Can I Miss a Prayer Because of an Exam?

Answered by Shaykh Abdurragmaan Khan

Question: Assalam alaykum,

Sometimes I have an exam that occurs right in the middle of prayer time. Since the time is already constricted, leaving the hall to pray might result in not being able to complete the paper. Is it allowed to miss a prayer and make it up right after my exam is complete?

Answer: Wa alaykum al-Salam

Shukran for your question.

Prayer is the most important form of worship. It’s what differentiates between belief and disbelief. The Prophet sallaLlahu alayhi wasallam, emphasizing the importance of prayer and how it may never be omitted, said that one should pray standing, and if he is not able then sitting or laying on his side or laying on his back, respectively. The scholars added that he should pray by moving his head and if he is not able to move his head, then he should pray by moving eyes. If he is not able to move his eyes, they said, then he should pray with his mind. This all emphasizes the sanctity of prayer and how it may not be left omitted.

That being said, certain Shafi’i and Hambali scholars permitted one to join between prayers (Dhur and Asr; Magrib and Isha) under difficult and challenging circumstances. Thus, if your exam commences before Asr and ends after Magrib, by way of example, and you are unable to break away from your exam to pray Asr, then this situation warrants you to join the Asr prayer with your dhur prayer in the time of dhur before your exam. The conditions of joining prayers will have to be adhered to and shortening the prayer is not permissible in this instance.

May Allah increase our attachment to Salah and grant us steadfastness, Amin.

Wassalam
[Shaykh] Abdurragmaan Khan

Shaykh Abdurragmaan received ijazah ’ammah from various luminaries, including but not restricted to: Habib Umar ibn Hafiz—a personality who affected him greatly and who has changed his relationship with Allah, Maulana Yusuf Karaan—the former Mufti of Cape Town; Habib ‘Ali al-Mashhur—the current Mufti of Tarim; Habib ‘Umar al-Jaylani—the Shafi‘i Mufti of Makkah; Sayyid Ahmad bin Abi Bakr al-Hibshi; Habib Kadhim as-Saqqaf; Shaykh Mahmud Sa’id Mamduh; Maulana Abdul Hafiz al-Makki; Shaykh Ala ad-Din al-Afghani; Maulana Fazlur Rahman al-Azami and Shaykh Yahya al-Gawthani amongst others.