بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Translation of Dr. Shams Jilani “Roshni Hira Say” (The light from Cave of Hira) by Dr. Rehan Asad
Chapter (75)
The training for the Namaz (Prayers), & the death of Hazrat Khadija & Hazrat Abu Talib.
During last section we discussed that during the journey of Miraj finally five prayers in a day was made compulsory but the reward for that was of fifty prayers. This is the special mercy of Almighty Allah on Muslims. On the next day when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came from the journey of Miraj, then Archangel Gabriel visited him. He explained how to offer the prayers. And then Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with his companions offered the five prayers. For our readers, I would like to bring in notice that this was the first time in the history of Islam that a proper way of worship & prayers has been fixed. When we compared with communities of other Abrahamic religions, we didn’t find any specific details of their worship. The hadith that came to us from Hazrat Abbas (RA) & Hazrat Jabir (RA) were like that, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, that Arch Angel, Hazrat Gabriel came to me twice in the house of Almighty Allah & he showed me, how to offer the prayers, they were Fajr (dawn) & Isha (night) prayers. Then he also showed him how to offer the prayers of Zuhar & Asr but the Maghrib prayer was not shown. The same narrative came from Abi Musa, Bareda & Abdullah bin Umar (RA). This has been narrated in Sahih Muslim. But a hadith reported by Imam Bahqi (RA) from Hazrat Hasan Basri that when Muslim found some relief after reaching Madinah Munawwara then the prayers of Sunnah & Nafl were started. And they stated that initially four prayers were offered in congregation, & there sequence were like this, four rakah for Zuhr, four rakaah for Asr, & three rakaah of Maghrib. When fifth prayer of morning was offered in congregation at that time, there were only two rakaah. During the time of travels, the two rakaah were offered from very early days only. From these hadith it seems that first only four prayers became compulsory & then the morning prayer of Fajr became mandatory. But none of them has shed light that what was the reason that this fifth prayer came in practice little bit later. May Allah know better? However the start of the compulsory prayers took place in the same year when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) undertook the journey of Miraj. It was also documented that in the same year, Hazrat Abu Talib (RA) & Hazrat Khadijatul Kubra (RA) left for heavenly abode. But as far as I think that Hazrat Khadjatul Kubra (RA) passed away before the incident of Miraj. This hadith corroborated this fact that people said that Hazrat Khadijatul Kubra (RA) used to pray before it was made compulsory. On this Hazrat Ali (RA) replied that I saw her in paradise & her home is made up of straw & grasses. And then stay of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) at the home of Umm Hani also affirm this fact that it was due to the pain of Hazrat Khadijatul Kubra (RA) departure, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) preferred to stay at the home of Hazrat Umm Hani.
Cont’d for the next week
