Praying Fajr without Athaan
Fatwa No: 82492

Question

Q1) Recently we offered the Fajr prayer in the masjid. Due to the fact that time was running out (may be not more than 5 minutes for the Fajr time to be finished) we offered the prayer without calling for the Azan. Now question arises. a) Is the prayer we offered without Azan valid? b) If not what should be done to correct this? Please answer this with the reference from SHAFAI school, HANAFI school, MAALIKI school and HANBAL school.Note: There are 3 to 6 masjids near the masjid where we offered our prayer.Q2) Suppose a person is offering a Sunnath Ghair Muakkadah or Sunnath Muakkadah due to some reason but not for joining Fard prayer, the person had broken the prayer.Does it means that this Sunnath prayer is now a KHAZA or WAJIB on the person.Please answer this with the reference to above mentioned schools of thoughts and more importantly with the references from HOLY QURAN AND HADITHS.

Answer

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.

Your prayer without calling the Athaan is valid; you do not need to repeat it as it is the opinion of the majority of the Muslim scholars.

Imam Ibn Qudaamah wrote in his known book Al-Mughni:

"If a praying person performs the prayer without calling the Athaan or Iqaamah, his prayer is valid according to both opinions (i.e. the first opinion is that the Athaan is a confirmed Sunnah and the other is that it is a communal obligation). This is supported by the report narrated on the authority of Al-Aswad and ʻAlqamah (), who said, 'We went to the house of ʻAbdullah (ibn Masʻood) and he led us in the prayer without Athaan or Iqaamah.' This report was cited by Al-Athram. I do not know any scholar who disputes this opinion save for ʻAtaa', who held that when the praying person forgets to say the Iqaamah, he should repeat his prayer. Al-Awzaaʻi once said that such a praying person must repeat the prayer as long as the time of the prayer has not expired. If the prayer's time has expired, then he should not repeat it. However, this view is odd and the view adopted by the majority of scholars is the most correct in this regard. Moreover, the Iqaamah is a kind of Athaan, so leaving it does not nullify the prayer just as ignoring the Athaan does not nullify it either.” [End of quote from Al-Mughni]

For more benefit on praying without the Athaan or Iqaamah, please refer to Fatwa 312118.

Allah knows best.

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