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Fatwa CenterThe fear prayer
Question
How to pray the fear prayer?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
There are different ways of offering fear prayer (Salatul-Khawf) and these are mentioned in the books of Fiqh. We are going to mention some of these ways according to different situations:
1) If the enemy is not in the direction of Qiblah, then the Imaam leads a group in the performance of one Raka'h while the other group faces the enemy, after which he waits until they complete the second Raka'h by themselves, and then, those who have prayed should go and face the enemy. The second group, who were on guard while the first group prayed, should come forward and the Imaam would lead them in prayer while he is performing the second Raka'h. He should again wait until they completed the second Raka'h by themselves and then conclude the prayer. This is in case they are travelling. If they are local and should pray without shortening the prayer, then their prayer is as follows: The Imaam would pray 2 Raka's with the first group and they would complete the prayer and return to their positions and then the second group (who stood guard) would come so the Imaam would pray with them 2 Raka's and they would complete their prayer (while the Imaam would wait for them) and then he would conclude the prayer with them. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
2) If the enemy is in the direction of Qiblah, then the Imaam leads both of the groups (two rows) in prayer at the same time and they share in guarding against the enemy. They follow the Imaam in every one of his actions until he performs the prostration, in which case one group (the first row) will make the prostration with him and the other will wait (on guard) until they are finished and then perform their own prostration. After the first Raka'h is finished, the people in front will move to the back and those in the back will move to the front. They all follow the Imaam as in the first Raka'h and when the first row prostrates the second row waits until the first had finished the prostration and then they would prostrate and all of them conclude the prayer with the Imaam. [Muslim]
3) When the Muslims meet with the enemy: In this case they pray while riding (on their horses) or when walking, either facing the Qiblah or not facing the Qiblah. Allaah says (which means): {And if you fear [an enemy, then pray] on foot or riding.}[2:239]. Ibn 'Umar 
said commenting on this verse: "Facing the Qiblah or not facing the Qiblah." [Al-Bukhari] Is such a case they just lean a little bit for bowing and prostrating. The person who fears that an unjust enemy could catch him could pray in the same manner, i.e. he prays as he is.
Allaah knows best.
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