The Meaning of the Hadith: (Pray as you have seen me praying) Regarding the Resting Sitting.

The questioner : Regarding the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): You mentioned, may Allah bless you, in the description of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) prayer, that if the imam does not sit for the resting sitting, the follower should not sit.

The Shaykh : He should follow him.
The questioner: Yes. Does this mean that the intended meaning of following the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is actually following the imam in the matter of the recommended practices of prayer? You know, may Allah bless you, that among the recommended practices of prayer is raising the hands. If the imam does not do it, the follower does it, for example. And the resting sitting is recommended from the category of recommended practices. And following the action of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) according to this view does not contradict what you are saying now regarding affirming the recommended practices in prayer?

The Shaykh : I did not perceive the aspect of contradiction that you are asking about. Where is the contradiction?

The questioner : The contradiction is that, for example, if the imam does not sit for the resting sitting.

The Shaykh : No, I understood that, but regarding the first issue.

The questioner : No, we concede the first issue, and may Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : I knew that you conceded it. No, excuse me, I thought you were linking this to that. There is no connection between them.

The questioner : No, there is no connection, may Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : Okay, so then?

The questioner : The rule is the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) who said: So the imam and the follower must follow the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This is conceded. But if the imam fails or omits one of the recommended practices, such as the resting sitting, you know, may Allah bless you, and I am in the Arabian Peninsula, this sitting is not known among the people.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : And most of the imams in the mosques do not do it. So if we follow the imam, we omit this recommended practice.

The Shaykh: Perfect.

The questioner : So if we contradict the imam, according to your saying, it means that we have contradicted the Sunnah from another angle.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : So what do you advise us?

The Shaykh : I am telling you now, which of the two sittings is stronger in jurisprudence, in the Shari'ah, and in the Sunnah: this resting sitting or the sitting for the tashahhud? Without doubt, it is the sitting for the tashahhud. Okay, if the imam makes a mistake and instead of sitting for the tashahhud, he stands up for the third rak'ah, what do you do?

The questioner : I stand up and follow him.

The Shaykh : You follow him? Why? You did not leave a recommended practice only; you left an obligatory one.

The questioner : An obligatory one, yes.

The Shaykh : Okay, why did you follow him?

The questioner : Because there is a principle regarding the ruling of following.

The Shaykh : No... hehehe.

The questioner : Because following in this category is obligatory for the imam.

The Shaykh : Very good. And your saying "in this category," what do you mean by that?

The questioner : Yes, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh : Or is it a broad category? Hehehe. May Allah have mercy, Allahu Akbar, may Allah have mercy on him and forgive us and him. But this is not of this type. Give me your mind, what Allah wills.

The questioner : No, may Allah forgive you, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed.

The questioner : May Allah make me worthy of your good opinion, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. The truth is, some of our senior brothers, although they are among us, meaning.

The questioner : We seek help from Allah.

The Shaykh : But, glory be to Allah, when they see that I am taking them by logic, they immediately take their guard and look at the outcome. Meaning, the outcome, you want to take me? Okay, my brother, I reward you for the prison! I reward you for the Sunnah, not by force, but by logical, Shari'ah-based premises. A person does not feel it until he finds himself submitting to this truth completely.

The questioner : Glory be to Allah, and may Allah bless you.
AThe Shaykh : Therefore, I also say, may Allah bless you, that you said "restricted to this category," perhaps this category is a bit broad! Hehehe. Let us walk with you now. If this category is very narrow and may not accommodate anything but this issue, if the imam makes a mistake of another type, for example, he jumps and forgets a verse while reading, and you pointed it out to him, but he did not respond to you, without doubt this is a mistake. What do you do? You follow him. You follow him. If the issues in which the imam may make a mistake cannot be limited to one issue, then it is not possible to divide following the imam, or the obligation of following the imam, into two sections: a section where following is obligatory and a section where following is not obligatory. I will now bring you the image that happened to the Messenger (peace be upon him), and I am recalling three images from it: the day he prayed 'Asr in two rak'ahs, the day he prayed Dhuhr in five rak'ahs, and the day he prayed Maghrib in two rak'ahs. The Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) followed him in all these images and did not freeze as some do, their silent state saying, "What do I do with this imam? He made a mistake and stood up for the fifth. I will remain in my state, sitting, not moving." No, the Companions of the Messenger did not do this. Rather, he stood up for the fifth in the Dhuhr prayer, and they followed him after he had said the taslim. This is, of course, from the category of reminding, otherwise you know this, yes.

The questioner : This is a benefit in its place.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good. So he said to them: Here, some of the early jurists say: No, if he stood up for the fifth and we followed him, our prayer is invalid. And they argue that that time was a time of teaching and legislation, and that the Shari'ah had not yet descended after the saying of Allah the Exalted: I say, in answer to this doubt, yes, it is so. But this does not mean that it is not obligatory, let alone that it is not permissible, to follow the imam in the fifth rak'ah after he was reminded and did not notice. It does not mean this, because if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had wanted to clarify to the people that the Shari'ah ruling related to this image differs from the ruling that occurred between the Companions and the Messenger after the death of the Messenger, he would have clarified the ruling and said, if it means, for example: If the imam forgets and stands up for the fifth, do not follow him.

The questioner:..

The Shaykh : Without doubt If we assume this was before, the second issue came: he prayed 'Asr with them in two rak'ahs, and the story of the man with the two hands is well known. He said: "O Messenger of Allah, did the prayer become shorter or did you forget?" He said: He said: "Yes, it was." So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) looked at the Companions, among them Abu Bakr and 'Umar They said: Yes. And he had withdrawn to a side of the mosque and placed one of his feet on the other to rest, peace be upon him. When it became clear to him that he had prayed two rak'ahs, he stood up to his place. And I do not say to his mihrab, because there was no mihrab in the technical sense. And the technical sense distorts the meaning of the Qur'anic verse when it is placed on the head of the mihrab Meaning this mihrab.

The questioner : Well done.

The Shaykh : And this is a lie and a fabrication upon the verse. And rather, as you know, the mihrab here is the place of worship. The witness, so the Messenger returned to his place, and he came with the two rak'ahs, and said the taslim, and prostrated the two prostrations of forgetfulness. Likewise, he prayed Maghrib in two rak'ahs, and this is a stranger story, and what happened here also happened in the 'Asr prayer in two rak'ahs, where the people quickly left, they did not want to glorify, and they did not want to praise, and they did not want to say takbir, they did not believe that the Messenger had said the taslim. From here, O Allah, here in the Maghrib prayer, he (peace be upon him) pointed out that he had prayed two rak'ahs, so he ordered the iqamah of the prayer to be made anew, and he came with the missing or forgotten rak'ah, then prostrated two prostrations. If there had been a new ruling after the death of the Messenger, the Messenger would have clarified it, at least in one of these incidents, which are supposed to be the last, and Allah knows best. But we must clarify and If this issue is not a reprimand from one category only, unless we broaden it and include in it every issue in which the imam made a mistake, in which case we must follow the imam. This occasion reminds me, and the person, in fact, as you know, and this is a very important aspect, proceeds in issuing his rulings in his dealings between him and his Lord, between him and his friend or companion, and so on, within the limits of the methodology he follows. So we say about ourselves that we are Salafis, meaning we look to the righteous Salaf and we use their incidents to help understand some principles or rules, like this hadith Do you see this command as general or specific? Is it from a narrow small category or a broad large category?

The questioner : A broad category.

The Shaykh : No. My intention is that we bring an incident.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Imam al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih that one of the governors, I forgot, perhaps his name was al-Walid or 'Uqbah.

Another questioner : al-Walid ibn 'Uqbah.

The Shaykh : Al-Walid ibn Uqbah led the people in prayer as the imam and the prince. He prayed the Fajr prayer while intoxicated. He prayed Fajr with them four rak'ahs, O teacher. Then, after he finished the prayer, he said, "Shall I add more?" What is the obligatory ruling for those praying behind him in such a situation? Surely, when he stood up for the third rak'ah, they should not follow him, and they should not follow him for the fourth either. You followed him, O my master, why?