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The Fajr prayer (Arabic: صلاة الفجر‎ ṣalāt al-faǧr, "dawn prayer") is the first of the five daily prayers offered by practising Muslims. (Fajr means dawn in the Arabic language.) The five daily prayers collectively form one pillar of the Five Pillars of Islam, in Sunni Islam, and one of the ten Practices of the Religion (Furū al-Dīn) according to Shia Islam.

The Fajr prayer is mentioned by name in the Qur'an at sura 24 (An-Nur) ayah.^[1] Inspired by the tafsir of the two hadiths that were transmitted on behalf of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the worth of the Fajr daily prayer is explained as being God's most-favoured prayer since others are asleep. This has made the Fajr daily prayer the most essential and obligatory congregational prayer to be held by Muslims together in groups in mosques.

Fajr prayer requires two fard rakaʿāt. In a congregation, the leader of the prayer (imam) recites aloud. However, two sunnah rakaʿāt are highly recommended prior to the two Fard rakaʿāt.

The time period within which the Fajr daily prayer must be offered (with loud recitation of the quran) is from the beginning of dawn^[2] to sunrise.

The call to Fajr prayer marks the beginning of the obligatory daily fasting (sawm) during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Qur'an relates a sura, Al-Fajr, by the same name.

Hadith mentioning Fajr Salat[link]

The following quotations regarding Fajr, the Islamic dawn prayer, are from books of Sunni hadith. These books relate accounts taken from the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his family, and his companions. They were compiled by Islamic scholars after Muhammad's death. These quotations include information about those who related the accounts, as well as the accounts themselves.

• Narrated Aisha: Muhammad never missed four Rakat before the Zuhr prayer and two Rakat before the Fajr prayer. Sahih al-Bukhari, 2:21:276

• Narrated Abu Huraira: Muhammad said, "If anyone of you can get one Rak'a of the 'Asr prayer before sunset, he should complete his prayer. If any of you can get one Rak'a of the Fajr prayer before sunrise, he should complete his prayer." Sahih al-Bukhari, 1:10:531

• Narrated 'Umar: "The Prophet forbade praying after the Fajr prayer till the sun rises and after the 'Asr prayer till the sun sets." Sahih al-Bukhari, 1:10:555

• Abu Hurairah stated that Muhammad had said, "There are angels who take turns in visiting you by night and by day, and they all assemble at the dawn (Fajr) and the afternoon (`Asr) prayers. Those who have spent the night with you, ascend to the heaven and their Rabb (Lord), Who Knows better about them, Asks: 'In what condition did you leave My slaves?' They reply: 'We left them while they were performing Salat and we went to them while they were performing Salat.' " From Al-Bukhari and Muslim.^[3]

• Aishah relates that Muhammad said about the two rakahs before Fajr, "They are dearer to me than the whole world." This is related by Muslim, Ahmad and Tirmidhi.

• Ahmad and Muslim record that Aishah said, "I have never seen him (Muhammad) more in haste to do a good deed than he was to perform the two rakahs before the morning (prayer)."

• Abu Huraira reports that Muhammad said: "Do not leave the two rak'ahs of Fajr, even if you are being attacked by cavalry." This is confirmed by Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Al-Bahaiqi and at Tahawi.

• Aishah reports that Muhammad said, "The two (sunnah) rakahs of Fajr are better than this world and all it contains." This is reported by Ahmad, Muslim, Tirmidhi and Nasa'i.

• Abu Hurairah reported: Muhammad said, "No Salat is more burdensome to the hypocrites than the Fajr (dawn) prayer and the `Isha' (night) prayer; and if they knew their merits, they would come to them even if they had to crawl to do so. [Sahih-Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim].

See also[link]

• Wudhu
• Dhuhr (Mid-day prayer)
• Asr (Afternoon prayer)
• Maghrib (Sunset prayer)
• Isha' (Night prayer)
• Dhikr
• Tasbih

Notes[link]

1. ^ Quran 24:58
2. ^ There are differing opinions on what angle to use to calculate dawn. The two popular angles are 15° and 18° below the horizon, yet others use 12°.
3. ^ Excellence of the Morning (Fajr) and 'Asr Prayers

External links[link]

• A Guide to Maintain Fajr Salat
• Our Fajr Double Advantage

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Nouman Ali Khan is a Muslim speaker and the CEO and founder of Bayyinah, an Islamic educational institution in the United States.^[1][2]

His early education in Arabic started under in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and continued in Pakistan. His serious Arabic training began in 1999 in the United States. He has been teaching Modern Standard and Classical Arabic at various venues for several years with over 10,000 students nationwide.^[1] Nouman Ali Khan teaches about the religion of Islam through his video speeches.^[3] He also frequently speaks at Islamic Circle of North America Conventions about Islam, family, and other life topics.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Detailed Student Notes of Nouman Ali Khan's Lectures

• Nouman Ali Khan lectures

Abu Usamah at-Thahabi (born March 10, 1964) is an Imam at Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham, England.

History[link]

Abu Usamah, Khalifah At-Thahabi, born Frankie Lipscomb, was born and raised in Passaic, New Jersey, the third eldest of four children. His siblings names include Kimberly, Sylvia, and also Daryl.

He reverted to Islam in 1986, and applied to attend the University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, an Islamic school popular with reverts and international students. He attended the university for eight years where he graduated from the College of Da'wah and Usool-ad-Din. There he completed his BSc in Usool-Ul-Deen(theology) and learned the Arabic language. After his graduation from the University, Abu Usamah went to teach in the UK before returning to the US in 1996 in order to pursue his first position of Imam in Orlando, Florida. He was an imam at mosques in Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Peoria. Abu Usamah is very engaged in the Islamic community. He has also be immensely active in the giving of da'wah within the Islamic community.

References[link]

Khalid Yasin
Khalid Yasin speaks on evolution in a public lecture.
Born	1946 (age 65–66) Harlem, New York, United States
Residence	Seattle, Washington
Nationality	American
Other names	Abu Muhammad, Abu Muhammad Khalid Yasin
Religion	Islam

Khalid Yasin (also known as Abu Muhammad^[1] and Abu Muhammad Khalid Yasin^[2]) (born in 1946) is an American convert from Christianity to Islam who lectures in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.^[1]Yasin lives in Manchester, England and has operated a "da'wah" organization which has had various names. It was dissolved in 2010.^[3]Yasin frequently travels overseas to spread his faith. He has called himself a "media-bedouin," remarking that the bedouins are willing to settle wherever there is "water and shelter".^[4] Yassin is outspoken about a variety of issues in his speeches and media appearences.

Background[link]

Yasin was born in Harlem, New York and raised in Brooklyn as a Christian along with nine siblings. Although not an orphan, he grew up in foster homes from the age of three, along with some of his siblings, until he was fifteen. He describes each foster home as having a different Christian denomination, so he covered a wide spectrum of Christianity. He was put up for adoption due to his family's financial state.^[1]

Yasin has described his youth in "the ghetto", where it was "Me and my two brothers Sam and Julius, against the world. We had nothing but converting and accepting Islam now we have everything". When first reading about Islam, he often used Encyclopedia Britannica as a reliable source on Islam and its concepts.^[4] Yasin felt the grief of African-American people, and he was especially influenced by the turbulent 1960's and figures like Malcolm X.^[4]

Yasin converted to Islam in 1965.^[5] He began his ministry as the "Amir" or leader of Jammat Ita'hadul Iqwa on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn (often referred to^{[by whom?]} as the McDonald's Mosque, due to its proximity to a McDonald's).

Yassin has been accused of espousing a radical form of Islam. "Channel Nine" in Australia described him as "a charismatic preacher who’s capturing the hearts and minds of young Australian Muslims with a radical mix of pleas for the understanding of terrorism, anti-Western conspiracy theories and radical homophobia.^[6] Rather differently, the Oman Tribute described him as a "learned scholar" who "regularly tours different countries debunking the misinformation about Islam".^[5]

Discussing his leisure time, Yassin said, "I’m a fairly avid horseman, I swim, martial arts, I box, I read quite a bit. Probably once every two years I visit Mecca and I cleanse myself spiritually by performing the Omrah or the Haj, and then daily I pray five times a day.":^[7]

Notable views[link]

During Yasin's stays in Australia in mid-2000, he received media attention regarding his views on Islam.

In a speech that Yasin delivered at Bankstown Town Hall in Sydney, Australia, as well as in a televised interview, seen as critical of Muslims befriending non-Muslims, Yasin said: "There's no such thing as a Muslim having a non-Muslim friend, so a non-Muslim could be your associate but they can't be a friend. They're not your friend because they don't understand your religious principles and they cannot because they don't understand your faith."^[8] He later contextualized his comment, explaining that Muslim people, including him, invariably have friends, neighbors and colleagues who are non-Muslims, but that does not mean that non-Muslims should influence Muslims' religious or moral decisions.^[4]

Yasin has lectured to students at universities as a guest speaker and on debate panels. He also addresses crowds at events aimed at young people. Yassin has made statements describing western civilization's academic tradition as difficult to reconcile with Islamic religious life: "University is a gateway for deviation,you forget your Islamic direction. Now you have become compromised through some kind of intellectuality."^[8][9]

Yasin was allegedly quoted by an Australian newspaper instructing a light beating as discipline for disobedient wives.^[8] Yasin denies ever saying this, and says that the Koran does not include any such instructions in its 6626 verses.^[4]

In Australia in 2005 Yasin was quoted as saying that: "The Koran gives a clear position regarding homosexuality lesbianism and bestiality. ... They are aberrations punishable by death. ... We can’t walk around society slandering them because there is legislation against doing that but we don’t have to like them we don’t have to promote them and we have the right to say that that’s a moral aberration.”^[6] In a 2010 documentary, Yasin said that "in the eyes of God everyone is equal, not the same, but equal" and that, "according to the principles of Islam", homosexuality is "a perversive behavior and a criminal behavior. But we need to be tolerant. We are citizens, we need to be tolerant".^[9]

Yasin believes that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is probably man-made and that the US Government is the likely culprit. He said that “missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups ... went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus.”^[6][4]

Yasin accuses Israel of state terrorism. He refers to "an occupation of Palestinian land by the criminal state of Israel ... and they are still committing terrorism after 50 years".^[9]

Regarding capital punishment by some Muslim states, Yasin has said: "Then people can see, people without hands, people can see in public heads rolling down the street, people got [sic] their hands and feet from opposite sides chopped off and they see them crucified ... They see people put up against the pole and see them get lashed in public. They see it, and because they see it, it acts as a deterrent for them because they say I don't want that to happen to me". Yasin made these comments during an investigation for a British Channel 4 documentary, "Dispatches: Undercover Mosque", which investigated the intolerance and fundamentalism reportedly being spreading through Britain's mosques from the Saudi Arabian religious establishment closely linked to the Saudi Arabian government. Yasin responded that his comments should be considered in context and that he did not support or promote Saudi Arabian government religious rhetoric and that, in any event, capital punishment occurred in many countries. "The lecture," he stated, "was aimed at reforming the Muslim people, the Muslim society and the Muslim world … to be adjudicated by the Sovereign Islamic State" when one exists.^[10]

On September 7, 2003 Yasin appeared on Australian program Sunday Nights With John Cleary:^[7] On Islam's position in the West, Cleary asked Yasin, how he as a teacher dealt with Islam getting a very rough trot in the West today. To this Yasin answered that he saw two options, one for himself and one for other co-religionists. He spoke of the need to be tolerant and said Muslims need to personify with the core principles of the religion as then at least Muslims could not be held responsible for people taking a radical view of them. As a second thing he mentioned that he assesses people, who he speak to so to enable himself to correct any misconseptions about Islam from their perspective as that's what an educator does."^[7]

Discussing international governing bodies and the lack of them in Islam, Cleary asked where Sharia fits into that and Yasin replied; "Well the Sharia is the cement that keeps all the bricks together. The Sharia is the legislative element. The Sharia is the judicial element. This is where rules, this is where juristic decisions, this is where the courts, this is where law. And I mean if you don't have a people that is governed by Sharia, then you have a lawless people."^[7]

Denmark[link]

In 2010 Yasin lectured in Copenhagen at a Muslim youth project called "North Bronx" - From Gang Member two Conscious Muslim, with one of his credentials being the fact that Yasin is a former gang member from Harlem. His participation stirred political debate whether Yasin was a suitable role model for keeping youths out of gangs. The organizer of the event defended Yasin and stated that, "He has totally changed his position and entered the fight to prevent radicalization and crime".^[11][12]

Netherlands[link]

In 2009, Yasin travelled to the Netherlands and taught lectures on several occasions, including at the private Muslim university of Rotterdam. Several Dutch parties tried unsuccessfully to deny him access to the country. The most visible campaign against Yasin was led by right-wing politician Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom.

On a Dutch-Muslim feature interview Yasin compared the controversial reaction he and Islam stirs to "someone walking in the dark, without knowing where they are going", and to people being afraid of things they are not familiar with.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Shaykh Khalid Yasin's official website
• Khalid Yasin audio and video lectures