Q: I have read that during namaz one should focus on the words being recited. But if one does not know the meaning of those words, how is it possible to "focus" on those words? Should we imagine that we are actually "seeing" those words written somewhere, similar to focusing on text written in a book.

Q: Narrated Abu Huraira (raziallahuanhu): Allah's Apostle (sallalahualaywasallam) said, "If the Imam leads the prayer correctly then he and you will receive the rewards but if he makes a mistake (in the prayer) then you will receive the reward for the prayer and the sin will be his. [Volume 1, Book 11, Number 663: Bukhaari]

Respected Scholars,

I am in Nigeria of an Indian origin and where I stay we have an small Masjid over there for daily prayer except Juma salah. Most of the time Imam travel as he is not the permanent Imam of the masjid, so in his absence, people always request me to lead the salah. I found myself not very good to recite Qur'an with Tajweed. Based on the above hadith I am scared that am I doing correct or not.

My intention to lead the salah is to establish deen and the commandment of Allah swt at my level best.

Q: I am sure that the problem I am facing must have been presented to you many times before. However I request you to consider it from my personal perspective only. I have been living in Western Canada for last five years and every year when summer comes it causes me and my family a lot of hardship to perform Fard salah and more recently the Ramadan fasting. This is because of very long days and very short nights. To give you an idea, at the peak of the summer the Fajr time starts at 3 am and Maghrib at 10 pm. This situation remains for almost 6 months before we could sleep for straight seven hours in the night.

This causes a lot of hardship for me in particular because the nature of my work requires a lot of hard work everyday and my mind and body need proper rest to be ready for the next day. It also doesn't allow me and my wife to have normal marital relationship with out missing the Fajr salah. My nature is such that It is very difficult for me to sleep whenever I want to. Also sleeping in parts rather than continuously does not refresh me.

My question to you is that shouldn't we be performing our salah and fast based on some normal time table instead of following the Sun. From normal I mean a time table that allows us to take proper night rest and does not make our fast longer than 16 hours. This I believe is needed because we have to deal with it every year and there is no other solution except that we move to some place closer to the Equator. Which I think would not be right because Islam is for every part of the world and not just for those who have normal day and night cycles. I believe that Islam is the nature and would not put someone in undue hardship beyond one's capacity every year for six months.

I have heard from a few muslim people of Arab origin that they have fatwas to follow a normal time table instead of sunrise and sunset. I have also read that this could be agreed upon by consensus by all the muslims living in such an area. However muslims have been living in my city for many years and I don't think they have ever been agreed to follow a reasonable time table for salah and fasting. The salah time tables followed by our city are all based on local day and night cycles.

I don't have the capacity to bring all the muslims in this community together to resolve this issue. Therefore I request you to consider this as a personal problem and advise me as per shariah.

س: إذا جهر الإمام بالاستعاذة قبل قراءة الفاتحة في الركعة الأولى من صلاة التراويح، ثم سجد للسهو باعتبار أنه جهر بما يسر به، فهل فعله صحيح؟ 

Q: Can one read something in salaah if the imaam is taking too long for example I finish read at-thiyatu or durood ebrahim then in the remainin time left, also please tell in which other parts of salaah this can be done?