Salaah

Reciting Quraan or visiting the sick while azaan is being called out

Q: My Quraan teacher for tajweed and tahfeez is in another country and temporarily teaching me over the phone. During this, if Azan is called, do I need to stop or can I continue since my Qaari Sahib will not be aware of the azaan being called out at our place?

Can we continue to see and talk to the patients in clinic or should stop while the azaan is being called out?

Standing behind the imaam if there are no other muqtadis

Q: I started performing salaah with the imaam and because another person was just there, I stood behind the imaam expecting the other person to join the salaah as well. But that person went to perform wudhu and we completed the whole salaah in this manner.

1. Is my salaah valid?

2. Should I have moved forward to go to the right of imam when I felt the other person will be late?

3. Is moving forward during salah permissible and how much can one walk forward before the salaah becomes invalid?

Calculating safar distance from the boundary of one's town

Q: Please advise on the following with regards to qasr salaat. I reside in the Phoenix area and go visit my in laws in Umzinto which is about 90km from Phoenix.

Phoenix is in the Ethekwini (Durban) municipality which extends from Tongaat in the north to Umkomaas in the South and to Camperdown in the West. Where do I count the boundary, from the town of Phoenix or from the Ethekwini municipal boundary? Umkomaas to Umzinto is about 20km but it is about 70km from Phoenix. Please advise.