Sallam... I am a musilm boy who always pray five times always. When i came to Europe and i live with my sister which is a christian and i have no place to go. Now i cant perform my prayers anymore and sometime pray only Asri in a day because she married to a pastor and i cant pray in there home. And also is more difficult for me to move around. Now i have to follow them to there church because i am living with the and no where to go. What should i do? I need your advise and also your prayers so that Allah should bless me and i can live on my own to pray because i am not happy everyday. Pls, i need your reply.Thanks Awwal

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

First of all, we ask Allaah, The Almighty, to make things easy for you and relieve your distress, and help you to do that which He loves and pleases Him, and spare you from immorality be you in public or private.

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the prayer is very important as it is the second pillar of Islam after The Two Testimonies of Faith, and whoever rejects its obligation is a non-Muslim and falls out of the fold of Islam according to the consensus of Muslim scholars. If a person forsakes the prayer out of laziness and negligence, the scholars have differed in opinion about him, and the majority of them are of the view that he does not go out of the fold of Islam while some of them say that he does go out of the fold of Islam. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 84235.

Forsaking the prayer, as you have done, is a terrible and clear sin, so you have to observe the prayer at its prescribed fixed times. It suffices to perform the prayer in any area at home where you live, outside, or anywhere else as long as that area is pure. It is not a condition for the validity of the prayer that it is performed in the Masjid; rather, for Muslims, the whole earth is a Masjid and (its dust has been made) a purifier, as indicated in a Saheeh (sound) Hadeeth.

In addition, you are obliged to make up for the prayers which you have neglected. If you know how many, then the matter is clear, but if you do not know how many, then you should continue making up for them until you believe that you have most likely been relieved of liability (i.e. that you have made up for all of them). And you can keep your prayer a secret from your sister and her husband if you fear repercussions such as them forcing you to leave their home and you not finding another place to stay.

On the other hand, we do not know why you are obliged to go with them to church; rather you are obliged to try avoiding this in every way possible. You should not attend their rituals and their worship. If you are forced to attend, you should do so while hating in your heart the Shirk (associating partners with Allaah) that they commit.

It was reported that ‘Umar forbade entering the church when the Christians worship in it, and he said: “I fear that the Wrath of Allaah would descend upon you.”

For more benefit on the ruling of residing in non-Muslim countries, kindly refer to Fatwa 86405, and refer also to Fatwa 10327 for the ruling of living with non-Muslims in the same place.

Allaah Knows best.