Jami` at-Tirmidhi 238

Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.

Sufyan ibn Waki narrated to us: Muhammad ibn al-Fudayl narrated to us, from Abu Sufyan Tarif al-Sadi, from Abu Nadrah, from Abu Sa‘id, who said: The Messenger of Allah said: ‘Purification is the key to prayer; its consecration is the takbir, and its release is the taslim. There is no prayer for one who does not recite al-Hamd and a surah, whether in an obligatory prayer or another prayer.’

Abu Isa said: This hadith is hasan. A report on this subject is also related from Ali and A’ishah. He said: The hadith of Ali ibn Abi Talib on this subject has a better chain and is more sound than the hadith of Abu Sa‘id; we recorded it at the beginning of the Book of Purification. The Companions of the Prophet and those after them acted on this. This was the view of Sufyan al-Thawri, Ibn al-Mubarak, al-Shafi‘i, Ahmad, and Ishaq: the takbir consecrates the prayer, and a person does not enter the prayer without it. Abu Isa said: I heard Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Aban, Waki’s transmitter, say: I heard Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi say, ‘If a man began the prayer by invoking seventy of Allah’s names but did not say the takbir, it would not suffice. If he loses his ritual purity before saying the taslim, I would instruct him to perform ablution, return to his place, and say the taslim; the instruction is to be carried out as stated.’ Abu Nadrah’s name was al-Mundhir ibn Malik ibn Qut‘ah.