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Does the speaker's words invalidate the prayer at times other than the sermon?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The words of the preacher or the worshipper before or after the sermon do not invalidate the prayer, because listening intently is only required during the sermon, based on the hadith: "If you say to your companion, 'Listen intently,' on Friday while the Imam is delivering the sermon, you have engaged in idle talk." Al-Bukhari titled a chapter on this: "Chapter on listening intently on Friday while the Imam is delivering the sermon." Ibn Hajar said: "And the Imam is delivering the sermon" is a circumstantial clause that excludes what is before the sermon and what is after it. Speaking during the sermon does not affect the validity of the prayer, even if it is not permissible. The meaning of "And whoever speaks, there is no Friday [prayer] for him" means: there is no complete Friday [prayer] for him.

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

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