SIFAT SALAAT AN NĀBI ﷺ* *(The Prophet's Prayer Described From The Beginning To The End As Though You See It) Episode 19

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*SIFAT SALAAT AN NĀBI ﷺ*

*(The Prophet's Prayer Described From The Beginning To The End As Though You See It)*

*Episode 19*

*The aameen, and the Imaam's saying it Loudly*

When he (Sallallaahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam) finished reciting al- Faatihah, he

would say: 

("aameen") loudly, prolonging his voice.230

He also used to order the congregation to say aameen: When the says: "Not of those who receive (Your) anger, nor of those who go

astray", then say "aameen" [for the angels say "aameen" and the

imaam says aameen"] (in another narration: when the imaam says

"aameen" say "aameen"), so he whose aameen coincides with

the aameen of the angels (in another narration: when one of you

says "aameen" in prayer and the angels in the sky say "aameen",

and they coincide), his past sins are forgiven.231 In another

hadeeth: ... then say aameen; Allaah will answer you.232

He also used to say: The Jews do not envy you over anything as

much as they envy you over the salutation and aameen [behind

the imaam].233

230 Bukhaari in Juz' al-Qiraa'ah & Abu Daawood with a saheeh isnaad.

231 Bukhaari , Muslim, Nasaa'i, & Daarimi; the additional wordings are reported by the latter two, and prove that this hadeeth cannot

justify that the imaam does not say aameen, as reported from Maalik; hence, Ibn Hajar says in Fath al-Baari, "It clearly shows that

the imaam says aameen." Ibn `Abdul Barr says in Tamheed (7/13), "It is the view of the majority of the Muslims, including Maalik as

the people of Madeenah report from him, for it is authentic from Allaah's Messenger (Sallallaahu `Alaihi wa Sallam) through the

ahaadeeth of Abu Hurairah (i.e. this one) and that of Waa'il ibn Hujr (i.e. the previous one)."

232 Muslim & Abu `Awaanah.

233 Bukhaari in al-Adab al-Mufrad, Ibn Maajah, Ibn Khuzaimah, Ahmad & Siraaj with two saheeh isnaads.

*NB The aameen of the congregation behind the imaam should be done loudly and simultaneously with the imaam, not before

him as the majority of worshippers do, nor after him. This is what I finally find most convincing, as I have explained in some of my

works, among them Silsilat al-ahaadeeth ad-da`eefah (no. 952, vol. 2) which has been printed and published by the grace of

Allaah, and Saheeh at-Targheeb wat-Tarheeb (1/205). See Appendix 6.

 

The Recitation after al-Faatihah

Next, he (Sallallaahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam) would recite another soorah after

al-Faatihah, making it long sometimes, and on other occasions making it

short because of travel, cough, illness or the crying of infants. 

Anas ibn Maalik (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: "He (Sallallaahu

'Alaihi wa Sallam) made it [i.e. the recitation] short one day in the dawn

prayer." (In another hadeeth: he prayed the morning prayer and recited

the two shortest soorahs in the Qur'aan.) So it was said: "O Messenger of

Allaah, why did you make it short?" He said: I heard the crying of a

child, and I supposed that his mother was praying with us, so I

wanted to free his mother for him.234

He also used to say: I enter into prayer intending to lengthen it, but

I hear the crying of a child so I shorten my prayer because I

know how deeply his mother feels about his crying.235

He used to start from the beginnning of a soorah, completing it most of

the time.236

He used to say: Give every soorah its share of rukoo' and sujood.237

In another narration: Every soorah should have a rak'ah.238

Sometimes he would divide the soorah into two rak'ahs239 and sometimes

he would repeat the whole soorah in the second rak'ah.240

Sometimes he would combine two or more soorahs in one rak'ah.241

One of the Ansaar used to lead them in the mosque of Qubaa', and every

time he recited a soorah242 for them, he would begin with "Say: He is

Allaah, the One and Only " (soorah al- Ikhlaas, 112) until its end, and

then recite another soorah with it, and he would do this in every rak'ah.

Because of this, his people spoke to him, saying: "You begin with this

soorah, and then you do not regard it as enough until you recite another

one: you should either recite it (only) or leave it and recite another one.

He said: "I will not leave it: if you do not mind me leading you with it, I

234 Ahmad with a saheeh isnaad; the other hadeeth was transmitted by Ibn Abi Dawood in al-Masaahif (4/14/2). This and other

similar hadeeths contain permission for infants to enter the mosque. As for the hadeeth on many lips: "Keep your small children

away from your mosques...", it is da`eef and cannot be used for proof at all; among those who have declared it da`eef are Ibn al-

Jawzi, Mundhiri, Haitami, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalaani and Boosayri. `Abdul Haqq al-Ishbeeli said, "It is baseless". 

235 Bukhaari & Muslim.

236 There are many ahadeeth mentioned further on which prove this.

237 Ibn Abi Shaibah (1/100/1), Ahmad & `Abdul Ghani al-Maqdisi in his Sunan (9/2) with a saheeh isnaad.

238 Ibn Nasr & Tahaawi with a saheeh isnaad; I take the meaning of the hadeeth as: Make every rak`ah have a complete

soorah. The order is one of preference, not compulsion, from the evidence which follows.

239 Ahmad & Abu Ya`laa from two routes. Also see "Recitation in Fajr prayer".

240 As he did in Fajr, as will follow.

241 Details and sources will follow shortly.

242 i.e. a soorah after al-Fatihah.

 

shall carry on, but if you do not like it, I shall leave you." They knew that

he was one of their best, and they did not like to be led by anyone else,

so when the Prophet (Sallallaahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam) came to them, they

told him the story. He said: O so- and-so, what stops you from doing

what your people ask you to? What makes you recite this soorah

in every rak'ah? He said: "I love this soorah." He said: Your love for it

will enter you into the Garden.243

Combining Similar Soorahs and others in One Rak'ah 

He used to combine the pairs244 of the mufassal245 soorahs, so he used to

recite one of the following pairs of soorahs in one rak'ah246: 

 ar-Rahmaan (55:78)247 & an-Najm (53:62); 

 al-Qamar (54:55) & al-Haaqqah (69:52); 

 at-Toor (52:49) & Dhaariyaat (51:60); 

 al-Waaqi'ah (56:96) & al-Qalam (68:52); 

 al-Ma'aarij (70:44) & an-Naazi'aat (79:46); 

 al-Mutaffifeen (83:36) & 'Abasa (80:42); 

 al-Muddaththir (74:56 ) & al-Muzzammil (73:20); 

 ad-Dahr (76:31) & al-Qiyaamah (75:40); 

 an-Naba (78:40) & al-Mursalaat (77:50); 

 ad-Dukhaan (44:59) & at-Takweer (81:29). 

Sometimes he would combine soorahs from the seven tiwaal (long

soorahs), such as al-Baqarah, an-Nisaa' and aal-Imraan in one rak'ah

during night prayer (below). He used to say: The most excellent

prayer is one with long standing.248

When he recited, "Does He not have the power to give life to the dead?"

(Qiyaamah 75:40), he would say,

243 Bukhaari as ta`leeq & Tirmidhi as mawsool, and he declared it saheeh.

244 nazaa'ir: soorahs which are similar in meaning, e.g. they both contain advice, commandments, or stories.

245 These are agreed to end at the end of the Qur'aan; the soundest view is that they begin with soorah Qaaf (no. 50).

246 Bukhaari & Muslim.

247 The first number is that of the soorah, while the second is the number of aayaat in the soorah. By inspecting the first

of the two numbers in each case, it is easy to see that in many of these combinations, he (Sallallaahu `Alaihi wa Sallam)

did not stick to the Qur'aanic order of the soorahs, so this is evidence for the permissibility of doing this, even though it

is better to follow the sequence of the Qur'aan. A similar case is to be found later under "Night prayer".

248 Muslim & Tahaawi.

 

(Glory be to You, of course!)

and when he recited,"Glorify the name of your Lord Most High" (A'laa

87:1), he would say, (Glorified be my Lord Most High).249