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:

Dear Bro. Thank u V. much for your yeoman service, may Allah subhanawataAala, accept & reward u for that. i need a small clarification about "Offering missed Rakah's of Namaaz, while joining the jama'h , while the Namaaz is in progress"

 
Ex. If joined the Namaaz in the last rakah with  Imaam, of a Maghreb Nmaaz.

 
in this situation does one has to offer the missed two rakah's , together with a surah after Alhamd, or what is the correct procedure. Please enlighten.

 
Thank u v. much

Jazakallah khair.

(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:

Missed rakah 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 none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Your Question: ….Ex. If joined the Namaaz in the last rakah with  Imaam, of a Maghreb Nmaaz. in this situation does one has to offer the missed two rakah's , together with a surah after Alhamd, or what is the correct procedure. Please enlighten.

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 ‘rakah’]. And whoever 'catches' the ruku', he catches the (‘rakah’ of) ‘salah’."

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

If one happens to join a ‘Magrib’ prayer in congregation and catches only the last (or third) ‘rakah’ of the prayer, one should follow the ‘imam’ leading the prayer until he declares the ‘tasleem’ to end his prayer, then stand up and complete the number of ‘rakahs’ one has missed for that particular prayer.

Thus if one catches the last (or third) ‘rakah’ of the ‘Magrib’ prayer, that would be considered one’s first ‘rakah’. After the declarations of the ‘tasleems’ of the ‘imam’, one should

• stand up, pray one ‘rakah’ and recite Surah Al-Fatihah and another Surah, (and this ‘rakah’ would be counted as the second ‘rakah’ of their Magrib prayer)
• then sit down and offer the small ‘tashahud’
• then stand up and offer another ‘rakah’ reciting only the Surah al-Fatihah in it; and this would be their third and last ‘rakah’ of their Magrib prayer.

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

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan