Fundamentals of Salat in the Quran verses the Hadith

 

Salam,

The basic foundation of the salat in the Quran is to worship God and God alone. We worship God by making the following in our salat:

Remembrance of Him

"Verily, I am Allah: There is no god but I: So serve thou Me (only), and establish regular prayer for celebrating My praise. (Surah 20:14)

Magnify Him

Say: "Praise be to Allah, who begets no son, and has no partner in (His) dominion: Nor (needs) He any to protect Him from humiliation: yea, magnify Him for His greatness and glory!"

Praise Him

And during part of the night, (also,) celebrate His praises, and (so likewise) after the postures of adoration. (Surah 50:40)

Be constant in prayer and ask provision

Enjoin prayer on thy people, and be constant therein. We ask thee not to provide sustenance: We provide it for thee. But the (fruit of) the Hereafter is for righteousness. (Surah 20:132)

Glorify and Commemorate His Names

And glorify the name of their Guardian-Lord, and (lift their hearts) in prayer.

Seek help with patience

O ye who believe! Seek help with patient perseverance and prayer; for Allah is with those who patiently persevere. (Surah 2:153)

And in no wise covet those things in which Allah Hath bestowed His gifts More freely on some of you than on others: To men is allotted what they earn, and to women what they earn: But ask Allah of His bounty. For Allah hath full knowledge of all things. (Surah 4:32)

Most important salat is to worship God alone and the places of worship is for God alone

This is a pledged that we have made when we say:

"Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds: (Surah 6:162)

"And the places of worship are for Allah (alone): So invoke not any one along with Allah; (Surah 72:18)

All these supplication and praise to glorify Him can be found in the Quran to make our salat complete and meaningful. In spite of these fundamentals which were brought by our Muhammad the Messenger of Allah (Pbuh) in the Quran, the hadith pundits falsify some of these fundamentals and in the process contaminated the basic fundamental of genuine salat practiced by the Messenger of Allah.

The most intriguing and preposterous schemes that they did were imposing the following falsehoods which contradict to the worship of God alone in our salat, this is with regard to the utterance of the “tashahhud” in the salat which when read give the following meanings:

All greetings belong to Allah, all righteousness is due to Allah. All the best prayers are for the sake of Allah. Peace, mercy and blessing of Allah be upon you, O Prophet, may peace be upon us and on the devout slaves of Allah. I testify that there is no god but Allah and I testify that Muhammad is his messenger. O God, send your mercy on Muhammad and his family as you send your mercy on Abraham and his family. O God, send your blessings on Muhammad and his family as you have blessed Abraham and his family. You are the Most praised, the Most Glorious.

In the above “tashahhud” there are several falsehoods that can be observed:

When one says “Peace, mercy and blessing of Allah be upon you, O Prophet!” This means one is immortalizing the Prophet to be at par with the Living God. The Prophet has long been dead and for those who do not accept this incurred God’s displeasure as He said:

Muhammad is no more than a messenger: many were the messenger that passed away before him. If he died or were slain, will ye then turn back on your heels? If any did turn back on his heels, not the least harm will he do to Allah; but Allah (on the other hand) will swiftly reward those who (serve Him) with gratitude. (Surah 3:144)

The other fabrication in the “tashahhud” is testifying or bearing witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Only Allah bear witness that Muhammad is His messenger so those who bear witness according to Allah are liars:

When the Hypocrites come to thee, they say, "We bear witness that thou art indeed the Messenger of Allah." Yea, Allah knoweth that thou art indeed His Messenger, and Allah beareth witness that the Hypocrites are indeed liars. (Surah 63:1)

The other falsehood in the “tashahhud” is that God had blessed Abraham and his family. It is wrong to say that God had send His blessing to all the families of Abraham as the father a family member was never blessed by God as shown by the following verse:

 It is not fitting, for the Prophet and those who believe, that they should pray for forgiveness for Pagans, even though they were of kin, after it is clear to them that they are companions of the Fire.  And Abraham prayed for his father's forgiveness only because of a promise he had made to him. But when it became clear to him that he was an enemy to Allah, he dissociated himself from him: for Abraham was most tender-hearted, forbearing. (Surah 9:113-114)

Thus for those who are not yet hooked to the hadith they can eliminate the “tashahhud” by replacing with  verses of the Quran which praise and glorify Allah, a good one is the “Ayatul Kursi” at Surah 2:255.

Asar

 



Congregation in the mosque

 

Salam,

The mosque congregation should be led by male imams as the evidences in the Quran strongly express in favor of male leaders as the Muslims has been based on patriarch system when the first man Adam form his community and down to Abraham when God made him the Imam of the nation as shown in the following verse of the Quran:

 And remember that Abraham was tried by his Lord with certain commands, which he fulfilled: He said: "I will make thee an Imam to the Nations." He pleaded: "And also (Imams) from my offspring!" He answered: "But My Promise is not within the reach of evil-doers."

 The next point that the male should lead in front of the congregation is because the male is normally the breadwinner of the family and this has been the case since the history of man and most likely to be so in the future. The following verse is referred:

Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means…..(Surah 4:34)

And there is also a command in the Quran when one is in the mosque one should be kept apart from the wife and the following verse is being referred:

….but do not associate with your wives while ye are in retreat in the mosques. Those are Limits (set by) Allah: Approach not nigh thereto. Thus doth Allah make clear His Signs to men: that they may learn self- restraint. (Surah 2:187)

So a congregation in the mosque will have the imam or the leader of the prayer in front of the congregation where the male and the female can be separated right and left respectively behind the imam or the female congregation to be behind the male congregation. There should not be intermingling of both genders.

Asar



The Status of the Quran verses the Hadith’s Sunnah

Salam,

There is claimed that the sunnah has the same status as the Quran and they furnished the following verse of the Quran to justify their belief:

The vanguard (of Islam)- the first of those who forsook (their homes) and of those who gave them aid, and (also) those who follow them in (all) good deeds,- well- pleased is God with them, as are they with Him: for them hath He prepared gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein forever: that is the supreme felicity. (Surah 9:100)

They claimed in this verse, Allah is saying that the Muhajirin (those who migrated from Mecca to Medina) and the Ansar (the people of Medina) and those righteous people that came after them have been promised heaven. 

 

Now, how can Allah promise heaven to these people when they are the very same ones who transmitted the hadith to us? As a matter of fact they are the same people that passed the Qur'an down to us. The Quran is passed on to us by "Mutawattir" narrations. Mutawattir narrations are narrations that have been transmitted by so many people that it would be impossible for all of the transmitters to fabricate such a narration. However, we have an enormous amount of Mutawattir hadith. We have a list of Mutawatir that teach things that are not taught in the Quran. How can you reject their authenticity with no objective evidence?

They further claimed If we are expected to believe that ALL the Muslims could have corrupted Islam by introducing the Hadith then to maintain consistency we must also conclude that it was very likely for them to have corrupted the Qur'an as well.

 

Thus they claimed that whether one follow the Quran in full or half of its verses, it must go together with the hadiths.

The Hadith/Sunnah cannot be compared to the Quran

However this belief that the same people were responsible to also bring the Hadith down to us is rather skeptical if the next verse after Surah 9:100 is taken as stated below:

Certain of the desert Arabs round about you are hypocrites, as well as (desert Arabs) among the Medina folk: they are obstinate in hypocrisy: thou knowest them not: We know them: twice shall We punish them: and in addition shall they be sent to a grievous penalty. (Surah 9:101)

There is no guarantee that all those in 9:100 made the grade to heaven some may have been fallen in the category of the above and they may be the ones who transmit the hadith but certainly not the Quran. The Quran unlike the hadith was not being sifted from millions of hadith to those of the so called “authentic” ones. God guaranteed every verse of the Quran is entirely from Him and Him only:

As to thee, the Qur'an is bestowed upon thee from the presence of one who is wise and all-knowing. (Surah 27:6)

This Qur'an is not such as can be produced by other than Allah; on the contrary it is a confirmation of (revelations) that went before it, and a fuller explanation of the Book - wherein there is no doubt - from the Lord of the worlds. (Surah 10:37)

And God confirmed even the writing of it into a book form is done during the Prophet’s time and was written by pious people and also kept in memory since then. Unfortunate the Hadiths did not have these sanctified criteria to be God’s Words:

Move not thy tongue concerning the (Qur'an) to make haste therewith. It is for Us to collect it and to promulgate it: But when We have promulgated it, follow thou its recital (as promulgated): Nay more, it is for Us to explain it (and make it clear) (Surah 75:16-19)

That We might make it a Message unto you, and that ears (that should hear the tale and) retain its memory should bear its (lessons) in remembrance. (Surah 69:12)

By no means (should it be so)! For it is indeed a Message of instruction: Therefore let whoso will, keep it in remembrance. (It is) in Books held (greatly) in honor, Exalted (in dignity), kept pure and holy, (Written) by the hands of scribes- Honorable and Pious and Just. (Surah 80:11-16)

But more important is that why should the Hadith be leveled with the Quran when God says that the Quran is the best guidance for Muslims and it is complete and in detail:

Ramadhan is the (month) in which was sent down the Qur'an, as a guide to mankind, also clear (Signs) for guidance and judgment (Between right and wrong). (Surah 2:185)

And this is a Book which We have revealed as a blessing: so follow it and be righteous, that ye may receive mercy: (Surah 6:155)

There is not an animal (that lives) on the earth, or a being that flies on its wings, but (forms part of) communities like you. Nothing have we omitted from the Book, and they (all) shall be gathered to their Lord in the end. (Surah 6:38).

Say: "Shall I seek for judge other than Allah? - When He it is Who hath sent unto you the Book, explained in detail." They know full well, to whom We have given the Book, that it hath been sent down from thy Lord in truth. Never be then of those who doubt.

(Surah 6:114)

 Many are unaware Allah commanded the Muslims to follow the Prophet actions who follow God’s words.

God does not coin the word the “Prophet Sunnah” in the Quran, this is a clear fabrication there is no Prophet sunnah but that being mentioned in the Quran is God’s Sunnah and this is the one to be followed by all prophets:

(This was Our) way (Sunnah) with the messengers We sent before thee: thou wilt find no change in Our ways (Our Sunnah). (Surah 17:77)

And the Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) was commanded to say:

"I am no bringer of new-fangled doctrine among the messengers, nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. I follow but that which is revealed to me by inspiration; I am but a Warner open and clear." (Surah 46:9)

"O men! I am sent unto you all, as the Messenger of Allah, to Whom belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth: there is no god but He: it is He That giveth both life and death. So believe in Allah and His Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet, who believeth in Allah and His words: follow him that (so) ye may be guided." (Surah 7:158)

 "Allah speaketh the Truth: follow the religion of Abraham, the sane in faith; he was not of the Pagans." (Surah 3:95)

Thus the command to obey Allah is obeying the Messenger who followed Allah Words from His Book the Quran!

 Asar