I am praying in a semi public area unofficially designated for namaz. I hear an Allah O Akbar and I feel someone standing next to me. He starts to follow me in namaz. Once I am done he stands up to finish the remaining. This happened to me a couple of times and as I am usually in a hurry to get to class, so I can’t sit around to ask/introduce and find out why the person joined me.
So my question is, how does he know if I am praying faraz, sunat or nafal and between Zuhar and Asar that usually run very close to each other in winter, I can be saying a qasar? No?
I suspect that most students/co-workers of mine only do faraz and thus assume I am doing the same.
Re: Salat in congregation
AOA WRWB
There is an opinion of scholars and it is based on sound Ahadeeth that the person prays according to their own niyyah (intention). Hence if someone prays next to you but you pray 2 rakah of nafl, and they join for lets say 3 rakah of maghreb or 4 for other, then according to this opinion that person will pray in congregation with you without a doubt but there intention does not need to be the same as yours.
Wallahu Alam.
Re: Salat in congregation
A refrence will be nice.
Re: Salat in congregation
People usually join in with a different Niyah in such scenarios and follow you as an Imam and carry on with their prayer to finish it. This is what I do as well especially during Tarawih when I miss Isha prayer.
Now in all honesty I have not had a chance to research this yet. So I will continue to do this till I research it and am convinced otherwise. In fact I would love to see some evidence for this here. This is very common in the masajid in USA and I have just picked it up from here, my negligence that I have not researched it yet. I have never seen this happen in South Asia though (at least in my lifetime).
Re: Salat in congregation
Well its not my opinion, but I know that many people follow it. search on Islam QA and you might find a reference.
Re: Salat in congregation
Here is a link from isamqa:
http://www.islamqa.com/index.php?ref=40598&ln=eng
Re: Salat in congregation
yeah this has happened to me a couple of times. pakis dont usually do this so i was quite surprised when this arab guy came and started offering namaz with me. but later on i saw alot of arabs doing this so i guess its a norm with those ppl.
i thought when there is a congregation prayer, all the muqtadiz are included in the imam's niyaa.... like if there was a trawee prayer goin on and someone came late and took it as ishaa ... they would also be offering trawee even though their intention was of ishaa.
Re: Salat in congregation
It is your intentions that count. If the Imam is reading delayed maghrib and you join that jamaa with the intention of praying isha, then your prayer is not valid.
Re: Salat in congregation
humm .. it seems its a fiqh thing again.
Re: Salat in congregation
yep, it sure is....
hanafis and malikis will not like the idea of someone joining them or they themselves joining others when they r not sure what they r praying....
or even if they r praying fardh but without the intention of praying in a jamaat, they wont join the person....
am not sure about hanbalis....
but shaafis dont have a problem with this....
Re: Salat in congregation
AOA WRWB
Armughal, so you clearly identify the different madhabs. But when it comes to having everyone declare their school of thought as a standard, the mods and admins have a problem with it. We start getting the "we are only muslim" lecture then.
Why?
ASAK
Re: Salat in congregation
^ when did i ever give u that lecture????
i personally have no problem with someone following any of the imams or any other scholar, as long as the imam/scholar has a justifcation from Quran/Sunnah....