and such a matter would not be mentioned in answer to someone asking about his personal obligations. There are, however, two answers to this:

The first is that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, answered according to the obligations that had been revealed. The first thing Allah made obligatory was the two testimonies of faith, followed by prayer. He commanded prayer at the very beginning of revelation. Indeed, it is established in the Sahīh collection that the first revelation he received was:

“Recite in the name of your Lord who created—created man from a clinging substance,”

down to His words:

“Taught man that which he knew not.”

Then, after that, it was revealed to him:

“O you wrapped in your cloak, arise and warn.”

This address commissioned him as a messenger to humankind, and that commissioning followed his receiving revelation, for the earlier address contained no such commission. The end of Surah Iqraʾ reads:

“Prostrate and draw near.”

Thus, the beginning of the surah commands recitation, while its end commands prostration. Prayer consists of words and actions: its finest words are Quranic recitation, and its finest action is prostration. Recitation is the first of its utterances intended in their own right, and what follows is subordinate to it.

It has been reported that when prayer was first made obligatory, it consisted of two units in the morning and two in the evening. Then the five daily prayers were made obligatory on the night of the Ascension, each consisting of two units. When he emigrated, the prayer offered while travelling was left unchanged, while additional units were added to the prayer offered while resident.

Prayer was brought to completion gradually. At first, they would speak during prayer, and it contained no tashahhud (the testimony of faith recited while seated). They were then commanded to recite the tashahhud and forbidden to speak. Likewise, they had no call to prayer in Mecca; it was instituted only in Medina after the migration. The Friday prayer, the Eid prayer, the eclipse prayer, the prayer for rain, the night prayers of Ramadan, and other such prayers were likewise instituted only in Medina after the migration.