starting in prayer depends upon verbal Takbeer not on physical actions

Question

Assalam-o-Alaikum respectable Mufti sahib!

I have two important questions from you:

q-1)
yesterday on 12 february, 2010, during ISHA prayer in Masjid me and my friend were standing behind and ARABIC IMAM. we observed that the IMAM said TAKBEER first and after a little while he raised his hands upto his ears. But almost everybody, including me and my friend, we raised our hands soon after the TAKBEER. so our observation is that we had started our prayer before the IMAM. in this case what will be the status of our namaz?

q-2)
after the prayer, a person stood up and asked for some help because he needed some money for his medical treatment. my friend told me that if anyone ask for help in masjid from GHAIR-ULLAH, helping him is a great sin. please tell me whether my friend was right or wrong?

all the best,

wassalam

Answer

Wa alaikumussalam

1. Your prayer is valid since starting in prayer depends upon verbal Takbeer not on physical actions and ur Imam did it before u people.
2. of course begging in a Masjid  and helping him at that time are sin. but this is normally done due to ignorance and unawareness of religion. so my advice is that if u feel the person is really needy and not a professional beggar , take him outside ,make clarification of issue and help him.