The Historical Account of Namaz or Salat- The First Prayer in Islam (Part 9)
By Nastik Durrani, New Age Islam
28 March, 2014
Ahmad Bin Wazeh
al-Yaqoobi has reported that the first prayer enjoined upon the Prophet
of Islam (pbuh) was the afternoon prayer (Salat-ul-Zuhar). The apostle
of God, Gabriel came to the Prophet (pbuh) and taught him to perform
ablution. Then, the apostle offered the prayer in order to show the
Prophet (pbuh) the way of doing it. The Prophet (pbuh) then offered the
prayer in the same way (1). This view has been endorsed by Naf’e too
(2).
To my view, neither
the reports stands up to scrutiny, because some of the Qur’an exegetes
hold that the Zuhar prayer is the “middle prayer” , as outlined in the
holy Qur’an: “maintain with care the [obligatory] prayers and [in
particular] the middle prayer and stand before Allah , devoutly
obedient” (3). So, if the Zuhar prayer is supposed to be the middle
prayer, it should come between two prayers. But this is something which
stands contrary to the Prophet’s first prayer, which should have been
the first and the last prayer, in case it is supposed to be the middle
prayer. Moreover, most of the revealed religions have prescribed their
prayers to be offered in the morning and evening, as the determination
of time is relatively easy in either of these times. Going by this, it
is not rational to say that the Salat-ul-Zuhar was the first prayer in
Islam.
This issue, right from
the beginning, has been an apple of discord in Islam. Some Qur’an
exegetes have referred to the Fajr as the middle prayer, while some
others have referred to the prayer of Isha (the night prayer). Some
declared the Jumu’ah as the middle of the prayers (4), while others have
stated that it is “the collective prayer” or “Salat-ul-Khauf”. This
contention went to the extent that even the prayers of Eid-ul-Fitr,
Eid-ul-Azha and Witr have also been declared as the middle prayer by
some or the other commentators of the holy Quran. On the other hand, a
few of the scholars have maintained silence over this matter due to the
conflicting reports and failed to determine any particular prayer as the
middle. Consequently, the issue has not been resolved from the time of
the Prophet’s holy companions until today (5).
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