Taysīr al-ʿAllām - Abd Allah al-Bassam - (126)

Taysīr al-ʿAllāmAbd Allah al-Bassam

Al-Ṭaḥāwī said: The hadith shows that if a person does not know of an obligation that Allah has imposed and the call has not yet reached him, that obligation is not binding upon him and no proof is established against him. The scholars of legal theory have added that comprehension is a condition for moral responsibility. Ibn Taymiyyah has two opinions on this question, one of which concurs with what has just been mentioned.

The Third Hadith
Anas ibn Sīrīn narrated: “We went out to welcome Anas ⦗Allah be pleased with him⦘ when he returned from Syria (1). We met him at ʿAyn al-Tamr, and I saw him praying while mounted on a donkey with the qiblah to his left—that is, with the Kaʿbah on his left side. I said to him, ‘I saw you praying away from the qiblah!’ He replied, ‘Had I not seen the Messenger of Allah ﷺ do this, I would never have done it myself.’”

Glossary
• Anas ibn Sīrīn: The brother of the great imam and well-known Successor Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn.
• ʿAyn al-Tamr: A town on Iraq’s western frontier renowned for its plentiful dates.

Overall meaning
When Anas ibn Mālik returned from Syria, the people there—honoring his rank and extensive knowledge—went out to receive him. The narrator, who was among those greeters, reports that he saw Anas praying on a donkey with the qiblah to his left. When he questioned him, Anas replied that he had seen the Prophet ﷺ do the same, and that he would never have acted thus had he not witnessed the Prophet do it.

Points derived from the hadith

The report does not state whether Anas’s prayer was obligatory or supererogatory. It is understood to have been a voluntary prayer, for that is what is known of the Prophet’s practice which Anas and others observed.
For someone praying on a riding animal, the qiblah is in whatever direction the mount is heading.
It is permissible to perform voluntary prayers while traveling on a mount—even a donkey.

(1) This is al-Bukhari’s version. In Muslim’s recension, transmitted when he arrived in al-Sham, the preposition min is omitted. Qadi Iyad considered this a scribal slip, insisting that the correct reading keeps the word, as in al-Bukhari’s text. Al-Nawawi dissented, maintaining that Muslim’s version is reliable and means: “We were taught it on his return, when he came to al-Sham.”

١٠- قال الطحاوى: في الحديث دليل على أن من لم يعلم بفرض الله تعالى ولم تبلغه الدعوة، فالفرض غير لازم له: والحجة غير قائمة عليه، ا. هـ وزاد الأصوليون أن الفهم شرط التكليف وعن ابن تيمية في مثل هذا قولان أحدهما موافق لما ذكر. الحديث الثالث عَنْ أنس بْنِ سِيرينَ قَالَ: اسْتَقْبَلْنَا أنَساً ﵁ حِين قَدِمَ مِن (١) الشامِ، فَلَقِينَاهُ بِعَيْنِ التمْرِ، فَرَأيتهُ يُصَلى عَلَى حِمَار وَوَجْهُهُ مِنْ ذا الجَانِبِ- يَعْنى عن يسار القبلة- فَقلْتُ: رأيتك تُصَلِّى لِغَيْرِ الْقِبْلَةِ؟ فَقَاَلَ: لَوْلا أني رَأيْتُ رسول الله ﷺ فعَلُه مَا فَعَلتُهُ. المفردات: أنس بن سيرين: أخو الإمام الكبير والتابعي الشهير محمد بن سيرين. عين التمر: بلدة على حدود العراق الغربية، يكثر فيها التمر. المعنى الإجمالي: قدم أنس بن مالك الشام، ولجلالة قدره وسعة علمه، استقبله أهل الشام. فذكر الراوي -وهو أحد المستقبلين- أنه رآه يصلى على حمار، وقد جعل القبلة عن يساره. فسأله عن ذلك، فأخبرهم أنه رأى النبي ﷺ يفعل ذالك، وأنه لو لم يره يفعل هذا، لم يفعله. ما يؤخذ من الحديث: ١- الحديث لم يبين صلاة أنس هذه، أفرض هي، أم نفل؟. ومن المعلوم أنها نفل، لأنه المعهود من فعل النبي ﷺ الذي رآه أنس وغيره. ٢- أن قبلة المصلى على الراحلة، حيث توجهت به راحلته. ٣- جواز صلاة النافلة على الراحلة، في السفر، ولو حماراً.

(١) هذه رواية االبخاري، ورواية " مسلم " حين قدم الشام، بإسقاط " من " قال القاضي عياض: وقيل إنه وهم وأن الصواب إثباتها كما رواه البخاري، وخالفه النووي وقال: رواية (مسلم) صحيحة، ومعناها: تلقيناه في رجوعه حين قدم الشام.