Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Assalam-o-alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,
To stand before "Haya Alas Salaah, Haya alal Falaah" in Iqaamat is Makrooh and to stand on hearing it is Mustahab.

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Stand before call of adhan

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person,  no grave, no prophet,  no imam,  no dai,  nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

The precise wisdom of the ‘adhaan’ or ‘call to prayer’ by the caller is so that the believers would be advised of the time of prayer, and so that they can prepare themselves and come to the mosques to offer their obligatory prayers.

And the wisdom behind announcing the ‘iqaamah’ just before the congregational prayer is so that the believers would come towards the ‘imam’, form their lines, and await the call of the ‘imam’ to start the congregational prayer.

There is absolutely no harm if one hears the start of the ‘iqaamah’ and stands and moves towards forming the lines, or if one stands during the ‘iqaamah’ and forms the lines.  It would obviously not be appropriate to sit and wait for the whole ‘iqaamah’ to finish before starting to form the lines.

Thus regardless of whether one stands up immediately at the start of the ‘iqaamah’ or during it, it does not matter; but it would be best to move towards forming the straight lines before the ‘iqaamah’ is completed by the caller to prayer.

To the best of our knowledge, there is nothing in the authentic traditions of the Messenger of Allah (saws) which states that standing up during the ‘iqaamah’ is ‘makrooh’ (severely disliked).  It is obviously ‘mustahab’ (preferred) to stand up during the ‘iqaamah’ and start the formation of straight lines behind the imam.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me.  Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your Brother in Islam,

Burhan