Conditions for the validity of Salaah

Q: If a woman follows one random man in namaz, is the namaz valid (he is not her mahram)? What if there is one imam and one woman behind him and none of them are related, is her namaz valid?

Q: I leave work before maghrib and on my way home maghrib prayer time enters. I cannot offer maghrib when the time enters and only offer maghrib prayers just before Esha prayer. Is it allowed to offer maghrib prayer before Esha if you dont offer it on time?

Q: I made a vow to read two rakaats of salaah everytime I do a certain sin and double the amount of salaah if I do it again. I'm doing this in order to help me completely leave the sin out. I want to know, when I read this salaah, can I make two intentions in one? Example, I read this salaah at tahajjud time so I also make intention for tahajjud.

Q: I would like to know if I read Fajr Salaah and after I finished, I saw the time was 5:39. Few seconds later, when I checked the time again It was 5:40 and sunrise is at 5:40. Should I repeat the salaah or is it okay and within the time?

Q: I reside in an area and noticed that both mussallees and trustees of the local masjid are unmindful of zawaal, this is mainly on a Juma as we come early for jumah.

I find that people are performing nafl salaah during this time including the trustees and Ulema. The other masjids that I attend during this time either put on a light or a sign that say zawal.

I would like to know the following:

Firstly when is zawaal and how long does it last for? Example the times I see on the calendar for today as well as salaah times from crescent mobile says zawal 11:59am.

Does this mean zawal sets in at this time or ends at this time?

During this time of zawal what should be done and what should not be done?

Should I bring this to the attention of the trustees and will I be accountable For this if I don't?

This has been going on for the past 3 years or so. I dont want people to be offended and neither do I want to commit any wrong actions, thus when attending this masjid I look at zawal time on my phone and as a precaution I commence my nafl salaah 10 mins after the stipulated zawal time.

Q: During salaah, I sometimes wear a shirt which has a low collar, so a bit of my upper chest (under the bone below the neck) neck gets visible. Is the salaah valid?

Also, how much portion of the chest should be covered by men during salaah? 

Q: If a person delays the esha salaah and only performs it after midnight, will the salaah be valid?

Q: If I started my zohr namaaz at 4:00pm due to being sick, and asr namaaz came in at 4:03 whilst I was reading my salah, do I have to repeat the zohr namaaz?

Q: I have difficulty concerning covering my awrah during prayer as a female.

1. I have quite a small forehead, and the hairs that cover the sides of my forehead are not the same length as my hair overall, but they’re longer than a person’s usual baby hairs. It causes me to overly look in the mirror and fix my scarf before salah just incase any show, and also causes me to bring my scarf down really close to my eyes. Due to this difficulty, if these certain hairs show during salah, can I overlook this?

2. Another thing I have a lot of difficulty covering are my wrists. Even If I try to use long sleeves, sometimes during sajdah the sleeve of my wrist gets lifted upwards (like towards the ceiling) - if that makes sense - due to me laying my forearms on the ground. Today, I saw my sleeve on my wrist during salah and it looked lifted and I had a slightly strong feeling that the way it looked it was probably showing my awrah but I didn’t attempt to change it because I was confused about what to do. I couldn’t tell if more than a quarter was showing or not from the angle I was sitting. I was also not sure if I should have moved to fix it regardless of if it was less than a quarter.

- If I notice that less than a quarter of awrah is showing during salah, then do I fix it or can I leave it?

- Can you confirm if I properly determined the quarter of my arm during salah because I’m not sure if i’m doing it right. To determine if a quarter of my arm shows, does it mean that my elbow is considered the halfway point? I feel guilty because I felt like if I had a strong feeling that my awrah was showing, I should have hidden it.

Q: I burst a pimple on my thigh to remove its pus, and just rubbed the pus with my fingers, then I wore my undergarment and pants without cleaning the pus and/or blood that got stuck on my thigh after rubbing the pimple, nor did I clean my hands. Now, some amount of pus will stick to my clothes.

Is it allowed or okay to pray in those clothes and without cleaning it (pus) with water on my thigh and fingers or without taking a shower? I read on some websites that a small amount of pus or blood is okay and it will not break the wudoo, but my question is, will the clothes become najis after such activity or shall I take a shower to make myself clean before I pray, or at-least clean only where pus or blood got stuck?