Continuation of the explanation of the hadith of Malik ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: (… and pray as you have seen me praying …).

The Shaykh : The point is that the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in this hadith: obligates us to do two things, the second of which is linked to the first; the second cannot be achieved without the first. This first thing is that we learn the manner of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) prayer. We have made the way easy and facilitated it for people so that they can achieve this, by having written, about twenty years ago, my well-known book, “The Manner of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) Prayer, from the Takbir to the Taslim, as if you were seeing it.” It is a well-known book, and I know that many women and men own this book. However, I also know that many of the owners of this book, among both women and men, do not read it with reflection and understanding. So we remind you, and the reminder benefits the believers, that it is necessary to study this book until one almost memorizes it by heart, because it concerns a worship that we repeat at least five times a day, the obligatory prayers. This repetition helps to fix in the mind what we read in the book, unlike, for example, the book “The Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) Argument”; that is a book that contains a worship which a person is required to perform only once in a lifetime. If one reads that book from beginning to end and then does not apply it in real life, he may forget it. But prayer is repeated five times or more, so it should be memorized by every Muslim who cares to apply this noble command. Whoever pays this attention will find his prayer like a machine that inevitably hits the Sunnah. For example, let me give a simple example: the one who habitually moves his finger during the tashahhud in the way they call it today “automatic,” when he sits in the tashahhud, we will see him moving his finger even if we assume his finger was broken and tied to the other fingers. He must feel that he is moving it because he has become accustomed to the Sunnah. Similarly, the one who is accustomed to prostrating on his hands cannot prostrate on his knees, and so on. Therefore, they said, “Habit is a second nature.” If a person has a bad nature, he must strive against it until the second nature becomes his habit. This is what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) indicated by his saying: . It is not necessary for a person to be born a scholar; rather, he is born ignorant, knowing nothing, but through learning he becomes a scholar. Likewise, it is not necessary for every person to be born patient, for many people have no patience. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) commands them to feign patience, saying: , meaning to feign patience, that is, to be patient. A person is not held accountable if he makes a mistake, but rather he is treated with patience. The point is that this hadith: obligates us, therefore, to learn how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed, and then to make it our methodology and program in all our prayers.