Prayer (Kitab Al-Salat)
كتاب الصلاة
Chapter 181: Motioning During The Prayer
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Saying Tasbih applies to men during prayer and clapping applies to women. Anyone who makes a sign during his prayer, a sign which is intelligible by implication, should repeat it (i.e. his prayer).
(AbuDawud commented on the Hadith saying, this is a result of confusion.)
Chapter 182: Touching The Pebbles During The Prayer
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: When one of you gets up to pray, he must not remove pebbles, for mercy is facing him.
Mu’aiqib reported the Prophet (ﷺ) as saying ; Do not remove pebbles while you are praying; if you do it out of sheer necessity, do it only once to smooth the pebbles.
Chapter 183: A Person Prays In The State Of Ikhitsar
Abu hurairah said that the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) forbade putting hands on the waist during prayer. Abu Dawud said; The word Ikhtisar means to put one’s hands on one’s waist.
Chapter 184: A Person Prays While Leaning On A Stick
Hilal ibn Yasaf said: I came to ar-Raqqah (a place in Syria). One of my companions said to me: Do you want to see any of the Companions of the Prophet (ﷺ)? I said: A good opportunity. So we went to Wabisah.
I said to my friend: Let us first see his mode of living. He had a cap with two ears stuck (to his head), and wearing a brown silken robe. He was resting on a staff during prayer. We asked him (about resting on the staff) after salutation; He said: Umm Qays daughter of Mihsan said to me that when the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) became aged and the flesh grew increasingly on him, he took a prop at his place of prayer and rested on it.
Chapter 185: The Prohibition Of Speaking In The Prayer
Zaid b. Arqam said ; One of us used to speak to the man standing by his side during prayer. Then the Quranic verse “ And stand up with devotion to Allah”
Chapter 186: The Prayer Of The One Sitting Down
It has been narrated to me that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said : The Prayer of a man in sitting condition is half the prayer (wins him half the reward of prayer). I came to him and found him prayer in sitting condition. I placed my hand on my head (in surprise). He said: what is the matter,’Abd Allah b. ‘Amr? I said; Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) you have been reported to me as saying : the prayer of a man in sitting condition is half the prayer , but you are praying in sitting condition. He said: yes, but I am not like one of you.
‘Imran b. Hussain asked the prophet (ﷺ) about the prayer a man offers in sitting condition. He replied: his prayer in standing condition is better than his prayer in sitting condition, and his prayer in sitting condition is half the prayer he offers in standing condition, and his prayer in lying condition is half the prayer he offers in sitting condition.
I had a fistula; so I asked the prophet (ﷺ). He said: offer prayer in standing condition; if you are unable to do so, then in sitting condition: if you are then at your side(i.e, in lying condition).
I never saw the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) reciting the Quraan in his prayer at night in sitting condition until he became old. Then he used to sit in it (the prayer) and recite the Quran until forty or thirty verses remained, then he stood and recited them and prostrated himself.
Abu Dawud said: 'Alqamah b. Waqqas narrated this tradition on the authority of 'Aishah from the Prophet (ﷺ) to the same effect.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to pray standing at night for a long time, and used to pray sitting at night for a long time. When he prayed standing, he bowed standing, and when he prayed sitting, he bowed sitting.
I asked ‘A’ishah whether the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) recited a whole Surah (of the Quran) in one Rak’ah of the prayer. She replied : (He recited from among) the Mufassal surahs. I asked: Did he pray (at night) sitting? She replied : (he prayed sitting) when the people made him old.
Chapter 187: How Should One Sit In The Tashah-hud
I said that I should look at the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) how he prays. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) stood up and faced the qiblah (i.e. the direction of Ka'bah) and uttered the takbir (Allah is most great); then he raised his hands till he brought them in front of his ears; then he caught hold of his left hand with his right hand (i.e. folded his hands).
When he was about to bow, he raised them (his hands) in a like manner. Then he sat, stretched out his left foot (to sit on it), placed his left hand on his left thigh, and kept away the tip of his right elbow from his right thigh, joined two fingers, formed a ring, to do so. And the narrator Bishr made a ring with the thumb and the middle finger.
"A Sunnah of the prayer is that you should raise your right foot, and make your left foot lie (on the ground)."
"I heard Al-Qasim saying: "Abdullah bin 'Abdullah informed me that he heard 'Abdullah bin 'Umar saying: "From the Sunnah of the prayer is to lay your left foot on the ground, and raise your right foot."
Hammad bin Zaid also said (the wording): "From the Sunnah" (narrating) from Yahya just as Jarir did.
(There is another chain) from Yahya bin Sa'eed that Al-Qasim bin Muhammad saw them sitting in Tashah-hud, so he mentioned the Hadith.
"When the Prophet (ﷺ) would sit in the prayer, he would place his left foot horizontally - so much so that the upper-part of his foot became black."
Chapter 188: Tawarruk (Sitting On On'e Buttock) In The Fourth Rak'ah
I am more informed than any of you regarding the manner in which the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) offered his prayer. They said: Present it. The narrator then reported the tradition, saying: he bent the toes of his feet turning them towards the Qiblah when he prostrated, then he uttered “ Allah is most great,” and raised (his head), and bent his left foot and sat on it, and he did the same in the second Rakah. The narrator then transmitted the tradition, and added: In the prostration (i.e., the Rakah) which ended at the salutation, he sat on the hips at the left side. ahmad (b. Hanbal) added: they said : You are right. This is how he used to pray. They (Ahmed and Musaddad) did not mention in their versions how he sat after offering two rak’ahs of prayer.