Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!bes
From: paul@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Re: Ahadith dilemma: # of prayers/day
Message-ID: <1991Jun3.170832.24296@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 3 Jun 91 17:08:32 GMT
Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 48
Approved: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu

> From: rached@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rached Zantout)
> 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 ...).

You seem to be shocked at something you'd already heard about, given
the evidence you just presented.

> 	But all of this does not even justify one questionning if prayer
> 	should be observed 3 or 5 times a day.

If we can't question how can we learn?

> 	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.

During my investigation I was struck by the difference between
Qur'anic prayer times and those in the ahadith. I'm seeking the
philosophy behind the choices in the ahadith, not an answer that "it
was done that way". The philosophy for 3 times/day was given in Sahih Muslim.

> 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

Another good thing to do is to ask for the references about their
information. I'm certain they would be happy to share it and there
might be other interesting things contained in those references.