The Prophet's Prayer From The beginning To The End As Though ...

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 scholars 6 , 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
Reasons behind the Compilation of this Book, and some of its Features
Since I had not come across a comprehensive book covering this topic, I felt obliged to produce a
book which collected together as many features of the Prophet's prayer (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam)
from the takbeer to the tasleem as possible, for the benefit of my Muslim brothers who wished to
follow the guidance of their Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) in their worship, such that it
would be easy for any who truly loved the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) to use this book to
fulfil his command, "Pray as you have seen me praying."
Thus I embarked on a difficult task, and researched the relevant ahaadeeth from the various sources
of Hadeeth, the book in your hands being the end result of it all. I stipulated on myself that I would
only give ahaadeeth which had an authentic sanad according to the principles and regulations of the
science of Hadeeth. I disregarded any hadeeth which depended on unknown or weak narrators,
whether it dealt with the outward form, adhkaar, excellence, etc. of the Prayer. This is because I hold
that the authentic ahadeeth 9 are sufficient, leaving no need for anything weak, for the latter does not
amount to anything except zann (conjecture, suspicion), and incorrect conjecture at that; as the
Exalted says:
"... And conjecture is of no use against the truth" 10 ; and the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam)
said, Beware of suspicion, for truly, suspicion is the most false of speech. 11 Therefore, we cannot
worship Allaah by acting according to inauthentic ahaadeeth; in fact, the Messenger of Allaah
(sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) forbade us from this saying, Keep away from saying things about me,
except what you know 12 ; since he has forbidden us from relating weak narrations, it goes without
saying that it is forbidden to act according to them.
I have compiled the book as two texts: the main text and the subsidiary text.
The main text includes the text of ahaadeeth or phrases taken from them, as well as appropriate
words to string them together to give the book a fluency from start to finish. I have been careful to
preserve the text of each hadeeth as it is found in the books of Sunnah; where a hadeeth has different
wordings, I have chosen the version which best fits the fluency etc., but I have brought together other
wordings thus: "(in one version: ... )" or "(in one narration: ...)". Only rarely have I given the
Companion who narrated the hadeeth, or explained in the main text which of the Imaams of
Hadeeth have collected each hadeeth, in order to provide easier reading and reference.
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