وَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتُوا۟ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَٱرْكَعُوا۟ مَعَ ٱلرَّٰكِعِينَ ﴿٤٣﴾
Dan dirikanlah kamu akan sembahyang dan keluarkanlah zakat, dan rukuklah kamu semua (berjemaah) bersama-sama orang-orang yang rukuk.
Prayer (Salah)
Praying in congregation: its reward and its ruling
The ruling in short
The prophet ﷺ said that the prayer in congregation is twenty-seven times better than the prayer of a person alone. Allah also commands the believers to bow with those who bow (2:43). The schools agree that it is strongly stressed; they differ on whether it is an obligation.
1Rules of the congregation
- The imam should be the most knowledgeable of the Quran and the sunnah, and the people stand behind him in straight rows, shoulder to shoulder.
- The follower does not precede the imam. He moves after the imam, not together with him or before.
- Whoever joins the prayer late follows the imam, and then completes what he missed after the imam says the taslim.
- A person who catches the bowing with the imam has caught that rak'ah, according to most scholars.
2For women
- Women may pray in the mosque, with the congregation, with an appropriate arrangement. Their prayer at home is better, as reported in the hadith, and it is not an obligation on them.
Where the schools differ
The four Sunni schools agree on the main ruling above and differ in these points. No school is preferred here.
- The ruling. the Maliki school calls it a strongly stressed sunnah. The Hanafi school also calls it a strongly stressed sunnah, close to an obligation, and many Hanafis say wajib. The Shafi'i school says it is a communal obligation (fard kifayah) in the preferred view. The Hanbali school says it is an individual obligation for men.
The evidence
From the Quran
From the Sunnah
Sahih al-Bukhari 645 Authentic collection
The point of the hadith: The prayer in congregation is twenty-seven times better than the prayer of a person alone.
Read the Arabic text
حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ يُوسُفَ، قَالَ أَخْبَرَنَا مَالِكٌ، عَنْ نَافِعٍ، عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عُمَرَ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ " صَلاَةُ الْجَمَاعَةِ تَفْضُلُ صَلاَةَ الْفَذِّ بِسَبْعٍ وَعِشْرِينَ دَرَجَةً ".
This is general information, not a fatwa. For your own situation, ask a qualified scholar.
Fiqh questions
Praying in congregation: its reward and its ruling
The prophet ﷺ said that the prayer in congregation is twenty-seven times better than the prayer of a person alone. Allah also commands the believers to bow with those who bow (2:43). The schools agree that it is strongly stressed; they differ on whether it is an obligation.
Is this a fatwa?
No. It is a summary of well-known rulings with their evidence. For your own case, ask a qualified scholar.
What if my school differs from this answer?
Follow the view of the school you follow and the scholar who teaches you. The page lists the differences of the four schools.