I have seen people in the Haram carrying their young children when they offer their prayers with the Imam. They put them down when they kneel for their prostration and pick them up again when they stand up. This causes a lot of movement in prayer, which according to some schools of thought renders the prayer invalid. Is this correct?
This is perfectly appropriate, because it ensures that the parent will not be distracted by the child running about during the prayer, and the child won't cry if he feels neglected. The movement involved does not affect the validity of the prayer. Suppose a snake appears in front of a person engaged in prayer. The worshipper is allowed to fight it until it is killed, or to change place so that he is not in danger. That this may involve several moves is perfectly understandable and acceptable.
• Prayers: Offered at mosque or home
There is a mosque in the compound where we live, but some people prefer to offer their obligatory prayer in their rooms. Is their prayer valid? On the other hand, there are three mosques near our working site. Nevertheless, employees gather to have their congregational prayer on site, rather than go to one of those three mosques. Is this acceptable?
Congregational prayer is one of the duties of the Muslim community. Mosques provide such congregation and they must be used. Moreover, congregational prayer is rewarded 27 times more than the same prayer when offered individually.
To show how important offering the prayer with the congregation in the mosque is, I will refer to the time when Amr ibn Umm Maktoom, a blind companion of the Prophet, asked him whether he could offer prayer at home, because sometimes he did not feel up to walking to the mosque, particularly with roads being uneven and having some pitfalls. The Prophet asked him whether he could hear the Athan, i.e. the call. When Amr said that he could, the Prophet told him that he could not find any justification for him to stay at home. However, the prayer of those people at home remains valid and discharges their duty of offering prayer, although they miss out on the greater reward.
They should however, come to the mosque from time to time in order to discharge the other obligation of offering congregational prayer.
Forming a congregation for the employees at the working site is perfectly acceptable. Because if everyone was to go to the mosque, the time taken for prayer would be longer.
A Muslim employee should always take care not to take out of his working hours more than absolutely necessary for prayer and other matters that are unavoidable.
• Prayers: Offered especially for one's needs
Is there a special prayer or supplication which one may offer for the accomplishment of a purpose which one needs badly.
If you badly need something to be accomplished, then the advice given by the Prophet in an authentic Hadith that you do a good ablution, washing every organ well and making sure of adding what is recommended in a proper ablution, such as washing your face, arms and feet three times instead of once, etc. You then offer two voluntary rak’ahs trying to concentrate well on your prayers.
When you have finished, you do your supplication and request Allah to grant you your purpose, whatever it is, as long as it is something permissible. According to the Hadith, Allah is certain to answer your prayers either immediately or at a later time of His choosing. In another Hadith, the Prophet tells us that if Allah chooses to defer answering a particular prayer of ours, He rewards us for it in the life to come. When we will see what He gives us instead, we should wish that He had not answered a single supplication of ours in this present life, but had stored it for us in the hereafter. In the light of the foregoing, I can add a little word of advice. Although the purpose you are keen to have accomplished is perfectly appropriate and understandable, it may be that its postponement or non-accomplishment is better for you and the person concerned. While it is appropriate to continue to request it in your supplication, you must not feel downhearted if it is delayed. Allah is certain to choose for you what He knows to be better for you.