4.

Statement of Prayer

٤-

بيان الصلاة

Abu Humaid as-Sa‘idi once told a company of ten of the Prophet’s companions that he was more informed than any of them regarding the manner in which God’s Messenger conducted his prayer, and when they asked him to expound it to them, he said:When God’s Messenger stood up to pray he raised his hands so as to bring them opposite his shoulders and said thetakbir; then he recited some verses; then said thetakbir, raising his hands so as to bring them opposite his shoulders; then he bowed, placing the palms of his hands on his knees and keeping himself straight neither raising nor lowering his head; then raised his head saying, “God listens to him who praises Him”; then raised his hands placing them exactly opposite his shoulders; then said thetakbir; then lowered himself to the ground in prostration, keeping his arms away from his sides and bending his toes; then raised his head, bent his left foot and sat on it; then he adopted a natural position so that every bone returned properly to its place; then he prostrated himself; then he said thetakbir, raised himself and bent his left foot and sat on it: then he adopted a natural position so that every bone returned to its place; then he got up, and did the same as that in the secondrak'a. At the end of two rak'as he stood up and said thetakbir, raising his hands so as to bring them opposite his shoulders in the way he had said thetakbiron beginning to pray; then he did that in the remainder of his prayer, and after thesajda* which is followed by thetaslimhe put out his left foot and sat on his left hip; then he uttered thetaslim. They said, “You have spoken the truth. This is how he used to pray.” *i.e. prostration Abu Dawud and Darimi transmitted it. And Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah transmitted something to the same effect. Tirmidhi saying that this is ahasan sahihtradition. Then he bowed and placed his hands on his knees as though he were clutching them, and he bent his arms and kept them away from his sides. He (i.e. the narrator) said that he then prostrated himself placing his nose and his forehead on the ground, keeping his arms away from his sides, placing the palms of his hands [on the ground] opposite his shoulders, keeping his thighs separate and not letting his stomach press on any part of his thighs till he finished; then he sat up and spread out his left foot, putting forward the front of his right foot towards hisqibla, placing the palm of his right hand on his right knee and the palm of his left hand on his left knee, and he pointed with his finger, i.e., his forefinger. In another version by him [it says]: When he sat at the end of two rak'as he sat on the sole of his left foot and raised the right, and after the fourth he placed his left hip on the ground and put out both feet on one side. A version by Abu Dawud of the tradition of Abu Humaid.