 Salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Welcome to Ahkam SOS, the show that discusses Islamic duties and practices by His Eminence, the Grand Ayatullah, Sayyid Sadik Sharazi, Hafadullah. Our most insha'a in joining me is Shaykh Ali Ma'ash, Salamu alaykum Shaykhna. Salamun alaykum wa rahmatullah. Shaykhna, in previous discussions we'll be discussing Salah, we'll be discussing the different types of Salah. Salah in Jama'ah, Salah of Aid, Salah of Jama'ah. Let's put our attention to Salah al-Ayat. Now Ayat meaning signs, what are these signs and what is this Salah, is it a wajib to perform or not? I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the accursed, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and may Salat be upon Muhammad and his family, the righteous and the righteous. Now Salat al-Ayat is the Salah for the signs in which appear in this world, there are natural disasters, there are some strange signs that occurs. For example, there are four types of signs in which if they took place, the mu'min and the mu'mina must, as obligatory, as wajib, to perform Salat al-Ayat for those signs. The first event and sign is the Sun Eclipse, so even the partial and no one fears of it, still you have to perform the Salat al-Ayat, so Sun Eclipse is the first one. The second one is the Mu'min Eclipse, again even the partial, just part of the Mu'min, you still have to pray Salat al-Ayat, even if nobody fears. The third one is the earthquake that happens within seconds or minutes, again, even if there is no fear, because sometimes it's not really that strong, it's just a few seconds and a minor earthquake, in this case, you still have to pray the Salat al-Ayat, which is wajib. And the fourth one that the Sade mentions are thunder, lightning, thunderbolt, fierce black and red winds, and such like of most people that fear them. The fourth one, yes, if you fear them then you basically have to perform Salat al-Ayat in this case. How does one perform Salat al-Ayat? Is it the same as our normal prayers, or is there something very special and unique about the prayer? Salat al-Ayat is slightly different than other prayers on Salat that we perform, either wajib or mustahab. There are two procedures and methods in which the one can pray and offer Salat al-Ayat. The first way is to actually pray, it's only two rak'a, to pray in each rak'a, Hamd and Surah five times. In other words, in the first rak'a you eat Hamd and full Surah and you go to Ruk'u. Then you stand up. And this is the longest version, this is the one, the prolonged Salat of the ayat. So first rak'a, Hamd and Surah and then you go to Ruk'u. Then you stand up, again you eat Hamd and Surah, full Surah, when you finish the Surah you go again to the Ruk'u, and five times of course. For the second rak'a, exactly the same thing, again you eat Hamd and Surah five times by going to Ruk'u. So Hamd and Surah Ruk'u, you stand up exactly five times. So we can eat five times Al Hamd and Surah and five Ruk'u as well. And we recite the dhikr of the Ruk'u, Subhana Rabbi al-Adheem, each time and get up. You stand up, Surah, again Hamd and Surah. That's the longest version for this Salat. The shorter version for Salat al-Ayat, which most people would pray it and prefer it, is to bring a five ayah Surah, for example Surah al-Ikhlas, Tawheed. So you start initially with the first rak'a, you read the Hamd and then you break Surah al-Ikhlas or Surah al-Tawheed in five rak'a, Ruk'u. So first you finish the Hamd, recitation, and then you say Bismillah, Rahman al-Rahim, you go to the Ruk'u. You stand up again and you say Qulhu wallahu ahad, you go to the Ruk'u. No Hamd this time. No. You just break the same small Surah into five ayahs in five Ruk'u. And then again, allahu al-Samad, you go to the Ruk'u. You stand up again, lam yadu lam yulad, Ruk'u. You stand up, wa lam yakun lahukufu wa ahad, Ruk'u, and then you go to the Sujood afterwards. The same applies to the second rak'a. Again you break these five ayahs of this particular Surah, the short Surah, in five Ruk'u. And of course, in the second rak'a, when you finish the last ayah of the Surah, you don't go to Ruk'u, you do the taq'unot, as mustahas. You do the taq'unot, and then you go to Ruk'u and the Sujood and you end the Salat al-A'it in this way. That's the shortest version of the Salat al-A'it, which is easier and more would prefer. No feasible, yes indeed. Shaykhna, this is a Wajib Salah. So is there a Qadha for this? Qadha for this Salah is when the individual misses the signs when it's occurred. That specific time, in that an hour and a half, let's say the sun or the moon eclipse. If somebody missed that full moon eclipse, the full moon, then they have to do the Qadha afterwards. It happened in the middle of the night and you were asleep. So you woke up in the morning and they tell you at 3 am there was an eclipse for an hour and a half, and you missed it. In this case, if it's a full moon eclipse, in this case you have to do the Qadha. If it's partial, there's no mandatory and Wajib to do the Qadha. Okay, that's what the lunar eclipse only. Exactly. And what about if there's an earthquake or if there was a tornado? Surely you can't pray at the time when the actual disaster is happening. Exactly, for earthquakes and such like if you couldn't do it immediately and pray after the earthquake was happening, in this case you have to do them afterwards after the earthquake and such like and you do them as Qadha, there's no Qadha for it. You do it as Qadha. So that's fine. You can just pray afterwards after this event took place and finished. You start praying straight away after these. So there's nothing like you can go to sleep and the next day you could pray or two, three days later you pray within. You pray afterwards. Exactly. After the event. And what about this Salat? Can we pray in Jama'a? Is that okay? Is that? Salat al-Ayat, yes, because it's Wajib, it's not Mustahab. The only exception for Mustahab, Jama'a as we mentioned, is Salat al-Aid al-Fattar and al-Adha. And al-Ghadeer that I said also adds recently. With regards to Salat al-Ayat, because it's Wajib, then you can pray in Jama'a as well. So you go to the mosque in the time of the full, let's say the moon eclipse for example, partial or full, does it make a difference? And then you go there and you pray with the Jama'a. And exactly the same way. The Imam would go five times in record by dividing the ayah which is easier in five segments. And then you finish the Jama'a with the Imam. That's fine. Or you can do it yourself at home for adha individually. That's also accepted. Sheikh, we live in a world where natural disasters happen quite frequently and all over the world. Now we're here in London and there may be an earthquake in as close as Spain or France. The earthquake doesn't affect us. Do we have to pray Salat al-Ayat? Salat al-Ayat becomes wajib upon the individual if they witness those signs in their own regions and areas. But if I don't see the eclipse in my own country or my region then there's no wajib. It only happens if it happens in my own location and surroundings, otherwise if it happens only let's say in North Africa or in the southern of Europe for example and we never see it in here in the UK then there's no point of us to pray Salat al-Ayat becomes wajib. It's only for them becomes wajib for those who witness and see and feel the earthquake or the thunder or the eclipse and so forth. Otherwise if we see it we witness it then it becomes wajib on us to pray Salat al-Ayat. Sheikh, God forbid this happens but what if there's more than one tragedy? Or if there is an earthquake and a tornado and a solar eclipse at the same time once everything has been settled do we pray one Salat or do we pray Salat prescribed for each of the different natural disasters that occurred? Because each event is different and they happened let's say each in different times or even in the same time let's say because they are each you're obliged to offer Salat al-Ayat for that particular sign and ayat then you must make sure that you pray each Salat for that particular event. So let's say you have earthquake and eclipse you have to pray twice with earthquake and for the eclipse each separately so you just repeat them again twice for each event it doesn't be like that you have to pray one Salat for the whole event no each ayat becomes wajib upon the individual to perform Salat al-Ayat for that particular event and then when you finish you've done your wajib and should be sufficient. Is it mustahab in the prayer to recite surah Zalzala considering it was like a natural event is any prescribed surah or do you think just pray anything that makes the prayer easy for you? As mentioned I mean you have the right to choose any surah in the Quran Holy Quran and you actually recite that surah in the Quran that's fine from the Quran of course and for the ones with five rak'a if you want to split then you choose a surah with five ayat like Qil'Allah Wahd for example and you split that in five rak'a in five rak'a so before you go to the rak'a you recite one verse as mentioned in the beginning and then you go to the rak'a so you can break them up so that's fine I mean you can choose any ayah or any surah you want from the Holy Quran. What if one argues that you know I didn't really feel the fear of the natural disaster or you know it was very very minor do we still have to pray the Salah or is it only when you feel really really fear when it's a very severe natural disaster? With regard to the sun eclipse and the moon eclipse and the earthquake be it there is fear or there's no fear you have to pray it even if there is a minor eclipse or minor earthquake or even you didn't feel it your home sitting watching TV and somebody called you that is you know earthquake and you never felt it because that event that sign took place you must perform the Salah of Ayat becomes wajib it doesn't matter there's no fear there's nothing at all that makes it fear some even get excited they go on to the hills and they watch you know the sun eclipse or the moon eclipse they enjoy it and instead of fearing no there's no issue with regard to fearing or no fearing but with regard to the thunder and lighting and thunderbolt and the black and white and red winds for such events if most people fear it of course if most people fear as I mentioned says said here if the most people fear then the Salah becomes wajib if it's just a minor red winds happens in Iraq in Syria as well in Arabia as well these are red wind and sometimes in some occasions happens or even black winds because they have they have Sahara and deserts if it's minor than that people are used to it that's not there's no Salah wajib for it but if it becomes severe in wish that's most people fear it you know sometimes kids fear it that's not the sign for that's the Salah becomes wajib it has to be in the majority of people who should fear that sign that thunder for example or the lighting also some people would fear it you know with weak hearts you know elderly maybe the kids but it should be feared by the majority of the people then if this happens then the Salah would be wajib the Salah ayat would be wajib upon people to perform it. Thank you very much and thank you to all the viewers for joining us insha'Allah you guys stay safe and you do not fear the natural weathers that we have but if you do then make sure you pray your Salah and remember us in your door insha'Allah until the next episode Salamu alaykum rahmatullah