Delaying Isha Jamaat for Musallis

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#1 [Permalink] Posted on 5th October 2015 15:22

Recently I and my wife went out to a restaurant. It was 8.10 PM, hence I left my family and went to the nearest masjid(assuming Isha Jamaat to be 8.15 PM) to pray Isha salah in jamaat. The masjid was closed by 8.15 PM; one elder man was carrying the keys when I reached there. He said that Isha Jamaat is 7.45 PM. Hence I felt heart broken & want to share my feelings here.

In India, most of the Ahle sunnat wal jamath agrees with 18 Degree calculation for Isha Salah. Hence during this month Isha Salah begining waqt is close to 7.15 in Chennai. Therefore most of the masjids have their Isha Jamaat at 8 PM and very few at 8.15 PM. Chennai is a metro city in India with 10 million(1 crore) population.

Chennai(Madras) is a thickly populated city; and in addition to that all highways, important roads connecting all neighbourhoods are almost jammed after 6 PM. Most of the workers, business men reach home after 8 PM. Even kids have tution in the evenings & most of them are done only by 8 or 8.30 PM.

Majority of the masjid committee is run by retired people who have no business or no work at home. They want to pray early and leave home soon whereas the majority people reach the mohalla after the Isha Salah is over. Majority of the Chennai people sleep only after 11PM including kids. I have few solutions for this

- Have Isha Salah by 9 PM

- Replace these retired people, no concern for Musallis/community from the Masjid committee.

- People who are punctual and regular namazi will pray Salah at 9 too, they wont have any issue about time

- More mussalis join if they Isha Salah is delayed(recently we observed in a masjid where they changed the regular Isha time from 8.30 to 8.15 --> As a result musallis became less)

- It would be very peaceful to pray Isha Salah in jamaat, that too in one's mohalla.

- During Summer we had Isha Salah by 8.30 and in Ramdan by 9 PM too, no one had issue.

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#2 [Permalink] Posted on 5th October 2015 15:39

Here's one way of telling the people of the Masjid Committee..

Quote:

The Prophet (peace be upon him) mentioned that the time of 'Isha’ lasts until midnight as stated in the Hadith of`Abdullah ibn 'Amr where he said:

“The time of 'Isha’ lasts until the middle half of the night.”

[Muslim]

The night hours vary. If they are ten, then its half will be over when five hours pass. If they are twelve, then midnight will be over when six hours pass. It is impermissible for the Muslim to delay it until after midnight. Rather, he should pray it before that time and it is obligatory for him to pray in congregation, except for the one who is excused, like a sick person or a woman, who are not permitted to delay it until after midnight.

Rulings on Delaying Isha’

Yes, he (peace be upon him) would sometimes offer it late and said:

“Had I not thought it hard for my Ummah (nation based on one creed), I would have ordered them to pray ('Isha’ prayer) at this time.”

[Bukhari]

He (peace be upon him) liked to delay the 'Isha’ Prayer a little, for its time lasts until midnight. Therefore, if the people of the village or the congregation of the Masjid (mosque) agree to delay the 'Isha’ Prayer until the first third of the night before midnight, there is no harm in this; rather, this is better. Otherwise, the Sunnah (action following the example of the Prophet) is to offer the 'Isha’ Prayer earlier in order not to make it difficult for people, as the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to do. He (peace be upon him) would offer it earlier if he saw that people had gathered, and if they were late, he (peace be upon him) would delay it. When he would sometimes delay it, he said:

“Had I not thought it hard for my Ummah, I would have ordered them to pray ('Isha’ prayer) at this time.”

[Bukhari]

He (peace be upon him) would delay it until the first third of the night and in some Hadiths up until the middle of the night.

In conclusion, the Imam (one who leads congregational Prayer) should not adopt anything that is hard for people; he should pray earlier as they usually do, but if they like and agree to delay it until the first third of the night, before midnight, there is nothing wrong with this, as doing so is better.

Another method would be to do something that many people believe has become a monopoly, i.e. they do more than one Jamaat (for Jummah and Eid) - [Although, majority of them do it due to lack of space] in order to get more of the Lillah donations. So in this case, instead of having multi jamaats for Esha, just have one as normal when everyone can attend and there would be more chances of getting more donations.

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#3 [Permalink] Posted on 5th October 2015 15:49

abu mohammed wrote:

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I don't think it is allowed to do more than 1 jamat in a masjid as per the hanafi madhab. Please correct me if I am wrong though I think it maybe can be done in a side room.

The best thing is to speak directly to the committee guys but from personal experience most of these people are clueless. I think a sort of compromise would be good. In the UK on weekends in winter isha salah is prayed close to beginning time as people want to get an early night or spend time visiting family etc. Weekdays salah is prayed at a time when people are usually back from madrasah/work etc so it is slightly later. You can work out such a compromise inshallah. Bring some ulema with you and explain the issues to these people. If they don't listen then what can be done

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#4 [Permalink] Posted on 5th October 2015 15:55

Jzk, my suggestion wasn't to have multiple jamaats, rather the idea of getting more people in at a later time which could benefit the mosque. However, like you said, some people prefer to get all the Salah completed as early as possible to be freed up.

abu mohammed wrote:

So in this case, instead of having multi jamaats for Esha, just have one as normal when everyone can attend and there would be more chances of getting more donations.

You see, some people are greedy and I actually only heard about this in another thread regarding Eid on different days on ICOUK. Amazing what people would do for money!

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#5 [Permalink] Posted on 5th October 2015 16:02

London bhai,

these people dont listen to anyone. They are like Monoarch. Especially they wont listen to tabligh people; they monitor tabligh activities and create issues for us. No use taking this to Jamat ul Ulema, but definetely I am going to try that out.

Majority(atleast 70% of people) sleep by 11 PM(least); Ulema must take a step .

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#6 [Permalink] Posted on 5th October 2015 16:05

abu mohammed wrote:

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Exactly, during Eid for fund raising they are okay with late hours Isha.

I appreciate North America masjids, though Isha starts by 6.15 in Chicago during Winter. They have Salah past 8 PM so that people return to work. May Allah shower his mercies on those masjid trustees.

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#7 [Permalink] Posted on 6th October 2015 07:44

We have Esha Jamaat at 20:00 and always have.

The Gujratee Masajid generally have Esha at 18:30 (at least on weekends), our Masjid decided to follow and changed Esha time. This is done to save Energy costs for heating the Masjid etc.

Many people work and cannot come home early enough and Fajar and Esha are the only 2 prayers they can perform in Jamaat. This concern was stated to the committee, they had estimated a saving by having early Esha.

The solution is to design a Masjid in such a way that minimal heating is used in a specific area and not the whole building is heated up.

Posted via the Muftisays Android App

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There is no Plan B!

http://www.central-mosque.com/

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#8 [Permalink] Posted on 6th October 2015 09:32

Muadh_Khan wrote:

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Jazakallahu Khair Muadh bhai,
Kindly suggest how we can take this up with Masjid committee in Chennai(Madras) region. I had been in Chicago suburbs for couple of years and my masjid committee used to be Ahle hadith and if we take this concern they understand and pave way for more musallis(Masjid committee in West are very good in this aspect). Here its quite different.

I hope Salahuddin bhai can pitch in

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#9 [Permalink] Posted on 6th October 2015 09:41

Servant.Of.Allah wrote:

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Do they have classes at this Masjid too? Many Masjids tend to have their Salah around Madrasah times too, this way the opening hours are within a certain timeslot to accommodate the teachers and the Imams who can stay within the Masjid premises, perform their jobs and Salah all in one go, so it can be difficult to delay the timings.

Countries around the world will vary due to long summer nights or short winter days - therefore, some countries will look into the economics of things and others are well funded by the locals. However, in the subcontinent they can build Masjids with certain materials that keep the Masjid warm in the winter and cool in the summer without any external sources used, but that's a whole different topic.

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#10 [Permalink] Posted on 29th March 2018 04:00

Now its Summer, so we see Isha Salah Jamaat crossing from 7.50 to 8.00 to 8.05 to 8.10 to 8.15 PM every week.
I dont know if its good to reach out to Jamiatul Ulema of my region, whatever they said the masjid committee wont do ithaad.

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#11 [Permalink] Posted on 29th March 2018 07:18

Servant.Of.Allah wrote:

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In our area, Esha starting time is after 9pm and soon jamaat time will be 10.45pm

With my kids at school, I will be making them do Esha a little after Maghrib, but only on those days when the days are extremely long (when Maghrib doesn't really end and Fajr doesn't really begin) even worse for those in north England.

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