Air Traffic Control and Combining Prayers at Work

[Shehzad Sattar]

A man works in an air traffic control tower at an airport, and sometimes [while] at work prayer time comes round, if he were to leave his post to pray he would place the lives of the passengers at risk, so what is the solution?


Al-Albaani: Such a person should prepare for this [situation] by combining two prayers and not taking them out of their prescribed times, since a resident combining the prayers is something which Allaah has facilitated for the Muslims as occurs in the hadeeth of Abdullaah ibn Abbaas, may Allaah be pleased with him, that he said, “The Messenger of Allaah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) joined dhuhr with asr, and maghrib with ishaa in Medinah when there was no fear and no rain.” They asked, “Why did he do that?” He replied, “So that his Ummah would not be subjected to hardship.” [Muslim, no. 1633]

And he can [also] lighten his prayer to get back to work [more quickly].

The important thing is that a person is a witness over himself. So he has to preserve the orders of Allaah on one hand, and carry out his job faithfully/with integrity on the other. So he must try to reconcile between the implementation of both issues: issues relating to the shar’iyyah, and those relating to his job.

You mentioned in your checking of [the book] Al-Aayaat al-Bayyinaat of al-Allaamah al-Aloosee that the attribution of the book called, Ar-Rooh[The Soul], to Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah is doubtful, what’s the validity of that?

Al-Albaani: Yes, I doubt the ascription of this book to Ibn al-Qayyim due to the large number of stories and erroneous narrations in it. In addition to the fact that I have not come across a manuscript copy which can be relied upon to unequivocally attribute the book to him.

What is your opinion about the book called Al-Jamaa’aat al-Islaamiyyah [The Islamic Groups] by Saleem al-Hilaalee, and the book Tableeghee Nisaab of Muhammad Zakariyya?

Al-Albaani: I do not know anything except good about [Saleem al-Hilaalee’s] book Al-Jamaa’aat al-Islaamiyyah [The Islamic Groups].

As for the book called Tableeghee Nisaab, then I have not read it, but it has reached me from someone I trust that it contains that which opposes theSunnah.

Al-Masaa’il al-‘Ilmiyyah wal-Fataawaa ash-Shar’iyyah, Fataawaa ash-Shaikh al-Allaamah Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani, fil-Madeenah wal-Imaaraat, of Amr Abdul-Mun’im Saleem, p. 102, and pp. 170-171.

Source: https://shaikhalbaani.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/air-traffic-control-and-combining-prayers-at-work/