Welcome Taha!
I am a new Muslim myself. I am interested in knowing more about 'Shia' as I don't really know much about the two different 'types' of Islam. If you would share more (if you are comfortable) that would be great. How do you pray differently?
Peace
gord
Thank you so much for your warm welcome, brother.
That's actually why I came here, so I could learn more about the Sunni school of thought. My knowledge on it is very limited and has been filtered through potential bias, so I thought I could learn best if I came to a Sunni community. I am comfortable posting some about tashayyu` but I am going to have to hold off for now. I want to make sure that nothing I post is against the rules. I have just made a thread in the Helpdesk forum so that insha'Allah I can get clarified if what I wish to post is allowed or not.
In regards to prayer, there are a couple main differences. I will list them briefly.
a) We leave our hands dangling at our sides as opposed to folding them.
b) We are allowed to combine prayers. So for example, the time for asr is the same as the time for dhuhr for us. We just pray those two together, one after the other. Same for maghrib and isha.
c) Our time for maghrib is around 15 minutes later than the Sunni timing due to different methods of obtaining the correct time.
d) We prostrate on something natural that is not eaten or worn. Most Shias use something called a turbah which is a small piece of clay or soil, but anything natural can be used such as a rock or a leaf. We put it on the ground and that is where we place our forehead in prayer.
e) We do not say "ameen" after reading Surah al-Fatiha
f) In our adhan we say "hayya `ala khayril amal" twice. We do not say "as-salaatu khayrum min an-nawm" during fajr adhan. Some Shias add "ash hadu anna Aliyun wali Allah" to the adhan but it is not wajib and I personally don't. If saying "nawm" in adhan is considered a bidaa, then mentioning Ali's [as] name is definitely a bidaa too. I don't like being a hypocrite.
g) When praying in jamaat, our prayer leader (Imam) says all of the words out loud. Sunnis only recite the Qur'an and the Allahu Akbar's out loud in jamaat.
h) We do Du'a qunut in every 2nd rakaat (i.e. the 2nd and 4th rakaat of each prayer). I've never seen a Sunni doing qunut in the Sunni mosque I occasionally visit but I've heard they do it occasionally but it's not a regular practice.
That's really all I can think of as far as prayers go.
Thanks for your question and I look forward to discussing with everyone. I do know how Sunnis pray (because I occasionally pray with Sunnis) but I don't really know the reason why they do various things. So those are the types of questions I intend on asking on this forum insha'Allah.
:wa:
