How perfect is your salaat?

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DanyalSAC

Junior Member
I've been reading about how critical some folks are on the Shia and how they do their salaat (and other things).

But its made me stop and wonder, just how perfect are we in OUR salaat?

How many of us:

Refuse to stand with our shoulders & ankles/heels touching our brother or sister?
Make our intentions to pray out loud?
Raise our eyes to the sky during salaat?
Refuse to say "Ameeen!" after the Al Fatiha with the imam during the audible prayers?
Touch our earlobes with our thumbs with the takbirat irham?
Cross our hands under our belly buttons or on our waists?
Stand with our hands straight at our sides?
Don't fully bend in rukoo?
Say "Sayadina Mohammed" during the As-salaah 'alaa an-Nabiyy (sending prayers on the Prophet s.a.w. at the end of the salaat)?
Do the overly dramatic head roll (or the "look down, look right, look down, look left" routine) during the tasleem?

None of the above is based on any sunnah. Yet these are common mistakes in saalat. My prayer is so not perfect! I am trying though, and therefore I cannot be critical on anyone else's salaat.

Our Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa salaam, says "Pray as you have seen me pray". The book "The Prophet's Prayer Described" by Shaikh Naasir-ud-Deen Al-Albaani has been amazingly helpful. My shaykh has had a series of lectures on Friday nights that have been a Godsend.

may Allah make us all among those who follow the sunnah ameen!
 
thariq2005

thariq2005

Praise be to Allah!
Salaamu 'alaykkum. May Allaah subhana wa ta'aala make you from the people who are firm upon the sunnah. May Allaah raise your status in this dunya and in the hereafter, aameen.

I agree with what you said, but I would like to point out that some of the opinions you pointed out do have a valid difference of opinion. Like for example the placing of hands below the chest, not standing feet to feet, etc. Some of them are issues that scholars have talked about over time. You would see many imaams who don't even look at the place of prostration during salaah, and it may cross our minds that this imaam does not have khushoo' when in reality they probably have more khushoo' than us. And all of this comes down to differences of opinion. I don't mean that a person remains silent when his/her brother/sister follows an odd opinion that has been rejected by the consensus of scholars, but where there is a valid difference of opinion (with evidences), then it is befitting for us to remain silent as we are not a qualified Faqeeh to talk about this issue.

You would see many shayookh in the haram who do not stand feet to feet, it does not mean they refuse to follow the sunnah, rather they are of the opinion that standing feet to feet is not from the sunnah. Personally I stand feet to feet, hands on my chest, looking at place of prostration etc, but I would like to point out that these are opinions upon which scholars have differed, and Allaah knows best
 
S

sliver

Junior Member
"Refuse to say "Ameeen!" after the Al Fatiha with the imam during the audible prayers?"

I thought you had to say "Ameeen" after Al Fatiha. This just shows my lack of knowledge in Salaat.

Most of what you say I did. Inshallah I will get better in this aspect.
 
A

Aapa

Mirajmom
Assalaam walaikum,

Good post. I was reading somewhere..if a prayer is not performed with the correct intention it is thrown back at us like a used sheet. That hit me hard. And there are times when I have to fight shytan so hard to pray. Salat can never be routine. It has to be alive.

One of the reasons I love the month of Ramadan so much is that we spend more time at the masjid. That is one time when prayer improves. Every night to have congregational salat is a blessing I pray about all year.

This reminds me of one of my favorite hadits. I pray I do not butcher the illustration. A man had been a sinner most of his life. He made one salat. It was perfect and accepted by Allah subhana talla and thereby granted junnath. Now this gives us not only hope but the intention to strive for pleasing Allah subhana talla.
 
ilyas_eh

ilyas_eh

Used to be active here!
mhassan10 said:
"Refuse to say "Ameeen!" after the Al Fatiha with the imam during the audible prayers?"

I thought you had to say "Ameeen" after Al Fatiha. This just shows my lack of knowledge in Salaat.

Most of what you say I did. Inshallah I will get better in this aspect.
Click to expand...

brother, you have to say "Ameen" after Al-Fatiha. to the best of my knowledge there is no difference of opinion regarding this. saying it out loud or saying it quietly is where the difference of opinion.

to my understanding, brother Danyal pointed it as a mistake i.e. not saying 'ameen' is a mistake.
 
D

DanyalSAC

Junior Member
thariq2005 said:
Salaamu 'alaykkum. May Allaah subhana wa ta'aala make you from the people who are firm upon the sunnah. May Allaah raise your status in this dunya and in the hereafter, aameen.

I agree with what you said, but I would like to point out that some of the opinions you pointed out do have a valid difference of opinion. Like for example the placing of hands below the chest, not standing feet to feet, etc. Some of them are issues that scholars have talked about over time. You would see many imaams who don't even look at the place of prostration during salaah, and it may cross our minds that this imaam does not have khushoo' when in reality they probably have more khushoo' than us. And all of this comes down to differences of opinion. I don't mean that a person remains silent when his/her brother/sister follows an odd opinion that has been rejected by the consensus of scholars, but where there is a valid difference of opinion (with evidences), then it is befitting for us to remain silent as we are not a qualified Faqeeh to talk about this issue.

You would see many shayookh in the haram who do not stand feet to feet, it does not mean they refuse to follow the sunnah, rather they are of the opinion that standing feet to feet is not from the sunnah. Personally I stand feet to feet, hands on my chest, looking at place of prostration etc, but I would like to point out that these are opinions upon which scholars have differed, and Allaah knows best
Click to expand...

Really? Even with the hadith that talk about seeing the shaytan dance between brothers who don't close the gaps, or the hadith that talks about the Prophet s.a.w. going down the lines to make sure they're straight and without gaps?

Odd.
 
saifkhan

saifkhan

abd-Allah
Assalamu alaikum warahamatullah

in this case....the perfection of salah...first of all noone is free from error except Allah SWT.
yet I can suggest books:
01. http://www.scribd.com/doc/16922372/A-Guide-to-Prayer-Salat-in-ISLAM
02. http://www.scribd.com/doc/16747935/The-Prophets-Prayer-Described-Albaani

I'm just giving it...so that one can follow the Prophet SAWS best as per Quran and authentic Hadeeth: the sihah sitta.....

not reccomended by me...but by Dr. Zakir naik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnF6EIUDuFY

Jazakallahu Khair
wassalamu alaikum
 
thariq2005

thariq2005

Praise be to Allah!
DanyalSAC said:
Really? Even with the hadith that talk about seeing the shaytan dance between brothers who don't close the gaps, or the hadith that talks about the Prophet s.a.w. going down the lines to make sure they're straight and without gaps?

Odd.
Click to expand...

Yes it is a very common hanbali opinion. What I mean by not standing feet to feet is that their feets are very close to each other, but not touching (if you know what I mean :S). They bring evidences for this and explain the hadeeth about standing feet to feet (because the hadeeth says neck to neck, knee to knee, thus it is metaphorical in the sense that people should stand close together, but not literally standing feet to feet, neck to neck and knee to knee). Allaahu a'lam, this is what I was told by few of the brothers who studied the hanbali fiqh to a fair extent, though I personally stand feet to feet.


P.S I was looking for the statements of classical scholars with regards to standing feet to feet, if anyone finds any, please paste it here.
 
elysetexel

elysetexel

Junior Member
I started to try to do the Salaat correctly since a while and I must say sometimes its hard, because you can be distracted by many things.
I got a book from a sister here in Holland and it helps me a lot. It's writen by Sheikh Moh'ammed Saalih Al-Moenaddjied.
In Dutch it's called: maners to increase your Khoeshoo in your prayersl
Iam not sure what the translation is in other languages, but maybe you can find it InshaAllah.

elyse:hijabi:
 
alf2

alf2

Islam is a way of life
LOL @ "Do the overly dramatic head roll (or the "look down, look right, look down, look left" routine) during the tasleem?"

Anyway, my Salat is probably really bad by most of your standards.
BUT, I live 1 hour away form the nearest Masjid and I've never even been in one. I dont know ANY Muslims in my area, except for 1 gas station owner and his wife...but when i saw they sell *!*!*!*!ographic movies, my heart was broken.

I base my Salaat off of guides on Youtube.
That is when I saw, everyone seems to do it differently... :|

May Allah (swt) accept my prayers, because I am doing the best with what I have. God willing, now that I have a car I can begin to go to Jummah on Fridays and get proper counseling.
 
BrotherInIslam7

BrotherInIslam7

La Illaha Illa Allah
Staff member
Salaamalaykum sister Alf2,

May Allah subhaanaho waa taala assist you and us all to perfect our salah. Ameen

You could watch Huda Tv's fantastic series 'Prophet's Prayer described'. I put them in a playlist. Here's the link :-

http://www.youtube.com/user/BrotherInIslam10#grid/user/8B3B956DC144D6AD

In addition, akhi Danyal is mentioning about a book that is available for free on TTI in the 'Free ebooks' thread.

The Prophet's Prayer Described by Sh Albaani

And if the pronunciation of supplications are difficult for you(as it is for most non-arabic speakers), then you can refer to 'Fortress of the muslim' which has transliterations in English of all the supplications.

Here's the link :- http://www.islamawareness.net/Dua/Fortress/

Please feel free to ask any questions or clarify any doubts. This is why we are here on TTI, to learn and help each other. :)

Wasalaamalaykum waa rahmatullahi
 
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