Step 3 of 6
Salah
Salah is the prayer offered five times every day and night: Fajr at dawn, Dhuhr after midday, 'Asr in the afternoon, Maghrib at sunset and 'Isha at night. Allah describes it as an obligation fixed to its times, and it is the first pillar a Muslim practises after the shahadah.
It is required of every Muslim who has reached puberty and is of sound mind. A woman during menstruation or post-natal bleeding does not pray and does not make those prayers up. Children are taught to pray from the age of seven, so that it is a habit long before it is a duty.
Before praying one must be in a state of purity (wudu, or ghusl when needed), cover the body properly, face the qiblah towards the Ka'bah and wait for the prayer's time to begin. The prayer itself opens with "Allahu akbar", includes the recitation of al-Fatihah, bowing and prostration, and ends with the salam.
The Prophet ﷺ compared the five prayers to a river at one's door in which one bathes five times a day, washing away sins, and he said that the prayer is the first deed a servant will be asked about on the Day of Resurrection. He also warned that what stands between a person and disbelief is abandoning the prayer.
The four schools differ on some details. Show them
Each school's ruling, with the schools that share it named together.
Is a Muslim who leaves the prayer out of laziness, while still affirming that it is obligatory, a disbeliever?
3 of 4 schools agree. Differing: Hanbali.
Show each school
- Sinner, not a disbelieverHanafi · Maliki · Shafi'i
- Disbeliever (kufr)Hanbali
- Hanafi
- He commits a grave sin but remains a Muslim; a ruling authority would imprison him until he repents and prays, and he is not executed.
- Maliki
- He remains a Muslim; if a judge calls him to repent and he persists, the penalty is a hadd punishment, applied only by the ruling authority, and he is washed, prayed over and buried as a Muslim.
- Shafi'i
- Like the Malikis, the school holds he remains a Muslim and that persisting after being called to repent carries a hadd penalty, applied only by the ruling authority.
- Hanbali
- The relied-upon position, taking hadiths such as "the covenant between us and them is the prayer" literally, is that if he is called to pray and refuses he has left Islam; another narration from Imam Ahmad agrees with the majority.
- Qur'an 4:103
- Qur'an 2:43
- Qur'an 29:45
- Sahih al-Bukhari 528 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Jami' al-Tirmidhi 413 Graded by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir: Sahih · Al-Albani: Sahih · Bashar Awad Maarouf: Hasan · Zubair Ali Zai: DaifSahih
- Sunan Abi Dawud 495 Graded by Al-Albani: Hasan Sahih · Muhammad Muhyi Al-Din Abdul Hamid: Hasan Sahih · Zubair Ali Zai: SahihSahih
- Sahih Muslim 82Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Jami' al-Tirmidhi 2621 Graded by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir: Sahih · Al-Albani: Sahih · Bashar Awad Maarouf: Hasan Sahih · Zubair Ali Zai: Isnaad SahihSahih
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
The positions of the four schools are summarised from their standard references and are pending review by a qualified scholar. Follow the school you were taught, and for your own situation, ask a scholar.
Create a free account to keep your place as you go. Create a free account · Sign in