Shadee Elmasry – 10 Praying In A Group
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One of the best things regarding the prayer
is to pray in a group. This is
one of the secrets of Islam. It's one
of the hallmarks of Islam and the prophet,
peace be upon him, established this for many
reasons. First of all,
if you're learning if you're new to how
to pray, the best way to learn is
to watch other people pray. Right? You see
how they're praying and you're gonna go to
different mosques and different see so many different
Muslims praying. You'll see what's the uniformity
and what's different upon. So when you see
so many examples of prayer, it allows you
to see, you know, what is
there present in everyone's prayer and what is
present in some people's prayer in terms of
movements and what's not. So you know there
you start to separate between what's
required
and what's different upon, what's agreed upon and
what is difference of opinion. So that's one
thing. Second thing is that when you see
people pray, sometimes you see their piety. Sometimes
you see someone
during the prayer or after the prayer closing
their eyes and filled well, closed not we
should really close our eyes in the prayer,
but maybe after the prayer, but you see
their faces filled with piety.
Okay.
And maybe if they're the imam, you hear
sounding in the recitation.
We benefit from that because we start asking
ourselves, where where is that in me?
Right? And one of the reasons the prophet
peace be upon him wanted us to pray
in a group is so that we can
see the pious and say, I wanna be
like that. I wanna
have that.
We call that the word is which is
awe and love combined,
in a person when they pray. So that's
one of the benefits.
Another benefit is completely separate from the prayer,
which is that it's socialization.
You see people. Many Muslims,
okay, where do they get their friends? But
Allah told them to pray in the mosque.
It's recommended to pray in the mosque. They
pray in the mosque. Alright. So they start
making friends because you don't just pray and
leave. You usually say salaam to the person.
Now you pray repeatedly in the same local
mosque, you're not gonna always just say salaam
to someone and walk away. Eventually, one day,
you're gonna say, oh, I didn't see you
yesterday. Oh, what's your name? What do you
do? Etcetera. So what's called manafah or benefits
happen. People make friends, people may
get worldly benefits
that occur accrue over time
from,
the context that you make in the prayer.
So that's another benefit that we have. Now,
what about who is recommended and what's the
ruling about praying in the mosque? It's recommended,
highly recommended for Muslims to pray together anywhere.
So if 5 Muslims need to pray, it
is best for them to pray together.
What about for, in the mosque? Well, it's
highly recommended even more to pray in the
mosque when the mosque establishes the prayer. So
not just any
time, but we should look at when does
that masjid pray at that time and we
should pray behind them with their imam and
with their group. It's highly recommended. The prophet,
peace be upon him, said, it's 27 times
greater
to pray in the mosque with the group
than outside,
right, by yourself.
Now some people may be wondering, why did
the prophet say 27 times?
Well, think about it, right? It got in
your head, right? It's it's If he said
a round number, you can forget.
But when you say an odd number like
that, 27, it's one of those almost like
a trick where it sticks in your you'll
never forget that it's 27 times greater to
pray in a group in the mosque behind
the imam,
than to pray by herself.
Now regarding the women, the
scholars have differed upon whether or not the
women's
prayer can happen in a group. So the
first two schools, the earlier schools of thought
said, no, it never existed in the time
of the prophet peace be upon him, so
women do not pray together in a group,
they pray by themselves. The other two schools
of thought told us, no, they can pray
in a group.
Mosque? To lead the prayer.
Secondly, the question of what about praying in
the mosques?
The prophet, peace be upon him, did say
that the women's prayer at home is superior
to her prayer in the mosque and that's
what the 4 schools rule by. It is
also noted that the wives of the prophet,
peace be upon him, used to pray in
the mosque and then they stopped later on
when the mosque became filled with strangers.
And the,
likewise, wives of the companions used to pray
in the mosque and eventually they stopped praying
in the mosque when it became when the
city of Medina
became filled with people.
So there is some discussion on it and
the overall,
is stay statement is that it is better
for women to stay home and pray in
their house. However, scholars have also said that
nowadays, the mosque entails many other things. It
entails a place for her to meet other
Muslims and that's very important because you need
companionship. The mosque is a place for the
classes.
So for going for those purposes,
then, yes, then going to the Masjid has
so many benefits. We don't even need to
list the benefits. There's so many benefits
of learning,
of making friends, and it's sort of commonsensical
for her that she has to benefit for,
she has to go to the mosque to
attain to those benefits.