Grades Of Worshipers In Salah: Shaykh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi

[ummtaalib]

  Of all the A’maal (actions) in Islam, Salah requires our first and foremost
attention and care.
 

The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) stated, “The first thing
one will be held accountable for on the Day of Judgment is Salah (prayer).”
(Sunan Abu Dawud, al Nasa’i: Kitab al Salah Bab al Muhasabati `ala al Salat
#469-471; Al Hakim also narrated it and said it is sahih)

 

In another Hadith it is mentioned, “On the Day of Judgement, the very first
question that will be asked to man out of his deeds will be about Salah; if his
Salah is correct he will succeed but if it is incomplete, he will be disgraced
and will suffer loss.- Tabarani
 

Depending upon the inner and outer quality of Salah, the worshipers have
different grades.
 

Shaykh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (RA) writes:

 

“There is nothing dry or mechanical about Salah. It is not a soulless ritual,
frozen into rigidity, in which there is no scope for development and everyone is
compelled to stay at the same level. On the contrary, its field is very vast in
which the devotee is carried forward from state to state, from advancement to
perfection and from perfection to heights that are beyond the imagination of
man.
 

In it, the position of one is different from that of the other. The grade
varies from person to person. A Salah performed with negligence and ignorance
cannot be treated as equal to that of attention and awareness. In the same way,
the Salah of the general body of Muslims cannot match the Salah of the
enlightened men of God in virtue and excellence. It is also not necessary that a
devotee always maintains the same standard and the Salah he offered today was
identical in quality to what he had offered up yesterday or a few months or
years earlier.

 

Thus, we find that two categories of Salah are mentioned in the Quran,
praiseworthy and blameworthy.
 

Of the later type of Salah it says:
 

“Ah, woe unto worshippers who are heedless of their prayer, (and) who are
hypocrites and refuse even small kindnesses.”

 

(Surah Al-Ma’oon- cvii: 4-7)

 

And, of the former:

 

“Successful indeed are the believers who are humble in their prayers.”
 

(Surah Al-Muminoon- xxiii: 1-2)

 

The Holy Prophet (SAWS), also, has spoken of two kinds of Salah, one of
reverence, sincerity and humbleness and the other of negligence, hurry and
carelessness.

 

Concerning the Salah of the first category Uthman bin Affan [RA] relates that
“He [the Prophet SAWS] performed the Wudhu, and performed it well, and then, he
remarked, he who performs the Wudhu like me and performs two Rakahs of Salah in
such a way that he thinks of nothing else during it, all his previous sins will
be forgiven”. –Bukhari and Muslim

 

It is related by Hazrat Uqba bin Aamir (RA) that the Prophet (SAWS) once
said, “Paradise becomes the right of a Muslim who performs the Wudhu properly
and then stands up and offers two Rakahs of Salah and remains attentive in it
both with his face and his heart”. -Muslim
 

About the Salah of the other kind, it is related by Ammar bin Yasir (RA) that
once he heard the Prophet (SAWS) saying, “A person completes his Salah and yet
only one‐tenth, and sometimes, one‐ninth, one‐eighth, one‐seventh, one‐sixth,
one‐fifth, one‐fourth, one‐third or one‐half of it comes to his lot.”- Abu
Dawood and Nisai.

 

It is, again, related that the Prophet once said, “The worst of men is he who
steals his Salah”. The Holy Companions, thereupon asked, “O Prophet of God! How
can a person steal his own Salahs?” The Prophet replied, “He neither performs
the Wudhu properly nor the Sajda”. - Muslim
 

It is related by Hazrat Anas (RA) that the Prophet (SAWS), once said, “He is
a hypocrite who keeps on looking at the sun till it turns pale and comes between
the two horns of the Devil and then gets up and hurriedly offers up four Rakahs
of Salah like a hen pecking at the grain in which the remembrance of God is only
nominal.”- Nisai

 

In Salah the grades of the devotees are different. The Salah of one devotee
cannot be judged by the Salah of the other. The Salah of the sacred Prophet
(SAWS) was of the highest order, higher, superior and more perfect than that of
any one, and it also held the greatest weight in the Scales of God. Closest to
his Salah was the Salah of Hadhrat Abu Bakr (RA).

 

It was for this reason that Hadhrat Abu Bakr (RA) was commanded by the holy
Prophet (SAWS), during his last illness, to lead the prayer‐service in his place
though Hadhrat Ayesha (RA) had suggested the name of Hadhrat Omar (RA). But the
Prophet insisted on it and, so, it was done. [bukhari]

 

Salah is an indicator of one’s level in the Deen:

 

Further, there is no better measuring‐yard of one’s place and position in
Islam than Salah. The quality of person’s prayers tells more about his inner
state than any other thing.

 

Thus, all the outstanding personalities of Islam, whose names are still
cherished in history, have attained that lofty position and immortality by
paying the greatest attention to Salah and carrying it to the highest stage of
perfection which, in the Islamic parlance, is referred to as Ihsan.”