3.2.12 Group Prayer (Salat al-Jama’ah)

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “The group prayer is better than the individual prayer by 27 degrees.”

That means, if you do your salah with a group of people, it will be 27 times better than doing it by yourself.

Imagine, Allah is so merciful that He allows you to get the reward of 27 prayers for your one prayer, only if you pray with a group of  Muslims.  That is why salat al-jama’ah is sunnah mu’akkadah (a sunnah that the Prophet rarely left out). That means, whenever we can, we should pray in jama’ah (group). Don’t miss this chance to get lots of extra reward.

The Niyyah for Group Prayer
When you make Niyyah for Zuhr prayer, for example, you say
‎

“I intend to pray obligatory Zuhur prayer.”‎
نَوَيتُ أن أُصَلِّي صَلاةَ الظُهرِ فَرضاً عَلَيَّ

When you pray behind an Imam you must add something more to your Niyyah. Say,

Who Can Be the Imam?

1. A free person can pray behind a slave
2. An adult can pray behind a young person who is almost an adult (Baligh)
3. A woman can pray behind a woman

Who cannot be the Imam?

1. ‎A man cannot pray behind a woman
2. ‎A person who can recite Qur’an properly cannot pray behind someone who cannot read the Qur’an ‎properly
3. ‎An adult cannot pray behind a child

‎
NOTE: When we say “pray behind” we mean that a ‎person follows behind the imam in a group prayer.

Praying in Jama’ah in a Masjid
You can stand anywhere in the masjid to follow the imam in prayer. You do not have to be in the same hall ‎where the imam is standing. For example, if the imam is downstairs, you can be standing upstairs. But you ‎have to be able to follow along with what the imam is doing and you must not stand ahead of the imam‎.

If the imam is praying in the masjid and you are praying outside the masjid, you can do that if:‎

1. You are able to follow along with what the imam is doing (meaning you know what he is saying and when he is ‎moving)‎
2. There is no wall or closed door between you and the imam.‎

How to Perform Sujud al-Sahw
In the last sitting, immediately before you say your first ‎“assalamu alaikum”, ‎you should make two sajdahs and sit between the two sajdahs. ‎After the second sajdah, you can say the two ‎“assalamu alaikum”. If you forget to make‎vsujud al-sahw, then you do not need to do anything else because sujud al-sahw is only sunnah.‎

Try answering this quiz once you’re confident with your knowledge of this unit