Salah: Encyclopedia II - Salah - Prayer in a congregation

Salah - Prayer in a congregation

Muslims are suggested to perform the compulsory Salah in congregation (jama'ah), behind an Imam. Jama'ah prayer is considered better and has more social and spiritual benefit than individual prayer. When the performers consist of men and women, one man is chosen as imam. In this situation, women are forbidden from being an imam. This point, though unanimously agreed on by the major schools of Islam, is disputed by some groups, based partly on a hadith whose interpretation is controversial; see Women as imams. When the performers are all women, one woman is chosen as imam. When men, women, and children are performing, the children's rows have traditionally been between the men's and women's rows. However, in recent times in the west, the level of enforcing such tradition has been lax. There is also another configuration where the men's and women's rows are side by side, separated by big curtain/hijab. The main idea behind this is there remains no direct line-of-sight between the men and women, following an injunction from the Qur'an 24:30-31.

The person chosen to be an Imam may be a scholar, or the one who has the best knowledge of the Quran. When a muslim is praying, they, their clothes and the place where they are praying must be clean. Women must have their hair covered and are not allowed to pray with men except as described above.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Prayer in a congregation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki