Saudi Shoura Council considering proposal to reduce time between calls for prayers

RIYADH: A proposal by the Shoura Council member Ata Al-Subaiti suggesting the reduction of the period between the first and second call to prayer to five minutes in malls mosques is still being studied by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance, Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
Al-Subaiti said that the reduction of time between the first and second call to prayer has multiple considerations. First, in Islam, there is no specific period of time between the two calls to prayer. However, praying on time is better, according to the fatwa by of the late Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn Uthaymeen, stressing that each country determines the time based on its people’s interests. Second, it enables workers in malls and commercial complexes to pray in congregation, taking into account the interests of shoppers and investors.
The Shoura member referred to the short time between the two calls to prayer in the Grand Mosque.
He pointed out that the shops deliberately lock stores a considerable time before the second call to prayer, which could undermine the interests of citizens for over one and a half hour a day, a time considered very important for a country that is still in its first stages in the course of development.