I went for zuhr prayers at a mosque once and it looked like the imam was late for something. I don't know how someone can read fatiha so fast. Where is the reflection? I had to repeat the salat because i remembered a hadith from the messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) where he asked a companion to repeat his salat..

I also used to observe jumua'ah at a mosque that had a super speed imam, now i wonder if any of the jumua'ah were good. These guys are old folks who should know better.

Do you have experiences with super speed imams? How does one deal with this trend? How come members of the muslim communities are not advising these guys to slow down, particularly the older folks? What do you think?

You ain't seen nothing.During Ramadan,you would see super super fast taraweeh.Sometimes I do wonder if they use to recite faatihah.

Op Is it that you are just experiencing it recently or you just feel like sharing your experience now? Because the Imam in the mosque that I observe my Zuhr and Asr prayers during the week days normally spend about 3mins for each of the solat... It's like a norm

I experienced it recently and it was so strange.

I have experienced it in the past, say 9 years ago.

Mine was at MMIA. they showed us somewhere beside the car park where we(siblings,mother and I) could pray. I was first to get on to the mat and there were some guys who came on too. I thought to join them without even asking.

The speed was that of light.

I was contemplating whether to stop or not. I thought it would be rude. By then, my brother had joined the prayer too and then suddenly, he stopped, saying we need to observe ours. It was funny. I wondered why I didn't stop earlier.

Those guys probably had a flight to catch.

Lol over speeding, it once happened back when I was in boarding school, the man apparently was in sect our Iman the IRK teache did not like, wanted to be the only one leading prayers to the extent it became law that only students would lead prayers, so it came to happen the ladan called for Asr prayers, . . . Before u can say Asr, the teacher in question performed ablution led prayers, wow that day it was like being on a super sonic jet, it seems he was avoiding the IRK teacher at all cost, hence he rushed prayers to the extent that he was mispronoucing words . . . Our IRK said he almost felt like kicking him out while praying . . . I really don't know what the solution except preaching, as a child I did rush prayer till I came to learn that an important aspect of salat is being tranquil etc. So preaching might work as people I will want to believe do it out of ignorance and maybe tiredness too!


The opposite very slow prayers too should be discussed!

I used to wonder too. Before I finish the 2nd verse in surah fatiha, the imam is already in ruku, even the ruku and sujud, its as if they don't say anything at all. I once asked the question at a halqa, is one's prayer complete and acceptable if been unfortunate enough to pray behind such imams, and how can they be corrected? I was told the prayer is valid but correcting an imam especially elderly men requires a lot of tact and could even lead to wahala.

It's been long I prayed behind an imam now. I pray at my own pace.

I prefer slow prayers, particularly if the recitation is good.. There was a brother i used to pray behind, it was almost a guarantee that i would cry in the salat, amazing!

Perhaps we see it,the swolat as a burden that needs to be offload asap.

We use to have this imam we called the "diving imam" as soon as he dives into Fatiha in salat the only thing u hear is the first ayah and when he resurfaces at 'walad daaleen. Amin' classic guy he was.

^^^lol at diving imam!
A couple of times, on my own, i av tried to recite suratul fatiha VERY fast and time myself. I still couldnt finish it in half the time those imams finish theirs. Some only spend like 10 seconds on the final tashahud!

Mai-suya:
We use to have this imam we called the "diving imam" as soon as he dives into Fatiha in salat the only thing u hear is the first ayah and when he resurfaces at 'walad daaleen. Amin' classic guy he was.

hehe,

interesting stories

Super speed Imams?! Lol, very funny stories guys...

I have experienced these kinds of prayers, mostly during zhur and asr, as well as the silent parts of maghrib and isha. You just wonder if they actually did recite the fatha at all.

Most of these Imams are older folks, they were made Imam probably due to the fact that they built the mosque themselves or they happened to be the most knowledgeable at the time the community was choosing an Imam.

What i think we can do is for us to be part of the mosque committee, perhaps we try to hold brief talks between maghrib and isha, targeting younger folks, but definitely the older folks too would benefit. Most times, i have noticed that these older Imams are not that rigid, once they can establish a trust in you, that you aint targetting their post, they always show full cooperation.

With the younger ones, especially, young alfas, they are quite difficult to handle, they always feel they know more, and they can be very stubborn, direct confrontation go cause kasala(from personal experience)... Still, a good raport with them can go a long. I think they mostly crave for respect, status and recognition, once you are close to them, you can subtly point out these things and they may comply.

All in all, i think sound Islamic knowledge is very important, young people should endevour to learn more about the religion they practice.

Vedaxcool mentioned very slow prayers too, is it reciting very long surahs or just plain slow solats, like taking eternity in rukoo and sujud?

In our mosque, we do have alfa sharp sharp(although not like the diving imam lool) and alfa testing voice(he actually has a nice voice, and he uses sheikh AbdulBasit's form of recitation), the congregation always want alfa sharp sharp to lead prayers all the time lol.

May Allah accepts all our solats o ameen.

Am yet to observe that cos its really been long I prayed behind imam & ma jummah prayer is alwaz @ different area.henceforth I wll watchout.