The First Ritual Prayer [Salat] in Islam

2024-02-07

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The ritual prayer [Ṣalāt] is the only form of worship among the acts of worship in which a worshipper is directly connected with God, but in other acts of worship we are connected with God through the mediation of one of God’s creatures or acts. In ritual prayer [Ṣalāt] which essence is the attention of the heart to God and the expression of submission of need and humiliation before God, we do not relate with anyone except God, and we do not place any of God’s creations as an intermediary between us and Him, and in all aspects of the ritual prayer, from standing up, sitting down, bowing, prostrating, reciting, and remembering, the only focus of our thoughts and remembrance is “Allah” alone.

Ritual prayer [Ṣalāt] is a symbol and manifestation of the worship of believers before God. It has existed in various forms in all monotheistic religious rituals. The existence of Abrahamic religions in Arabia and the survival of Abraham’s and Ismail’s descendants in Mecca can also strengthen the possibility that some people who believe in the monotheistic religion of Ibrahim knew about the prayer and perhaps performed it[1].

Ritual Prayer is the highest form of worship that has been obligatory on the Prophets and saints of God from Adam (peace be upon him) to the last of the Prophets, Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and it has been made obligatory for all the servants of God Almighty in every period of human life. According to the verses of the Quran, a form of worship known as ritual prayer (Salat) has been popular among them and they have ordered people to do it[2].

In Islamic law, prayer is considered one of the daily duties of every Muslim, the importance of which is self-explanatory. In some Meccan Qur’anic verses, there are some points about the legalization of prayer in Mecca. Similarly, there are many reports about the first daily prayer of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and its quantity and quality in the hadith and historical sources. It is necessary to mention that these reports are not consistent with each other and need to be discussed. At a glance, it can be said that three views have been proposed in these sources:

1. Daily prayers became obligatory for the first time during the Ascension (Mi’rāj) journey;

2. The noon prayer was the first obligatory prayer on the day after the Prophet’s return from the Ascension (Mi’rāj) journey;

3. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) used to observe prayers (obligatory or voluntary) before the Prophetic mission or at least at the beginning of his mission, but the five prayers became obligatory for the Prophet and the Islamic Ummah during the Ascension journey.

The first two views are actually not more than one, and they consider the origin of the obligatory prayer for the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and Muslims after the Ascension journey, except that the first view considers the first prayer to be observed was on the night of the ascension, while the second view considers the noon prayer of the next day to be the first prayer observed.

Some hadiths consider the first prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to be the prayer during the Ascension[3]. It is clear from these narrations that ritual prayer in its current format did not exist before the Ascension, and it was obligatory upon the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) for the first time during the Ascension journey, and he became familiar with it and learned it during this journey. Of course, we cannot as well deny the existence of ritual prayers in a simpler form, which is a symbol of God’s worship before the Ascension. There is much evidence of these prayers held by the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him and his family) even years before the Prophethood.

Some hadiths have also explicitly related the prayer in its current form to the incident of the Ascension. For instance, Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) was reported to have said in this regard: “When the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) was taken to the Ascension and God Almighty taught him the call to prayer (Azan), Iqamah and the prayer, when he stood for prayer, God commanded him to recite Al-Hamd and Tawheed in the first rakat and said: O Muhammad! This is my description, and in the second rakat, he recited Al-Hamd and Surah Al-Qadr and said: O Muhammad, this is the description of you and your family until the Day of Resurrection[4].”

Some scholars, based on historical and Qur’anic evidence, believe that the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and some of his relatives such as Ali (peace be upon him) and Khadija (peace be upon her) prayed and worshiped God before the Ascension, but the obligation of the first prayer for the entire Muslim Ummah was considered to be during the time of Ascension. The Qur’anic verses such as verses 9 and 10 of Qur’an 96 [Surah al-Alaq] are believed to establish the existence of ritual prayer before Ascension.

Allamah Ṭabāṭabāī believes that because Qur’an 96 [Surah al-Alaq] was revealed at the beginning of the Prophethood and at that time, there was no verse about prayer, it is clear that the command to pray came to them before the Qur’anic revelation, and what is meant by “a servant when he prays[5]” was the prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and “he who forbids[6]” was also Abu Jahl[7]. This point has been raised in the narrations on the reason of revelation of Qur’an 96 [Surah al-Alaq] and the vast majority of Qur’anic exegetes and narrators of the reason of revelation have accepted it.

For sure, the Prophet was praying before his ascension and at that time he did not have any companions to perform congregational prayers in this way. According to historical reports, at least for three years, they did not make a public proclamation of his mission and naturally had no followers except Hazrat Ali and Khadijah (peace be upon them) who believed in him and prayed with them from the very beginning of the Prophetic mission[8].

In a narration from ‘Afīf ibn Qais Kindi, it is narrated: “Before the public declaration of the Prophetic mission, one day, I was sitting in Mecca with Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib, a young man came and looked at the sky and when the sun rose, he stood in front of the Ka’aba to pray. Then a young man came and He stood on his right and then a lady stood behind them. The young man bowed, and the two also bowed. Then he stood up and prostrated, they both also prostrated. I said to Abbas: It is a great matter. Abbas also said: It is a great thing. Do you know who this young man is? This is the son of my brother, Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul Muttalib. Do you know who this teenager is? My brother’s son, Ali ibn Abi Talib. Do you know who that woman is? It is Khadijah, the daughter of Khuwaylid. My brother’s son [i.e., Muhammad] told me that his Lord, the Lord of the Heavens and the earth, commanded him to follow this religion. I swear to God, except for these three people, no one on earth has such a ritual[9].

According to the report of Ibn Shahr Ᾱshūb, the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) learned ablution, bowing, and prostration during this period. In addition, at the age of forty and at the same time as the Prophet, he learned the ruling of ritual prayer. Thereafter, he performs it in the form of two rak’ah without being limited to a specific time. The two faithful companions of the Prophet and the first believers in the Prophetic mission, Imam Ali and Lady Khadijah (peace be upon them) -who had converted to him from the very beginning of the mission- also learned the prayer from him. Some reports tell about the frequent accompaniment of the two of them in standing prayers with the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) in Mecca or the valleys and hiding places around it, to the extent that the Meccans and others saw them and gradually, the news of it spread in the city[10].

In a nutshell, based on several hadiths on this topic[11], the ritual prayer in a complete form along with ablution was taught to the Prophet of God during his Ascension to Heaven and Qur’an 17 [Surah Isra] of the Qur’an, which was revealed in Mecca and dealt with the subject of the Prophet’s Heavenly journey – and specifically can be confirmed with verse 78 of this Chapter (related to the legislation of prayer timing): “Maintain the prayer [during the period] from the sun’s decline till the darkness of the night, and [observe particularly] the dawn recital. Indeed the dawn recital is attended [by angels].”

It is certain from the historical report and the testimonies of famous that the first man who believed in the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was Ali ibn Abi Ṭālib while the first woman was Lady Khadijah, the wife of the Prophet and they were the first to observe ritual prayer with him.