(Peace be upon the Prophet) in the tashahhud: Is it a modification by the Companions themselves of the hadith: (Peace be upon you, O Prophet), or is it based on a specific instruction?

Eid Abbasi : There is a question in the book "The Description of Prayer" where you mentioned the hadith narrated from the Companions regarding how the Companions performed the tashahhud. They changed the wording from "Peace be upon you" to "Peace be upon the Prophet, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings." How can we reconcile the second with the first, knowing that the Salafi methodology is to take from the Qur'an and the Sunnah and the understanding of the Companions of both?

The Shaykh : It seems the questioner understood that the Companions changed the text they received from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the tashahhud, which is in the form of direct address: ; it seems he understood that they changed it on their own initiative. This is what we exonerate even the least understanding of the Sunnah from, even if he were a later follower of the Salaf; I mean, even if he were from the later generations who adopt the methodology of the Salaf. We do not imagine a late scholar who understands that the prescribed formulas are based on specific instruction would dare to change a single letter in a formula he received from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) through chains of narration. So how can we imagine a single Companion, let alone someone like Ibn Mas'ud, would dare to change a text he received directly from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?
This thought must never occur to the questioner or anyone else. Rather, the scholars say in such cases: what they did was based on a specific instruction from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to them. The meaning of specific instruction is that the Messenger (peace be upon him) was the one who hinted to and indicated to them that this is how it is during my lifetime, but after my death, you will speak in the form of absence, not the form of presence, and you will say in the tashahhud: "Peace be upon the Prophet."
And we know the distance of the Companions from religious innovation in general, and their distance from it in the dhikr (remembrance) in particular, and especially Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, about whom the text in "Sahih" al-Bukhari states that he said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) taught me the tashahhud in prayer, and my hand was between his hands." My hand between his hands: this is an indication of the teacher's attention to the student by teaching him what he is in the process of teaching him.
Ibn Mas'ud said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) taught me the tashahhud, and my hand was between his hands: The blessings are for Allah... the known version from Ibn Mas'ud, which the Hanafis follow: . Ibn Mas'ud said, after mentioning the text that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) taught him: "And his hand was between my hands." He said: "And we were in his presence, and he was in our presence." Meaning, he taught him to say this while he was among them; meaning, while he was alive with them (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: "So when he died, we said: Peace be upon the Prophet." He did not say, "I said." May he be far from saying what I just told you. May he be far from acting on his own in such a text that he received directly from the Messenger with this level of attention that he expressed by saying: "And my hand was between his hands." Rather, that was what he understood during the teaching. Therefore, he said in this hadith: "And he was in our presence, so when he died, we said." He did not say, "I said." He is not saying something on his own in a matter where there is a text from the Messenger (peace be upon him), and he knows that the teaching of the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) is revelation from Allah. It is revelation from Allah. Those who are ignorant of this reality, or neglect it, or turn a blind eye to it, are in fact in a great error. Those who proceed to the formulas of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his dhikr and add to them whatever additions they please, never imagine that they are adding to the revelation. This does not occur to them.
And this is, in reality, a treacherous distinction that they do not notice, a treacherous distinction between Allah and His Messenger, a distinction between the Book and the Sunnah, between what came in the Book and what came in the Sunnah. Otherwise, would any of these people dare to add a single letter to the text of the Qur'an in order to satisfy their greed and their extremism in their love for Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), for example? Would any of them say, when Allah said: to the end; would any of them say: "Muhammad, our master, Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah"? No one says this. No, absolutely, he would tell you: this addition to the Qur'an is not permissible. And the addition to what is not from the Qur'an, but is also revelation, is also not permissible. But they distinguish, as I told you, out of their ignorance.
Likewise, would any of them say, "Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah," because this is an addition to the text? So we, the people who claim to belong to the Salaf, do not distinguish between Allah and His Messenger at all. We do not distinguish between the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, between the teaching of Allah and the teaching of the Messenger of Allah. Both issue from a single source, which is the source of revelation from the sky.
Therefore, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught al-Bara' ibn 'Azib the formula for lying down when sleeping: ; therefore, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught al-Bara' ibn 'Azib the formula for lying down when sleeping: . He said to him: ; so this supplication, al-Bara' ibn 'Azib was in the presence of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to be able to memorize it. When he reached his last phrase: , what did he say? "And upon Your Messenger whom You sent," instead of saying: . If we asked these people who change and alter the dhikr of the Messenger (peace be upon him): Is there a difference that loses the meaning that the Messenger (peace be upon him) brought in this formula, between the teaching of the Messenger which is Is there a difference? If Muhammad (peace be upon him) had not been a Messenger and had only been a Prophet, then there would be a change in meaning; because the Messenger is more general than the Prophet. Every Messenger is a Prophet, but not every Prophet is a Messenger. But our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is not only a Messenger, but he is the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers all. So when al-Bara' said: "And upon Your Messenger whom You sent," he did not contradict reality at all, but he contradicted the Prophetic teaching.
O our brothers, pay attention to this. Everything is that he contradicted the teaching of the Messenger to him, as for the meaning, there is no change at all. Therefore, he said to him: . The Companions proceeded on this basis.
I have mentioned to you repeatedly, on occasions like this, how many of the Companions would flee from a man changing the wording of the Messenger to his own wording. For example, in *Musnad al-Imam Ahmad*, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas heard a man saying in the *talbiyah* of Hajj: "Labbaik, Dhu al-Ma'aridj (O Master of the Ascending Stairway)." He said to him—and this is also part of the wisdom of the Companions in forbidding evil: "Indeed, He is the Master of the Ascending Stairway, but that is not how we used to say it in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). We used to say: to the end of the well-known *talbiyah." He said to him: "Labbaik, Dhu al-Ma'aridj; He is indeed the Master of the Ascending Stairway, but the *talbiyah* was not like this in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him)." More eloquent than this, also in the style of forbidding evil, is the story of Ibn 'Umar, which I have mentioned to you more than once; he heard a man sneeze and say: "Praise be to Allah, and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah." He said: "I say with you: Praise be to Allah, and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah, but that is not how the Messenger of Allah taught us; say: Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds." It is as if the issue is repeating itself exactly today, but—unfortunately—without anyone responding to those who forbid evil. This addition today in our worship comes in many forms, the most famous of which is the addition in the *adhan*, the sending of blessings upon the Messenger (peace be upon him), as Ibn 'Umar said: "I say with you, blessings upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), but that is not how we were taught." Thus, the Companions, and there are very, very many reports from them, were scrupulous about not bringing a change to the wording of the Messenger (peace be upon him).
Among the most famous and precise in this regard is our companion, the one who narrated the hadith of the *tashahhud*, whom the Messenger taught it and held his hands between his own; that is 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. Al-Imam Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi narrated in his book *Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar* with a valid chain from Ibn Mas'ud that when he taught his companions the *tashahhud*, he would hold them to a single letter; meaning, if—for example—he added a letter or omitted a letter, he would say to him: "No, go back and say it as you received it from the Messenger (peace be upon him)."
Do we imagine that such a Companion, if he were alone, would come to the teaching that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) taught him directly: and change it to "Peace be upon the Prophet" without having any teaching or direction from the Messenger (peace be upon him) ...? May they be far from that! How could it be, when he is not alone in the field? First, he narrates to us, saying: "When the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) died, we—meaning we, the Companions—said: ; therefore, to confirm this meaning that Ibn Mas'ud narrated to us in the plural, we said: 'Peace be upon the Prophet.' This *tashahhud* came with a difference in wording, as mentioned in *Sifat al-Salah* from the Lady 'A'ishah with 'Peace be upon the Prophet,' it came from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab in *Muwatta' Malik*: 'Peace be upon the Prophet,' and so on.
From this, we say that it is a text and a consensus of the Companions that they adopted; it was not an importation from them or a change of the text, as might be inferred from the questioner's question, but rather this is a determination by the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) for them.
And this matter is most eloquent when we know today the people's extremism in supplicating to the dead and calling for aid from other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gestured and indicated to these Companions by way of blocking the means to harm that if I die, say: 'Peace be upon the Prophet.' This is because many people today imagine many things; among them is that the dead hear, all the dead, they imagine, many people today—if we say most of them—that the dead hear; so all the more so, their master, the master of all Muslims, Muhammad (peace be upon him), hears, all the more so; what do you say if the Messenger does not hear?! He does not hear even the sending of blessings upon him, which is the best thing said in his right (peace be upon him), that he hears the calling for aid of those who call for aid through him other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), that he hears the seeking of nearness of those who seek nearness through him other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic); he does not hear the sending of blessings upon the Messenger.
Some of you may be surprised by this, those who have not heard such words before, how the Messenger (peace be upon him) does not hear the sending of blessings upon him? Yes, listen to the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him) which you may have heard, which is: . Listen, he said: , he did not say: "I hear it." They said: "How is that, and you have been orphaned?" He said: , and this transmission is clarified by , and in another hadith, narrated also by 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him and grant him satisfaction), he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: , ; so the Messenger (peace be upon him), when one of us sends blessings upon him, does not hear this speech as almost all people imagine, but rather there are angels specifically employed by the Lord of the worlds to convey the greetings of those who send blessings upon him to him (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him).
So if he (peace and blessings be upon him) does not hear; then we address him only where the address came, just as we address the dead, we say now: , but to the end of the well-known supplication, but this does not mean that we are addressing someone who hears, the dead do not hear by the text of the Qur'an and the text of the Sunnah. And I have explained this fully in my introduction to the book *Al-Ayaat al-Bayyinah fi 'Adam Sma' al-Amwat 'inda al-Hanafiyyah al-Sadat* (The Clear Verses on the Non-Hearing of the Dead According to the Hanafi Scholars), a comprehensive introduction there, so whoever among you wishes can refer to it for expansion on this topic.
In summary: "Peace be upon the Prophet" is a determination by the Prophet for the Companions and not a change by them, and may they be far from such a thing!
And this is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.