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Fatwa CenterPraying behind imaam whose creed might be defective
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. I hope you are in the best of health. The following isue has arisen in my life. I know that it is impermissible to pray behind a disbeliever. I live in a Barelvi area. I read that it is permissible to pray behind them if they do not have any beliefs that include Kufr (disbelief) or Shirk (polytheism). I have been praying behind the imam for a couple of months. I have not heard any thing clear-cut which clearly shows that he has beliefs related to Kufr or Shirk, but last night, after the Taraweeh (collective voluntary night prayers in Ramadan) prayers, the imam turned to the congregation and said that they had a special guest who wanted to talk. He was a "peer/pir". Initally, he started talking about good things, like that one should teach their kids the prayer from a young age, manners, etc. Then he said something which felt like a stab in my heart. He said, "The prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is 'haazir' and 'naazir.'" Then he said something along the line of "just like a mobile cannot transmit information far away, things are transmitted to our Prophet, and from there, he sees us or knows about us." He said something like this; I cannot remember his actualy words, but it was like this, and he definitely said, "The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is 'haazir' or 'naazir'". Just to clarify, this was the "pir", not my imam. My imam was sitting in the place where he just lead us in prayer. Now my question is: what do I do? This is the closest mosque, the next three mosques are Barelvi, Deobandi, Fultoli, but they are too far away, and my dad will not go all the way there. In addition, my dad says that he wants to pray in the mosque. He says that he gets too lazy at home to pray whereas in the mosque he is more focused. Can my father and I still offer prayers in this Barelvi mosque? We are not Barelvi. My dad does not know anything about the Barelvi, and neither did I until a couple of months ago. Now I am careful about the info from this mosque. I just pray and leave. I get my knowledge regarding my religion online through reliable websites of scholars. My dad thinks we are all normal Sunnis (the Barelvi too). What do I do? Can my father and I carry on praying in this mosque?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
The basic principle is that it is permissible to pray behind any person who belongs to Islam, and the prayer is valid. No Muslim who has taken the Shahaadah (testimony of faith) is to be judged to be a Kaafir (a disbeliever) except if it is firmly established that he has committed an act of disbelief and that he was informed about the ruling on it beyond the excuse of ignorance. Hence, there is no harm on you or your father to continue praying in this mosque. Please refer to fatwa sees and hears everything is a false statement">329353.
Allah knows best.
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