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From: rached@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rached Zantout)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Ahadith dilemma: # of prayers/day
Message-ID: <1991Jun2.200751.21167@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 2 Jun 91 20:07:51 GMT
References: <1991May31.073332.11425@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
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About 5 or 3 times a day for prayer:
	This is the first time I heared of a 3 times a day prayers anywhere,
	to tell you the truth, I was shocked because I always took it
	for granted that muslims know this fact early enough.
	The prophet (PBUH) used to pray five times a day, Allah (SWT) has
	given us a ROUKHSA kind of to ease it on us, to be able to combine
	prayers in some circumstances.
	From what I know that when you are travelling you are allowed to
	combine (Asr and Zuhur) in the time of Zuhur or Asr; and Maghrib and
	Isha (in the time of Maghrib or Isha) and even you can pray Zuhur
	two rakaas instead of four and so for Asr and Isha but not MAghrib.
	But still it is not permitted to do anything other than that (like
	combining fajr and zuhur).
	The prophet (PBUH) used also (not many times as the Hadith that was
	mentioned in the original posting mentions) to combine prayers
	(observing the same rules above) while not travelling. I should
	emphasize that he did not do that often. So the Ulama (Knowlegeable
	people) have deduced that you could (if you are tired or you have
	any other reason) join two prayers as long as you do not make this a
	habit (once in a liftime or so ...).
	But all of this does not even justify one questionning if prayer
	should be observed 3 or 5 times a day.
	Another advice for all on the network, please do not read ayas and
	ahadith and think that you now know it all and start building
	conclusions on that, this is very dangerous since you are not sure
	that you have looked at all the evidence. A good way is to read also
	what the Ulama have said about the issue and if you have access to
	someone with knowledge ask him/her about it but do not jump hastily
	(sp ?) to conclusions

-- 
"I bear witness that there is only one god, and that Muhammad is his
messenger"