Continuation: What is the ruling on combining the two prayers on a rainy day, and does the imam consult the congregation about combining them or not?

The Shaykh : In general or in detail? In general, Allah the Exalted did not specify them in detail, but His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) specified them, as He the Exalted said: He came to us with the truth, (peace and blessings be upon him), and may Allah reward us for him with good. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The Messenger set their times, defined them, and established a clear limit by which the time of each prayer is distinguished from the others. If a person offers a prayer before its time, let us say: he said the takbir for the midday prayer and prayed one unit before the sun passed its zenith, is his prayer valid? It is not valid. Why? The time had not entered, so he prayed it before the command of Allah and His Messenger regarding it. It is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that he said: Meaning: it is rejected and not accepted. Allah the Exalted says: Pray for Me after the sun has passed its zenith, and you go and pray for Him before the sun has passed its zenith. Glory be to Allah. When does the time for the afternoon prayer enter? When a man’s shadow becomes equal to his height, the time for it enters. This man prayed it with the midday prayer, is it accepted? It is not accepted, it is not accepted, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): It is not accepted under any circumstances except with a valid legal excuse for which evidence has been established. Among the valid legal excuses: if a person is ill and it is difficult for him to pray each prayer in its time, we say: combine the midday with the afternoon, either by advancing or delaying according to what is easiest for you, and combine the sunset with the night prayer.
Rain: The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed: is it permissible to combine for rain or not? Some said: it is never permissible, neither for the two midday prayers nor for the two evening prayers. Some said: it is permissible to combine the sunset and night prayers, but not the midday and afternoon. This is the position of the Hanbali school, which is the view of the majority of scholars in this land. They say: combining the midday and afternoon is forbidden, and the afternoon prayer is not accepted; rather, only the sunset and night prayers are combined, because that is where the hardship occurs. This is the well-known position of the Hanbali school, which is the view of the majority of scholars of the people of this land. Some scholars said: "It is permissible to combine the midday and afternoon, and the sunset and night, if the legal cause is present". This opinion is more correct and stronger, because it is established in *Sahih Muslim* from Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he said: This is the statement of Ibn Abbas, and Ibn Abbas is among the jurists of the Ummah and among its preservers. So the correct view is: one combines the midday and afternoon, and the sunset and night, if the legal cause is present. When Ibn Abbas narrated this hadith, the people did not leave it alone, because if we took this hadith in its absolute sense, the benefit of specifying the time of prayer would be lost, is that not so? Meaning: if we said: combine the midday and afternoon, and the sunset and night, for an excuse or without an excuse, the specification by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of the time of prayer would have no significance. For this reason, the people discussed it with him. They said: O Ibn Abbas, what did you intend by that? Why did he do this? He said: And the meaning is: so that the Ummah does not face hardship if they do not combine. So we say to the one who combined the midday and afternoon: when you combined, do you see that the people would face hardship and difficulty if they attended the afternoon prayer, or not? The general rule is that they do not face it, this is the general rule. And the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) said: "It is not permissible to combine for rain, except for rain that wets the clothes" And wetting them means: if the clothes were wrung out, rain would come out of them; it is not just a drop or two. Except for rain that wets the clothes, and there is hardship with it, as a precaution against rain coming in summer days. On summer days, a person is happy when his clothes get wet because it cools him; there is no hardship. But they said: there must be rain that wets the clothes, and there must be hardship with it. Let us ask this imam who consulted the people and they were silent, and then on the third time one person answered, perhaps not knowing the ruling, and said: rely on Allah, combine. We say to him: do you, by your Lord, believe that the rain wets the clothes and it is difficult for the people to come to the afternoon prayer? A person must verify this. As for playing with the religion of Allah, some people, at the slightest drop, say: let’s go This is what Ibn Abbas said, this is in *Sahih Muslim*. Fine, do not be like the one who said: And he was silent, he did not say after that: Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), when he narrated this hadith, the Companions discussed it with him. They said: Why? He said: If you do what the hadith of Ibn Abbas indicates, it is upon your eyes and head. But just a drop of rain or moisture on the ground while the sky is standing still, this is not permissible, my brothers. It is playing, by Allah, with the religion of Allah. Meaning: advancing the prayer before its time without a legal excuse is like committing a major sin, a major sin. Even though if we saw someone committing unlawful sexual intercourse or drinking intoxicants, we would rebuke him. Praying before its time without a legal excuse is greater than this. Why? Because neglecting the prayer is a pillar of Islam, it is not a light matter. The issue is not a game, and the jurisprudence of the Shari'ah is not for beginners in knowledge, but for scholars who are established in knowledge, and who know the sources and objectives of the Shari'ah. It is not just that a person knows one hadith and says: I am Ibn Jala and I see the distant peaks. This is not correct. Fear Allah, my brother, with yourself, and know that you are accountable on the Day of Resurrection. Allah the Exalted will ask you: Why did you transgress My limits? Why did you allow people to pray before the time entered without an excuse? A person must, it is obligatory upon him, to fear Allah the Exalted regarding the servants of Allah and regarding himself first. And it happened that a group of people prayed Friday, but not in their own land, not in Unayzah, and they prayed the afternoon prayer with it. Look at the compounded ignorance, compounded ignorance to the utmost limit. Who said: that the Messenger combined the afternoon and Friday? Bring us a hadith, authentic or weak, that he combined the afternoon and Friday. Analogizing Friday to the midday is an error, because there are differences between them that prevent analogy. The differences between Friday and the midday are more than twenty. Friday is an independent prayer with its own time, conditions, circumstances, and place. Every land can pray the midday in every mosque, is that not so? Rather, the people of offices can pray in their offices according to the opinion of some scholars. But Friday must be in one place in the town, except for necessity, such as the distance of neighborhoods, or the narrowness of the place, or the like. So how can this be analogized to that? Is the Shari'ah not limits set by Allah? Did He not reveal in His Book, or on the tongue of His Messenger, or by the action of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) that he combined the afternoon and Friday? I challenge any one, any person, to stand up with an authentic or weak hadith that the Messenger combined the afternoon and Friday, so let him guide us to it. Otherwise, let him fear Allah regarding the Ummah of Muhammad, and not play with it. For this reason, it was said to me: that a fatwa was issued by the Ifta Committee in Riyadh that these people must repeat the afternoon prayer, because they transgressed the limits of Allah, they advanced the afternoon before its time entered. And the same is said regarding the afternoon with the midday: if there is no legal cause that permits combining.