Can a Mother Lead Her Son In Prayer If He Doesn’t Know How to Pray?

Answered by Ustadha Shaista Maqbool

Question: Can a Muslim mother lead the prayer for her 22 year old son who doesn’t know enough to pray on his own nor is he able to follow a male figure since there aren’t any present in the household ? If she is able to lead the prayer in order to teach him, who would be the one to stand in front?

Answer: In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

One of the conditions to lead men in prayer is that one must be a man himself – i.e. it is not valid for a woman to lead a man in prayer.

There is very little that is required to make a prayer valid, it can be learned very quickly. One only needs to know one verse consisting of six letters (not counting vowels) e.g. Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem. This recitation is sufficient for the person who doesn’t know anything else and his prayer is valid.

The following is the minimum one needs to make one’s prayer valid:

1 – The person should know which prayer he is praying, whether it be Zhuhr or Asr, and how many raka’aat it consists of.

2-He begins with Allahu Akbar, says Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem, bows for ruku’, stands up again and prostrates two times, repeating this (two, three, or four times – depending upon the prayer) until the last raka’ah, at which point he sits after the second prostration for about 30 seconds (which is the time it would take one to read Al-Tahiyah and the testification if one knew it). That’s it.

As you can see, what one needs to know to pray is very little. This makes a lot of sense considering that converts are required to start praying right away – this is how it is possible to do so.

And Allah know best.

Shaista Maqbool