Hanafi Fiqh – Lessons 6

Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem

6.0 Disliked and Prohibited times for Prayer

There are five times when it is disliked (makrouh) and prohibited (haram) to pray.
The makrouh times are:
1. After Fajr prayer until 20-minutes after sunrise;
2. Zawal time at midday (lasts 5-10 minutes in duration);
3. After Asr prayers till maghrib (except if it is a qada’ obligatory prayer).

The haram times for prayers are two:

1. At Sunrise;
2. At sunset

It is also disliked/haram to do janazah prayers, sajdah tilawah and sajdah shukr at

these times. However, with the janazah prayer, it can be prayed at these times out of
neccesiity because the body has to be buried. However, it is best to complete the
janazah prayer after the obligatory salah—and is disliked to bury the body after the
evening (maghrib) prayer unless it is out of necessity.

6.1 Rectifying prayers (Qada’)

There are two opinions amongst the jurists on the issue of rectifying prayers that have
been missed. The two opinions are as follows:
1. Hanbali madhhab – they believe that when a person leaves salah he becomes a
disbeliever (kafir), and when he starts to pray again he starts over as a new
Muslims and hence he doesn’t need to rectify his prayers. However, this is a
very dangerous view as it would mean relations between you are your wife in
that interim period where you was not praying to be Zina (adultery), all your
good actions would not be accepted, if you were to die in that period without
making Tawbah-the muslims would not be able to bury you in a Muslim
cemetery, your children would be illegitimate. The opinion of Ahmad is
adopted if a man says he is not a Muslim anymore;
2. The majority schools of jurisprudence (including the hanafies)—they believe
that it is obligatory to rectify all salah and siyam missed. This is part of
paying the price in this life (sunan al-hayat).

6.2 Adhan (the Muslim call to prayer)

The Adhan is a mechanism whereby the Muslim is able to declare his Aqidah (Islamic
faith) five times a day—and in actual terms is a call made by the muezzin to inform
others that the time for a fard salah has begun. There is no religion on earth which
does the same five times a day. The Adhan is sunnah—however, it is not allowed for
the whole city to neglect this sunnah. All men should learn how to make the Adhan.
There are many ahadith about Adhan and Iqamah—and according to the ahnaf, the
hadiths about Adhan reach the level of mutawatir (multiple level of reporting), and
hence changing its form may lead to kufr (disbelief).

6.2.1. The Description of the Adhan

The description of the Adhan is according to the hadith of Abdullah ibn Zaid in which
he mentions the to say the four takbirs at the beginning of the adhan and to say each
of the other phrases twice, except for the final utterance of Laa ilaha illallah, which is
said only once. The adhan is made up of fifteen phrases.
The phrase ‘salah is better than sleep’ is added twice in the adhan before fajr.

6.2.2 The Iqamah

The iqamah is like the adhan except one adds after ‘haya alal falah’ the phrase ‘qadd
qama tis-salah’ (salah is established) saying it twice. The iqamah is made up of 17
pharses. However the shafi’s minimize each phrase by half. The malikies say ‘haya
as-salah’ and ‘haya al-falah’ only once.

6.2.3 The Sunnahs related to the Adhan

The sunnahs related to the adhan are as follows:
1. To raise one’s voice;
2. pausing between the phrases
3. facing the direction of makkah (qiblah)
4. Turning right and left on saying ‘haya alas-salah/falah’
5. The muezzin should be male—women are not allowed to do the public adhan,
however they can do the adhan in their own homes (making sure no non-
mahrem male can listen to their voice);
6. placing ones fingers in ones ears
7. be in a state of wudu—however the muezzin can make the call to prayer
without wudu, but he must not be in a state of sexual defilement (janabah)
8. the adhan is to be made at the correct time;
9. whoever calls the adhan should call the iqamah
10. to respond to the adhan e.g. those listening to it should repeat it, except for the
phrases ‘haya alas-salah’ and ‘ haya alal-falah’ after which the listener should
say ‘la howla wa la quwwata ila billah – there is no power or might save by
Allah’ and after the phrase in the fajr salah ‘ al-salatou khayrun minnan-
nowm’ the listener should say ‘sadaqt wa barirt’ (you have spoken the truth
and your effort is accepted). After hearing the adhan one should pray for the
Prophet (s) and ask Allah togive him the place of wasilah (Oh Lord of this
perfect call and of the regular salah which is going to be established, grant
Muhammad the right of intercession and superiority and send him (on the day
of judgement) to the best and highest place in Paradise which you promised
him).
11. The adhan should be done according to the tajweed rules with idgham, ikhfa
etc –all the mudood should be six-harakat in length. The adhan is Tarasul
(long) whilst the iqamah is Hadhr (quick) as narrated in the hadith on the
authority of Tirmidhi.
12. There is no adhan for the eid prayer instead we say ‘al-salahtou jamiah’ (x3)
and ‘salah al-Eid yarhamakumullah’;
13. There is no Adhan for salah al-Khusoof was kusoof, salah al-istiska (the
prayer for rain) and for salah al-istikhara.

6.3 The conditions required before the salah (shuroot)

There are six conditions before the salah (i.e. six shuroot). They are as follows:
1. the time—salah is not valid before its time is due. If a Muslim forgot to pray
the afternoon Dhuhr prayer and Asr time had entered, he must pray the Dhuhr
prayer first then pray the Asr prayer, unless the iqamah has been established
 for the Asr. In this case, he would need to pray the Asr and then rectify the
Dhuhr.;
2. purity-the person engaging in the salah must prufiy himself of all impurity
(hadath) e.g. he must have clean clothes (and beautiful ones). The person
about to engage in the prayer must hide any tattoos he has otherwise his prayer
is not valid. As a side note, if someone did a tattoo and he knew it was a
prohibited action in Islam his prayer would not be valid for the rest of his life.
Any clothing with pictures on it must be removed e.g. a shirt with the picture
of Che Guevara (communist/aetheist/revolutionary/anti-capitalist) must be
taken off or wearing a shirt which has the cross on it is also not allowed e.g.
the England football shirt. The cross is a sign of Kufr.
There are four conditions for the clothing in general:
(i) not to be tight fitting e.g. showing the private parts;
(ii) not to be see-through e.g. showing the colour of the skin;
(iii) to cover the body with a decent appearance (awrah plus more);
(iv) not to be of an attractive colour e.g. bright red and walking down
the street. For the woman, the whole body should be covered as
well as the feet (as the feet is included in the awrah for a woman).
The hadith of Asma’ (if we accept its authenticity) is only
applicable in the home and not for walking outside on the street.
3. clean place to pray—it is not allowed to pray in the toilet or in any dirty place
e.g. garbage area. If a Muslim happens to find himself incarcerated in prison
and he has no clothes, salah is still obligatory on him at the correct times,
however he is not required to make sujud (prostration) and ruku’. He needs to
minimise the exposure of his hard awrah as much as possible.
4. to face qiblah—for those muslims outside of the haram in Makkah (i.e. in the
UK), the direction they need to face is south-east. However, anyone inside the
haram must face the kaba’ (to pray in all directions is acceptable). If you have
the opportunity to pray inside the kabah, then the salah is established in any
direction. This ruling is not the same for prayer inside the Hijr (semi-circle).
Prayer inside the Hijr must be made towards the existing walls of the kabah.

23.04.11