Is setting an alarm for prayer required or not? And the discussion concerns the hadith of Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal in his statement:
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : I mean, and it is possible that I am mistaken now, that modern means of setting an alarm and having someone wake you up and the like are not required.
The Shaykh : No. It is required.
The questioner : For this reason I said "it is possible."
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: "That without which the obligatory cannot be fulfilled is itself obligatory". And if it is obligatory to preserve the performance of the prayer at its time prescribed by the Shari'ah, and if the Muslim afflicted with heavy sleep can take a means that enables him to fulfill this obligation imposed on him, then that without which the obligatory cannot be fulfilled is itself obligatory. 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." He has created for them means that enable them to perform it. Therefore, this man mentioned his natural excuse, but that does not negate that the Muslim should take one of the permissible means to achieve what is prescribed. It is not necessary that this prescribed matter be an obligation upon him; rather, he should take from the permissible means what enables him to perform the prescribed rulings, even if they are not obligatory, because that without which the obligatory cannot be fulfilled is itself obligatory, and that without which the sunnah cannot be fulfilled is itself a sunnah, and so on. People today, all of them, unfortunately, take... right now, in 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 take 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 : For this reason I said "it is possible."
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: "That without which the obligatory cannot be fulfilled is itself obligatory". And if it is obligatory to preserve the performance of the prayer at its time prescribed by the Shari'ah, and if the Muslim afflicted with heavy sleep can take a means that enables him to fulfill this obligation imposed on him, then that without which the obligatory cannot be fulfilled is itself obligatory. 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." He has created for them means that enable them to perform it. Therefore, this man mentioned his natural excuse, but that does not negate that the Muslim should take one of the permissible means to achieve what is prescribed. It is not necessary that this prescribed matter be an obligation upon him; rather, he should take from the permissible means what enables him to perform the prescribed rulings, even if they are not obligatory, because that without which the obligatory cannot be fulfilled is itself obligatory, and that without which the sunnah cannot be fulfilled is itself a sunnah, and so on. People today, all of them, unfortunately, take... right now, in 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 take such means to reach the point where we perform what Allah has obligated upon us? That is more fitting and more befitting for us.