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What is the meaning of this Hadith: "There is no prayer for one who prays alone behind a row (of worshippers)"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Jurists differ on the ruling regarding the prayer of a person praying alone behind the row. The Hanbalis hold that it is absolutely invalid if one prays a complete rak'ah alone, citing the hadith of Wabisa ibn Ma'bad, in which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, ordered a person who prayed alone behind the row to repeat the prayer. The majority, however, consider the prayer valid, though disliked, citing the hadith of Abu Bakrah, who bowed behind the row and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not order him to repeat the prayer. There is a third opinion that differentiates between the excused and the unexcused: the prayer of an excused person who could not find a space in the row is valid, while the prayer of an unexcused person is not. As for differentiating between men and women in this issue, its basis is a hadith of Anas, which Ibn al-Qayyim weakened in its use as an argument. He stated that the Sunnah for a woman is to stand alone behind the row if there are no other women for her to stand with, because she is prohibited from aligning herself with men.

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

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