Is setting an alarm for prayer required or not? And the discussion concerns the hadith of Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal in his statement:
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The questioner: I mean, and it seems, and I may be mistaken now, that modern means of setting an alarm and someone waking you up and the like are not required.
The Shaykh: No. It is required.
The questioner: That is why I said "it seems."
The Shaykh: [Laughter] Thank you. You know the jurisprudential and scholarly principle on which there is no disagreement among the jurists of the Islamic Shari'ah, and praise be to Allah, which is their saying: "What is not fulfilled except by it is obligatory." And if it is obligatory to preserve the performance of prayer at its time prescribed by the Shari'ah, and if the Muslim afflicted with heavy sleep can adopt a means that enables him to fulfill this obligation imposed on him, then what is not fulfilled except by it is obligatory. So these means that have appeared today are, in truth, among the blessings of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) upon His servants in the present age, and among His arguments against them so that they do not make excuses like "I can or I cannot," "I am able or I am not able," "I wake up or I do not wake up." For He has created for him means that enable him to perform them. And so this person mentioned his natural excuse, but that does not negate that the Muslim should adopt a means from the permissible means to achieve what is prescribed. And it is not necessary that this prescribed act be an obligation upon him; rather, he should adopt from the permissible means what enables him to perform the prescribed rulings, even if they are not obligatory, because what is not fulfilled except by it is obligatory, and what is not fulfilled except by it is a recommended practice (sunnah), and so on. So people today, all of them, unfortunately, adopt... now, at this moment, is that not so? So praise be to Allah, these are means that Allah has legislated and permitted, but why do we not adopt such means to reach the point where we perform what Allah has obligated upon us? That is more fitting and more befitting for us.
The Shaykh: No. It is required.
The questioner: That is why I said "it seems."
The Shaykh: [Laughter] Thank you. You know the jurisprudential and scholarly principle on which there is no disagreement among the jurists of the Islamic Shari'ah, and praise be to Allah, which is their saying: "What is not fulfilled except by it is obligatory." And if it is obligatory to preserve the performance of prayer at its time prescribed by the Shari'ah, and if the Muslim afflicted with heavy sleep can adopt a means that enables him to fulfill this obligation imposed on him, then what is not fulfilled except by it is obligatory. So these means that have appeared today are, in truth, among the blessings of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) upon His servants in the present age, and among His arguments against them so that they do not make excuses like "I can or I cannot," "I am able or I am not able," "I wake up or I do not wake up." For He has created for him means that enable him to perform them. And so this person mentioned his natural excuse, but that does not negate that the Muslim should adopt a means from the permissible means to achieve what is prescribed. And it is not necessary that this prescribed act be an obligation upon him; rather, he should adopt from the permissible means what enables him to perform the prescribed rulings, even if they are not obligatory, because what is not fulfilled except by it is obligatory, and what is not fulfilled except by it is a recommended practice (sunnah), and so on. So people today, all of them, unfortunately, adopt... now, at this moment, is that not so? So praise be to Allah, these are means that Allah has legislated and permitted, but why do we not adopt such means to reach the point where we perform what Allah has obligated upon us? That is more fitting and more befitting for us.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.