Q. I have always thought that marriage between a Sunni and a Shiite Muslims is permissible, but I was recently told otherwise. Please explain.
Sania
A. Both Sunnis and Shiites believe in God’s oneness, and in the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) message. They offer the same prayers and fulfill other Islamic acts of worship, with minor differences in details. Thus both groups are Muslims. Marriage between Muslims is certainly permissible. To change such status one must prove that a particular person is not a Muslim. This means that whoever told you that such a marriage is not permissible considers one of the two groups not to be following the Islamic faith. He must provide solid proofs in support of his view. Otherwise, it should be discounted.
Different Prayers in One Congregation
Q. During a recent trip we stopped to pray Maghreb in a mosque, and after completing the prayer, several people wanted to pray Isha. As they started their prayer, others came in and joined them thinking that it was a congregation for Maghreb prayer. How could this happen? What should these latecomers do in order to finish their Maghreb prayer properly?
Sufyan Siddiq
A. There is no problem with a difference of the prayers offered by different people in the same congregation. Thus the imam may be praying Asr and you want to offer your Dhuhr prayer, there is no problem with that. You may be praying Isha, while the imam is doing his Maghreb. Both prayers are correct and acceptable. The problem in the case you have cited results from the fact that Isha is offered normally in 4 rak’ahs while Maghreb is 3 rak’ahs. Thus, a person who joins the congregation at the beginning or during the first rak’ah finds himself in a difficult position when the imam stands for his fourth rak’ah. That person cannot finish his prayer on his own, because that invalidates his prayer, and he cannot continue with the imam because he would be adding to his prayer what he cannot add.
There are two ways to deal with this situation. The first is that if the person offering Maghreb prayer comes at the beginning and knows that the imam will be praying four rak’ahs, he should delay his own start with the congregation until the imam stands up for his second rak’ah. He then joins the congregation and completes his prayer with the imam. There will be a difference in his prayer from its normal course, but this does not affect its validity. The second is that if a person joins the congregation in its first rak’ah, offering Maghreb and thinking that the congregation is offering the same prayer. He is then surprised to find out that the imam stands up for a fourth rak’ah. In this case, he does not join the fourth rak’ah, but sits down in the position we normally take for tashahhud, waiting for the imam to finish his fourth rak’ah and sits to conclude the prayer. When the imam concludes, he concludes with him.