What do you say about a person who is in the habit of delaying his Isha prayer until midnight or later? What if he sometimes falls asleep and then wakes up at 2 or 3 o'clock, or even just before Fajr to offer Isha?
All Muslims are aware that prayer is a time-related duty binding on every Muslim, whether man or woman. It must not be delayed until its time range is over. The time of Isha starts normally when the red twilight has disappeared, which is approximately 1.5 hours after sunset. Its time finishes at midnight. According to Islamic rules, midnight is not at 12 o'clock, but the actual middle point between sunset and sunrise. If a person has not offered Isha with the congregation at the beginning of its time range, he does well to delay it until the end of its time.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, has mentioned that it is only out of fear of making things difficult for his community that he stopped short of ordering them to delay Isha. So when a person delays Isha until shortly before he goes to bed, he does well as long as he offers it within its preferred time, which extends until midnight.
If in some unusual circumstances one delays Isha further than midnight, he is still praying it at its proper time as long as he offers it before Fajr. Many scholars extend Isha time until Fajr, on the rule that the time range of each prayer extends until the next prayer is due, with the exception of Fajr, the time of which lapses at sunrise. If this person falls asleep and wakes up to pray Isha before Fajr is due, he has not done wrong.
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Prayers: Doctors in the casualty departmentsIf a doctor working in the casualty department of a hospital does not have time to offer his prayers at the right time, what should he do?
If a doctor has to attend to cases of emergency, he attends to those before he attends to his prayers. There is a rule which says that "preservation of life takes priority over the preservation of religion." When the emergency is over, the doctor should pray as soon as possible. If this means that he has missed an obligatory prayer, he prays the missed prayer before another emergency calls.
• Prayers: Dress code for Imam?
Recently a very well known preacher who has written several books on Islamic matters visited our workplace when we were about to offer our Zuhr prayer. Just as our regular imam was about to start the prayer, this gentleman stopped him, saying that he could not lead the prayer wearing a shirt and trousers. Is it inappropriate to lead the prayers wearing such clothes?
What this gentleman has done is very reprehensible. What would he have done if he had arrived in your mosque after the prayer had started? Would he have joined the prayer, or would he have waited until the congregation was over and prayed alone? If he would have joined the prayer, that would be an admission that the prayer is valid, as indeed it is. In this case, why would he stop the imam who was about to start a valid prayer? If he would have waited until you would have finished, then that would be tantamount to saying that your prayer is not valid, and he has no reason whatsoever to say that.
There is no particular type of clothing, which is suitable for prayer, and another type, which is not. What is required in prayer is to wear something that covers the awrah, or the area of the body, which one is not allowed to reveal before other people. For a man, this is the area between the waistline and one’s knees, according to most scholars. However, there is a different, but well supported view that this area is limited to the genitals. This means that a man may pray covering only awrah, and his prayer is valid. He is actually recommended to wear proper and clean clothes.
There is no particular type of Islamic dress. The Prophet, peace be upon him, did not recommend any such dress. The clothes he used to wear were of the type common in his society, and Muslims and non-Muslims wore these alike. I recall that a learned scholar was told once that he was wearing the clothes of European Christians, as he was wearing a suit and a tie. He answered that the person who objected to him was wearing the clothes of the pagan Arabs, as the robe he was wearing were the same as used by the non-believers in Arabia.
For the gentleman to stop the imam in this harsh and rude fashion is contrary to Islamic manners. God says to the Prophet, peace be upon him:
"It is by God’s grace that you deal gently with your followers. Had you been harsh and hard of heart, they would indeed have broken away from you. Pardon them then, and pray that they be forgiven (by God.)"
These instructions apply to every Muslim in dealing with other people, even those who are not Muslims. Needless to say, the gentleman in question did not take the instructions contained in this verse into consideration when he behaved in the manner you have described.