Excuses for Abandoning Congregational Prayer: Fear, Illness, and Guard Duty
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
And from this matter, Ibn Hibban (may Allah be pleased with him) mentioned fear and illness. What is his (may Allah be pleased with him) position regarding sleep? Is it an excuse in his view or not?
Answer:
Everything for which evidence has come is an excuse. But he, Allah knows best, is referring to the most important and greatest of them, which are fear and illness. There are other excuses they mentioned, such as a person who has debts, and if he goes out, creditors will pursue him, and he has no means of repayment. This is an excuse because they harm him and he has no means of repayment.
That is, if he fears the company of a relative, or they say that among the excuses is if he is a guardian of money or something that he fears will be lent out if he leaves, or will be stolen, or will be lost, then he has an excuse to pray in the place of his guard duty. Similarly, for example, soldiers who are on guard duty, or traffic controllers.
If they had left and abandoned the responsibility and guarding, there would have been a flaw in security or a danger to lives. These are excuses. All of these are excuses. And Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) says:[Al-Hajj 22:78]. So if there is hardship for a person, hardship brings about ease. [At-Talaq 65:2] forgiving. Yes. As for the one who is lazy, who seeks out excuses and has no excuse, Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) [Ghafir 40:19], even if I am excused, and the reality is not so, Allah knows, and your conscience is not cleared by this seeking of excuses. The important thing is the genuine excuse, the one that causes the proper purpose to be missed. Yes.
And from this matter, Ibn Hibban (may Allah be pleased with him) mentioned fear and illness. What is his (may Allah be pleased with him) position regarding sleep? Is it an excuse in his view or not?
Answer:
Everything for which evidence has come is an excuse. But he, Allah knows best, is referring to the most important and greatest of them, which are fear and illness. There are other excuses they mentioned, such as a person who has debts, and if he goes out, creditors will pursue him, and he has no means of repayment. This is an excuse because they harm him and he has no means of repayment.
That is, if he fears the company of a relative, or they say that among the excuses is if he is a guardian of money or something that he fears will be lent out if he leaves, or will be stolen, or will be lost, then he has an excuse to pray in the place of his guard duty. Similarly, for example, soldiers who are on guard duty, or traffic controllers.
If they had left and abandoned the responsibility and guarding, there would have been a flaw in security or a danger to lives. These are excuses. All of these are excuses. And Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) says:
and has not placed upon you in the religion any difficulty
وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍAnd whoever fears Allah - He will make for him
وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُHe knows that which deceives the eyes and what the breasts conceal.
يَعْلَمُ خَائِنَةَ الْأَعْيُنِ وَمَا تُخْفِي الصُّدُورُ
Source
رأي ابن عباس في النوم عن الصلاة — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.