Praise be to Allaah, who made Prayer compulsory on his slaves and ordered them to
establish it and perform it well; who linked success and felicity to humility in
Prayer; who made it the criterion to distinguish between Eeman and Kufr ; and who
made it a restrainer from shameful and unjust deeds.
Prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, who was addressed in the Words of
the Exalted:
"And We have sent down to you the Message, that you may explain clearly to
the people what is sent for them" 1
, and who fully carried out this task. The Prayer was one of the most important
things which he explained to the people, verbally and practically, even praying
on the pulpit once - standing, bowing and prostrating, and then saying to them,
I have done this so that you may follow me and learn my prayer.2
He obligated us to copy him in his prayer, saying, Pray as you have seen me praying.3 He also gave the good tidings to whoever prayed
like him that such a person has a covenant with Allaah that He will enter him into
the Garden, saying, There are five prayers which Allaah, Mighty and Sublime, has
made compulsory: he who performs ablution well for them, prays them at their proper
times, and is complete in their bowings, prostrations and humility, he has a guarantee
from Allaah that He will forgive him; but he who does not do so, has no guarantee
from Allaah: if He wishes, He will forgive him or if He wishes, He will punish him.4
Prayers and peace be also on his family and his pious and just Companions, who passed
on to us his worship, prayer, sayings and actions (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam),
and who made these, and these alone, a Madhhab and a path for them to follow; and
also on those who follow in their footsteps and tread their path until the Day of
Judgment.
When I finished reading the book of prayer in At-Targheeb wat-Tarheeb by al-Haafiz
al-Mundhiri (rahimahullaah) and teaching it to our brothers, four years ago, it
became clear to us all the important position of the Prayer in Islaam; and the reward,
grace and respect awaiting those who establish and perform it well; and that all
this varies, depending on its closeness to the Prophet's prayer (sallallaahu 'alaihi
wa sallam). This is what he indicated in his saying, Verily the slave prays a prayer
of which nothing is written down for him except a tenth, ninth, eighth, seventh,
sixth, fifth, quarter, third or half of it.5
Therefore, I reminded the brothers that it is not possible for us to perform prayer
as it should be performed, or even approach that, unless we know the detailed description
of the Prophet's prayer (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam), including its essentials,
manners, forms, supplications (du'aas) and remembrances (adhkaar), and then we make
an effort to put that knowledge into practice carefully, for then we could hope
that our prayers would restrain us from shameful and unjust deeds, and that the
reward and blessings mentioned in the narrations would be written down for us.
However, detailed familiarity with all these aspects of prayer is unlikely to be
achieved by most people nowadays, even many scholars, because of their limiting
themselves to a particular Madhhab. But, as anyone concerned with assisting in compiling
and studying the purified Sunnah knows, in every Madhhab there are sunnahs which
are not found in other Madhhabs; moreover, in every Madhhab there are sayings and
actions which cannot be authentically traced back to the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi
wa sallam) - most of these are found in the sayings of the later scholars6,
many of whom we see firmly attributing these to the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi
wa sallam)!7 This is why the scholars of Hadeeth -
may Allaah reward them well - have produced books of Takhreej on the famous books
of the later scholars, explaining the rank of each hadeeth given in them: whether
e.g. authentic, weak or fabricated. Examples of these books of Takhreej are: Al-'Inaayah
fi Ma'rifah Ahaadeeth al- Hidaayah and At-Turuq wal-Wasaa'il fi Takhreej Ahaadeeth
Khulaasah ad-Dalaa'il by Shaikh 'Abdul Qaadir ibn Muhammad al- Qurashi al-Hanafi;
Nasb ar-Raayah li Ahaadeeth al-Hidaayah by Haafiz Zayla'i, and its abridged version
ad-Dirayah by Haafiz Ibn Hajr al-Asqalaani, who also wrote Talkhees al-Habeer fi
Takhreej Ahaadeeth ar-Raafi'i al-Kabir; there are many others, naming which will
only lengthen this discussion.8
Footnotes
[1]Soorah an-Nahl, 16:44
[2]Bukhaari & Muslim - it will later follow in full.
[3]Bukhaari & Ahmad.
[4]Maalik, Abu Daawood, Nasaa'i, & Ibn Hibbaan. A saheeh hadeeth,
declared saheeh by several Imaams. I have given its takhreej in Saheeh Abi Daawood
(451, 1276).
[5]Saheeh - collected by Ibn al-Mubaarak in az-Zuhd (10/21/1-
2), Abu Daawood & Nasaa'i with a good sanad; I have given its takhreej in Saheeh
Abi Daawood (761).
[6]Abul-Hasanaat Al-Lucknowi says in An-Naafi' al-Kabeer liman
yutaali' al-Jaami' as-Sagheer (p. 122-3), after ranking the books of Hanafi fiqh
and saying which of them are dependable and which are not: "All that we have said
about the relative grades of these compilations is related to their content of fiqh
issues; however, as for their content with regards to ahaadeeth of the Prophet (sallallaahu
'alaihi wa sallam), then it does not apply, for many books on which the cream of
the fuqahaa' rely are full of fabricated ahaadeeth, let alone rulings of the scholars.
It is clear to us from a broad analysis that although their authors were otherwise
competent, they were careless in their quotation of narrations."
One of these false, fabricated ahaadeeth which are found in some of the best books
is: "He who offers the compulsory prayers on the last Friday of Ramadaan, that will
make up for every prayer he missed during his life up to the age of seventy years"
! Lucknowi (rahimahullaah) says in Al-Aathaar al-Marfoo'ah fil-Akhbaar al-Mawdoo'ah
(p. 315), after giving this hadeeth, "'Ali al-Qaari says in his al-Mawdoo'aat as-
Sughraa and al-Kubraa: this is totally false, for it contradicts the ijmaa' (consensus
of opinion) that one act of worship cannot make up for those missed over years.
Hence, there is no point in quoting the author of an-Nihaayah nor the rest of the
commentators on al-Hidaayah, for they are not scholars of Hadeeth, nor did they
reference this hadeeth to any of the collectors of Hadeeth."
Shawkaani also mentioned this hadeeth in Al-Fawaa'id al- Majmoo'ah fil-Ahaadeeth
al-Mawdoo'ah with a similar wording and then said (p. 54), "This is fabricated beyond
doubt - I do not even find it in any of the compilations of fabricated ahaadeeth!
However, it has become popular among some students of fiqh in the city of San'aa'
in this age of ours, and many of them have started acting according to it. I do
not know who has fabricated it for them - May Allaah disgrace the liars."
Lucknowi further says, "To establish that this hadeeth, which is found in books
of rituals and formulas, is fabricated, I have composed a brief essay, with intellectual
and narrated evidence, called Repelling the Brethren from the Inventions of the
Last Friday of Ramadaan, in which I have filed points which will enlighten minds
and to which ears will hearken, so consult it, for it is valuable in this topic
and of high quality."
The occurrence of similar false ahaadeeth in the books of fiqh destroys the reliability
of other ahaadeeth which they do not quote from dependable books of Hadeeth. The
words of 'Ali al- Qaari contain an indication towards this: a Muslim must take Hadeeth
from the people who are experts in that field, as the old Arabic sayings go, "The
people of Makkah know its mountain- paths best" and "The owner of the house knows
best what is in it."
[7]Imaam Nawawi(rahimahullaah)'s words in Al-Majmoo' Sharh al-
Muhadhdhab (1/60) can be summed up as follows: "The researching scholars of the
People of Hadeeth and others say that if the hadeeth is weak, it will not be said
regarding it, 'The Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said/did/commanded/forbade
...' or any other phrase designating certainty, but instead it will be said, 'It
is reported/quoted/narrated from him ...' or other phrases suggesting uncertainty.
They say that phrases of certainty are for saheeh and hasan ahaadeeth, and phrases
of uncertainty are for anything else. This is because phrases designating certainty
mean that what follows is authentic, so they can only be used in the case of what
is authentic, otherwise one would effectively be lying about him (sallallaahu 'alaihi
wa sallam).
This convention is one ignored by most of the fuqahaa' of our age, in fact, by most
scholars of any discipline, except for the skilled muhadditheen. This is disgusting
carelessness, for they often say about a saheeh hadeeth, 'It is reported from him
that ...', and about a da'eef one, 'he said' and 'so- and-so reported ...', and
this is far from correct."
[8]Publisher's note: Also in this category are the works of our
teacher, author of e.g. Irwaa' al-Ghaleel fi takhreej Manaar as-Sabeel in 8 volumes,
& Ghaayah al-Maraam fi takhreej ahaadeeth al-Halaal wal-Haraam, a takhreej of
the ahaadeeth found in Dr. Yoosuf al-Qaradaawi's The Lawful and the Prohibited in
Islam, (which contains many da'eef ahaadeeth).
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