He prayed then he heard the muezzin – should he repeat the prayer?

Question

Praise be to Allah.

The answer to the first and second questions is that if the
muezzin gave the adhaan for Zuhr on time, and was not late in doing so, then
you offered the prayer before it was due, so you have to repeat Zuhr and
‘Asr. The same applies to anyone who prays then finds out that the time for
the prayer had not yet begun.

Ibn Qudaamah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: If a person
prays before the time (for that prayer) begins, it does not count, according
to the view of the majority of scholars, whether he did that deliberately or
by mistake, all of the prayer or part of it. This was the view of al-Zuhri,
al-Awzaa’i, al-Shaafa’i and ashaab al-ra’i. It was also narrated that Ibn
‘Umar and Abu Moosa repeated Fajr because they offered it before the time
for it began. End quote from al-Mughni, 2/45.

The basic principle is that the muezzin does not give the
adhaan until after the time for the prayer has begun, especially in a case
such as yours, when you have no evidence to suggest that the muezzin made a
mistake about the time or was not careful about it. Rather the fact that you
did this again indicates that you were not very careful about checking the
beginning of the time, so you should have relied on the muezzin in order to
know when the time began, especially since the people of the place where you
were relied on him, and there is nothing to suggest that they objected to
him.

Ibn Qudaamah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: If a
person hears the adhaan from one who is trustworthy and knows the time, he
may rely on him, because it seems that he does not say the adhaan until
after the time for prayer has begun, so it is as if his adhaan announces the
beginning of the time. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) said: “The muezzin is a position of trust.” Narrated by Abu
Dawood. Were it not that he is to be relied upon, he would not be in a
position of trust. Moreover, because the adhaan is prescribed so that the
time may be known, if it were not permissible to rely on the muezzin then
there would be no point in prescribing the adhaan. The people still gather
in their mosques and jaami’s at the times of prayer, and when they hear the
adhaan they get up to pray, based on the adhaan of the muezzin without
checking the time, so there is consensus on this matter. End quote from
al-Mughni (2/31). See also al-Majmoo (3/79).

The answer to the third question is: with regard to your
question about praying without saying takbeer, if what you mean is that the
imam did not say the takbeerat al-ihraam (takbeer to start the prayer), then
his prayer and the prayer of those who prayed behind him is not valid, and
you all have to repeat the prayer.

But if what you mean is that you did not say the iqaamah for
the prayer, or that the imam did not say the takbeerat al-ihraam out loud,
then the prayer is valid, praise be to Allaah, because the iqaamah is not
one of the essential parts of the prayer or one of the conditions of prayer
being valid. The same applies to the imam saying the takbeerat al-ihraam out
loud.

And Allaah knows best.