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What is the ruling regarding performing Friday Prayer in the mosque's courtyard without seeing the Imam or the congregants, and with the Imam's voice occasionally cutting off? And is it obligatory to repeat it?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Scholars differ on the validity of the prayer of one who missed bowing (ruku') and prostration (sujud) in a [prayer] unit (rak'ah) and caught up with the Imam in the subsequent unit. Some consider the prayer invalid and necessitate its re-performance at noon, because the rak'ah performed individually is not counted. Others consider it valid, with a precautionary re-performance. In the Maliki school, if the worshipper (ma'mum) misses the bowing in the first rak'ah for any reason, he is not permitted to perform it after the Imam has risen. Rather, he prostrates and cancels that rak'ah; otherwise, his prayer becomes invalid if he counts it. As for the Hanbali school, if the Imam precedes him by a full rak'ah or more, he follows him and makes up what he missed. If the Imam precedes him by more than one pillar (rukn) but less than a rak'ah, that rak'ah is not counted. Imam Al-Shafi'i holds that he performs what he missed, even if it is more than one pillar.

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

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