Asalaamu Alaikum.Question About Prayers...

[rtbour]

Do we have to do the prayers exactly at the prescribed times or is it fine to do it anytime as long as you don't wait til after the next prayer? I hope my question makes sense.
Here is what leads me to ask this question, my friends in Islam:
I am in the process of learning how to pray properly and my husband keeps telling me he is going to start doing his 5 daily prayers, but when it's prayer time I remind him and he says he can wait. He said its okay to not pray at exactly the right time, as long as you pray before the next prayer time comes. For example, lets say right now it's time for the Asr prayer. I say "hey sweetie, are you going to pray? I think it's prayer time now." He says "yeah, I'll pray." Then he keeps sitting on the couch. I say again "I think the prayer time is now..." He says "It's okay. I don't have to do it NOW as long as I do it before the next prayer" which in this case would be the Maghrib prayer. So basically he is telling me as long as he does his Asr prayer (supposed to be at 5:20pm) at some point before 8:41pm (the time of the Maghrib prayer), then everything is fine and his prayer is still accepted.
I have a feeling that is not accurate information and I feel maybe he is lying just so he can be lazy and so I will stop bugging him about the prayers. At any rate, he ends up skipping pretty much all his prayers and has only prayed like 2 prayers in the last couple weeks (which is actually a lot better than usual- usually doesnt pray EVER). Could someone please explain this to me please?

 

[shemna]

Assalamualikum
This thread reminded me of one forwrd I got last week.

Here is the forward. Have a look.

A powerful story:
Salah and its Importance of Performing it on Time

He remembered his grandmother's warning about praying on time:

'My son, you shouldn't leave prayer to this late time'.

His grandmother's age was 70 but, whenever she heard the Adhan, she got up like an arrow and performed Salah.

He, however could never win over his ego to get up and pray.

Whatever he did, his Salah was always the last to be offered and he prayed it quickly to get it in on time.

Thinking of this, he got up and realized that there were only 15 minutes left before Salat-ul Isha.

He quickly made Wudhu and performed Salat-ul Maghrib.

While making Tasbih, he again remembered his grandmother and was embarrassed by how he had prayed.

His grandmother prayed with such tranquillity and peace.

He began making Dua and went down to make Sajdah and stayed like that for a while.

He had been at work all day and was tired, so tired.

He awoke abruptly to the sound of noise and shouting.

He was sweating profusely.

He looked around.

It was very crowded.

Every direction he looked in was filled with people.

Some stood frozen looking around, some were running left and right and some were on their knees with their heads in their hands just waiting..

Pure fear and apprehension filled him as he realized where he was.

His heart was about to burst.

It was the Day of Judgment..

When he was alive, he had heard many things about the questioning on the Day of Judgment, but that seemed so long ago.

Could this be something his mind made up?

No, the wait and the fear were so great that he could not have imagined this.

The interrogation was still going on.

He began moving frantically from people to people to ask if his name had been called.

No one could answer him.

All of a sudden his name was called and the crowd split into two and made a passageway for him.

Two angels grabbed his arms and led him forward.

He walked with unknowing eyes through the crowd.

The angels brought him to the center and left him there.

His head was bent down and his whole life was passing in front of his eyes like a movie.

He opened his eyes but saw only another world.

The people were all helping others.

He saw his father running from one lecture to the other, spending his wealth in the way of Islam.

His mother invited guests to their house and one table was being set while the other was being cleared.

He pleaded his case,

'I too was always on this path.

I helped others.

I spread the word of Allah.

I performed my Salah.

I fasted in the month of Ramadhan.

Whatever Allah ordered us to do, I did..

Whatever he ordered us not to do, I did not.'

He began to cry and think about how much he loved Allah.

He knew that whatever he had done in life would be less than what Allah deserved and his only protector was Allah



He was sweating like never
before and was shaking all over.

His eyes were fixed on the scale, waiting for the final decision.

At last, the decision was made.

The two angels with sheets of paper in their hands, turned to the crowd.

His legs felt like they were going to collapse.

He closed his eyes as they began to read the names of those people who were to enter Jahannam.

His name was read first.

He fell on his knees and yelled that this couldn't be,

'How could I go to Jahannam?

I served others all my life,

I spread the word of Allah to others'.

His eyes had become blurry and he was shaking with sweat.

The two angels took him by the arms.

As his feet dragged, they went through the crowd and advanced toward the blazing flames of Jahannam.

He was yelling and wondered if there was any person who was going to help him.

He was yelling of all the good deeds he had done, how he had helped his
father, his fasts, prayers, the Noble Qur'an that he read, he was asking if none of them would help him.

The Jahannam angels continued to drag him.

They had gotten closer to the Hellfire.

He looked back and these were his last pleas.

Had not Rasulullah [SAW] said,

'How clean would a person be who bathes in a river five times a day, so too does the Salah performed five times cleanse someone of their sins'?

He began yelling,

'My prayers? My prayers? My prayers.?'

The two angels did not stop, and they came to the edge of the abyss of Jahannam.

The flames of the fire were burning his face.

He looked back one last time, but his eyes were dry of hope and he had nothing left in him.

One of the angels pushed him in.

He found himself in the air and falling towards the flames.

He had just fallen five or six feet when a hand grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back.

He lifted his head and saw an old man with a long white beard.

He wiped some dust off himself and asked him,

'Who are you?'

The old man replied,

'I am your prayers'.

'Why are you so late! I was almost in the Fire!

You rescued me at the last minute before I fell in'.

The old man smiled and shook his head,

'You always performed me at the last minute, did you forget?'

At that instant, he blinked and lifted his head from Sajdah.

He was in a sweat.

He listened to the voices coming from outside.

He heard the Adhan for Salat-ul Isha.

He got up quickly and went to perform Wudhu.

 

[ahmed_indian]

Advice him politely that its necessary to pray all 5 prayers and its always better to pray early.

show him Quranic verses and Hadith about importance of Salaah. eg.

salaah is barrier between kufr and muslim
salaah will be questioned first on Judgment Day
best deed is salaah at early stated time
etc.

and of course Dua to Allah to help him and open his heart towards prayers.

 

[Happy 2BA Muslim]

Do we have to do the prayers exactly at the prescribed times or is it fine to do it anytime as long as you don't wait til after the next prayer? .................
I have a feeling that is not accurate information and I feel maybe he is lying just so he can be lazy and so I will stop bugging him about the prayers. At any rate, he ends up skipping pretty much all his prayers and has only prayed like 2 prayers in the last couple weeks (which is actually a lot better than usual- usually doesnt pray EVER). Could someone please explain this to me please?

:salam2: Sister,

You`re right. This is not accurate information. Unfortunately, many Muslims are ignorant of the times of prayer. I don`t think your husband is lying, but rather, misinformed.

Allaah has enjoined upon His slaves five prayers throughout the day and night at specific times decreed by the wisdom of Allaah so that the slave may be in contact with his Lord in these prayers throughout all of these times. They are for the heart like water for a tree, given to it time after time, not all in one go and then it stops.

Part of the wisdom behind doing the prayers at these times is so that people will not get bored or find it too difficult, which would happen if they all had to be done at once. Blessed be Allaah, the Wisest of judges.

(From the Introduction to Risaalat Ahkaam Mawaaqeet al-Salaah (Essay on the Rulings on the Times of the Prayers) by Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Uthaymeen, may Allaah have mercy on him).

The times of the prayers were mentioned by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) in the hadeeth:

“The time for Zuhr is from when the sun has passed its zenith and a man’s shadow is equal in length to his height, until the time for ‘Asr comes. The time for ‘Asr lasts until the sun turns yellow. The time for Maghrib lasts until the twilight has faded. The time for ‘Isha’ lasts until midnight. The time for Subh (Fajr) prayer lasts from the beginning of the pre-dawn so long as the sun has not yet started to rise. When the sun starts to rise then stop praying, for it rises between the two horns of the Shaytaan.” (Narrated by Muslim, 612).

This hadeeth explains the timings of the five daily prayers. As for defining them by the clock, that varies from one city or country to another. We will define each in more detail as follows:

1 – The time of Zuhr

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The time for Zuhr is from when the sun has passed its zenith and a man’s shadow is equal in length to his height, until the time for ‘Asr comes.”

So the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) defined the start and the end of the time for Zuhr:

The start of the time for Zuhr is when the sun has passed its zenith i.e., has passed the highest part of the sky and started to descend towards the west.

Practical way of knowing when the zenith has been passed (and the time for Zuhr has begun):

Put a stick or pole in an open place. When the sun rises in the east, the shadow of this stick will fall towards the west. The higher the sun rises, the shorter the shadow will become. So long as it keeps growing shorter, the sun has not yet reached its zenith. The shadow will keep on growing shorter until it reaches a certain point, then it will start to increase, falling towards the east. When it increases by even a small amount, then the sun has passed its zenith. At that point the time for Zuhr has begun.

Knowing the time of the zenith by the clock: divide the time between sunrise and sunset in half, and that is the time of the zenith. If we assume that the sun rises at 6 a.m. and sets at 6 p.m., then the zenith is at 12 noon. If it rises at 7 a.m. and sets at 7 p.m., then the zenith is at 1 p.m., and so on.

See al-Sharh al-Mumti’, 2/96

The end of the time for Zuhr is when the shadow of everything is equal in length to the object itself, plus the length of the shadow of the object at the time of the zenith.

Practical way of knowing when the time for Zuhr has ended: go back to the stick or pole which we described above. Let us assume that its length is one meter. We will notice that before the sun reached its zenith, the shadow decreased gradually until it reached a certain point (make a mark at this point), then it started to increase, at which point the time for Zuhr began. The shadow will continue to increase, falling towards the east until the length of the shadow is equal to the length of the object itself, i.e., it will be one meter long, starting from the point marked at the zenith). As for the shadow before the mark, that is not counted, and it is called fay’ al-zawaal (the shadow of the zenith). At this point the time for Zuhr ends and the time for ‘Asr begins straight away.

2 – The time of ‘Asr

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The time for ‘Asr lasts until the sun turns yellow.”

We know that the time for ‘Asr begins when the time for Zuhr ends, i.e., when the length of an object’s shadow becomes equal to the length of the object itself. There are two times for the end of ‘Asr.

(1) The preferred time: this lasts from the beginning of the time for ‘Asr until the sun begins to turn yellow, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The time for ‘Asr lasts until the sun turns yellow.” Defining this time by the clock varies according to the season.

(2) The time of necessity. This lasts from the time the sun turns yellow until sunset, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever catches up with one rak’ah of ‘Asr before the sun sets has caught up with ‘Asr.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 579; Muslim, 608)

Question: what is meant by the time of necessity?

Necessity here refers to when a person is distracted from praying ‘Asr by some essential and unavoidable work, such as dressing wounds, and he is able to pray before the sun turns yellow but it is difficult, then he prays just before sunset. In this case he has prayed on time and has not sinned, because this is the time of necessity. If a person is forced to delay the prayer, there is no sin so long as he prays before the sun sets.

3 – The time of Maghrib

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The time for Maghrib lasts until the twilight has faded.”

i.e., the time for Maghrib starts immediately after the time for ‘Asr ends, which is when the sun sets, until the twilight or red afterglow has faded. When the red afterglow has disappeared from the sky, the time for Maghrib ends and the time for ‘Isha’ begins. Defining this time by the clock varies according to the season. When you see that the red afterglow has disappeared from the horizon, this is a sign that the time for Maghrib has ended.

4 – The time of ‘Isha

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The time for ‘Isha’ lasts until midnight.”

So the time for ‘Isha’ begins immediately after the time for Maghrib ends (i.e., when the red afterglow disappears from the sky) until midnight.

Question: how do we calculate when midnight is?

Answer: if you want to calculate when midnight is, then calculate the time between sunset and sunrise then divide it in half; that halfway point is the end of the time for praying ‘Isha’ (and that is midnight).

So if the sun sets at 5 p.m., and Fajr begins at 5 a.m., then midnight is 11 p.m. If the sun sets at 5 p.m. and Fajr begins at 6 p.m., then midnight is 11.30 p.m., and so on.

5 – The time of Fajr

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The time for Subh (Fajr) prayer lasts from the beginning of the pre-dawn so long as the sun has not yet started to rise. When the sun starts to rise then stop praying, for it rises between the two horns of the Shaytaan.”

The time for Fajr begins with the onset of the “second dawn” (al-fajr al-thaani) and ends when the sun starts to rise. The “second dawn” is the brightness that appears along the horizon in the east and extends north to south. The “first dawn” (al-fajr al-awwal) occurs approximately one hour before this, and there are differences between the two:

(1) In the “first dawn” the brightness extends from east to west, and in the “second dawn” it extends from north to south.

(2) The “first dawn” is followed by darkness, i.e., the brightness lasts for a short period then it becomes dark. The “second dawn” is not followed by darkness, rather the light increases.

(3) The “second dawn” is connected to the horizon, with no darkness between it and the horizon, whereas the “first dawn” is separated from the horizon with darkness between it and the horizon.

See al-Sharh al-Mumti’, 2/107.

And Allaah knows best.

From IslamQA

:salam2: