Importance of Salaah with jamaat

University student delaying salaah

Q: I have a few questions;

1. I’m a student at a university in Saudi Arabia. I sometimes have lectures from 3pm- 4pm, when asr time is around 3:20pm. The Muslims around me don’t get up and perform their salah when the prayer is called, they make it up after the lecture is over. So I wanted to ask, is it permissible to not attend to salaah because you are in a lecture hall while the teacher is teaching? I was very confused because I didn’t know whether I was just being overly attentive to my salah times and stressing over how to manage my classes timings and the salaah timings, or whether it’s essential for us Muslims to attend to our salaah immediately and a lecture is no excuse.

2. Sometimes I am eating, and the azaan is called, what should I do in that case? Should I stop eating and pray, then come back and finish my food? Or should I finish my food and then go pray?

Performing Salaah with jamaat at home

Q:

1. If I missed the prayer with jamat, can I pray with my family members (wife, sons, daughter) at home?

2. Can I miss the congregation prayer at the masjid and pray in congregation at home because the imam of the masjid makes masah on normal socks?

3. If I am sure that I will miss the jamat, is it compulsory to go to the masjid and pray alone or second jamat?

4. I hear the azan and iqamat and complete namaz but I am very tired to go and pray in the masjid, can I pray at home later with my family?

5. For Asar prayer, instead of praying with jamat in a Hambali maslak time, can I delay the prayer and pray (alone or with my family) at home after the Hanafi maslak time begins. (I listen to the complete azan and iqamat and jamat from the masjid's speakers).

Students performing jamaat salaah in a hostel

Q: We are hostellers, 3 friends (age 20-22) in one room and we have kept a separate place on the balcony of our room for jammat namaz where 4- 6 people (or more) can easily adjust without any problem. I heard a hadith that one who does not offer jammat salaah if he/she can, when he/she will be inside grave, his/her face will be moved away from the qiblah.

I told my friends about the hadith and one of my friends asked me who will be the imaan from amongst us since we all make mistakes. If anyone of us will be an imaam and if he makes a mistake, he will get the sin of the muqtadi's (people standing behind the imaam) also.

My point of view is that no one is perfect but we can try. If with full attention, concentration, seriousness, students like us would like to lead the jamaat of other students (even after knowing that we are not perfect), would it be wrong? 

Performing salaah with jamaat at work

Q: I work in a hospital. The nearest Musjid/Musallah is about 5-6 km away. Alhamdulillah we have permission to travel for Zuhr salaah during our lunch break (Our lunch break is 30 min, but it takes about 40min to go for Zuhr salaah and come back to work) and have been doing so for approximately the last 3 years.

However there are colleagues from other departments in the hospital who are not always able to join us for salaah. Should we request hospital management to give us a room to perform salaah with jamaat, and encourage other colleagues to join us for jamaat, or should we continue to encourage them to join us for salaah at the musjid?

Is it permissible to perform Esha salaah in a house where one will be performing taraweeh?

Q: I have been offered by my uncle to perform taraweeh salaah with two cousins of mine at his house. His house is between a musjid and a jamaat khana and is 650m from both. I wanted to find out if we are performing taraweeh there, can we perform the esha salaah there as well or not? 

Fear of performing salaah with jamaat in a musjid

Q: I have researched about it deeply and I can conclude that there are cases in which it is recommended by our religion to pray alone instead of attending congregational prayers such as when you feel that your life or assets are in danger, in state of fear of your death, etc. Hence my situation is that I love to pray in the masjid with all the people together but whenever I enter the masjid, I suspect everyone as a suicide bomber. During whole prayer I am not able to concentrate in my Salah, this happened more intense when I bring my kids with me at Juma or even daily prayers. During prayer I start to imagine blood and body parts on the carpet and during whole prayers my mind is busy in thinking that if it really happens, how I will save my kids? From where will we escape, etc. I feel much better praying alone in my house or more better in an empty masjid. My question is that in that case what should be the right thing to do?