Proof No. ➊
عن جابربن عبدالله قال : جاء سليك الغطفاني يوم الجمعة و رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يخطب، فجلس، فقال له، يا سليك ! قم فاركع ركعتين، وتجوزفيهما، ثم قال : اذا جاء أحدكم، يوم الجمعة، والامام يخطب، فليركع ركعتين، وليتجوز فيهما .
“Sayyiduna Jabir ibn Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) says that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was delivering the Friday sermon when Sulayk al-Ghatafani (may Allah be pleased with him) came and sat down. The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘O Sulayk! Stand up and pray two brief rak’ahs.’ Then, addressing the people, he said: ‘When any one of you comes on Friday while the imam is delivering the sermon, he should pray two brief rak’ahs, and then sit.'”
Proof No. ➋
عن عياض أن ابا سعيد الخدري دخل يوم الجمعة و مروان يخطب فقام يصلي، فجاء الحرس ليجلسوه فابيٰ حتي صلى، فلما انصرف أتيناه فقلنا : رحمك الله ان كادوا ليقعوا بك، فقال : ماكنت لاتركهما بعد شئ رأيته من رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، ثم ذكر أن رجلا جاء يوم الجمعة فى هيئة بذة و النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم يخطب يوم الجمعة فأمره فصلي ركعتين والنبي صلى الله عليه وسلم يخطب .
“Iyad (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates that Sayyiduna Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) entered the mosque on a Friday while Marwan was delivering the sermon. He stood up and began to pray. The guards came to make him sit down, but he refused and prayed until he finished. When he had finished, we came to him and said: ‘May Allah have mercy on you! The guards nearly attacked you.’ He replied: ‘I could never abandon these two rak’ahs after what I saw from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ Then he related that a man came on a Friday in a disheveled state while the Prophet ﷺ was delivering the Friday sermon, and he instructed him to pray two rak’ahs while the Prophet ﷺ was delivering the sermon.”
↰ This narration has been declared “sahih” by Imam Ibn Khuzaymah
and Imam Ibn Hibban
(may Allah have mercy on them both), and “hasan sahih” by Imam al-Tirmidhi (may Allah have mercy on him).
◈ Imam Abdullah ibn Awn (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
كان الحسن يجي والامام يخطب فيصلي ركعتين .
“Imam Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him), when he came during the sermon, would pray two rak’ahs.”
◈ Imam al-Tirmidhi (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
انما فعل الحسن اتباعا للحديث، وهو روي عن جابر عن النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم هذا الحديث .
“Indeed Imam Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him) did this in following the hadith, and it was he who narrated this hadith of the Prophet ﷺ from Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him).”
◈ Imam Sufyan ibn Uyaynah (may Allah have mercy on him) (d. 198 AH), who is a narrator of the hadith of Sayyiduna Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), would pray two rak’ahs when he came during the Friday sermon and then sit, and he would also order others to do so.
◈ Imam al-Tirmidhi (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
قال ابن أبى عمر : كان سفيان بن عيينه يصلي ركعتين اذا جاء والامام يخطب وكان يامر به .
“Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Abi Umar (may Allah have mercy on him) says that when Sufyan ibn Uyaynah (may Allah have mercy on him) came during the imam’s Friday sermon, he would pray two rak’ahs, and he also ordered it.”
◈ The teacher of Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Abu Abd al-Rahman Abdullah ibn Yazid al-Muqri (may Allah have mercy on him) (d. 213 AH), also held this view.
◈ Imam al-Tirmidhi (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
والقول الاول أصح .
“The first view (praying two rak’ahs during the sermon) is preferred.”
◈ Imam al-Shafi’i (may Allah have mercy on him) also held this view.
◈ Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him) also holds this position.
◈ Imam Ishaq ibn Rahawayh (may Allah have mercy on him) also says the same.
عن أبى مجلز قال : اذا جئت والامام يخطب يوم الجمعة فان شئت ركعت ركعتين وان شئت جلست .
“The second part of Imam Abu Mujlaz’s statement does not agree with the saying of the Prophet ﷺ, so his statement is not acceptable.”
Benefit:
◈ Imam al-Tirmidhi (may Allah have mercy on him), under a narration, says:
لأن ابن عمر هو روي عن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، وهو أعلم بمعنيٰ ما رويٰ .
“Sayyiduna Abdullah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrated this from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he knows best the meaning of what he narrated.”
◈ Allama Ayni, a Hanafi scholar, writes:
الصحابي الراوي أعلم بالمقصود .
“The companion who narrates a hadith is the most knowledgeable about the intent of his narration.”
◈ The well-known non-Ahl al-Hadith scholar Muhammad Sarfaraz Khan Safdar, the Deobandi Hayati, writes:
“And this point, as acknowledged by Mubarakpuri Sahib, will come in its proper place: that the narrator of a hadith, especially if he is a companion, knows the intent of his narrated hadith better than others.”
It has been established earlier that Sayyiduna Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), the companion who related from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the order to pray two rak’ahs during the sermon, prayed two rak’ahs during the sermon in the time of Marwan’s rule after the Prophet’s death.
The muhaddithin accept this anyway, and now, according to Deobandi principles as well, the practice of Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) in particular, and the practice of Imam Hasan al-Basri and Sufyan ibn Uyaynah (may Allah have mercy on them both) in general, demands that two rak’ahs be prayed by every person who comes during the Friday sermon, not only Sulayk (may Allah be pleased with him) from this hadith.
This hadith in the view of the muhaddithun:
Now we examine this command of the Prophet ﷺ in the light of the statements of the muhaddithun, because the muhaddithun know their narrations better than the muqallids, and according to Mr. Sarfaraz Khan Safdar, the narrators of this narration, if not especially then at least generally, know their narrations better than other people.
◈ Imam al-A’immah Ibn Khuzaymah (may Allah have mercy on him) (223–311 AH) establishes a chapter on this hadith as follows:
باب الأمر بتطوع ركعتين عند دخول المسجد وان كان الامام يخطب خطبة الجمعة، ضد قول من زعم انه غير جائز أن يصلي داخل المسجد والامام يخطب .
“The chapter on the command to perform two voluntary rak’ahs for one who enters the mosque while the imam is delivering the Friday sermon, contrary to the view of one who claims that it is not permissible to pray inside the mosque while the imam is preaching.”
◈ Imam Ibn al-Mundhir (may Allah have mercy on him) (d. 318 AH) says:
يصلي اذا دخل والامام يخطب ركعتين خفيفتين صلى فى منزله او لم يصل، لأن النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم أمر بذالك الداخل فى المسجد وأمره على العموم .
“If someone enters while the imam is delivering the sermon, he should pray two rak’ahs, whether or not he prayed at home, because the Prophet ﷺ commanded this of the one entering the mosque in general terms.”
◈ Imam Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Darimi (may Allah have mercy on him) (181–255 AH), after mentioning the hadith of Jabir ibn Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) and the practice of Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) and Imam al-Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him), says:
أقول به . “This is also my fatwa.”
◈ Also see the fatwa of Hafiz Ibn Hazm (may Allah have mercy on him) (d. 456 AH):
ومن دخل يوم الجمعة والامام يخطب فليصل ركعتين قبل أن يجلس .
“Whoever comes on Friday while the sermon is in progress should pray two rak’ahs before sitting down.”
◈ Imam al-Shafi’i (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
نقول و نأمر من دخل المسجد والامام يخطب، والمؤذن يؤذن، ولم يصل ركعتين، أن يصليهما ونأمر أن يخففهما، فانه روي فى الحديث أن النبى أمر بتخفيهما .
“We say this and command that whoever enters the mosque during the Friday sermon or the adhan, and has not prayed two rak’ahs, should pray them, and we command that he make them brief, because it is reported from the Prophet ﷺ that he commanded them to be shortened.”
◈ Hafiz al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
هذه الأحاديث كلها صريحة فى الدلالة لمذهب الشافعي و أحمد و اسحاق و فقهاء المحدثين أنه اذا دخل الجامع يوم الجمعة و الامام يخطب استحب أن يتجوز فيهما ليسمع بعدهما الخطبة وحكي هذا المذهب أيضا عن الحسن البصري وغيره من المتقدمين .
“All these hadiths clearly indicate the position of Imam al-Shafi’i, Ahmad, Ishaq (may Allah have mercy on them) and the jurist muhaddithun: whoever enters the mosque during the sermon, it is recommended for him to pray two rak’ahs as tahiyyat al-masjid; sitting without performing them is disliked. It is also recommended to be brief in these two rak’ahs so that the sermon can be heard after them. This position is also narrated from Imam al-Hasan al-Basri and others among the earlier imams.”
Note:
Mr. Sarfaraz Khan Safdar Deobandi Hayati says:
Imam al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) writes in Sharh Muslim, p. 782, vol. 1:
وقال الملك والليث و ابوحنيفة والثوري و جمهور السلف من من الصحابة والتابعين لايصليها وهو مروي عن عمر و عثمان و على رضي الله عنهم اجمعين و حجتهم الامر بالانصات للامام……
↰ Consider the scholarly integrity of the Deobandi gentleman: unable to produce proofs and arguments, he resorted to feigned ignorance and attributed this statement of Qadi Iyad to Hafiz al-Nawawi, even though we have already mentioned Hafiz al-Nawawi’s clear position.
As for the statement of Qadi Iyad, it is utterly false and rejected. Not to mention the majority, not even a single companion is definitively established as saying that one who arrives during the sermon should not pray two rak’ahs. Rather, Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), such a great companion of the Messenger, was ready to be killed, yet he did not give up the two rak’ahs during the sermon.
◈ Mr. Anwar Shah Kashmiri Deobandi writes:
ويقضي العجب من الشيخ النووي كل العجب حيث حكي عن القاضي عياض أنه هو مذهب الجمهور من الصحابة و الخلفاء و الراشدين .
“It is very surprising that Imam al-Nawawi quoted from Qadi Iyad that this is the position of the majority of the companions and the rightly guided caliphs.”
↰ The muqallids should establish from their Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) a prohibition of these two rak’ahs during the sermon with a sahih chain; otherwise it must be accepted that they are not followers of Abu Hanifa on this issue.
Our claim is that the taqlid-adherents do not have even a da’if narration on this issue.
Arguments of those who prohibit:
Argument No. ➊
Mr. Sarfaraz Khan Safdar Deobandi Hayati says:
“In Bukhari p. 121 vol. 1, Muslim p. 283 vol. 1 and Mawarid al-Zaman p. 148, the wording being al-Bukhari’s: يصلي ما كتب له ثم ينصت اذا تكلم الامام . الحديث، and in Mawarid al-Zaman the wording is: ثم ركع ماشاء الله ان يركع ثم انصت اذا خرج امامه . From this sahih narration it becomes clear that one may pray before the imam’s sermon, but there is no allowance after اذا تكلم الامام.”
First: Let us look at the complete wording of the narration that Sarfaraz Sahib refers to:
عن أبى هريرة رضى الله عنه عن النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم قال : من اغتسل ثم أتي الجمعة فصلي ماقدرله ثم انصت حتي يفرغ من خطبته ثم يصلي معه غفرله مابينه و بين الجمعة الأخري و فضل ثلثة ايام .
“Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, narrates from the Prophet ﷺ that he said: Whoever performs ghusl, then comes to Friday prayer, prays as much as Allah has decreed for him, then remains silent until the imam finishes his khutbah, then prays with him (the Friday prayer), his sins between this Friday and the next one are forgiven, along with three additional days.”
Note that Sarfaraz Sahib has relied on this narration out of either misunderstanding or mere prejudice, whereas our dispute concerns the person who arrives during the khutbah, not the person who reaches the masjid before the imam comes out.
As for the person who reaches the masjid before the imam and is performing voluntary prayers, our position is also that he should stop his voluntary prayers and listen to the imam’s khutbah. By presenting this narration, Sarfaraz Sahib has not conquered any scholarly mountain; rather, it only shows his helplessness on this issue.
Second: After the explicit saying of the Prophet ﷺ اذا جاء احدكم يوم الجمعة والامام يخطب فليركع ركعتين, whoever prohibits these two rak’ahs must present a clear proof specifically prohibiting these two rak’ahs during the khutbah.
Third: ثم ينصت اذا تكلم الامام does not establish the prohibition of the two rak’ahs during the khutbah, because these two rak’ahs do not contradict listening attentively (insat), and the sayings of the Prophet ﷺ cannot contradict one another.
Even the Hanafis do not consider it to be contrary to listening attentively. When someone hears the Qur’an, he is commanded to listen attentively, yet among the Hanafis, a person who arrives while the dawn prayer is being recited can still quickly perform two rak’ahs of nafl. Did Sarfaraz Sahib not keep listening attentively in mind here?
——————
Argument No. ➋
Jenab Muhammad Sarfaraz Khan Safdar Deobandi Hayati writes:
“In Majma al-Zawa’id, p. 171, vol. 2, it is narrated from Nubaisha al-Hudhali that the Prophet ﷺ said: فان لم يجد الامام خرج صلى ما بداله وان وجد الامام قد خرج جلس فاستمع وانصت، الحديث، Allamah Haythami, may Allah have mercy on him, says: رواه أحمد ورجاله رجال الصحيح خلا شيخ أحمد وهو ثقه .”
Response:
First: I submit to Sarfaraz Sahib that merely quoting the statement of Allamah Haythami, may Allah have mercy on him, رجاله رجال الصحيح does not make the narration authentic, because in the science of hadith, for a narration to be authentic, it is not sufficient that the narrators are trustworthy (thiqah); continuity of the chain (ittisal al-sanad) is also necessary, from which you are very evasive. Kindly establish the hearing (sama’) of ‘Ata al-Khurasani, who is a narrator of “hasan al-hadith,” from Nubaisha al-Hudhali, may Allah be pleased with him. In this narration there are two defects:
① ‘Ata al-Khurasani, may Allah have mercy on him, is a mudallis and a narrator who frequently narrates with irsal; no explicit statement of hearing could be found here.
② Let alone Nubaisha al-Hudhali, may Allah be pleased with him, his hearing from any Companion at all is not established.
Second: Sarfaraz Sahib has quoted Allamah Haythami’s statement رجاله رجال الصحيح without objection. This too is his error or negligence, because ‘Ata al-Khurasani, may Allah have mercy on him, is not a narrator in Sahih al-Bukhari, as Fadilat al-Shaykh Irshad al-Haq Athari, may Allah preserve him, has established through a researched and well-supported discussion in Tawdih al-Kalam, p. 172, vol. 2. Those interested may refer to it and benefit.
③ Jenab Muhammad Sarfaraz Khan Safdar Deobandi Hayati writes:
“The majority respond that the person who came was named Sulaik al-Ghatafani. He was a very poor man in a wretched state, and the Prophet ﷺ wished to collect donations for him from the people. He instructed him to stand up and pray two rak’ahs, meaning that the people would see his wretched condition and give charity to him. Accordingly, it is narrated in Nasa’i, p. 158, vol. 1: جاء رجل… . .”
Reply:
First: We would like to ask Safdar Sahib: who are the “Jumhur” (majority)? Do Sayyidna Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), Sufyan ibn Uyayna, Hasan al-Basri, Imam al-Shafi’i, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Imam Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, Imam al-Tirmidhi, Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Shaykh al-Bukhari Abdullah ibn Yazid al-Muqri, Imam Ibn Khuzaymah, Imam Ibn al-Mundhir, Imam al-Darimi, Allamah Ibn Hazm and Imam Ibn Hibban (may Allah have mercy on them), compared with Imam Ibn Sirin, Imam Sufyan al-Thawri and Urwah (may Allah have mercy on them), shall be called the majority? We have already proven in the previous parts that the prohibition of these two rak’at is not established with a sahih chain from Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) and Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him); moreover, not even one Companion, let alone the majority of the Companions, has this matter been established with proof.
◈ Hafiz al-Iraqi (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
كل من نقل عنه يعني من الصحابه منع الصلاة و الامام يخطب محمول على من كان داخل المسجد لأنه لم يقع عن أحدمنهم التصريح بمنع التحية وقد ورد فيها حديث يخصها فلا يترك بالاحتمال .
“Those Companions from whom the prohibition of prayer during the state of the khutbah is narrated, that refers to people who were already present in the mosque, because from none of them has the prohibition of these two rak’at as tahiyyat al-masjid been explicitly established; and in this regard a hadith specifically concerning them has also come, so it is not correct to abandon it on the basis of mere possibility.”
Therefore, Safdar Sahib’s endeavour cannot be called the result of research; rather, it can certainly be declared the outcome of taqlid.
Second: The narration that he presented citing Nasai, in support of his interpretation, has as its narrator Sayyidna Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), and according to Sahib’s own words, a Companion narrator knows his own narration better than others. Therefore, when Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) understands the ruling of this narration to be general for every person, what right does a muqallid have to oppose him and restrict it?
If Safdar Sahib had at least taken the understanding of this Sunan al-Nasai narration from Imam al-Nasai (may Allah have mercy on him) himself, he would have been somewhat reassured. Imam al-Nasai (may Allah have mercy on him) did not establish from this narration a prohibition of two rak’at during the khutbah; rather, he established the permissibility of encouraging people to give charity during the Friday khutbah. And if you look eight narrations before it, you will find that the Imam derived praying during the Friday khutbah from the hadith of Jabir ibn Abdullah. In understanding a hadith, is the word of the muhaddithin authoritative, or the word of the muqallids?
Regarding the narration Safdar Sahib presented citing Mawarid al-Zaman, that اركع ركعتين ولاتعودن لمثل هذا، — its chain contains the same Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar, about whom Safdar Sahib wrote in
that 90 percent of the muhaddithin declared him da’if, and criticism reaching the level of kadhdhab (liar) has been transmitted. Our question is: were you not ashamed to present the narration of such a narrator as corroboration?
Secondly, what is meant by ولا تعودن لمثل هذا? If only Safdar Sahib had read further! Imam Ibn Hibban (may Allah have mercy on him) himself says about this:
قوله : لا تعودن لمثل هذا أراد الابطاء فى المجيئ الي الجمعة، لا الركعتين اللتين أمر بهما، والدليل على صحة هذا خبر ابن عجلان الذى تقدم ذكرنا له أنه أمره فى الجمعة الثانية أن يركع ركعتين مثلهما .
“By this saying of the Prophet ﷺ, his intention is coming late to the Friday prayer, not those two rak’at which he was commanded to perform. This is corroborated also by the hadith of Ibn Ajlan, which we have mentioned earlier, that he was commanded to perform two rak’at in the same manner in the second Friday as well.”
◈ The commentator of Bukhari, Mr. Anwar Shah Kashmiri Deobandi, writes:
بل هو نهي عن الابطاء عن الجمعة و حضوره فى وقت الخطبة حتي لزمه امساكها .
“(The Hanafis have taken it to mean prohibition of the two rak’at; this is not so) rather, it prohibits coming late to the Friday prayer; the said Companion had made it a permanent habit to arrive late during the khutbah.”
Third: In view of the blessed deed of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, would you too command such a person to perform two rak’at during the khutbah? If the answer is yes, then your position is false, because the permissibility of two rak’at during the khutbah would then be established on its own. But if the answer is no, then what is your share in this hadith? If you cannot act upon it, it is clear that you have started a business of twisting and distorting the hadiths to protect your misguided taqlid, and you are not ready to accept the hadith in any way.
Safdar Sahib’s bad belief:
Mr. Muhammad Sarfaraz Khan Safdar Deobandi Hayati says:
“From these narrations it becomes known that this was a specific incident, not a rule or principle; some narrators presented it in the form of a general rule.”
كبرت كلمة تخرج من أفواههم ان يقولون الا كذبا .
We have already explained “these narrations”; their claim has not been proven from them. Taqlid is such a deadly disease that its patient reaches the point of denying hadith. From Safdar Sahib’s statement it becomes clear what value the reservoir of hadith holds for him. This is only one narration, and upon it Safdar Sahib’s deficient intellect has tried its hand and arrived at this false conclusion. How many other hadiths might there be which the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, who heard them from the Prophet, and other narrators have presented in the form of a general rule according to their own wishes? اعاذناالله من هذه الهفوات .
There is blind reliance on the narrations of liars and wicked narrators who related subsidiary rulings from Imam Abu Hanifa, may Allah have mercy on him, and the dependence of religion upon them, yet alas, such distrust and ill-belief towards the prophetic hadith narrated by reliable narrators by unanimous agreement! تلك اذا قسمة ضيزي .
In fact, this is an invisible form of denial of hadith. Safdar Sahib should openly declare his disavowal of the Prophet’s hadith. Why does he disfigure its face through such pretexts?
؎ “A fine veil, sitting behind the lattice, neither hiding clearly nor coming forward openly.”
Readers! Judge for yourselves how many well-wishers of the religion can those holding such views about the hadith of the Prophet be? And moreover, is this agreement with the hadith or opposition to it? ? ? ?
