We ask you to summarize the description of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) prayer without mentioning scholarly disagreement.

The questioner : He said: May Allah benefit you with your knowledge, O honorable Shaykh. May we ask you, without burdening you, to summarize the description of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) prayer, without mentioning scholarly disagreement or differing opinions, so that it may be for the general Muslim public, men and women, because some are ignorant of the description of the prayer, even though the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Therefore, we see many observations and deviations among many people. May Allah guide you to benefit His servants.

The Shaykh : Yes, the prayer is the greatest pillar of Islam after the two testimonies, and it is obligatory for a person to take complete care of it because it is the pillar of Islam, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) used to teach his Companions the description of the prayer, either by speech or by action. As for speech, such as his saying to the man who prayed without tranquility: to the end of the hadith. As for action, those who came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) would pray with him, and then he would say to them: A person purifies himself from major and minor ritual impurity and from physical impurity, then faces the qiblah and says takbir, raising his hands to the level of his shoulders or to the tips of his ears, either with the takbir, after it, or before it; all of this is permissible. Then he places his right hand over his left forearm on his chest. Then he begins with the opening supplication, saying: O Allah, distance me from my sins as You have distanced the East from the West. O Allah, purify me from my sins as a white garment is purified from dirt. O Allah, wash away my sins with water, snow, and hail. Or he says: Glory is to You, O Allah, and praise, and blessed is Your name, and exalted is Your majesty, and there is no god but You. Then he seeks refuge with Allah from the accursed Shaytan, saying: I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Shaytan. Then he recites al-Fatihah, preceded by the Basmalah, saying: He pauses at every verse as I have paused at every verse just now. Then he recites whatever is easy from the Qur'an. The recitation in Fajr is long, from the longer chapters of the final part of the Qur'an, and in Maghrib it is short, from the shorter chapters of the final part of the Qur'an. There is no harm in reciting a long portion in Maghrib sometimes, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) did. As for Zuhr, 'Asr, and 'Isha', the recitation is moderate between these two. Then he raises his hands and says takbir while bowing, places his hands on his knees with his fingers spread, and straightens his back so that his head is level with his back, and says: Glory to my Lord, the Magnificent, three times or more. He also says: Glory is to You, O Allah, our Lord, and praise, O Allah, forgive me. He also says: The One who is free from all defects, the Holy, the Lord of the angels and the Spirit. Then he raises his head and his hands as he raised them when bowing and says: Allah hears the one who praises Him, except the ma'mum, who says instead: Our Lord, to You belongs all praise. He says: Allah hears the one who praises Him, and when he stands up he says: Our Lord, to You belongs all praise, abundant praise, blessed, filling the heavens and filling the earth and filling whatever else You will. Then he goes down into prostration saying takbir, placing his knees first, then his hands, then his forehead and nose, and says: Glory to my Lord, the Most High, three times or more, as much as he likes. He also says: Glory is to You, O Allah, our Lord, and praise, O Allah, forgive me. He also says: The One who is free from all defects, the Holy, the Lord of the angels and the Spirit. Then he supplicates as he wishes and increases supplication in prostration due to the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in that regard, where he said: During prostration, he does not raise his hands. Then he raises himself from prostration and sits between the two prostrations, spreading his left foot and raising his right foot, and by "foot" I mean the foot, not the lower leg and thighs. He raises the foot and sits on his left foot and says: O Lord, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and have mercy on me, and grant me well-being, and guide me, and give me strength. Then he prostrates the second prostration like the first. Then he stands up for the second rak'ah and does in it what he did in the first rak'ah, except for the opening supplication, so he does not recite the opening supplication. There is disagreement among some scholars regarding seeking refuge; some say that whenever he stands for a rak'ah he seeks refuge, and some say that the first seeking refuge in the first rak'ah is sufficient. Then, when he has prayed two rak'ahs, he sits for the tashahhud. If the prayer is two rak'ahs, he completes the entire tashahhud. If it is three or four rak'ahs, when he finishes the first tashahhud, he stands up and performs the rest of his prayer, but he limits it to al-Fatihah. As for the tashahhud, the first one ends when he says: And I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for the last one, it has no end, because when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) mentioned the tashahhud, he said: So if you remain for more than half an hour or an hour sitting for the tashahhud, supplicating to Allah the Exalted and Majestic, there is no harm, except for the imam, who should not prolong it for the ma'mum. Then he says taslim to his right: Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy, and to his left: Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy. This is a summary of what we know of the description of the prayer reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family).