Back to search

What should a Hanafi living in Europe do if the mosque in his city follows other madhhabs in determining the time for Asr prayer?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The jurisprudential opinion is that a layman is not obliged to adhere to a specific madhhab (school of thought). Rather, he is permitted to switch between madhahib, provided that this is not done out of caprice. Therefore, there is no harm in acting upon a madhhab other than that of Abu Hanifa concerning this issue, especially since Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan held the same view as the majority, and there is a narration from Abu Hanifa himself that aligns with the majority opinion. All madhahib are good, and it is narrated that Abu Yusuf said: "We adopt the saying of our brothers from the people of Medina: 'If water reaches two qullatayn, it does not carry impurity,'" this was when he learned of a dead mouse in the well of the hammam (bathhouse) where he had performed ghusl for the Friday prayer.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy