occupied with things that prevent us, but every effort should be made to pray in the masjid. The benefits of doing so are great. I am not saying you don't but try to start making a prayer in the masjid and start building from there where you consistantly go for the prayers that you are capable of. Beleive me you will be happier and in sha Allah you will get more reward.

 

[slaveofAllah88]

:salam2:
first of all welcome to Islam brother, May the peace and mercy of Allah (swt) be upon you

about your questions,

LIke you quoted the hadith, its best deed, so to earn the best deed you should try your best to achieve it, in other words try your best to pray on time including fajr and other prayer.
But yea sometimes you dont wake up for fajr, like sometimes if im studying really late i wont be able to get up for Fajr then pray late but dont make a habit of it try to develop habit to pray on time, about praying at work if you are able to pray there maybe buy a prayer mat and pray on it, if not then well you have to pray after work, but always have a pure intention to pray to Allah (swt) on time.
Brother pcozzy explained it very well, but what sunrise is really helpful for me is to know when the time for fajr is giong to be over, cuz fajr can be prayed till sunrise, but it should not be prayed at sunrise its forbidden cuz people who workship the sun do at that time and we are not among those people we only workship Allah (swt). so try to wake up 30 min before sunrise takes leterally 5 min to do wudu and prayer fajr prayer is really small and then you can go to bed again

hope it helped brother
aslam o alikum

 

[Abu Hannah]

Alhamdhulillah

:salam2:
The fact that you are so concerned about your prayer is a very good sign. Don't lose your zest for salaah. Insha Allah, your prayers will become easy for you.

 

[BigAk]

Al Salam alaikum brother Mustafa,

We all try our best to do our prayers on time.. For me, often times it's very hard as work and life in the US interfere with it.. But, I try my best... If you can't, then make up your prayers brother... and insha Allah you'll gain the rewards. Allah is most merciful and He ordained His religion unto us and wanted to make things easy on us. And, alhamdu lil Lah, the rewards are high.

Take it easy brother.. and don't stress yourself too much over it, and try your best. Allah only knows your heart.

I ask Allah to keep you and myself on His right path and not let our hearts go astray after He had guided us... Ameen.

.

 

[Yusuf1990]

Wa'alaikum asalaam warahmatullah,

My brother, praise be to Allah that He guided you to Islam, be thankful to Allah you are showing these signs of concern for one of the greatest commandments of Allah, the Prayer.
As has been explained, the 'shurooq' or 'sunrise' you have seen means the end of fajr. So fajr beings where you see the time for fajr and it ends where you see the time for shurooq. It is needed as all the other prayers end at the time of the next one, for example: dhuhr ends at 'asr, 'asr ends at maghrib, maghrib ends at 'isha, and 'isha ends halfway through the night (although, due to difference of opinion some scholars say it is best to pray it before midnight).
I hope this makes it clear for you insha'Allah. Take your time with the prayer, establish it at the correct times and strive to perform it in the best manner.
About making wudu at work, it is not required that the area of wudu be clean. All that is required is that there is clean water to use. It takes only a minute or two to make wudu, and if you preform wudu and after washing your feet put on your socks, then the next time you come to make wudu all you have to do is wipe over your socks with wet hands - meaning you will not have to put your foot in the sink. I will paste a fatwa at the end to make this clear for you, insha'Allah.
The majority of the time work will be fine with you praying, once you get used to prayer it takes about 5 or so minutes to complete 4 rakah. You can usually pray the dhuhr prayer on your lunch break if it is at the same time or you should be able to get the 10 minutes to pray it while working.
My brother, make du'a to Allah and ask Him to make this easy for you, you are concerned with an act of worship, something He made obligitory upon us, He will make it easier for you without doubt.
Once again I remind you to thank Allah, as you have become active within just 5 weeks of accepting Islam. There exist brothers and sisters who have taken 2 years before establishing the prayer (which is NOT good) but praise be to Allah things were made easy in the end for them.

Here is a clear fatwa for you concerning wiping over the socks as I said earlier, to avoid any confusion.

"Conditions of wiping over socks

Q: What are the conditions for wiping over the socks? Please give the daleel (evidence) for that.

A: Praise be to Allaah.

Four conditions apply to wiping over the socks.

The first condition:

That they should have been put on when one was in a state of tahaarah (purity, i.e., when one has wudoo’). The evidence for that is what the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to al-Mugheerah ibn Shu’bah: “Don’t worry, because I put them one when I was clean.”

The second condition:

That the khufoof (leather slippers which cover the ankle) or socks should be taahir (pure). If they are naajis (impure) then it is not permissible to wipe over them. The daleel for that is that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) led his companions in prayer one day wearing shoes, which he took off whilst he was praying. He said that Jibreel had told him that there was something dirty on them. This was narrated by Ahmad from the hadeeth of Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri (may Allaah be pleased with him) in his Musnad. This indicates that it is not permissible to pray wearing anything that is naajis, because if the naajis thing is wiped over, the person will be contaminated by that najaasah (impurity), so he cannot be considered to be taahir (pure).

The third condition:

They may be wiped over when one is purifying oneself from minor impurity (i.e., doing wudoo’ after passing wind, urine or stools), not when one is in a state of janaabah (major impurity following sexual activity) or when ghusl is required. The evidence for that is the hadeeth of Safwaan ibn ‘Assaal (may Allaah be pleased with him) who said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) commanded us, when we were travelling, not to remove our khufoof for three days and three nights, except in the case of janaabah. But we could keep them on and wipe over them in the case of stools, urine and sleeping.” This was narrated by Ahmad from the hadeeth of Safwaan ibn ‘Assaal (may Allaah be pleased with him) in his Musnad. So the condition is that wiping the socks may be done when purifying oneself (doing wudoo’) from minor impurity, and it is not permissible in the case of major impurity, because of the hadeeth which we have mentioned here.

The fourth condition:

That the wiping may be done within the time specified by sharee’ah, which is one day and one night in the case of one who is not travelling, and three days and three nights in the case of one who is travelling. This is because of the hadeeth of ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib (may Allaah be pleased with him) who said: “The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) stated one day and one night for the one who is not travelling, and three days and three nights for the one who is travelling, i.e., for wiping over the khufoof.” This was narrated by Muslim. This period starts from the first time one wipes over the socks when doing wudoo’ after some minor impurity, and it ends twenty-four later for the one who is not travelling, and seventy-two hours later for the one who is travelling. So if we assume that a person purifies himself for Fajr prayer on Tuesday and remains taahir (pure, i.e., keeps his wudoo’) until ‘Isha prayer on Tuesday evening, then he sleeps and wakes up to pray Fajr on Wednesday, and he wipes his socks at five o’clock zawaali time , then the period begins from 5 a.m. on Wednesday and lasts until 5 a.m. on Thursday. If we assume that he wiped his socks before 5 a.m then he can pray Fajr on Thursday with this wiping and pray as much as he wants as long as he remains taahir, because according to the most correct scholarly opinion, wudoo’ is not broken when the time period for wiping over the socks expires. That is because the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not set a time limit for tahaarah, rather he set a time limit for wiping over the socks. Once that time limit expires, one cannot wipe over the socks again, but if a person remains in a state of tahaarah then his tahaarah is still valid, because this is what is implied by the shar’i evidence, and whatever is proven by shar’i evidence cannot be invalidated unless there is further shar’i evidence to that effect. There is no evidence to suggest that wudoo’ is broken when the time limit for wiping over the socks expires, because what the basic principle is that he remains as he is (i.e., taahir) until it becomes apparent that this is no longer the case.

These are the conditions which apply to wiping over the khufoof. There are other conditions which were mentioned by some of the scholars, but some of these are subject to further debate.



I’laam al-Musaafireen bi Ba’d Aadaab wa Ahkaam al-Safar by Shaykh ibn al-‘Uthaymeen p.14"

Two last things to note; the correct way to wipe over them is to simply wet the hands with water and then wipe the right foot with the right hand and the left foot with the left hand just once each time. Starting from the toes up to the bottom of the shin with the palm.
And finally the socks do not have to be leather, they can be just normal, modern, cotton socks. As long as they fulfill the above conditions then they are fine. Even things like thin socks, socks with holes, the correct scholarly opinion it seems is that they are fine to wipe over as there has been no evidence to suggest otherwise.
But Allah knows best.

I hope that makes the whole process of making wudu easier for you, and may Allah bless you in your efforts and ease this Straight Path for you, ameen.

 

[The_truth]

Salam Aleikum brothers and sisters.

I am a revert now for about 5 weeks, and have been praying dilligently 5 times a day. I have a number of questions, and I was wondering if anyone can give me advice.

I just read on a website regarding prayer times:

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam) was asked: Which deed is best? He said: “Prayer done on time.” (al-Bukhaari, Muslim)


My questions are:

1) I realised that I have not prayed on time, especially Fajr prayer, which I usually do up to an hour after sunrise. Is this a sign of laziness or hypocrisy?

2) and what must I do when I can't perform the Zuhr prayer because I am at work and there are no clean facilities for wudu? I usually delay the Zuhr prayer to around 5pm some days when I arrive home; is this correct behaviour?

3) I have looked at prayer times on 3 separate (Islamic) websites, and they state prayer times for 6 lots of prayers: Fajr, Sunrise, Zuhr, Asr, Mahgrib and Isha. In all my research and discussions with muslims, I never came across 6 prayers a day; namely the Sunrise prayer. I thought the Fajr prayer WAS the sunrise prayer. Can someone please clarify this please. I'm confused.

I hope Allah forgives and guides me correctly, Insha' Allah.

Thanks brothers and sisters

Mustafa Samios

Asalaamu Alaikum wr wb brother hope your well and in good health. My brother we have to do our best to get into the habit of reading Fajr because firstly it is compulsory so there is no excuses and secondly we would be missing out on a GREAT reward for waking up for the pleasure of Allah and what does the person who gives Adhan(Call to prayer)say in the Masjid? Asalaatu kharuminanowm (Salah is better than sleep), and thirdly we would be incurring a GREAT sin for missing this Salah for no valid reason.

Once one gets into the habit of praying this Salah then it will become easy to pray every morning and one of the great benefits of this Slah is that one will have GREAT noor (Divine Light) on the face for the person who reads Fajr and ones day will also go really well because Allah helps those who sacrifice their sleep and get up to pray to him.

One just has to get into the habit of sleeping early so one can comfortably wake up on time to pray Fajr and putting a couple of alarms may help depending on what you think is the best method of waking up for fajr.

I find that putting two alarms on and placing them in difficult to reach places in my room is the BEST way to wake up for Fajr but the one has to be VERY careful that one does not just turn the alarm off and go back to bed thinking that their just going to rest for a couple of minutes because this is the deception of shaythan!

Brother it is VERY important for us to try our very best to pray Fajr as it is VERY important and we will see amazing changes in our lives when we read this Salah regularly inshallah.

My brother ive worked for MANY organisations and ive found that there is absolutley NO excuse for us to miss ANY Salah at work. It is in fact VERY easy to pray at work. At lunch time we can VERY easily pray Zuhr. If your lunch is only short then go to the toilet before your lunch starts and do isthanja and wudhu. Make sure you ALWAYS have with you an empty bottle and it would help if you had slippers because you can just get into them when your wanting to do wudhu and it would make it much easier although ive never brought them with me to work it would be best as you can easily put them into a bag and take them with you to work along with an empty bottle which you can use for doing isthinja with.

I understand non muslims use the toilets and the toilet seat may not be clean. Simple solution-Allah has created water as a purifier for EVERYTHING. So just wet or soak some tissue and wipe the toilet seat or pour water over the toilet seat from the bottle that you have and there you have a clean toilet seat where you can sit down and do your business.
You have the bottle with you that you can fill up with water and use to clean yourself with.

After that you can easily do wudhu in the sink and again it would help if you had slippers because it would be easier to wash your feet with or what i sometimes do is put tissues on the floor and take my shoes and socks off and stand on the tissues and do my wudhu and afterwards just wipe the water off myself with using tissues.

You should ALWAYS try your best to read Sunnah Mu'khaddha because it is an important Sunnah. In Fajr there is 2 rakat Sunnah Mu'khaddha before the 2 rakat Fardh and this Sunnah Mu'khaddha of Fajr is the MOST emphasised and important Sunnah Salah of all the 5 times prayers apart from Fardh and Wajib of course.

In Zuhr there is 4 rakat Sunnah Mu'khaddha before the four fardh of Zuhr and there is 2 Sunnah Mu'khaddha and 2 Nafl after that. In Asr there is no Sunnah Mu'khaddha it is 4 ghayr Mu'khaddha which means that it is not so important or emphasised but one should still try and read it for extra rewards. In Maghrib there is 2 rakat Sunnah Mu'khaddha after the 3 Fardh and then 2 rakat Nafl which is optional.

In Isha there Is 4 rakat Ghayr Mu'khaddha and then 4 rakat Fardh,then 2 rakat Sunnah Mu'khaddha and then it is optional to pray the 2 Nafl and then there is 3 rakat wajib which is obligatory and if it is missed then one has to pray Qadha(Make up for it) and then finally after the 3 rakat wajib there is 2 rakat Nafl to pray if one wishes.

The Mu'khaddha is emphasised so we should read it but if we have a valid reason then it can be left otherwise we should try our best not to miss out on these GREAT rewards but if we mis it often without a valid reason then we may be sinful for carelessly leaving out an emphasised Sunnah.

Nafl prayers are superogatory prayers or extra prayers and one should also read these as much as one can because if there is a deficiency in our Salah then our Nafl prayers cover up that deficiency. Also Nafl prayers will help us a lot in the hereafter where we ae in need of as many good deeds as possible and Nafl prayers is also the best way of gaining closesness to Allah so it should be read as much as possible.

Salah should NEVER be delayed because Allah has stated in the Qur'an that he has set each of the prayers in its prescribed times so they should ALWAYS be read in their prescribed times. Delaying a Salah for no reason is very sinful. We should ALWAYS try our best to pray on time and NOT delay any Salah till its last moments.

Salah should also be done with complete sincerity and concetration. I know at times ones mind can wonder but we HAVE to concentrate on what we are saying in the Salah and would really recommend that we all should learn the translation of Salah so we understand what were saying in Salah.
We should ALWAYS picture as Allah is watching us or were watching him whilst we pray the Salah because Allah is watching our every move whilst we pray Salah so how should we behave when our creator us watching us worship him?

In the workplace it is VERY easy to pray all the Salah and one should not feel ashamed to pray at work but PROUD that one is worshipping the lord and fulfilling their obligation to him because he is the one that gave you that job. He is the one that is giving you the energy and ability to perform that job. He is the one that may increase your sustainance and give you blessings in your income and work.

No manager or supervisor should ever have ANY problems in giving you a few minutes to pray Salah if you needed it.

It is shaythan who decieved you into thinking you should'nt and he does'nt want you to pray it anywhere let alone at home. We should not pray Salah when it is convenient to us but we should pray it no matter what situation were in or what were doing. The whole world is a masjid so we can pray ANYWHERE apart from toilets and visibly dirty places of course.

So pray Salah at work proudly no matter what happens because we have to build our life around our Salah not the otherway around.

Sunrise marks the end of the Fajr prayer and of course it varies throughout the year.

It is haraam(forbidden) to pray at sunrise,sunset and Zawal(When the sun is at its highest).The reason for this is because of the fact that people in the past used to pray to the sun. So that is why prayers at these times are forbidden to avoid what the evil sun worshippers did in the past.

Also brother we should try our best to pray our Salah in the Masjid as much as we can because for men it is incumbent that we pray in the Masjid and for women it is more reward to pray at home. It is such a beautiful feeling to pray in teh house of Allah and every prayer with jamaat(Congregation) is at least 70 times or more reward than reading alone. If you have a fellow Muslim at work then encourage him to pray with you and you can read together and form a jamat and you will get 70 times more reward inshallah aswell as getting the reward of the person you encouraged to read with you.
So we should try our best to pray Fajr and all the Salah with in the Masjid and if we can't then at least pray their as much as we can and is possible.

Allah chose you and has given you imaan(Faith) because he has seen something in you that he likes and this gift is not given to everyone because Allah clearly states in the Qur'an that if he wanted to he could have given imaan to everyone but ONLY he knows which hearts are the hearts of the rejectors and only he knows which hearts would accept the truth and he has chosen you out of SO many countless people and given you the most AMAZING gift of imaan, so be proud and lets worship Allah wholeheartedly with full sincerity and humility because our most compassionate lord has given us EVERYTHING!

If there is anything else you need or any help with anything at all then please don't hesitate to ask. Please remember me in your prayers, Jazakallah, Allah Hafiz!

 

[shichemlydia]

help....

salam alikoum,
first welcome to islam and the website and may allah swt help you in your journey. ameen.
yes, there are 5 prayers a day, the confusion you are speaking about is in the fajr and the sunrise prayer, there are two calls for the prayer separated by 20 minutes or something like that. we do not pray until the second call for prayer. after the call; we pray actually two prayers of two RAKAATES, the first one is called FAJR and the secong one is called SOUGH or the sunrise. the first one is a sunna of the prophet mohamed pbuoh and the second one o*is the obligatory one and the first prayer of the day.
yes brother delaying the prayers is something bad, and perhaps the reason for most of the people to leave the prayer, because they build up as you leave them for later...
especially when speaking about the fajr one, the prophet mohamed pbuoh said the heaviest prayers on hypocrites are the fajr and ISHA, (i am not sure about the authenticity of this haddeth, but i heard it a lot.
for a muslim, believe me, the joy of the day is praying the fajr prayer on time with the group of muslims in the masjiid.
and the prophet mohamed pbuoh said "if you see a man going to the masjiid frequently, then you can witness his faith"
hope this answers,
may allah help yo, ameen,
wa salam alikoum

 

[Almeftah]

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

A muslim can always manage his daily hours to be able to perform the 5 prayers on time, but Allah Subhanah would sometimes test us by things that happen to us forcing us to delay the prayers. Things like oversleeping, or overworking, and losing track of time...etc. Things like that may happen to any and every one of us, and its ok.

Islam gave us permission to delay our prayers to whenever we are able to perform them. But we cannot take that as an excuse to always delay them. We must try our best to avoid the things that may cause us to delay our prayers as we can.

Allah Subhanah Judges us by whats in our hearts, which mostly reflects how we are thinking and reacting to things happening to us on daily bases.

Some muslims would leave everything in their hands the second they hear the call for prayers, No matter how important it is. And would let nothing stop them from perfoming Salat on time.

Others would sometimes delay prayers to just few minutes to finish up something.

Others may delay it to a few hours.

There are 2 major points regarding this issue:

1. How committed we are to performing Salah on time, which is reflected by the degree of faith. Its like a test from Allah Subhana Wa Tala.

2. Flexibility of Islam considering the state of each individual, decreasing the pressures of life and everyday work.

Most of us would overuse this Flexibility of this great religion, delaying prayers every chance we get. Thats ought to weaken our faith reducing the great values and benifits of prayers. Making it nothing more than a daily routine.

So what we can do, is try our best to commit to the exact times of prayers, and leave the rest to Allah.

 

[Muusa Khadhar]

Assalamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.


I know about a Shahih Hadits where 'Aisyah ask Rasulullah about her late to do Shalat Shubuh, because she likes to get up late for Shubuh. And he replied to Aisyah Radhiyallahu 'anha that she could do it when she rise.

Just bring 2 bottle of water to there, for Wudhu.


Assalamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.