Salat 13:The Place of Prayer Part 1
The Rulings Regarding Prayer
The Place of Prayer: Part 1
One must be careful to choose a suitable place for performing one’s prayer. There are 5 necessary conditions for the place of prayer:
- The obligatory precaution demands that the place of prayer be Mubāḥ, meaning that it must not be a usurped one. Therefore, a Prayer performed in a usurped place or even on a usurped carpet or bed is considered invalid.
The place of Prayer can be considered usurped even when the prayer is performed in the mosque; for example, if one takes the place of another person in the mosque without their permission and performs his Prayer there, the obligatory precaution dictates that they must re-perform their Prayer.
It is even possible for one’s own house to be considered usurped. This happens, for example, if one has bought the house with money that have not all been legitimately-earned. Even if the money of the house had been legitimately-earned but one has not paid the Khums or Zakāt of the money with which he bought the house, the house is considered to be usurped. In order to resolve this problem, one needs to refer to the office of the Marājiʻ.
There is one exception to this rule and it is in regard to the huge farms or lands without any walls or fences. One can perform one’s Prayer on such lands without obtaining their owners’ permission on the condition that they are not working farms or in use in some other way.
- The place where one stands during Prayer needs to be a static one. Therefore, a Prayer performed on a moving vehicle where performing different parts of Prayer in an ordinary way is impossible will be invalid.
However, if the moving vehicle allows for performing the different parts of Prayer in an ordinary way, performing Prayer on it will be permissible. For instance, performing Prayer on huge vehicles like trains and ships where all parts of Prayer can be done ordinarily is permissible on the condition that the direction of the Qiblah does not change on them in the middle of Prayer.
However, if the time is short or one has no other way, one must perform their Prayer even on such moving vehicles but one must take care to be facing the Qiblah at all times. This means that as the vehicle turns, one must also turn in the middle of Prayer to keep facing the Qiblah but one must stop the recitation while moving.
We will discuss the other conditions for the place of Prayer in the next episode.
*The Rulings of Prayer, The Place of Prayer: Part 1
* One must perform Prayer in a suitable place
* There are 5 necessary conditions for the place of Prayer:
* 1. It must not be usurped
* Invalid
* Buying a house with illegitimately-earned money
* Buying a house with money whose Khoms and Zakat has not been paid
* 2. it must be static
* We will discuss the other conditions for the place of Prayer in the next episode.
