Community Engagement Project-CEP
The concept of Imam
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The word Imam came from the arabic verb أمّ-يؤمّ . The one who becomes an Imam will be followed in the prayer(solah). Imamate in general means the leadership of Muslims. The one who is being appointed is called Khalifah. He governs both general rule in religion and the world, a succession from the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace-. On the other hand, Imamate in prayer specifically means the one who leads Muslims in ibadat especially prayer.
Basic requirements to become an Imam are ;
1.Islam
It is compulsory that the Imam must be a Muslim. The leadership of the unbeliever is not valid.
The Prophet SAW said “If there are three of them, one of them leads them, and the one that should be entrusted to become the Imam is the best reciter.” Thus, the imamate of the unbelievers is not valid because they do not recite the holy al Quran.
2. A'ql
It is stipulated that the Imam must be a sensible person. The imamate of those who have mental sickness is not valid. Ibn Taymiyyah reported that it was considered a consensus that the insane person cannot become Imam in the prayer.
3.Male
It is required for the Imam to be a male. Women do not lead men. This is according to the agreement of the four schools of jurisprudence:Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali, and the consensus was reported on that.
4.The ability to read
Reading is a condition. It is not valid to follow the imamate of the deaf person, and this is according to the agreement of the four schools of jurisprudence: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali. This is because he cannot apply one of the pillars of prayer, which is reading that can be heard by those who follow him.
There are also several good conducts that must be carried out by Imam. Among them is concerns about the followers’ conditions. He should shorten the prayer if there is a child crying according to the deed of the Prophet SAW. He also must keep in mind that his followers come from various backgrounds. Some of them are old, sick and have work to do.
The Effect Of Imam Prayer to The Community
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Is a Good Imam Prayer important: Try to imagine what a Muslim community would lose if it did not have a religous leader. It would have no place where the whole community could ask about religion and pray collectively – a Muslim is expected to pray five times a day and to abandon the prayer is not an option for any Muslim, since it is the greatest obligation after Tawheed .
The extremely important role that the imam prayer as a leader plays in the lives of Muslims. All this shows that it is very important for a Muslim community to have a good imam prayer as a leader in the religion. A truly Islamic leader must be based upon the Sunnah of the Prophet (ï·º), free from innovations and misguided ideas.
Mosques are places for the worship of Allah alone, free from idolatrous practices, since Islam is a purely monotheistic religion.
Creative Imam prayer can make the mosques as attraction for
non-Muslims to Islam by showing them some of the religious activities of the Muslims such as the prayer, making them curious about Islam and its beliefs, and giving them an opportunity to find out more.
The imam also has responsisbility to create Mosques as centres of learning and study of the Qur’an, hadeeth, Sunnah, Seerah (the Prophet’s life) and more. So that, our community will be undersatnding the religion firmly
The imam prayer also provides for the community a meeting place in the mosques where they are informed of important religious events and dut ies.
Allah’s Messenger (ï·º) informed the men that they are not allowed to prevent women from attending the Mosques, because Mosques are important places for them too.
Some Imaarems negligent and do not follow the Sunnah, nor do they give importance to Tawheed.
A very small number of Mosques open their doors to radical ideas – good Imams who want to follow the Sunnah should be not deceived by these type of Mosques or the people who speak there.
The community also easy to perform Friday prayers as we have imam who leads us . The fridays prayer is obligatory upon every adult male, and these are conducted in the larger Mosques.
The poor community also gets benefits when the imam creates food banks or create food donation for them.
As we can conclude, many benefits amd good affects that community will get when the imam prayer or the religious leader play a good role model to the society