Q: I have a few questions;
1. I’m a student at a university in Saudi Arabia. I sometimes have lectures from 3pm- 4pm, when asr time is around 3:20pm. The Muslims around me don’t get up and perform their salah when the prayer is called, they make it up after the lecture is over. So I wanted to ask, is it permissible to not attend to salaah because you are in a lecture hall while the teacher is teaching? I was very confused because I didn’t know whether I was just being overly attentive to my salah times and stressing over how to manage my classes timings and the salaah timings, or whether it’s essential for us Muslims to attend to our salaah immediately and a lecture is no excuse.
2. Sometimes I am eating, and the azaan is called, what should I do in that case? Should I stop eating and pray, then come back and finish my food? Or should I finish my food and then go pray?
A:
1. It is not a valid reason to leave out salaah. Allah Ta`ala Himself says that the life of this world is just goods of deception, and salaah is a communication with Allah Ta`ala. There is no act that is as supreme and greater than salaah. Every other worldly material can be scrapped for the honour and status of salaah.
2. Do your salaah first with ease and tranquillity.
And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
Answered by:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)