Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah - Nasir al-Din al-Albani - (6/175)

Silsilat al-Ahadith al-SahihahNasir al-Din al-Albani

and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, continued praying. When he had finished, he said to me … then he repeated the words mentioned above. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, is it fitting for anyone to pray level with you, when you are the Messenger of Allah, whom Allah has so favored?” This pleased him, and he supplicated to Allah that He increase me in knowledge and understanding.”

Ahmad added: “He said: Then I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, sleep until I heard him snore. Then Bilal came to him and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, it is time for the prayer.’ So he rose and prayed without renewing his ablution.”

Al-Hakim said: “Authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him, and it is as they said. Al-Haythami said (9/284): “Ahmad narrated it, and its narrators are the narrators of the authentic collections.” The final phrase in the supplication for him has also been transmitted through other, more complete chains, and it was mentioned before this hadith.

This contains an important juristic benefit which may not be found in many books of fiqh; indeed, some of them contain what contradicts it: the sunnah is for a person praying with the imam to stand at his right, level with him—not ahead of him or behind him. This is contrary to what is found in some schools of law: that he should stand slightly behind the imam, with his toes level with the imam’s heels, or something similar. As you can see, this contradicts this authentic hadith.

Some of the early generations acted upon it. Imam Malik narrated in his al-Muwatta’ (1/154) from Nafi‘, who said: “I stood behind ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar during one of the prayers, and no one else was with him. ‘Abd Allah gestured to me with his hand and placed me level with him.”

He then narrated (1/169–170) from ‘Ubayd Allah ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Utbah, who said: “I entered upon ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab during the heat of midday and found him performing voluntary prayer. I stood behind him, so he brought me forward until he placed me level with him on his right. When Yarfa’ came, I stepped back, and we formed a row behind him.”

فصلى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، فلما انصرف قال لي.. فذكره، فقلت: يا رسول الله! أو ينبغي لأحد أن يصلي حذاءك، وأنت رسول الله الذي أعطاك الله، قال: فأعجبته، فدعا الله لي أن يزيدني علما وفهما، زاد أحمد: " قال: ثم رأيت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم نام حتى سمعته ينفخ، ثم أتاه بلال فقال: يا رسول الله! الصلاة. فقام فصلى ما أعاد وضوءا ". وقال الحاكم: " صحيح على شرط الشيخين " . ووافقه الذهبي، وهو كما قالا، وقال الهيثمي (٩ / ٢٨٤) : " رواه أحمد، ورجاله رجال الصحيح "، والجملة الأخيرة في الدعاء له، قد جاءت من طرق أخرى بأتم منها، وقد سبق ذكرها قبل هذا الحديث. وفيه فائدة فقهية هامة، قد لا توجد في كثير من الكتب الفقهية، بل في بعضها ما يخالفها، وهي: أن السنة أن يقتدي المصلي مع الإمام عن يمينه وحذاءه، غير متقدم عليه، ولا متأخر عنه، خلافا لما في بعض المذاهب أنه ينبغي أن يتأخر عن الإمام قليلا بحيث يجعل أصابع رجله حذاء عقبي الإمام، أو نحوه، وهذا كما ترى خلاف هذا الحديث الصحيح، وبه عمل بعض السلف، فقد روى الإمام مالك في " موطئه " (١ / ١٥٤) عن نافع أنه قال: " قمت وراء عبد الله بن عمر في صلاة من الصلوات وليس معه أحد غيري، فخالف عبد الله بيده، فجعلني حذاءه ". ثم روى (١ / ١٦٩ - ١٧٠) عن عبيد الله بن عبد الله بن عتبة أنه قال: دخلت على عمر بن الخطاب بالهاجرة، فوجدته يسبح ، فقمت وراءه، فقربني حتى جعلني حذاءه عن يمينه، فلما جاء (يرفأ) تأخرت فصففنا وراءه.