It is written at the beginning of the chapter about namāz in the book Durr-ul-mukhtār, which Ibni Âbidīn explains as follows in his Radd-ul-muhtār:
Since Hadrat Adam, each sharīat had had one namāz in it, once each day. Those which had been performed by all of them, being gathered together, were made fard for us to perform. It is not one of the conditions of īmān to perform namāz, yet it is a condition to believe that it is fard to perform namāz. Namāz means prayer. The worship commanded by the Sharīat, as we all know, has been called namāz (salāt). It is fard-i ayn for every Muslim who is liable [discreet and has reached the age of puberty] to perform namāz five times a day. It is communicated clearly in the Qurān and in hadīths that it is fard. Namāz five times each day became fard on the Night of Mirāj. Mirāj was one year before the Hegira, and on the twenty-seventh night of the blessed
Rajab month. Before Mirāj, namāz had been being performed in mornings and afternoons only.
It is necessary to command a seven-year-old child to perform namāz and to beat it with the hand if it does not perform it when it is ten years old. Also, a teacher in school may beat the child three times with his hand in order to make it study. He cannot beat it more than that, nor can he thrash it with a stick. [There cannot be bastinadoes in Islamic schools. Flogging is practised in police-stations or prisons. If the enemies of Islam, in order to estrange young people from Islam, show in dramas and motion pictures how the khodjas used to bastinado their pupils and say that with the abrogation of religious lessons and the closing of Islamic schools the youth were rescued from the bastinado, from being flogged, they will have slandered the Islamic dīn. It is written clearly in Islamic books
that Islam has prohibited beating pupils with sticks. Our Prophet strictly prohibited beating the child even with the hand more than three times.] Children at this age should be taught and accustomed to doing other kinds of worships, too, and should be prohibited from sinning.
In order to express the importance of the prayers of namāz that are fard, Hadrat Muhammad Rabhāmī wrote in the twelfth paragraph of the first chapter of the second part of his Persian book entitled Riyād-un-nāsikhīn, which he published in India by selecting from four hundred and forty-four books in the eight hundred and fifty-third [853] year of the Hegira.
In the two fundamental books of the Islamic dīn [Bukhārī and Muslim], which are called Sahīhayn, Rasūlullah sallallāhu alaihi wa sallam declares in a hadīth quoted by Jābir bin Abdullah rahmatullāhi alaih: If there is a river in front of someones house and if he bathes in the river five times each day, will there be any dirt left on him? No, O Rasūlallah! we said. Likewise, the small sins of those who perform namāz five times each day will be pardoned. [Upon hearing this hadīth some ignoramuses say, Then, I shall both perform namāz and live as I wish. In any case, my sins will be pardoned. It is not good to think so. For, a namāz that has been performed
observing its conditions and adabs and which has been accepted will shake off the sins. Furthermore, even if ones small sins are pardoned, it will be a grave sin to go on committing small sins. And it will cause disbelief to insist on doing grave sins.] Ibni Jawzī says in his explanatory book named Almughnī, Hadrat Abū Bakr Siddīq radiyallāhu anh said that when the time for each of the five
prayers of namāz comes angels say: O the Sons of Adam, get up! Perform namāz to extinguish the fire which has been prepared to burn people. A hadīth declares: The difference distinguishing the Believer from the disbeliever is namāz. In other words, a Believer will perform namāz, but a disbeliever will not. And munāfiqs perform namāz sometimes, and sometimes they do not. Munāfiqs will be tormented very bitterly in Hell. Abdullah bin Abbās, the shah of mufassirs, says, I heard Rasūlullah say, Those who do not perform namāz will find Allāhu taālā angry on the Day of Resurrection.
Savants of hadīth say unanimously, A person who omits one namāz on purpose, that is, who does not feel sorry for not performing the namāz as its due time goes past, becomes a disbeliever, or he dies without īmān at last. This being the case, what will become of those who never think of namāz and who do not even consider it as a duty? Savants of the Ahl as-sunnat unanimously said, Worships are not parts of īmān. But there was not unanimity on namāz. Of the savants of fiqh, Imām-i Ahmad ibni Hanbal, Ishāq ibni Rāhawaih, Abdullah ibni Mubārak, Ibrāhim Nahāī, Hakam bin Utayba, Ayyūb Sakhtiyānī, Dāwūd Tāī, Abū Bakr ibni Shayba, Zubayr bin Harb and many other great savants said that a person who omitted one namāz on purpose would become a disbeliever. Now, o my brother-in-Islam, do not omit even one namāz, nor perform
it slackly; do it willingly! What will you do if Allāhu taālā punishes in the next world in accordance with the ijtihād of these savants? It is written in Tafsir-ī Mughnī, One of our superiors asked the Devil, I want to be accursed like you; what should I do? Being happy the Devil said, If you want to be like me, slight the namāz, take an oath on whatever you say whether it is true or false, that is, swear often. So the great person said that he would never omit any namāz or swear. In the Hanbalī Madhhab, if a person omits any prayer of namāz without any excuse, he will be killed like an apostate, he will not be washed or wrapped in a shroud, nor will the janāza namāz for him be performed. He will not be buried in a Muslim cemetery, nor will his grave be marked off. He
will be put in some ditch in the mountains. In the Shāfiī Madhhab, he who insists on not performing namāz does not become an apostate, but his punishment is death. It is written in Ibni Âbidīn and on the sixty-third page of the translation of Milal-Nihal that the Mālikī Madhhab is like Shāfiī in this respect. And in the Hanafī Madhhab, he will be imprisoned until he begins to perform namāz
again, or he will be thrashed till blood comes out of his body. [But a person who slights namāz and who does not recognize it as a duty becomes a disbeliever in any of the four madhhabs. It is written in the chapter about the disasters incurred by the tongue in Al-Hadīqa that a person who omits a namāz on purpose, who does not think of performing it later, and who does not fear that he will be tormented for this, will become a disbeliever in the Hanafī Madhhab, too.] Allāhu taālā did not command non-Muslims to perform namāz or to fast. They have not been honoured with being commanded by Allāhu taālā. They will not be punished for not performing namāz or for not fasting. They have deserved one thing only: Hell, which is the punishment for disbelief. The
book Zādul-muqwīn writes, It was written by the early savants that he who does not do five things will be deprived of five other things:
1 - He who does not give the zakāt of his property will not benefit from his property.
2 - He who does not give the ushr (a kind of zakāt) will not get barakat, use from his field, from his earnings.
3 - He who does not give alms will not be healthy.
4 - He who does not pray will not get what he wishes.
5 - He who does not want to perform namāz when the time for namāz comes will not be able to say the kalima-i shahādat as he dies. He who does not perform namāz because of indolence, although he believes that to perform it is the first duty, is a fāsiq. He is not kufw for a pious girl. In other words, he is not worthy of or suitable for (marrying) the girl.
As it is seen, not to perform namāz causes one to die without īmān. Continuing to perform namāz is a means for filling the heart with nūrs and attaining to endless bliss. Our Prophet declared, Namāz is a nūr. That is, it brightens the heart in the world and enlightens the Sirāt in the Hereafter. Do you know what happens to Allahs lovers in namāz and how in namāz they attain their desires?
A story: Abdullah bin Tāhir, governor of Khorasan, was very just. One day, his gendarmes reported to the governor that they had caught some thieves. One of the thieves escaped. A blacksmith from Hirāt who had gone to Nishābūr was arrested, instead, as he was going back home one night. Together with the thieves they took him up to the governor, who then commanded them to be imprisoned. In the prison, the blacksmith made an
ablution and performed namāz. Holding his hands out, he invoked, O my Allah! You alone know that I am innocent. You alone can rescue me from this dungeon. O Allah! Save me! That night the governor dreamt of four strong people, who came up to him and were about to turn his throne upside down, when he woke up. Immediately, he made an ablution and performed a namāz of two rakats. He went back to sleep. Again he dreamt that the four persons were about to overturn his throne, and woke up. He realised that he had been doing injustice to someone who in turn had been invoking against him. As a matter of fact, the poet says:
Thousands of cannons and rifles can never do
What tears will do in the early morning.
The enemy-frightening spears are often
Pulverized by a Believers praying.
O our Allah! Thou only art great! And Thou art so great that the great as well as the small beg only Thee when they are in trouble. Only he who begs Thee will attain his desire.
That very night he summoned the prison manager and asked him if there was anyone who was unjustly put in there. The prison manager said, I couldnt know. But there is somebody who is performing namāz and saying prayers very much. He is weeping, too. Upon this, he had the blacksmith brought to him. Asking him and then learning what was wrong, he apologized and begged, Forgive me, please, and do accept these thousand silver coins as my gift upon you. Whenever you desire anything, whatsoever, just come to me! The blacksmith said, I have forgiven you and will accept your present. But I cannot come to you to ask for my wish. When asked why, he said, Would it become me as a born slave to present my wishes to someone else, abandoning my Owner, Who has several times overturned the throne of
such a sultan as you for the sake of such a poor person as me? Upon the prayers which I sent after my namāz, He rescued me from many problems. He enabled me to attain many a desire. How could I ever trust myself to someone else? My Allah opened the door of the treasure of Infinite Mercy. He set His endless table of gifts in front of everybody. How could I go to someone else despite these? Who on earth asked from Him and wasnt given? Who on earth came to Him and then went back empty-handed? If you dont know how to ask, you will not obtain. If you do not enter His presence in due manner, you will not get
If anyone puts his head on worships threshold for one night,
The Darlings favour will for certain open up for him a thousand ways.
When Rābia-i Adwiyya, one of the great Awliyā, heard somebody praying, O my Allah! Open for me the gate to Thine mercy! she said to him, O you ignoramus! Has the gate to Allahs Mercy been closed up to now so that you want it to be opened?[1]
O our Allah! Thou, alone, rescues everyone from hardships. Do not leave us in disasters, neither in this world nor in the one to come! Thou, alone, sends everything to the needy! Send us those things which are useful in this world and in the next! Make us need none [but Thee] in this world and the next! Âmīn. Translation from Riyād-un-nasikhīn ends here.
It is written at the beginning of the chapter about namāz in Kitāb-ul-fiqh-alal-madhāhib-il-arbaa, Namāz is the most important of the pillars of the Islamic dīn. Allāhu taālā made namāz a fard so that His slaves will worship Him only. The hundred and second āyat of Nisā Sūra means, It has become fard to perform namāz at certain times. A hadīth-ī sherīf declares: Allāhu taālā has promised that He shall put in Paradise the person who performs namāz respectfully and observing the conditions five times every day. Namāz is the most valuable of worships. A hadīth-i sherīf declares:
Person who does not perform namāz has not had a share from Islam. Another hadīth-i sherīf, which is quoted in Mishkāt, in Kunūz-ud-daqāiq and in the Sahīhayn, declares: The difference between man and disbelief is to omit namāz. Its meaning is not that Man and disbelief are two separate beings. Between them is not performing namāz. When (the case of) not performing namāz goes away from between them, that is, if a person performs namāz, there will no longer be a curtain between this person and disbelief. The two will come together. Its meaning is, Disbelief is an attribute. It does not exist
by itself. It exists in a person. A person who has disbelief also has not performing namāz. A person who does not have disbelief does not have not performing namāz. The difference between a person who has disbelief and one who does not have
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[1] Although the gate through which Allahs mercy originally emanates is always open, the heart which is the gate for it to enter, is not open in everybody. We must pray for the opening of this gate.
disbelief is to perform namāz or not. This hadīth-i sherīf is like the saying, The difference between man and death is not to breathe. A person who has death does not breathe. A person who does not have death does not have (the case of) not breathing. If a person has (the case of) not breathing, it will be understood that he is dead. This hadīth-i sherīf vehemently threatens those who are too lazy to perform namāz. To perform namāz is to consider the greatness of Allāhu taālā and to realize ones own inferiority before Him. A person who realizes this will always do good. He will never do evil. Even if the namāz of a person who follows his nafs is sahīh, it will never give its fruits. If a person intends to
be in the presence of his Rabb (Allah) five times every day, his heart will be filled with ikhlās. Every act commanded to be done in namāz gives various benefits to the heart and body. Performing namāz in jamāat in mosques will attach Muslims hearts to one another. It will bring about love between them. They will realize that they are brothers. The seniors will be affable with the juniors. And the juniors will be respectful to the seniors. The rich will be helpful to the poor, and the powerful to the weak. The healthy will visit the sick in their homes as they will miss them in the mosque. For being blessed with the glad tidings given in the hadīth, Allah is the helper of a person who runs to help his brother-in-Islam, they will race one another.
A hadīth in the book Qurratul-uyūn declares: Allāhu taālā will give fifteen different troubles to the person who neglects namāz without any excuse. Of these, six are in the world, three are at the time of death, three in the grave, and three during the resurrection from the grave. The six troubles in the world are:
1 - There will not be abundance in the life of a person who does not perform namāz.
2 - He will not have the beauty, the geniality peculiar to those whom Allāhu taālā loves.
3 - He will not be given thawāb for any of his favours. [This hadīth shows that those who do not perform the fard worships within their prescribed times will not be given thawāb for their sunnat worships. That is, their sunnats will not be accepted.]
4 - His prayers will not be accepted.
5 - No one will like him.
6 - Muslims prayers for him will do him no good.
The troubles which he will suffer when dying are:
1 - He will die in a contemptible, bad and disgusting way.
2 - He will die hungry.
3 - However much water he drinks, he will die suffering thirst.
The disasters which he will suffer in grave are:
1 - The grave will squeeze him. His bones will intertwine.
2 - His grave will be filled with fire, which will burn him day and night.
3 - Allāhu taālā will send a big serpent to his grave. It is unlike worldly serpents. It will sting him at each time of namāz every day. It will never let him rest.
The torments which he will suffer in the next world are:
1 - The angels of torment which will drag him to Hell will not leave him alone.
2 - Allahu taālā will meet him wrathfully.
3 - His accounting will be very hard, and he will be hurled into Hell.