Is It Valid for a Hanafi to Pray Behind a Shafi’i Joining Prayers?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalam alaykum

A Hanafi prayed behind a Shafi’i the Maghrib prayer in Maghrib time. Then the Shafi’i congregation combined their Isha prayer as well. The Hanafi not knowing prayed as well. Does the Hanafi have to repeat his Isha?

Answer: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah,

If the Hanafi fulfilled the conditions and integrals of the Shafi‘i school, his ‘isha prayer would be deemed legally valid.

The basis is that mixing between positions of the imams or schools (talfiq) in a manner that none would deem acceptable is impermissible . There is some disagreement, but according to a sound and followable position, if his purification was valid on the Hanafi school and his prayer on the Shafi‘i school, it would be fine. If not, he should repeat the prayer.

Please note that the above is on the assumption that ‘isha was prayed before the entry of its time.

[Haskafi, al-Durr al-Mukhtar; Tahtawi, Hashiyat al-Maraqi]

Please also see: A Reader on Following Schools of Thought (Madhabs) and: Why Is Mixing Between Madhabs (Talfiq) Impermissible When The Earlier Generations Seem To Have Done It? and: Can a Hanafi Follow the Shafi’i Opinion on Joining Prayers When Traveling?

And Allah Most High knows best.

wassalam,

[Ustadh] Tabraze Azam

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Tabraze Azam holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Leicester, where he also served as the President of the Islamic Society. He memorised the entire Qur’an in his hometown of Ipswich at the tender age of sixteen, and has since studied the Islamic Sciences in traditional settings in the UK, Jordan and Turkey. He is currently pursuing advanced studies in Jordan, where he is presently based with his family.