AskImamDarul Iftaa Mahmudiyyah (AskImam)

Is it haram to think you are better than one who doesn’t pray five times a day?

Fatwa 4926English
Character & Morals

Question

1) Is it haram to think you are better than one who doesn?t pray five times a day? 2)At the mosque, when the prayers are finished, dhikr is done collectively, with a person saying out loud Subhanallah and everyone inside themselves saying it 33 times, then the same for Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar. Is this bidah? 3)Isn?t it possible that some of the things that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said during his prophethood has not been conveyed fully by some of the Sahabah due to various reasons (eg. memory, etc)? I mean they are human and CAN make mistakes at times Please provide detailed and accurate answers.

Answer

1. Yes, it is incorrect to think that one is better than someone else. Allah is the true judge of everyone.
2. This is not referred to as collective Dhikr. Collective Dhikr is referred to a form of Dhikr where all participants say the Dhikr aloud at the same time. In the case mentioned by you, the Imaam merely says 'Subhaanallah' or 'Alhamdulillah' once and the congregation thereafter recite the same silently. So the Imaam's saying so is more of a 'reminder' to engage in Dhikr of this sort.
3. Yes, they were humans and could have made mistakes. However, the degree of authenticity of the Ahaadith, etc. is based upon the chain of narrators in terms of reliability and number. In other words, the more the narrators, the more authenticity is added to the Hadith. So when a number of Sahaabah narrate a particular Hadith, the authenticity of the Hadith is further enhanced manifold.

and Allah Ta'ala Knows Best

Mufti Muhammad Kadwa
FATWA DEPT.

CHECKED AND APPROVED CORRECT: Mufti Ebrahim Desai

Answered by
Mufti Muhammad Kadwa
View original Ask AskImam directly

Fatawa SA is an independent, read-only index of fatawa already published by Darul Iftaa Mahmudiyyah (AskImam). It is not a fatwa service. For your own situation, ask the issuing Darul Ifta directly.