Can A Person Who Is Not Allowed To Establish Prayer At Workplace Establish His or Her Prayer By Symbolic Bodily Motions?
Can a person who is not allowed to establish prayer at workplace establish his/her prayer by symbolic bodily motions?
It is stated in the Holy Qur’an, “Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity.” (Baqarah, 2/286). Based on this verse, a main principle of “Ta’at (worship) is performed in proportion to a person’s power.” (Marghinani, al-Hidayah, II, 83) is introduced. The essential thing is to perform the conditions and pillars of the prayer completely. Establishing prayer by moves of head is only permissible when one is not able to establish prayer normally. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, “If you can perform sajdah on the floor, do it. If you cannot perform it on the floor, do it by moving your head. While doing so, bow your head a bit more than you do for the ruku .” (Abu Ya‘la, al-Musnad, III, 345-346). Establishment of prayers by symbolic moves is considered as a method to be followed only when a person is sick and it is discussed under the title of “patient’s prayer” in fiqh books (Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut, I, 212).
The fact that a person is not allowed to establish prayer at workplace does not eliminate that person’s power to establish prayer physically but eliminates his opportunity to establish it although he is able to do it. Failure to find the opportunity to establish prayers although a person is healthy is not included in the situations that make it permissible to establish prayer by symbolic movements. For this reason, a person who is in a place where establishing prayer is not allowed cannot establish his prayer by this way.
A person who works at such a workplace, first of all, should search for another job where he can perform his worships freely. If he fails to find such a job and faces with the risk of not being able to earn sustenance of his dependents in the event of leaving his present job, he establishes his prayers by jam/combining them according to its procedure, if possible. That is to say, he establishes them by combining dhuhr and ‘asr, by either establishing ‘asr earlier within dhuhr’s time or establishing dhuhr later within ‘asr’s time, and by combining maghrib and ‘isha, by either establishing maghrib later in ‘isha’s time or establishing ‘isha earlier in maghrib’s time. But one should remember that this is an exceptional judgment. If this is not possible either, he may miss the prayer in order to establish qada prayer for it at earliest convenience. Because the Prophet Muhammad (saw) also established qada prayer for the prayer he missed due to battle (Bukhari, Jihad, 98).
Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWA
