alAdab4 - Hadith 1 - 1. Prayer at its proper time…

First answer RasoolAllah gave ibn Masood:

1. Prayer on its proper time.

There are different narrations of this Hadith. Narrations from ibn Khuzaymah say prayer at the beginning of its time. Imam Nawawi and Hanafi school didn’t find support for this. Ibn Hajar shows that narrations for this are authentic. Even understanding and knowing that to pray Salah at its beginning time isn’t enough as we know its not always the best from other narrations for example to pray in congregation is better and also it’s better to delay the Isha prayer and pray as late as possible.

Salah comes before the parents. This is the number one priority in our lives. We know this from the Hadith of Prophet in at-Tirmidhi, the first thing to be judged is the prayer and if that is proper then everything else will follow. If prayer is defective then everything else will be defective.

How do we compare to those people who did make the prayer their priority? Are we like the sahabah? Is it the single most important thing in our lives?

The Hadith of Dajjal

Greatest fitnah which will afflict us. There never came a Prophet that didn’t warn against the dajjaal. The Prophet taught us to seek refuge from the evil fitnah of the dajjaal. He will make false miracles and people will take him like a God. Allah will cause draught and famine and the dajjaal will bring food and cause rain to come down. He will cause the dead to come back to life.

The Prophet warns the Companions of the dajjal in a narration and says to them that the dajjaal will stay with you for 40 days. The first day will be like a year, the second day will be like a month, the third day will be like a week and the rest of the days will be like your days. In these days people will wake up a believer and die a disbeliever.

What was the reaction of the Companions to this news?

The Sahabah only asked - how are we going to pray that day?

Look at their priorities. SubhanAllaah. Look at what prayer meant to them.

Allah says in the Quran, The Salah repels/prohibits open evil actions (fahshaa) and evil sins in society (munkar).

By prioritising what Allaah and His Messenger prioritises for us we will be able to take the benefit from that prayer and make it repel fahshaa and munkar and have it fulfil the rest of obligations including the ones towards our parents.

When Allah says give thanks to me and give thanks to your parents. How is this done? The scholars have said this is done by performing the five prayers. By doing this you have thanked Allah and by making dua for the parents after the five prayers you have thanked them.

What does it mean? The prayer in its proper time

There are aspects of this which scholars have agreed upon and some aspects in whcih the scholars have disagreed upon.

• There’s no dispute over the timings of the beginning of Fajr and the end of Fajr.
• The beginning of dhuhr is agreed upon, this is when the sun passes the zenith. If you have a stick, you can see that when the sun gets to the highest point it castes a shadow on the stick itself. As soon as that shadow starts to move and elongate this is the beginning of dhuhr time, its called az-Zawaal.
• ‘Asr has major difference of opinion between two schools of thought. The majority are upon Shafi position, this is when Asr time begins when the shadow is one times the length of the stick plus the original shadow that was present at az-Zawaal time.
• The Hanafi school believe it to be when the shadow is twice the length of the stick plus the original shadow from az-Zawaal time. Both narrated in alMuwatta.
• Maghrib, everyone agrees about the beginning of Maghrib but they disagree upon its ending. Some scholars say Maghrib is valid to pray all the way until Ishaa’. Others such as the Hanafis say Maghrib only lasts for 10-15 minutes.
• Isha time is another issue of dispute, some scholars from the Hanafi school set the time of Maghrib to be a set time - about an hour. This is from hadith of Nu’man ibn Basheer. Some say Maghrib finishes when the whiteness or the redness disappears. These difference is acceptable. Especially in this country its difficult to judge these times, especially Ishaa’.

If we take the narration of prayer at the beginning of its time. We can see in the sunnah when it comes to do good actions we should try to do it quickly. So the principle to do it quickly is present in Islam. We should compete with one another to do good deeds. Other obligations like hajj shouldn’t be pushed away but done at a good time and may be accountable if they could’ve been done earlier in life but left till later when unexpected situations occur and the obligation is not fulfilled.

Prayer at the beginning of its time is something general. There are other narrations to specify issues. There are hadiths which are specific such as praying in congregation is better. Regarding Isha, if the Prophet didn’t fear for us then he would’ve delayed it as late as possible.