Is the obligatory wording in the tashahhud of the prayer to say only: "Peace be upon the Prophet," or is it permissible to also say: "Peace be upon you, O Prophet"?

The questioner : Six: Is the obligatory wording in the tashahhud of the prayer to say only: "Peace be upon the Prophet," or is it permissible to also say: "Peace be upon you, O Prophet"? We say this sometimes and that sometimes. And if it is necessary to restrict oneself to the first wording, what is the answer to what Malik narrated from Ibn Shihab from Urwah ibn al-Zubayr from Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd al-Qari that he heard 'Umar ibn al-Khattab on the minbar teaching people the tashahhud, saying: "Say: 'The blessings are for Allah, the pure are for Allah, the prayers are for Allah. Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. Peace be upon us and upon the righteous servants of Allah...'" to the end? And some scholars have counted this as a consensus (ijma') because the Companions agreed with it, since he said this while on the minbar?

The Shaykh : The answer is that the hadith of 'Umar has valid corroborating narrations (shawahid) and there is no doubt in it. He did not add to what 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) also narrated. When he taught people what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had taught them regarding the wording of the tashahhud, he also narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: for the purpose of teaching. This is as it came in "Sahih al-Bukhari" with its authentic chain, from Ibn Mas'ud, who said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) taught me the tashahhud, and my hands were between his hands." He said: to the end of the well-known tashahhud. Ibn Mas'ud said: "Peace be upon the Prophet while he was among us. When he died, we said: Peace be upon the Prophet." I want to say briefly, in answer to the hadith of 'Umar, that 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), Ibn Mas'ud, and everyone who narrated the wording of the tashahhud from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in different wordings, it is not permissible for them except to narrate what they heard from the Messenger (peace be upon him), because this is the implication of his command (peace and blessings be upon him): . So it is not befitting for a narrator of a hadith, if he has an opinion in it derived from another evidence, to change the narration by his own independent reasoning (ijtihad). But the correct course is to combine both matters, as Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) did completely. He mentioned what the Messenger (peace be upon him) taught him: "And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah," mentioning what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) taught him to say in the tashahhud: . But after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he said: "We said in the tashahhud: Peace be upon the Prophet." We note in the narration of the Imam al-Bukhari of this specific phrase, and others of the Imams of the Sunnah participated with him in this, including the Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) and many others. We note that in the narration of the noble Companion Ibn Mas'ud of this phrase: "When he died, we said," he did not say "I said." Because if he had said "I said," there would be a cause for doubt that this change from the second-person pronoun to the third-person pronoun was his own independent reasoning. But when we see him, the trustworthy, faithful, great memorizer, saying: "When he died, we said," meaning we, the Companions, therefore this shift from the second-person "Peace be upon you" to the third-person "Peace be upon the Prophet" was not by the independent reasoning of Ibn Mas'ud, nor could it be by the independent reasoning of a group of the Companions, because they know more emphatically than the scholars who came after them that changing the prescribed wordings is not permissible, even in a single letter. And the Imam al-Bukhari narrated in his "Sahih" from the hadith of al-Bara' ibn 'Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded him to recite the wording for lying down at sleep, he said in it: . Al-Bara' wanted to recite the hadith before or in the presence of the Messenger (peace be upon him) so that he could memorize it, so he made a mistake in one word of it and said:

The questioner : "And with Your Messenger who."

The Shaykh : "And with Your Messenger" instead of "Your Prophet," "And with Your Messenger whom You sent." He said: And in a narration, he struck his chest. He said: . This hadith is a text for the Imams of the Sunnah who urge all people to preserve the prescribed wordings and not add to them, because the matter is that the added is the brother of the deficient. In the transmitted: The added is the brother of the deficient. And especially since al-Bara' ibn 'Azib, when he placed the word "Messenger" in place of "Prophet," did not change anything of the meaning. Yes; because the Messenger, as you know, is more general than the Prophet. Every one who is a Messenger is a Prophet, but not every one who is a Prophet is a Messenger. Nevertheless, he corrected his mistake and ordered him to pronounce the wording as he had learned it. He said to him (peace be upon him): . Therefore, I strongly reject the idea that the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) would gather and change: which they received from the Messenger by their own independent reasoning. And therefore, the scholars say, including Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani and al-Subki and their like from the scholars of the Shafi'i school, who in reality excelled many of the scholars of the other schools in their care to follow the Sunnah, even if this Sunnah was not explicitly stated by some of their previous Imams. They approved this and said: This was not except by the instruction (taqwiif) of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to these Companions. Then Ahmad ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani (and upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings) supported this with a narration he transmitted from "Musannaf 'Abd al-Razzaq ibn Abi," 'Abd al-Razzaq ibn Hammam, in his book, that he narrated with an authentic chain from Tawus: "That the Companions," thus: "That the Companions used to say in the tashahhud after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): Peace be upon the Prophet." So he affirmed this meaning which is understood from the saying of Ibn Mas'ud: "We said." This is what I have.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, does this mean, then, that the matter here, after this explanation, is that it is not befitting to deviate from "upon the Prophet" to "upon you, O Prophet"?

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : And this.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is right. I mean, it is not befitting to alternate between this one time and that one time. Yes.