Shadee Elmasry – 10 Praying In A Group

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.