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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Need advice |
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| humble_muslim |
| 10/27/03 at 13:24:16 |
| AA Ok, I'm in a bit of a quandary here. My company has given us a prayer room for Ramadhan, Alhamdolillah. So today, the first day, there were three of us in there for Dhuhr. I asked one of the other guys to lead it. He seemed reluctant, but finally agreed. Well anywhere, turned out he was a Shia. He prayed in a rather strange way : I won't go into the details, but he was reciting some stuff out loud when we Sunnis say it silently, and also saying different adhkhars, especially for the at-tihayyat. Wasn't praising Ali or anything like that. I think it's good that we have at least 3 of us for salat in jammat, but what should I do about this? He seems mild mannered, so if I told him that we'd prefer to lead it, I don't think he'd mind. But not sure how to say this without offending him. So I need some common-sense good advice right now. Should I continue to pray behind him? Should I repeat my pray if he leads it? Please advise. |
| NS |
| Re: Need advice |
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| MIT |
| 10/28/03 at 08:57:07 |
| as-salaamu alaikum This is an issue of salaah - the pillar of one's religion, and if you believe that there are enough differences between his salaah and the way you pray your salaah (cf. the pillars/mandatory issues of salaah), you should repeat your prayer and not pray behind him again. I'm not the most diplomatic person around so i'm unable to suggest how to approach the subject with him* but the need to be polite to this chap pales in comparison to the obligation to pray correctly. *If it were me, i'd politely tell him that his way of praying is different to mine, and that i hope not to offend him but i can't pray behind him. Although, if you could slant the conversation so that you open a door to da'wah too, that'd be great! |
| NS |
| Re: Need advice |
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| superFOB |
| 10/28/03 at 09:38:52 |
| [slm] Since he is mild mannered and was reluctant to lead the prayer, why didn't you volunteer to lead the prayer? Now this is a serious problem in the US imho. People either don't know or knowingly choose to ignore the conditions for imamat. Unqualified people are seen leading the salaah, all in the name of political correctness. If you feel that you are more knowledgable in deen and practice sunnah more than other musallees, then don't hesitate and lead the salaah. You might even have an obligation to do so. Btw, according to majority opinion ahl-assunnah can not pray behind shiah. This translates into repeating your salaah that you performed behind a shiah imam. But the shiah are permissible, in their fiqh, to pray behind the ahl-assunnah (I am only sure about them praying behind hanafis though). That said, you must try to not create undue fuss and try to accomodate shiah musallees. Resolve to lead the salaah from the next time and ask Allah (SWT) for help. You don't want different people leading the salaahs as that would lead to the same situation. This would require sacrifice on your part in that you have to reschedule your meetings to avoid clashes. It would look definitely ugly if you have people praying separately. Go visit the musallees in their offices to get acquainted, setup agreed-upon times for salaahs (shiah pray maghrib a wee bit late), ring up people to remind them or setup email/outlook reminders. Sometimes you have to take the initiative and here's one for you. As an aside, I have personally found no radical outward difference in their salaah. Shiah usually pray all the five salaah although they might have some leniency in their fiqh. The prohibition on praying behind shiah comes from differences in aqeedah. Take it from someone who has been there and done that :) [] PS: All of the above apply to ithna 'ashri and zaidi(?) shiahs only. Avoid other shiah sects. |
| 10/28/03 at 09:40:32 |
| superFOB |
| Re: Need advice |
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| bhaloo |
| 10/31/03 at 23:22:02 |
| [slm] Without a doubt you should repeat your prayers if he leads, and otherwise try and lead yourself. If he is zaidi (that's less then 5% of them, mostly from Yemen) then I don't think there is too much a problem, but ANY other group, no way. The ithna ashari group are those commonly referred to as the twelvers, in case anyone is unfamiliar. |
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