Answered by Ustadha Shaista Maqbool
Can a Muslim mother lead the prayer for her 22 year old son who doesn’t know enough to pray on his own nor is he able to follow a male figure since there aren’t any present in the household ? IF she is able to lead the prayer in order to teach him, who would be the one to stand in front?
Answer:
In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Kind.
One of the conditions to lead men in prayer is that one must be a man
himself – i.e. it is not valid for a woman to lead a man in prayer.
There is very little that is required to make a prayer valid, it can
be learnt very quickly. One only needs to know one verse consisting of
six letters (not counting vowels) e.g. Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem. This
recitation is sufficient for the person who doesn’t know anything else
and his prayer is valid.
The following is the minimum one needs to make one’s prayer valid:
1 – The person should know which prayer he is prayer, whether it be
Zhuhr or Asr, and how many raka’aat it consists of.
2-He begins with Allahu Akbar, says ArRahman ArRaheem, bows for ruku’,
stands up again and prostrates two times, repeating this (two, three,
or four times – depending upon the prayer) until the last raka’ah
which he sits after the second prostration for about 30 seconds (which
is the time it would take one to read Al-Tahiyah and the testification
if one knew it). That’s it.
As you can see, what one needs to know to pray is very little. This
makes a lot of sense considering that converts are required to start
praying right away – this is how it is possible to do so.
And Allah know best.
Shaista Maqbool