What is the ruling on repeating the congregation in the Grand Mosque?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : I wanted to clarify regarding the second congregation and the prohibition of it, while mentioning the evidence. May Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : First, I want you to recall with me the previous research we started, where we said that any act of worship that falls under a general text, but the Salaf did not act upon this part of the general text regarding that act of worship, is not part of the worship in any way. Recall this research, if Allah wills. This will help us answer your question now. Your question is related to the hadith I mentioned in the previous answer, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him):Sahih al-Bukhari 646 Here we must stop and ask: How should the word "congregation" in this hadith be understood? The "al" here, in language, is divided by them into two categories: either it is for reference (al-'ahd) or for comprehensiveness and exhaustiveness (al-shumul wa al-istighraq). That is, every congregation prayer, or the congregation prayer that is known and established in the Shari'ah. Both meanings can be used to interpret the hadith. One could say that the "al" in "congregation prayer" is for exhaustiveness and comprehensiveness, in which case any congregation that is prayed falls under this hadith, including the congregation I cited as an example earlier, which I do not think any jurist would say is legislated. Do you perhaps recall the example with me?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Ah, so if we stop at this example and say that we did not include it in the generality of the word "congregation," and we recall the evidence, we say that this specific congregation was not practiced in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, it did not fall under the generality of his saying: Is that clear?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Now we come to another example, which is further from the minds of people to be called an innovation; in fact, some minds may lean toward saying it is legislated. If a group of people wanted to pray the night prayer (qiyam al-layl) in congregation and cited as evidence the hadith:Muwatta Malik 8:1 and so on. Is their citation correct or not? The answer now.
The Shaykh : First, I want you to recall with me the previous research we started, where we said that any act of worship that falls under a general text, but the Salaf did not act upon this part of the general text regarding that act of worship, is not part of the worship in any way. Recall this research, if Allah wills. This will help us answer your question now. Your question is related to the hadith I mentioned in the previous answer, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him):
The prayer in congregation is twenty five times superior to the prayer offered by person alone.
صلاة الجماعة تفضل صلاة الفذ بخمس أو بسبع وعشرين درجةThe questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Ah, so if we stop at this example and say that we did not include it in the generality of the word "congregation," and we recall the evidence, we say that this specific congregation was not practiced in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, it did not fall under the generality of his saying:
The prayer of the congregation
صلاة الجماعةThe questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Now we come to another example, which is further from the minds of people to be called an innovation; in fact, some minds may lean toward saying it is legislated. If a group of people wanted to pray the night prayer (qiyam al-layl) in congregation and cited as evidence the hadith:
Prayer in congregation is better than the prayer of a man by himself
صلاة الجماعة تفضل صلاة الفذ ...
Source
www.al-albany.com
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