Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
Introduction — 0:00
The next question—actually, I'm not even going to quote a question because I'm simply going to answer generically. I think it's time that I address this issue directly. I have received numerous questions since beginning this series, almost more than two years ago—numerous questions about the specifics of salah and the "Sunnah way" to pray. I mean literally every single aspect of salah: raising the hands, where to place the hands, going on the knees or the hands first, raising the hands during transitions, moving the fingers, and so on. People have been hearing lectures where somebody says "this is the Sunnah" and "this is the right way," and they wonder, "I was taught this way in my school—the Shafi'i school, the Maliki school, the Hanafi school—and now I'm being told this is against the Sunnah."
So the generic question I'm asking on behalf of all of those questioners: What is—or even is there—a Sunnah way to pray, such that all the other ways are incorrect?
Two Paradigms for Understanding the Madhabs — 1:32
This goes back to a broader question of methodology. There are two predominant philosophies when it comes to how we view the Islamic schools of law (the madhabs).
The first paradigm views them as attempting to understand the Sunnah, as extrapolating from the Sunnah, as conduits through which we approach the Sunnah—through the methodology of the jurists. The Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali schools are all attempting to extrapolate from the Sunnah and tell us what to do. That's the paradigm of the schools of law themselves and of the bulk of the Ummah for all of its history.
The second paradigm views the schools of law as competitors to the Sunnah, as if the schools of law are somehow replacing the books of hadith. This paradigm, factually speaking, is a very minority paradigm. There are some prominent scholars—and we respect those scholars; we do not impugn their intentions—who view the schools as having deviated from the authentic Sunnah, sometimes even trying to suppress or fight against it.
This type of philosophy is found, for example, among the Ahl al-Hadith movements in India and Pakistan—Siddiq Hasan Khan, the great scholar of the last century, perhaps even Imam al-Shawkani from Yemen over 250 years ago. In the last generation, the one who embodied this view most famously and most respectably was the great scholar [Shaykh al-Albani]—we love and admire and respect him.
The Problem with the "Direct Hadith" Approach — 3:36
Generally speaking, scholars of this approach felt that the books of hadith should be our direct reference—that there should not be a middle conduit, that we should go directly to the hadith and extrapolate what we need from them. This sentiment was perhaps best embodied in the famous book, "The Prophet's Prayer Described"—from the takbir to the taslim, "as if you are seeing it."
This book gave the presumption—maybe even the illusion—that the Sunnah is all you need directly to understand Islamic law, and that every minute detail was unambiguously and categorically preserved such that anybody who wanted to could follow it directly. Anybody who had an alternative view was somehow rejecting or dismissing the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
But this type of notion is simply not correct. What ended up happening is that instead of going back to the Sunnah, essentially another school was created with its own paradigm and its own methodology. Frankly, this school in and of itself is not only much less developed than any of the other schools historically speaking, but also because it is not as developed, it began differing among itself and its practitioners were actually not consistent in extrapolating the laws.
Islamic law is not about cutting and pasting snippets of the Quran and Sunnah to form detailed law. Islamic law is about interpretation. It's about extrapolation. It's about finding exceptions. It's about reconciling that which might differ in the books of hadith. It's about working through the wording and what a wording implies. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) said this or did this—what exactly does it mean? Is it haram? Is it wajib? Is it a one-off?
The Schools of Law as Extrapolations of the Sunnah — 5:52
My position throughout all of these Q&As has always been that we should understand the schools of fiqh as being extrapolations of the Sunnah—taking from the Sunnah what is needed and presenting to us the Sunnah as we apply it. The notion that the books of fiqh are somehow an alternative to the books of Sunnah is incorrect. The books of fiqh have their job, and the books of Sunnah have their job.
Therefore, to say that there's one methodology to pray that is Sunnah and all the other ways are bid'ah—that is simply not something that is going to come from me. I don't agree with this in the first place.
What the Ummah Agrees Upon in Salah — 7:04
If you look at it, Allah has really blessed and protected our Ummah above any other civilization in that what we agree upon even in our salah is really everything, and what we disagree about is utterly inconsequential and trivial. And I'm standing by what I say.
Look at all of the schools of Islamic law. All of the madhabs:
- Pray five times a day
- Include the qiyam with the Fatiha, the ruku', standing back up, and the two sajdas in every rak'ah
- Begin with takbir and end with taslim
- Say the same adhkar: "Subhan Allah," "Allahu Akbar" going up and down, Salat al-Ibrahimiyyah
- Agree about the exact number of rak'at of the fard, and when to be quiet and when to recite out loud
Dear Muslims, recognize that outside of our Sharia, look at any other faith civilization—there is nothing comparable. Allah has protected this deen, and the Sunnah prayer of the Prophet (peace be upon him) has permeated throughout all of the strands of Islam.
The Example of Rafa Yadain (Raising Hands) — 9:20
Now when it comes to where to place the hands—do you really think this is something we should be bickering and fighting over? Do you really think that we should say, "Oh, this is the only way and every other way is batil (void) and wrong"? This is simply wrong, brothers and sisters. It's a wrong attitude, it's a wrong spirit, and it inculcates a sense of arrogance to yourself and disdain towards other Muslims. It creates a sense of breaking the unity of the Ummah.
The famous controversy of rafa yadain—when you're standing up from the ruku' and going down, should you raise your hands up or not? Two and a half of the madhabs say you should, and one of them—the Hanafi school—says you should not.
Those who say you should—SubhanAllah—they have so many evidences. Imam al-Bukhari actually wrote a booklet called "The Treatise of Rafa al-Yadain in Salah" and brought dozens of narrations from the Tabi'in, the Tabi' al-Tabi'in, and the Prophet (peace be upon him). Imam al-Bukhari was very certain we should do rafa yadain. Good for him. The Hanbali school, the Shafi'i school, many of the Maliki school—they followed all of this. Great, alhamdulillah.
Are we going to accuse the Hanafi school of rejecting the Sunnah? Abu Hanifa says: "I have an authentic hadith from my shaykh, from his shaykh, from Ibn Mas'ud." It is reported in the collections that Ibn Mas'ud stood up and said, "I'm going to teach you how the Prophet (peace be upon him) prayed." He prayed in front of his students: he raised his hands at the beginning and did not raise them until the entire end of the salah.
This is Ibn Mas'ud. For those who say that the Hanafi school is not following the Sunnah—would you dare stand in front of Ibn Mas'ud? Someone who spent from before Islam, one of the first five or seven converts, accompanied the Prophet (peace be upon him) in Mecca and in Madina, was there for the entirety of the revelation? Would you say to Ibn Mas'ud, "Oh, you don't know the Sunnah"?
Ibrahim al-Nakha'i's Response — 12:44
Our early scholars debated this and solved it long ago. Sufyan al-Thawri narrates that Ibrahim al-Nakha'i was asked, "What are you going to do about the hadith that the Prophet (peace be upon him) raised his hands when he did ruku'?" Ibrahim al-Nakha'i said: "If Wa'il [ibn Hujr] saw the Prophet (peace be upon him) raise his hand once, then we know that Abdullah ibn Mas'ud saw the Prophet (peace be upon him) never raise his hand more than fifty times. Which one should we follow?"
So the point is: the one who comes and tells you it is the Sunnah to raise your hands when you do ruku' and sujud—by the way, I personally also do rafa yadain in my own salah—but I understand the Hanafi school has its understanding of the Sunnah. They're not trying to reject the Sunnah. They have an authentic Sunnah and they prefer that over the others. No big deal.
Hand Placement — 14:48
The placing of the hands—again, the scholar who wrote the book about the Prophet's prayer described has a position which actually none of the four Sunni schools had technically held. He felt this is the Sunnah, as if the entirety of the Ummah did not know the Sunnah until this book was written 1,400 years later. It doesn't make any sense, brothers and sisters.
There are authentic narrations that some of the Sahaba prayed with their hands on their stomach. Others prayed with their hands below the navel—Ali and Ibn Mas'ud prayed with their hands below the navel, which is the Hanafi school. There are authentic narrations that the Tabi'in prayed with their hands at their sides, which is the Maliki madhab. And there's a narration that one of the Sahaba put it on his chest—and the Shafi'i school says "the chest" means the lower chest. Only one interpretation, which is really discarded by the four schools by and large, says the upper portion of the chest.
So this hadith scholar comes along—and again, we respect and admire him—and says, "This is the Sunnah: you must put it here, high up on the chest." None of the four schools really held that interpretation. But because he felt it is Sunnah, all of his followers felt this is the "real Sunnah"—even though, if you actually look at it, none of the early scholars held this view.
Finger Movement in Tashahud — 17:12
The same issue of the tashahud. This author of "The Prophet's Prayer Described" had a particular interpretation. He said, "This is the Sunnah," and maneuvered through all of the hadith to get to his opinion. Good for him. But realize that in that maneuvering—that's legal hermeneutics—other scholars would have a different maneuvering.
Within the books of hadith, one finds sometimes even contradictory narrations about the moving of the finger:
- In one version, the Prophet (peace be upon him) would raise it—what does that mean? Raise it once and down, or keep it raised?
- In another version, his finger was up
- In another version, he would be moving it
- In yet another version, he would not move it
All Established Ways Are Authentic — 18:56
So this notion of "which way is the authentic way to pray salah"—the response is: all of the ways that the Muslim Ummah has embraced out of all of the legal schools are authentic.
The problem has come when this notion has spread among certain groups of people that it's "my way or the highway"—that only one way is authentic. This has created intolerance. It has created a feeling of elitism. And that feeling of elitism and arrogance is far worse than making a mistake in trying to follow the Sunnah.
The Sunnah way to pray is the way any school of law has taught you. Any of the established schools of law—they're all Sunnah, and they're all trying to grasp what the Prophet (peace be upon him) did. Some level of ambiguity is completely fine.
Conclusion — 20:42
Pray the way that you have been taught to pray. Pray the way your parents taught you, as long as, obviously, they're following one of the established schools of Sunni Islam. I'm not saying we invent our own way. But to claim that one particular opinion is the only way and all of the other established opinions are rejecting the Sunnah—I am strongly in disagreement with this, and this has been my consistent methodology throughout my entire Q&A.
We must create a culture not just of tolerance of difference of opinion, but respect. When a scholar of caliber—whose track record and reputation are established—Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam al-Shafi'i, Imam Malik, or Imam Ahmad—holds a position, they have every right to hold it. Even if we disagree, we disagree with respect.
Do not disrespect and do not accuse these great Imams of rejecting the Sunnah. And most importantly, do not create this notion within your circles, within your masjid, within your community that only your opinion is the correct opinion and all of the other established opinions of giants of the ulama are somehow misguided. Live and let live. You choose your scholars that you respect and you follow them, alhamdulillah. But don't create controversy or disharmony.
With this, insha'Allah, I will not return to this question. I don't believe there is only one way that is authentic to pray salah. All of the ways that our religious teachers and our fuqaha have done have legitimacy to them. What they agree about is actually much, much more than what they disagree about—and that's the beautiful thing of our faith. Allah has preserved this deen, and the Sunnah has been preserved in all of these schools of Islam.