Prayer
Times, the call to prayer, how to pray, and putting mistakes right.
Adhan
- The adhan and the iqamah: what they are, and their words What the adhan and iqamah are, and the exact Arabic words of each, with their meaning.
- Disliked ways of calling the adhan, and who may not call it The acts that make an adhan disliked, whose adhan does not count at all, and whose adhan counts but should ideally be repeated.
- Adhan for a newborn and in distress, and other rulings Giving the adhan outside the five daily prayers, and a set of everyday rulings about calling and repeating it.
- The rules of adhan and iqamah, and when an adhan counts Who must call the adhan, when it is and isn't required, and the four conditions that make an adhan valid.
- The sunnah method of adhan and iqamah, step by step How the muadhin calls the adhan from start to finish, and how the iqamah differs from it.
- The sunnahs and preferred acts of adhan and iqamah How the muadhin should stand, move and speak while calling, the purity he should be in, and the mistakes to avoid in pronunciation.
- Tathwib, and how to respond to the adhan and iqamah The extra reminder given between the adhan and iqamah, what to do on hearing the adhan, and the words to say in reply.
Conditions
Congregation
- The four categories of follower: madrik, lahiq, masbooq and masbooq-lahiq The four kinds of muqtadi depending on when they joined and whether they fell behind, and what each one must do to complete the prayer.
- The conditions for a valid imamate and for valid following What is required of a person for their leading a prayer to be valid, and what is required of a follower for the congregation to count.
- Congregational prayer, its virtues, and excuses for missing it What counts as a congregation, how strongly each prayer's congregation is emphasised, and the valid excuses for praying alone instead.
- When wudu breaks during prayer, and continuing it (bina) What to do if your wudu breaks mid-prayer, the conditions for validly continuing rather than restarting, and how an imam appoints a substitute (khalifa).
- Joining a congregation that has already begun When to break off a prayer you started alone to join the jama'ah, when a sunnah must be finished first, and how catching the ruku' counts as catching the rak'ah.
- The rules between the imam and the follower How rows are formed and filled, what happens when imam and followers disagree on the rak'ah count, giving a luqma, and where a woman may stand.
- Who most deserves to lead the prayer The order of priority for choosing an imam, and who may not be appointed to lead at all.
Correcting Mistakes
- The prostration of forgetfulness (sajdah sahw) Two extra prostrations put right specific mistakes in prayer: the five general causes, the particular cases, and how to act on a doubt about your rak'ahs.
- The prostration of recitation (sajdah tilawah) The single prostration that becomes obligatory on reciting or hearing one of the fourteen verses of prostration, how it is performed, and its three causes.
How to Pray
Introduction
Missed Prayers
Mistakes
- The disliked (makruh) acts in prayer The two grades of disliked act in prayer (makruh tahrimi, close to forbidden, and makruh tanzihi, merely better avoided), and what falls under each.
- Sajdah Sahw, Sajdah Tilawah and Sajdah Shukr The prostration of forgetfulness that fixes a mistake in prayer, the prostration due on reciting a verse of prostration, and the prostration of gratitude.
- What nullifies the prayer The things that break the prayer: speaking, eating, laughing, unnecessary movement and more; what does not break it, and when breaking it is necessary.
Mosque
Nafl
Obligation
Occasional
- The eclipse prayer (Salat al-Kusuf and Khusuf) The sunnah prayer for a solar eclipse and the recommended prayer for a lunar eclipse: when to pray, how many rak'ahs, and how they differ from an ordinary prayer.
- Prayer during a frightening event or calamity The two rak'ahs recommended for a storm, earthquake, epidemic or similar calamity, prayed alone at home, and Qunoot-e-Nazilah recited in Fajr while it lasts.
- Istisqa: the prayer for rain Seeking rain from Allah during a drought, through repentance and dua, and, in the view most of the school's fatwa follows, a congregational prayer and sermon.
- Salat al-Khawf: the prayer of fear How an obligatory prayer is split between two groups when an enemy is present, so a congregation can still pray together without leaving itself undefended.
Pillars
Rakats
Reciting Well
- The articulation points of the letters (makharij) The seventeen points in the mouth, throat and nose from which the twenty-nine Arabic letters are pronounced, and how to find a letter's own makhraj.
- The characteristics of the letters (sifat) The qualities of sound that distinguish letters sharing a makhraj: necessary and occasional, and the five pairs and seven single qualities among the necessary ones.
- The rules for lam, ra, mim sakin, nun sakin, madd and hamzah When lam and ra are pronounced heavy or light, how a silent mim and a silent nun behave before the next letter, the letters of prolongation, and two rules for hamzah.
- What is tajweed? The meaning of tajweed, the two kinds of recitation mistake (lahn jali and lahn khafi), and when to say the isti'adhah and the basmalah.
Special Circumstances
- The prayer of a sick person Praying seated or lying down when standing, ruku or sujood are not possible, what to do if ability returns mid-prayer, and the case of a woman in labour.
- The prayer of a traveller (qasr) What distance and duration make someone a traveller, what that comes to in miles, which prayers are shortened to two rak'ahs, and the other rulings the same distance decides.
Sunnah
Times
- Forbidden times, disliked times, and combining two prayers The three times when prayer is forbidden, the times when it is merely disliked, and why two prayers cannot usually be combined.
- The times of the five daily prayers When Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha begin and end, the best time to pray each one, and the disliked delays.
Wajibat
Witr and Nawafil
- Sunnah muakkadah and nafl prayers The twelve emphasized sunnahs of the day, the Friday and Ramadan additions, and the nafl prayers that carry no sin for leaving them.
- Salat al-Tarawih The confirmed sunnah of Ramadan night prayer: its twenty rak'ahs, its timing, completing the Qur'an, and the rules of praying it in congregation.
- The Witr prayer Witr is wajib after Isha: three rak'ahs with an extra surah in each, and the Dua-e-Qunoot recited standing in the third.