AS SOLAATUL FAATIH

Few hours back I posted a prayer on my Facebook timeline and some WhatsApp platforms and It bred some emotional reactions. I will like to present this article as an explanation to it.

1: For me, I do not consider salatul Faatih wordings as reprehensible. More also majority of those who recite it do not consider it superior to the Quran.

NB: When sufis are mentioned, only the authority becomes a reference and not the extremist ignorance fellow. It is like using boko Haram to represent Ahl sunnah wal Jamaa’ because of their acclaimed sunnah.

Even though we rush to qoute Jawahir maa’ani to rebuke the status given to salatul Faatihi. More also the claim that its wording is shirk is balderdash.

It is not just contains statement of fact about the Prophet which does not negate Taoheed(aqeedah).

2: Our usual arguments against it are the wordings:
الفاتح لما اغلق
Being a siffah of Allah.

And
هادي إلى طريق المستقيم:

Quoting quranic verse:
انك لن تهدي من أحببت
Saying this opposes the Qur’anic verse.

Can we study and verify our claims further?

3: This is the usual Taqlid statement that we have been brainwashed with, we memorise it and all of us always refer to it whenever we want to condemn it. It is not our own thinking it is what a scholar had said and we continue to parrot it. Ask anybody who says salatul Faatihi negates Taoheed and this same response will be given as their answer.

4: If Al Faatihu ma ugliqa, Khaatimu limaa sabaqa negates Taoheed, then (Ali bn Abee Taalib radiya Allahu anhu) – who is not only a sahabiy but a Caliph and blood of the Prophet – who has similar wordings in his own salaat has also negate Taoheed.

And this is the same argument against Burda of Busayri where they claimed it negates Taoheed but the same Burda has been taught by respected scholars like Imam Ibn Hajar or Imam suyuti to their students.

5: If you read books containing the different salatu of the sahabah, just search for the one common with Ali the fourth caliph you will read the word Al Fatihu lima ugliqa wal Khaatimu limaa sabaqa. Now as Ali negated Taoheed for describing the Prophet as Faatihu lima ugliqa and there was never a criticism or condemnation of its usage then among other sahabah which may seems an ijmaa’u(a consensus). You can just check the book ASH- SHIFAA of Imam Qaadi Iyad and you will read therein Al Fatihu limaa Ugliqa, Al Khaatim limaa sabaqa in description of the Prophet by Ali bn Abee Taalib.

In the aforementioned book under the chapter
فصل في كيفية الصلاة عليه و التسليم.

Just check page 561, if it is the one published in U.A.E and Takhrij by Ubduhu.

6: This is exactly the hadeeth(screenshot attached also).
وعن سلامة الكندي : كان علي -رضي الله عنه – يعلمنا الصلاة على النبي ! فيقول : اللهم ! داحي المدحوات ، وبارى المسموكات ،اجعل شرائف صلواتك ، ونوامي بركاتك ، ورأفة تحننك على محمد ، عبدك ورسولك ، الفاتح لما أغلق، والخاتم لما سبق ، والمعلن الحق بالحق، والدامغ لجيشات الأباطيل ، كما حمل ، فاضطلع بأمرك لطاعتك ، مستوفزا في مرضاتك ، واعيا لوحيك ، حافظا لعهدك ، ماضيا على نفاذ أمرك ،حتى أورى قبسا لقابس ، الاء الله تصل بأهله أسبابه .

Salaamah AlKindi narrated that Ali bn Abee Taalib was teaching them how to say solaat for the Prophet.

You can see the wordings Al Faatihu limaa ugliqa, wal khaatimu maa sabaqa are wordings of the sahaabah. Ali didn’t just read the prayer, he also taught others. And this has been established years before any Ahmad Tijani was born.

7: And the hadeeth is saheeh(sound), you can see it was reported by Ibn Abee Shaybah(The teacher of Imam Bukhari), Imam Tabari and others.

And if you read the same book Ash Shifaa I made mention, You will see Imam Qaadi Iyad said that Sakhaawiy declared its Isnad as weak.
و ضعف اسناده السخاوي.

But studying the reason gave by Sakhawi according to the knowledge of hadeeth, you will see the hadeeth remain sound as said by other scholars of hadeeth.

Sakhawi said so because he felt salaamatul Al kindi did not meet Ali, but salamatul kindi is truthful, Ibn Hibban consideres him as Thiqah(trustworthy) and several hadith scholar have been transmitting the same Athar without alluding to it negating Taoheed which is the bone of contention.

Ibn Hajar quoted the Athar as well and he kept quiet without any negative comment.

8:The significance of the Athar is that no scholars from among the salaf claimed that it negates Taoheed.

In fact Sheikh Ibn bazz did not consider salatul Fatihi to negate Taoheed, he believes the wording are alright but that salatul Fatihi should be jettisoned because it is ‘innovated’ and one should stick with the Ma’thur.

The contention is to erroneously claim that salatul Fatihi negates Taoheed.

The hadeeth of Ali is saheeh and I know some people who just got to know about it will be finding all means to declare it Da’eef.

Sheikh Al Albaanee also in his sifatu salatul Nabiyy partially mentioned it and alluded that the Isnad is not bad.

9: And as regard the wording
الهادي إلى صراط المستقيم

This is exactly the same wording used to describe the Prophet by Allah in the verse 52 of suratu Shuura.
[ﻭﺇﻧﻚ ﻟﺘﻬﺪﻱ ﺇﻟﻰ ﺻﺮﺍﻁ مستقيم]

Does the above verse also constitute shrik?!

As Allah also said
[ﻭﻟﻜﻞ ﻗﻮﻡ ﻫﺎﺩ]

The understanding of the Hadi in the salatul Fatihi is not in the context of the supreme guidance of Allah.

10: Someone may argues that issues with salatu faatih are:

*The Source – Dream of someone becoming part of religion which opens huge gap for any mischievous person to also dream and make it religion.

• Reward – Allah & His prophet only gave rewards not man. Unfortunately, some of the rewards are outrageous and unreasonable.

Apart from what I have early said about the rewards some ignorant fellow attributed to it.

I will say: Salatul Fatihi predates Ahmad Tijani right? As we have seen different ways of salatu during the days of the salaf.

Also, It has been in existence before the birth of Ahmad Tijani for centuries, so whether Ahmad Tijani dreamt or that the Prophet appeared to him while awake in a state of trance as reported in Jawahir maa’ni to give him salatul Faatihi is irrelevant because salatul faatihi is popular with Sheikh Abu Hassan Muhammad Al Bakri from Misra who is a renowned scholar of Hadith, Fiqh, Tafseer.

He wrote several books and he is of the Shafiee school of thought and a respected Sufi.

11: Ahmad Tijani did not write Jawahiru Ma’ani and many things attributed to him by the author may or may not be true, similarly in the same Jawahir you will read where it was said the Quran is superior to salatul Fatihi or any other salat so an antagonist or a friend will choose that which suite his motive. The ignorant one who believe faatih is superior to Qur’an, you should know he is dwelling in the pool of ignorance as no Muslim should even say Saheeh Bukhari is superior to Qur’an.

12: If you beam your search light also on books written by students of Imam Ahmad or books of Manaqib you will see lots of suprises and shrik inclined orientations, similar to books written by direct student of Ibn taemiyah on his Karamah. So it is very common for “some” students to fabricate lies about their teachers so as to raise their status in the eyes of Muridees and non- Muridees.

Dont we also hear different tales about Sh. Adam from his students when talking about his karamah?

I’m not a Tijaniyah so I am not under any obligation to respond to their doubts but just saying the wordings of salatul Fatihi and the person who jettisoned salatul Fatihi is not wrong either.

13: But for me I have developed intellectually to minding my business and to leave other muslims to Allah to judge them by himself. Whether Sufi, salafi, shia, Khawarij , mutazilites ,zaidi , and others, Allah will not question me about their thought, I myself have lots of deficiencies so I don’t disturb my self with the conviction of others. We explain what we believe to be the truth and move on.

14: As for the issue of dream, ilham, perspicacity in Dua which does not oppose the source – text , it is an issue I don’t want to delve into for now as it will take my time responding. So it is good for the person who argues about salatul Fatihi to abstain from it if he likes and Allah will not question him about those who recite it. Everybody with his own load.

15: There was a lecture one of our brothers from Saudi did then, he was proving Ahmad Tijani innocent, that many things they attributed to him wasn’t said or done by him. Likewise the scholar of fiqh Abdulqadir Jaylaani.

And it is possible and it may be that he actually did some of the things accused of but the fact is that he is not alone in that, several scholars we respect and honour also has the same. Ibn Taemiyah, Ibn Hajar, Imam Harawi, Barbahari, Suyuti, we only hide and do taweel(interpretation) of the errors of the one we love and publicise the errors of those we hate.

16: And before I go, I still need the proof for our saying of Salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam.

And no one will ever bring a proof for it because there is none. I am asking about dalil indicating the exact wording solla Allahu alayhi wa sallam.

What can only be said is that it is an extraction/meaning of a verse in the Qur’an.

Agreed that it was a rightful extraction from the Qur’an but Where can it be read where the wording was said to him during his life time? You will never see.

17: And hadeeth like curse will be upon the one who heard his name without saying prayer for him.

This hadith only indicates the obligation of showering salat and taslim on the Prophet but does not indicate the wording.

Which means we can conclude the keyfiyyah of solaat for even the Prophet is tawfeeqiyyah(base on ijtihād) and not tawqeefiyyah(sacrosanct). In the same page 561 of the book Ash Shifaa you can see another hadeeth says
واجتهدوا في الدعاء
(And make ijtihād of prayers).

18: And that is the point because even the صلي الله عليه و سلم is tawfiiqiyah, but the wordings of Ibrahimiyyah is the best and the legislated during prayers (salat).

The point I am trying to derive is not to condemn صلي الله عليه وسلم but to identify that it is Ijtihadi and not Marfu’, so far what some scholars regard as marfu’ is even subjected to further research.

19: It indicates permissibility of saying tasleem in any correct form. Not compulsory an exact one.

This is exactly the point. One can say salatu in any correct and meaning form which does not negate Taoheed. Imam shafii has his specific salatu and several other scholars will utter it in any meaning pattern.

Salatul Ibrahimiyyah obviously is the best and a standard format for devising salatu.

But some ignorant fellows will regard salawat not from their own teachers as negation to Taoheed and Bidiah which there are more to it.

Even many salatu we say in our own languages, who will come to say it isn’t permissible that we must stick to a certain one.

This is the same argument against those who say AlMathuraat compiled by Albanaa is not Sunnatic.

20: Yes, there are extremism related to Dua generally and not only salatu faatih. And that is due to ignorance and emotions. If you get to Medina in Jabal Uhud where lies some sahaabah graves, despite warnings that prayers shouldn’t be said at the grave yard, some out of emotions will still stand and say prayers. There was no barrier to the grave in the early 90’s until some extremists start packing sands of the graves. Likewise in Ka‘bah, Safaa Marwa, you will see many people kissing, licking the stones, all due to ignorance and emotions. So it is not limited to salatu faatih alone and that doesn’t makes what is halal haram. There are extremism by some folks in solaat, sadaqah, hajj, sawm and other ibaadat, it doesn’t makes the ibaadah haram, rather we explain what is right there in and point out what is wrong and leave emotions aside.

21: In my article titled “I CONCLUDED THAT IT IS GULUW” https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=293704324755087&id=100023465651786

I said:
“In spite of Sheikh Ibn Taemiyah’s laudable effort in entrenching Taoheed and condemning all vestiges of Shrik, some of his followers sought for blessings (Tabaruk) with his corpse and drank the water used in washing him, as recorded by Ibn Katheer, all due to Guluw.”

And I also mentioned the emergence of some Islamic sects there in.

So, whether you are salafi or ikwani or sufi or shii’i or deobandi or Khawarij or any sect you may claim, even if you only claim Muslim, there are extremism in every tendencies and that is not enough an evidence to jettison other permissible acts.

Al Guluw(extremism) is not exclusive to any group or a particular generation of Muslims. Without doubt, every Islamic tendencies has its origin from and traceable to sahaabah but the excessiveness of these groups in articulating and defending their own errors while condemning others(considered as adversaries) drove them to become a firqa(sect).

Wa solla Allahu ala sayyidanaa Muhammadin wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi ajma’een.

29th November, 2019.