Fatwas Archive

Question: Which is superior—the imām or the mu’adhdhin? In other words, is imāmah better, or the adhān?

One may ask: Which is better, to take the rukhsah or the ʿazīmah?

Question: In some mosques and lands, people pray Maghrib at sunset before a night star appears and before darkness. Some therefore doubt praying behind them for ʿIshāʾ and other prayers and impugn the validity of their prayers. What is correct...

Question: Which is better: to pray Fajr at the start of its time and then return to bed, or to delay within the time—to the middle or last third—pray Fajr, and then remain seated in one’s place of prayer until...

Question: A man wakes up when the sun is about to rise. He knows that if he performs wuḍūʾ (or ghusl, if required) the prayer time will end with sunrise; but if he performs tayammum he will catch the prayer...

Question: If the imām combines the two prayers, is that an excuse to combine with him? And is combining with him better, or praying each at its time individually?

Question: If time becomes tight and multiple obligations collide for a Muslim—such as an obligatory prayer, forbidding an evil, rushing a patient to the hospital, and the like—what should he do? What takes precedence and what is deferred?

Question: By what is the beginning of Maghrib known? And when does its preferred time end?

Question: If a man goes to the mosque before Ẓuhr, for example, and lies down there until the time of the adhān—intentionally—because if he lay down at home he might miss Ẓuhr: is that permissible?

Question: If the imām of the central mosque is not acceptable, is praying at home better, or in the mosque? And does this apply equally to the Two Sanctuaries and to other mosques?