ordered them to establish it and perform it well; who linked success
and felicity to humility in Prayer; who made it the criterionto
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 goodtidings 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 wasallam), and who made these, and these
alone, a Madhhab and a path for them to follow; and also on those who
follow in theirfootsteps 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 thosewho 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 heindicated in his
saying, Verily theslave prays a prayer of which nothing is written
down for himexcept 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 weknow 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 withall these aspects of prayer is
unlikely to be achieved by most people nowadays, even many scholars,
because of their limitingthemselves 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 scholars 6 , many of whom we see firmly
attributing these to theProphet (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 manyothers, naming which will only lengthen this discussion.
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