Question
I have researched the Takatuff issue. The hanbali, shafii and hanafi recommend it while the Maliki discourages it. The twelver shia’a rejects it because they argue there are no authentic hadith that proves that al-Takatuff is a Sunnah. However, there is a narration that proves that it is a bida’a (innovation) from al-Jawahir al-Kalam:
حكي عن عمر لمّا جيء بأُسارى العجم كفّروا أمامه فسأل عن ذلك فأجابوه بأنا نستعمله خضوعاً وتواضعاً لملوكنا ، فاستحسن هو فعله مع الله تعالى في الصلاة وغفل عن قبح التشبيه بالمجوس في الشرع
The different narrations (from several sunni sources) that state that al-Takatuff was practiced by the prophet are not regarded as authentic by the twelver shia’a. However, there are two narrations, one from the sunni and one from the twelver shia’a that describes how the prophet performed the prayer, and neither one of them mentions al-Takatuff. Here they are:
Sunni source: ibn majah, abu dawud, tirmidhi, ahmad ibn hanbal and others
حَدَّثَنَا مُحَمَّد بْن بشار. حَدَّثَنَا أبو عاصم. حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الحميد بْن جعفر. حَدَّثَنَا مُحَمَّد بْن عمر بْن عطاء؛ قال: سمعت أبا حميد الساعدي في عشرة من أصحاب رَسُول اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسلَّمْ، فيهم أبو قتادة: فقال أبو حميد الساعدي: أنا أعلمكم بصلاة رسول اللّه ـ صلَّى الله عليه وآله وسلَّم ـ ، قالوا: لِمَ، ما كنت أكثرنا له تبعاً، ولا أقدمنا له صحبة؟! قال: بلى، قالوا: فأعرض علينا، فقال: كان رسول اللّه ـ صلَّى الله عليه وآله وسلَّم ـ إذا قام إلى الصلاة رفع يديه حتى يحاذي بهما مَنْكَبيه، ثم يكبّـر حتّى يقرّ كل عضو منه في موضعه معتدلاً، ثم يقرأ، ثم يكبّـر ويرفع يديه حتى يحاذي بهما منكبيه، ثم يركع ويضع راحتيه على ركبتيه، ثم يعتدل ولا ينصب رأسه ولا يقنع، ثم يرفع رأسه، فيقول: سمع اللّه لمن حمده، ثم يرفع يديه حتى يحاذي بهما منكبيه حتى يعود كل عظم منه إلى موضعه معتدلاً، ثم يقول: اللّه أكبر، ثم يهوي إلى الأرض فيجافي يديه عن جنبيه، ثم يرفع رأسه فيثني رجله اليسرى فيقعد عليها ويفتح أصابع رجليه إذا سجد، ثم يعود، ثم يرفع فيقول: اللّه أكبر، ثم يثني برجله فيقعد عليها معتدلاً حتى يرجع أو يقرّ كل عظم موضعه معتدلاً، ثم يصنع في الركعة الأُخرى مثل ذلك، ثم إذا قام من الركعتين كبّـر ورفع يديه حتى يحاذي بهما منكبيه كما فعل أو كبّـر عند افتتاح صلاته، ثم يصنع مثل ذلك في بقية صلاته، حتى إذا كان في السجدة التي فيها التسليم أخّر رجله اليسرى وقعد متورّكاً على شقّه الأيسر، فقالوا جميعاً: صدَق هكذا كان يصلّي رسول اللّه ـ صلَّى الله عليه وآله وسلَّم
The twelver shia’a version:(al wasa’il)
قال حمّاد: فأصابني في نفسي الذل، فقلت: جعلت فداك فعلّمني الصلاة، فقام أبو عبد اللّه مستقبلَ القبلة منتصباً فأرسل يديه جميعاً على فخذيه قد ضمّ أصابعه وقرّب بين قدميه حتى كان بينهما ثلاثة أصابع مفرجات، واستقبل بأصابع رجليه (جميعاً) لم يُحرفهما عن القبلة بخشوع واستكانة، فقال: اللّه أكبر، ثم قرأ الحمد بترتيل، وقل هو اللّه أحد، ثم صبر هنيئة بقدر ما تنفس وهو قائم، ثم قال: اللّه أكبر، وهو قائم ثم ركع وملأ كفيه من ركبتيه مفرّجات، و ردّ ركبتيه إلى خلفه حتى استوى ظهره، حتى لو صبت عليه قطرة ماء أو دهن لم تزل لاستواء ظهره وتردّد ركبتيه إلى خلفه، ونصب عنقه، وغمض عينيه ثم سبح ثلاثاً بترتيل وقال: سبحان ربي العظيم وبحمده، ثم استوى قائماً، فلما استمكن من القيام قال: سمع اللّه لمن حمده، ثم كبّـر وهو قائم، ورفع يديه حيال وجهه، وسجد، ووضع يديه إلى الأرض قبل ركبتيه وقال: سبحان ربي الأعلى وبحمده، ثلاث مرات، ولم يضع شيئاً من بدنه على شيء منه، وسجد على ثمانية أعظم: الجبهة، والكفّين، وعيني الركبتين، وأنامل إبهامي الرجلين، والأنف، فهذه السبعة فرض، ووضع الأنف على الأرض سنّة، وهو الإرغام، ثم رفع رأسه من السجود فلمّا استوى جالساً قال: اللّه أكبر، ثم قعد على جانبه الأيسر، ووضع ظاهر قدمه اليمنى على باطن قدمه اليسرى، وقال: أستغفر اللّه ربي وأتوب إليه، ثم كبّر وهو جالس وسجد الثانية، وقال كما قال في الأُولى ولم يستعن بشيء من بدنه على شيء منه في ركوع ولا سجود، وكان مجنّحاً، ولم يضع ذراعيه على الأرض، فصلّـى ركعتين على هذا. ثم قال: “يا حمّاد هكذا صل، ولا تلتفت، ولا تعبث بيديك وأصابعك، ولا تبزق عن يمينك ولا (عن) يسارك ولا بين يديك
Disregarding the narrations that fall in disagreement between the Sunni and the shiaa, we can conclude that based on the last 2 hadiths, al-takatuff is not from the sunnah of the prophet, but it is an innovation.
You don’t show reverence and submissivess and whatsoever else to Allah thru al-Takatuff. All these are shown to allah thru your inner belief, devotion, remembrance of allah and practice of Islam. al-Taktuff was an old practice performed by the people in front of their kings. Allah is well beyond such practice.
I dont see anyone digging into the sources of the twelver shia’a! that is very desappointing. The prophet said: “if you Hold fast to the quran and to my ahlul bayt, you will never go astray. The two shall never separate until we meet by the fountain of al-Kawthar”. So why isn’t any one searching in the twelver shia’a books for answers? They were the most knowledgeable people and will always be. They should be referred to by all muslims to resolve all their differences, especially, those of Ibadah such as prayers, adhan, wudu and so on…
Wassalam
Answer
Thank you for sharing with us your concern about the proper method of performing prayers. Your concern is a result of your sincere desire to worship your creator in the best way and for that I pray that Allah Ta’Ala showers you with his glorious blessing.
Before trying to address your question in detail, let me make it easy and brief by saying that if you have come to the conclusion that releasing the hands when standing in prayers is part of the sunnah of the holy prophet then it will be obligatory for you to refrain from holding your hands in prayers. However I think this should not lead you to the point that you expect other Muslims to arrive at the same conclusions as you.
As you have sent your question to this very website I think you appreciate that your answer will be based on what this website holds as the sources of Islam that are the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
It is worth repeating what Sunnah constitutes of (as phrased by brother Moiz Amjad) here:
‘Sunnah’ constitutes those practical religious teachings of the Prophet (pbuh), on the religious status of which there has been a complete consensus of all Muslims at all times1.
You might be interested to note that the above understanding of the term Sunnah (as one of the primary sources of Islam) is in fact very much inline with what has been narrated from Ali (RA) in his letter to Malik Al-Ashtar in the book Nahjol-Balaqah that is the most accredited book of Shia Muslims and a book that Shia Muslims consider as the best after Qur’an.
والرد الي الرسول، الاخذ بسنة الجامعة غيرالمفرقة (نهج البلاغه – رسالة 53)
and referring to the prophet means adhering to his practices that are agreed upon and there are no controversies about them.
Based on the above, no matter what could be understood from ahadith (being Authentic or Weak), the position of hands during standings in prayers cannot be considered as part of the Sunnah of the prophet. In one of his answers brother Moiz Amjad has said:
All such guidance of the Prophet (pbuh), in which, even though he is reported to have suggested one or another method, yet has not strictly fixed any one or the other method, should also not be considered a part of the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh)2.
When one holds that the method of practicing a religious duty (here, position of hands while standing in prayers) is not part of the Sunnah of the prophet, then the issue of innovation will be hardly relevant to a method that is used for the practice.
After the above overall reply to your question, please let me share my views on some of the details of your post:
You Said:
I have researched the Takatuff issue. The hanbali, shafii and hanafi recommend it while the Maliki discourages it.
The opinion of the Maliki school of feqhe about the issue of position of hands in prayers is not very clear. There are good reasons to argue that Imam Malik too believed in the practice of holding hands during prayers. Please refer to an earlier response to a related question titled: ‘Hands in Prayers According to Imam Malik’s Opinion‘.
As for the quote from the book Al-Jawahir Al-Kalam:
Jawahirulkalam is not a collection of ahadith as you know, it is a detailed discussion of Feqhi issues by its author Muhammad Hasan Annajafi in which he only expresses his own view on Feqhi issues. Naturally not all of the records and ahadith that are mentioned in this book carry a complete Esnad. Unfortunately I do not have an immediate access to the book at the moment but I doubt if there is a complete Esnad of this story in the book, especially as you see that it is started by حكي Which can be translated as “it is said”.
I looked at the Shia main 4 books of Hadith (Alkafi, Man La Yahzar, Tahzib, Estebsar) and was not able to find a similar story in these books. I even looked at the book BeharolAnwar that as you know is the collection of all the ahadith (strong or weak) that were available to its author (Majlesi) but again was not able to find a similar story there. Please do direct me to the sources of this story if you find it with Esnad.
Having said that, I think we need to be realistic, we know that because of some historical events that are beyond the scope of this post, Imami Shia Scholars have always hold concerns about Umar (RA) to the extent that some of the Extremist Imami Shia scholars even suggest celebration of the death anniversary of Umar (known as Eid-Alumar). I am sure you will appreciate that to the majority of Muslims who are not Shia and who consider Umar as one of the closest companions of the prophet, it is not easy to trust Shia records when it comes to Umar as the possibility of discrimination in this very case is quite strong.
As for the hadith that refers to Abu Hamid Assa’edi performing prayers in front of group of the companions, again I emphasis that to me, Hadith is not a primary source of Islam and learning Sunnah, however to discuss this particular hadith I would like to point out few things:
The hadith has been recorded by different words and forms in the books you mentioned. The version you have quoted is only similar to the version that is recorded in Sunane Daremi.
The phrase حتّى يقرّ كل عضو منه في موضعه معتدلاً is not recorded in all these versions. The phrase can be interpreted in different ways on its own and also based on the wordings of each version that contains the phrase.
There are many details of prayer that are not mentioned in the above narration. Obviously Muhammadebne Umar only reported the acts and the Azkar that seemed significant to him.
I am therefore not sure how we can conclude from this hadith that takattof was not practiced by the prophet.
As for the Imami shia’a hadith that you mentioned from Al-wasa’il Ashia, (that is originated from Kafi and Man La Yahzar):
I totally agree that the ahadith narrated from Imam Sadiq and some of the other scholars who were descendants of the holy prophet suggest ‘not holding the hands’ and to leave them at ease during prayer. However please note that it is only for Imamai Shia that (based on their theory of infallible God appointed Imams) such records are Hujjat. To the non-shia Mulsims, Imam Sadiq was not an infallible God appointed Imam, nevertheless he was a very pious and knowledgeable scholar of Islam who was living at the time of Imam Abu Hanifah. In other words, for a none Shia Muslim, the above narrator only shows the understanding of a scholar of Islam that can be added to the list of other understandings by the rest of the scholars.
You said:
Disregarding the narrations that fall in disagreement between the sunni and the shiaa, we can conclude that based on the last 2 hadiths, al-takatuff is not from the sunnah of the prophet, but it is an innovation.
As I explained at the beginning of the post, I totally agree you that Takattof is not part of the sunnah, but not on the basis of ahadith, rather on the basis of the fact that it does not fall on the definition of Sunnah (as given earlier). From this point of view, I want to go as far as saying that even if for the sake of discussion (and I repeat only for the sake of discussion) I agree that Umar introduced holding hands during prayer still I cannot see what is the problem with this (assumingly) alteration. When an act is not in the scope of sunnah then it is open to the preference of individuals how to do it within the limits of Shariat. The issue of being in resemblance to non-Muslims is something that I fail to understand. There are many acts of Muslim’s worshiping that resemble non-Muslims like bowing and prostrating. I think, from an Islamic point of view, all the acts of extreme respect and humbleness (Khoshoo) should be directed only towards Allah Ta’Ala. It’s the direction (i.e. addressee of Khoshoo) that is needed to be changed (to Allah’Taala) not the act itself (unless there are clear directives to perform an act in a specific way).
You further wrote:
You don’t show reverence and submissivess and whatsoever else to Allah thru al-Takatuff. All these are shown to allah thru your inner belief, devotion, remembrance of allah and practice of Islam. al-Taktuff was an old practice performed by the people in front of their kings. Allah is well beyond such practice.
I am not sure if the above statement is consistent with the hadith you quoted from Wasayel. There you can see that Imam Sadiq even directs his tows towards Qeblah and the narrator says he does that because of Khoshoo. If you look at our daily prayer you will see that all the acts of prayer are in fact for showing reverence and submissiveness. This of course does not oppose the point that our inner belief and devotion and remembrance of Allah and practice of Islam are also showing our reverence and submissiveness to Allah Ta’Ala. In fact it is because of the latter that the effects are evident in our appearance and acts.
You shared your concern with us by writing:
I dont see anyone digging into the sources of the twelver shia’a! that is very desappointing. The prophet said: “if you Hold fast to the quran and to my ahlul bayt, you will never go astray. The two shall never separate until we meet by the fountain of al-Kawthar”. So why isn’t any one searching in the twelver shia’a books for answers? They were the most knowledgeable people and will always be. They should be referred to by all muslims to resolve all their differences, especially, those of Ibadah such as prayers, adhan, wudu and so on…
I appreciate your comment and we certainly take all the valuable feedbacks like yours to the account, I however like to point out few important issues here that might help you understand us better:
-
If you browse the site more I am sure you will appreciate that even non-Shia sources of hadith are not dug out extensively in this site. This is of course not because the authors do not give a credit to hadith collections, but because of the fact that to them Hadith is NOT one of the primary sources of Islam. Having said that, by reading this post I hope you appreciate that we are not completely ignorant about Shia sources.
-
The variety of Esnads of the hadith you are referring to has been discussed in detail by Moiz Amjad and it was concluded that the Esnad is weak3. I am perhaps repeating myself but would like to remind you again that even if the Esnad was Sahih, it could add nothing to the belief of a Muslims as it is not addressed in the Qur’an and was not practiced as Sunnat.
-
You mentioned the importance of following Ahlalbayt and then you linked it with twelver (Imami) Shia books. I am not sure on what basis you ignore all the other branches of Shia Muslims, each with their own Imams, (specifically those that exist right now like Zaidi Shia and Esmayeelee Shia). I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that following Ahlalbayt means (exclusively) following the Twelve Imams of the Imami branch of Shia.
-
As far as I know there is no Shia book of Hadith in which the ahadth are narrated form the holy prophet. You for sure know that almost all of the ahadith of Shia books of hadith are the statements that are attributed to Imam Baqir and Imam Sadiq and occasionally later Imams. From this perspective I hope you appreciate that the books of hadith of Shia will not be seen as equivalents of the books of hadith of the Mainstream Muslims, simply because almost all of the books of the hadith of the mainstream Muslims contain statements that are attributed to no one but the holy prophet. In other words, unless the mainstream Muslims too consider Shia Imams as God appointed infallible Imams, it will not be appropriate to expect them to be interested in the Imami Shia books. Of course I certainly agree that it help one to be aware of different points of views and as such Imami Shia books could be a valuable sources.
-
You said “They should be referred to by all muslims to resolve all their differences, especially, those of Ibadah such as prayers, adhan, wudu and so on”. Firstly I am not sure what is the problem with having differences of opinion in Feqhi issues. The history shows that differences of opinions existed even at the time of the prophet (in particular when the prophet was not in an immediate access and companions needed to take a decision). Records reveal that generally the prophet was very tolerant and flexible when approaching these differences of opinions and he often approved both the conflicting opinions (e.g. refer to the story of performing the Asr prayer when the Muslims’ army were approaching the battle of Khaybar) On the other hand, when you say they should be referred to in order to resolve all the differences, practically you are saying that Muslims should all follow the Jafari Feque to reach a similar Feqhe. I found this an axiom that can be true for all the Feqhe schools. There are 4 famous schools of Feqhe in the mainstream Muslims and with Imami Shia and Zaidi Shia we can consider it as 6. It is very obvious that if 5 of these schools decide to refer to a fifth one then they will have less differences (please note this does not mean that we believe that a Muslim should belong to any of these schools).
-
You further commented “They were the most knowledgeable people and will always be.” I am not sure about two things:
How have you come to the conclusion that “They were the most knowledgeable people and will always be”?
Are you implying that being more knowledgeable necessarily means coming up with the correct fatwa? If yes, why?
-
There is one important and very delicate point about the issue of mainstream Muslims referring to Imami Shia books of hadith. This has to do with the difference between the development of science of Rejal (knowledge of narrators of hadith) among the mainstream Muslims and Imami Shia. I thought only mentioning this as it is a long story and certainly beyond the scope of this post.
-
Contrary to what you suggested (about referring to Ahlalbyat), Aliebnel Husayn (the forth Imam of Imami Shia) in his book Sahifeye Sajjadia (which is considered as a very reliable book by Zaidi and Imami Shia scholars) advises us to learn our religion from the companions of the prophet (which I believe quite ironically is exactly what the Mainstream Muslims are trying to do):
According to this book, the 4th Imam of Imami Shia used to pray with these words:
O God, and give to those who have done well in following the Companions, who say, Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who went before us in faith (Al-Qur’an 59: 10) thy best reward; those who went straight to the Companions’ road, sought out their course, and proceeded in their manner. No doubt concerning their sure insight diverted them and no uncertainty shook them from following in their tracks and being led by the guidance of their light. As their assistants and supporters, they professed their religion, gained guidance through their guidance, came to agreement with them, and never accused them in what they passed on to them.”(Sahifeye Sajjadia – 4th Prayer)4
Dear brother, I am grateful to receive your concern about what you thought to be an Innovation, I however would like to invite you to concentrate more on the real drastic innovations that are taking place in some of the Muslim communities and are waiting for good Muslims like yourself to be clarified and removed.
In need of your prayers
Abdullah Rahim
September 8, 2003
- For details, please see: Some Clarifications Regarding Sunnah [↩]
- For details, please see: Some Questions Relating to Sunnah [↩]
- For details, please refer to: Regarding one of the Chain of Narrators of the ‘Hadith Al-Thaqalayn’ [↩]
- Taken from As-Sahifa Al-Kamilah Al-Sajjadiyya – 4) Blessing upon the Attesters to the Messengers [↩]