Testimony of the Holy Quran — Page 10
T E S T I MON Y OF T HE HOLY Q U R AN 10 the ta‘ a mul [continued practice] and were collected and com - piled after those practices became established. For example, the mu h addith i n [hadith scholars] observed that millions of people offer three rak‘ a t of far d in Maghrib, and two in Fajr, and always recite S u rah al-F a ti h ah in every rak‘at, and say a m i n either loudly or silently. Likewise, they observed them offering [supplications like] at-ta h iyy a t, dur u d, and many prayers in the last sitting posi - tion, and concluding their Prayer by offering sal a m to their right and left. Seeing this manner of worship, the mu h addith i n became eager and interested to verify this matter by tracing this method of prayer back to the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him and to confirm it through a ha d i th that are s a hih [authen - tic], and marf u ‘ and mutta s il [i. e. whose chains of narration reach up to the Holy Prophet s as and are uninterrupted]. It is true that the mu h addith i n have not provided chains of a thousand or two thousand narrators for every single hadith. But would it be right to assume that it was the mu h addith i n who established prayer in the first place, and before them people did not offer prayer and were totally unaware of it, and that it was only after many centuries that people, relying on one or two a ha - d i th, began to offer prayer? Hence, I declare emphatically that it would be a grave misconception to believe that the manner and rak‘ a t of prayer were proven solely on the basis of a handful of a ha d i th that appear to be a ha d. If that were to be true, then, first of all, Islamic observances would suffer an irremediable set - back—which would be of grave concern for any Muslim with a sense of honour. But remember that only those people labour under such misconceptions who have never attentively studied Islamic chronicles, history, traditions, rites, and worship, and