SIFAT SALAAT AN NĀBI ﷺ* *(The Prophet's Prayer Described From The Beginning To The End As Though You See It) Episode 31 The Sujood (Prostration)

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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 31*

 

*The Sujood (Prostration)*

Next, "he (Sallallaahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam) would say takbeer and go down

into sajdah"439, and he ordered "the one who prayed badly" to do so,

saying to him, No one's prayer is complete unless ... he says:

Allaah listens to the one who praises Him and stands up straight,

then says: Allaah is the Greatest and prostrates such that his

joints are at rest.440

Also, "when he wanted to perform sajdah, he would say takbeer,

[separate his hands from his sides,] and then perform sajdah."441

Sometimes, "he would raise his hands when performing sajdah."442

Going Down into the Sajdah on the Hands 

"He used to place his hands on the ground before his knees."443

He used to instruct likewise, saying, When one of you performs sajdah,

he should not kneel like a camel, but should place his hands before his

439 Bukhaari & Muslim.

440 Abu Daawood & Haakim, who declared it saheeh and Dhahabi agreed.

441 Abu Ya`laa in his Musnad (284/2) with a good isnaad & Ibn Khuzaimah (1/79/2) with a different, saheeh isnaad.

442 Nasaa'i, Daaraqutni & Mukhlis in al-Fawaa'id (1/2/2) with two saheeh isnaads. This raising of the hands has been

reported from ten Companions, and a number of the Salaf viewed it as correct, among them Ibn `Umar, Ibn `Abbas,

Hasan Basri, Taawoos, his son `Abdullaah, Naafi` the freed slave of Ibn `Umar, Saalim the son of Ibn `Umar, Qaasim bin

Muhammad, `Abdullaah bin Deenaar & `Ataa'. Also, `Abdur Rahmaan bin Mahdi said, "This is from the Sunnah", it was

practised by the Imaam of the Sunnah, Ahmad bin Hanbal, and it has been quoted from Maalik & Shaafi`i .

443 Ibn Khuzaimah (1/76/1), Daaraqutni & Haakim, who declared it saheeh and Dhahabi agreed. All the ahaadeeth which

contradict this are inauthentic. This way has been endorsed by Maalik, and similar is reported from Ahmad in Ibn al-

Jawzi's al-Tahqeeq (108/2). Also, al-Marwazi quoted with a saheeh isnaad, Imam al-Awzaa`i in his Masaa'il (1/147/1) as

saying, "I found the people placing their hands before their knees."

 

knees.444

He also used to say, Verily, the hands prostrate as the face

prostrates, so when one of you places his face (on the ground),

he should place his hands, and when he raises it, he should raise

them.445

The Sajdah Described 

"He would support himself on his palms [and spread them]"446, "put his

fingers together"447, and "point them towards the qiblah."448

Also, "he would put them (his palms) level with his shoulders"449, and

sometimes "level with his ears"450. "He would put his nose and forehead

firmly on the ground."451

He said to "the one who prayed badly", When you prostrate, then be

firm in your prostration452; in one narration: When you prostrate,

put your face and hands down firmly, until all of your bones are

relaxed in their proper places.453

444 Abu Daawood, Tammaam in al-Fawaa'id, & Nasaa'i in Sunan as-Sughraa and Sunan al-Kubraa (47/1) with a saheeh

isnaad. `Abdul Haqq declared it saheeh in al-Ahkaam (54/1), and went on to say in Kitaab al-Tahajjud (56/1), "it has a

sounder isnaad than the previous one", i.e. the hadeeth of Waa'il which is the other way round (knees before hands).

In fact, the latter hadeeth, as well as being contradictory to this saheeh hadeeth and the preceding one, is neither

authentic in isnaad nor in meaning, as I have explained in Silsilah al-Ahaadeeth ad-Da`eefah (no. 929) and al-Irwaa'

(357).

It should be known that the way to differ from the camel is to place the hands before the knees, because the camel places

its knees first; a camel's "knees" are in its forelegs, as defined in Lisaan al-`Arab and other books of the `Arabic language,

and as mentioned by Tahaawi in Mushkil al-Aathaar and Sharh Ma`aani al-Aathaar. Also, Imaam Qaasim al-Saraqusti

(Rahimahullaah) narrated in Ghareeb al-Hadeeth (2/70/1-2), with a saheeh isnaad, Abu Hurairah's statement, "No one

should kneel the way a runaway camel does", and then added, "This is in sajdah. He is saying that one should not throw

oneself down, as a runaway (or untamed) camel does, hurriedly and without calmness, but he should go down calmly,

placing his hands first, followed by his knees, and an explanatory marfoo` hadeeth has been narrated in this regard." He

then mentioned the hadeeth above.

As for Ibn al-Qayyim's extremely strange statement, "These words are incomprehensible, and not understood by the

experts of the language", it is answered by the sources which we have mentioned, and also many others which can be

consulted. I have also expanded on this in the refutation against Shaikh Tuwaijari, which may be published.

445 Ibn Khuzaimah(1/79/2), Ahmad & Siraaj; Haakim declared it saheeh and Dhahabi agreed. It is given in Irwaa' (313).

446 Abu Daawood & Haakim, who declared it saheeh and Dhahabi agreed.

447 Ibn Khuzaimah, Baihaqi & Haakim, who declared it saheeh and Dhahabi agreed. 

448 Baihaqi with a saheeh isnaad. Ibn Abi Shaibah (1/82/2) & Siraaj have related the pointing of the toes in a different narration.

449 Abu Daawood & Tirmidhi, who declared it saheeh, as did Ibn al-Mulaqqin (27/2); it is given in Irwaa' (309).

450 Abu Daawood & Nasaa'i with a saheeh isnaad.

451 Abu Daawood & Tirmidhi, who declared it saheeh, as did Ibn al-Mulaqqin (27/2) it is given in al-Irwaa, (309).

452 Abu Daawood & Ahmad with saheeh isnaad.

453 Ibn Khuzaimah (1/10/1) with a hasan isnaad.

 

'Alaihi wa Sallam) forbade me from pecking in my prayer like a cockerel,

from looking around like a fox, and from squatting like a monkey."401

The Messenger of Allaah (Sallallaahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam) also used to say,

The worst thief among men is the one who steals from his prayer.

They said, "O Messenger of Allaah, how does he steal from his prayer?"

He said, He does not complete its rukoo' and sujood.402

Once, "he was praying, when he glanced out of the corner of his eye at a

man not settling his backbone in rukoo' and sujood. When he finished, he

said, O assembly of Muslims! Verily, the prayer is not valid of the

one who does not settle his spine in rukoo' and sujood."

403

He said in another hadeeth, The prayer of a man does not count

unless he straightens his back in rukoo' and sujood.404

The Adhkaar of Rukoo' 

He would say different types of remembrance of Allaah and supplication,

any one of the following at a time: 

How Perfect is my Lord, the Supreme!, three times.405 But

sometimes, he would repeat it more than that.406 Once, in night prayer,

he repeated it so much that his rukoo' became nearly as long as his

standing before it, in which he had recited three of the Long Soorahs:

Baqarah, Nisaa' and aal- 'Imraan. This prayer was full of supplication &

seeking forgiveness, and the hadeeth has already been mentioned under

"Recitation in Night Prayer."

401 Tayaalisi, Ahmad & Ibn Abi Shaibah; it is a hasan hadeeth, as I have explained in my footnotes on al-Ahkaam (1348) by

`Abdul Haqq Ishbeeli.

402 Ibn Abi Shaibah (1/89/2), Tabaraani & Haakim , who declared it saheeh and Dhahabi agreed.

403 Ibn Abi Shaibah (1/89/1), Ibn Maajah & Ahmad, with a saheeh isnaad.

404 Abu `Awaanah, Abu Daawood & Sahmi (61); Daaraqutni declared it saheeh.

405 Ahmad, Abu Daawood, Ibn Maajah, Daaraqutni, Tahaawi, Bazzaar, & Tabaraani in Mu`jam al-Kabeer, on the authority

of seven Companions. Hence this refutes those who did not accept the specification of the glorifications to three times,

such as Ibn al-Qayyim and others.

406 This can be deduced from the ahaadeeth which make it clear that he (Sallallaahu `Alaihi wa Sallam) used to make his

standing, rukoo` and sujood equal in length, as mentioned after this section.