PRAYER DURING TRAVEL

The five daily prayers in Islam should be offered at a certain time when a Muslim is at home
or is not travelling.

However, some times it is necesarry to travel from place to place or from one cauntry to another.

During the travel perhaps there are no facilities for preparing oneself for prayer, or the timing of the
travel will interfere with the proper performance of prayer.

Islam, therefore, allows a muslim, when travelling from one place to another, to join two
prayers togather at one time, such as Zuhur and Azr at the time Zuhur or Asr.

But if a Muslim decides to join two prayers at the letter time, he should have the intention during
the time of the firs prayers of joining the two prayers later.

The same permission is also given to Muslim join the sunset and the night prayers whilst
travelling.

A Muslim has the right to join the two prayers togather either at the time of thebeginning of the fist
prayer or the time of the letter.

But there are some condition which must be fulfilled, i,e. The travelling must be of a certain length
and must have a worthy purpose.

In order to make it simpler for a Muslim to perform his preyer duties, it is permission to offer
Zuhur and Asr , each of two rakaats instead of four, and also the night prayer Isa.

These are the ordinary cases in which Islam allows us to shorthen prayers and join them together.

But in some other cases permission is also given to join two prayers together, such as illnes or when
heavy rain prevents people from getting to the mosque as usual, or when there is excessive heat.

These are suffient reasons.

The previous permission to join prayers together and to shorten them has been taken from
yhe verse of the holy Quran which says: when you travel throughout the world, there is no blame
attached to you if you shorten your prayer for fear that the unbeliever may attack you, for the
unbelievers are born enemies into you.
 According to this verse, it seems that, if there is no fear during the travel, there is no need
to shorten the prayer; and this was commented upon by Omar, the second Caliph, who was asked
why god gave us permission to shorten and join together prayers.

Omar replied that he too had wondered the same thing and said: Then I mentioned this to the
prophet (peace be upon him!), his answer was that this must be considered as one of the mercies of
God : we have to accept it.

1. should the five daily prayers be performed at certain or fixed times? Could you mention these five
times in english?

2. when a Muslim is travelling, should he perform his preyers five times? Why?

3. what facilities are used in performing prayers?

4. what reason are mentioned in the text that a Muslim treveller is ellowed to join two prayers
together?

5. what prayers are allowed to be joined?

6. what must a Muslim treveller do if he wants to join prayers at the letter times ?

7. besides travelling, are there any situations which allow a Muslim to join two prayers together?
What situations are these?

8. besides joining two prayers, is there any other concession for a Muslim traveller? What is it?

9. what is the source (religion source) of these concessions?

10. what conditions should be fulfilled by Muslim travellers in order to be allowed to join two
prayers together?

FASTING IN ISLAM

Fasting during ramadan is one the five pillars of Islam.

This is because the prophet (peace be upon him!) said Islam is upheld by five pillars: firs, to bear
witness that there is not other God but Allah and that Muhammad is His massanger.

The second is to pray regularly.

Third, to pay zakat(i.e. divine tax) to the poor.

Fourth, to fast during the month of Ramadhan.

Fifht, to visit the house of God in mecca once in a lifetime, for those who are able to make the
journey.
 Fasting can be defined as abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking, and having sexual
intercourse from dawn to sunset.

Fasting for the month of ramadan was prescribed during the second year of the Hijrah.

Fasting was an ancient form of worship prescribed by God from the beginning of time.

The aim of ordering people to fast is that they should learn how to be patient, to have good morals,
to purify their hearts , to ennoble their character and to be gentle in dealing with people.

One should feel the suffirings of hunger and thirst in order to be quick to help those who are
suffiring when seeing them.

One must always learn to feel the fear of God and His mercy.

Fasting in Islam hasbeen prescriders by the Quran and the sayings of the prophet.

The Quran says: o, you who believe, fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those
before you, that you may learn self-restraint (Qs , 2 : 183).

The reward of the accepted fasting is paradise.

God the almighty gives great reward for fasting as much or more than we can realize.

This is because fasting is secret between man and his God, therefore, it is the only aspect of worship
that has been attributed to God.

It has come down to us in the tradition of the prophet when he said : any kind of good action dont
by the children of Adam will be rewarded ten times to seven hundred times and may be more,
according to the will of God. God said : except fasting for it is an attribute of me and I will reward
it, because one who fasts is giving up his desires and his food for my sake. Fasting is a protection.

When one is fasting he should not utter bad words, he should not raise his voice. If someone insult
him, or fights him, he should remind himself that he is fasting by saying : I am fasting, I swear by
God, who has muhammads soul in his hand that the smell of mouth of the one who fasts is better
than perfume in the sight of God.

1. How many pillars are there in Islamic teaching?

2. What is the fourth pillar?

3. In what month is fasting obligatory?

4. is every body obliged to perform the pilgrimage and fasting?

5. since when had the fast of ramadan been obligatory?

6. what is the formal definition of fasting?

7. has fasting really been prescribed only since the prophet Muhammad? If not, since when?

8. what is a purpose of fasting?

9. how do we know that fasting is obligatory for us?

10. what does God say about fasting?

11. what will we get if we fast?

12. can we compare what we will get from fasting with what we get from other religious worship?

13. what is your reason for you answer to 12? What is the specific characteristic of fasting?

14. why is fasting called a kind of protection? What do you think?

15. what do we say if we are fasting and someone argues and fights us?