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:

As slam alykum.
Dear brother Burhan,
Lately several queries have come up regarding the Deen, They are as follows;

1.There is a Hadeeth (as far as I’ve been informed) about joining the jamat prayer while they are in Rukoo and that this unit of the prayer would be accepted and would not have to be re-done after the Imaam has finished leading the prayer. However I have also been informed about a separate Hadeeth that emphasizes the recitation of the verse of Al-Fatiha and that with out this the prayer is incomplete, when you join in Rukoo you don’t have time to recite it, so which is correct?

(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:

Fatiha in prayer

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.

Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith 1.723 Narrated by Ubada bin As Samit

Allah's Messenger (saws) said, "Whoever does not recite Al-Fatiha in his prayer, his prayer is invalid."

Abu Hurairah reports that the Messenger of Allah (saws) said: "If you come to the salah and we are in sajdah, then make sajdah with us but do not count it [as a rak'ah]. And whoever 'catches' the ruku', he catches the rakah."

Related by Abu Dawud, Ibn Khuzaimah, and by al-Hakim.

The two hadiths which you are referring to are both considered absolutely authentic, but the hadith regarding the recitation of Surah Al-Fatihah is a general command, and the ‘catching’ the ruku hadith is only under special condition when one has reached late and joined the congregational prayer when the congregation was in a state of ruku. Thus the ‘ruku’ hadith will supercede the recitation of the Surah Fatihah hadith; because it is obvious the Messenger of Allah (saws) permitted those who ‘caught’ the ruku in a congregational prayer to count the rakah without the recitation of Surah Fatihah in that rakah. But in normal circumstances when one is praying alone, or one is leading the prayer in congregation one must recite Surah Fatihah in each rakah for the prayer to be valid.

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