What is Tankees in prayer?

The questioner : We heard about Tankees and focus in prayer.

The Shaykh : Tankees is well known, but I am hearing about focus for the first time. Tankees in prayer is, for example, you recite in the first rak'ah and in the second rak'ah , meaning you advance and you delay; you recite in the first rak'ah and in the second rak'ah . This is called Tankees. You recite in the first rak'ah "Say, He is Allah, the One," and in the second you go back and recite "Al-Kawthar," and so on. This is called Tankees. As for focus, I don't know what you mean.

The questioner : .....

The Shaykh : Perhaps it is an error done intentionally as Tankees. Tankees, according to the jurists, has two forms. The first form, which I mentioned just now, is disliked with a disapproval of recommendation (makruh tanzih), meaning that if someone does it, there is nothing on him, but it is contrary to the general practice of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The second type of Tankees is one that no sane person can imagine doing, where he burdens himself by reciting the last verse of the shortest surah, , which is recited as , what is left? Who does this? If he does this, the prayer is invalid, but I do not think a sane person would do it.

The questioner : It requires a great deal of intellect, because it is harder than memorizing images.

The Shaykh : What is the benefit or the point of this operation? This indicates a strong memory. It is narrated from 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas that he would take a poem of seventy lines, hold it from the bottom, and recite it from top to bottom. This is beyond imagination, but he would not recite the last word of the line because he would balance the line, but he would recite the last line and then reverse it until he reached the first line. By Allah, it requires a very large brain. As for the noble verse, he reverses it in a short surah like - , reversing it. What does that mean? He wants to show his skill and cleverness. One should not show skill and cleverness in a field other than this. And this reminds me of a story I read in some books of literature. A story is told, but there is a resemblance to what was done... In the time of one of the Caliphs of the Banu 'Abbas, a man appeared who was similar to those you call "al-Hawwa." Do you know them? Al-Hawwa.

The questioner : The plural of "Hawi."

The Shaykh : Do you know what a "Hawi" is?

The questioner : He puts the snake in a bag.

The Shaykh : Yes, provided that... These people perform sleight-of-hand tricks. For example, you give him a hundred papers, he burns them in front of you, and returns them to you as they were. These people are called "Hawwa" or "Hawi," the plural of "Hawwa." One of these Arabs in that era had an army of fleas that used to torment people in the past. Do you hear about fleas and lice? They are in gloves, do you know them? I wish... He said he had an army of fleas, and he had something like a tray and a stick. He would strike a certain way, and they would form a row in a specific manner. He would strike a second time, and they would turn in another direction, similar to what we see in military parades. The Caliph in that era was informed about this man and was surprised by him. He sent someone after him to verify if this was true or not. He opened the bag and extended his hand, and a pile of fleas came out. He struck them with the stick, and they formed an organized row. And so on, two strikes, three strikes, etc., until the king saw something he could hardly believe. So he ordered the executioner he had to flog him forty lashes, and he ordered the treasurer of his money to give him a gift of such and such dirhams and dinars, based on the conscious intellect he had spent in training the fleas. This training and the flogging wasted his time on such a matter. So the point is... a reversed image. What is this cleverness? Put it in another place.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, we heard about Quran memorizers and they called them persons... In one of the Quran competitions in Saudi Arabia, they would say to one of them, "Recite from Surah al-An'am, for example, verse number five," and immediately he would recite it. They would say, "Recite from al-Baqarah, for example, verse number ninety," and he would recite it. They have a strange ability.
The Shaykh: Subhan Allah, this is possible.