Why Your Ruku Position Matters in Prayer

Alaikum brothers and sisters thank you for joining us honored guests in our latest installment of zadil mahad we had authored by the great and esteemed late scholar of islam shems we had left off last time speaking about the way in which the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would usually make rukur we gave a very specific description of his rukur i want to recap on that when a person makes rokura he is bowing this is what this position is it is a position which captures exaltation to the one whom it is to the one being bowed to and it captures humility from the one who is bowing this is the purpose of right and allah mentions in the quran in this sense meaning the spirit of what is the spirit of he says he says indeed your true alliance and your true close ones are allah and his messenger and those who believe then he describes the believers he says the ones who establish prayer give zakah also while bowing what is meant by bowing meaning with the utmost of humility to allah and the utmost of exaltation to allah because it is a position of such humility it is not appropriate for the great words of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to be recited and this is why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam prohibited that a person recite the quran this is not the appropriate position to be reciting the quran and so when a person makes they have to attempt to epitomize their humility to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this position you see the human being is far more deep and rich in emotion and in feeling than what can be put into words we can't always put into words the depth and the richness of our emotions or the shades of our emotion and so some things cannot be said they have to be done right and so we express our epitomized humility to allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

In the way that we position our bodies this is the purpose of if you have this in mind and you understand this spirit you will see that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam his method his fashion of making sought to epitomize this as well so we see that.

[Arabic recitation]

Go down into he would spread his fingers on his knees as if he was grabbing them right mentions to us he would place his two hands on his two knees and almost as if he is grabbing onto them so the fingers are spread apart right the back is to be straight and it is to be extended right mentions that the prophet alaihi wasallam would make his back so straight and flat and rule that if water to were to be put on his back it would stagnate on his back it wouldn't go any direction because his back is so flat right that it would capture capture that water likewise the head is neither up nor is it dangled it is straight with the back the arms are bent and they are separated from the stomach and the thighs so the arms are bent and they are out right we don't have to exaggerate this too much it is just enough that we spread away from you know we spread our body apart they should not be this and he's completely at a 90 degree angle with his body at the waist and there is a narration in which he mentions that the of the one who does not flatten his back that this roku is not valid and so it is important that a person make roku in this way now if a person has some kind of ailment that does not allow him to be this limber that is a different story but this is the ideal position of making little court this is how it should look right and so there is if we notice the way that he would make rokura his feet are straight to the qibla his hands grasping his arms out right not too exaggerated just out to where there's a gap between the arms and the and the abdomen and the back is straight the head is straight we notice something what is that there is no articulation in this position of laziness there is no articulation of tiredness when a person is lazy they kind of allow their body to kind of fall into a very lazy position though is not this and the reason for that is that this is not appropriate when we are making rookwor unbowing to allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala he says speaking about rising firmal court which we spoke about last week that would say regarding a person making he said to jesus would rise from sujud and he would rise up completely until he his body had settled in the standing position right if a person makes rukur and comes up somewhat and then goes down this is not this standing position is not valid standing between rukur and sujud is a pillar of prayer a person must stand straight likewise between sujud after sujud between the two sajdah a person cannot come up halfway and then go back down into sujud sitting between the two sajdah is a pillar of prayer and in this spirit the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says that no salah is going to be valid in which the individual does not fully erect his body between rukur and sujud right so a person must completely come back to the standing position and that standing position must you must come to a complete stop to where your body settles into that position before you can go into another he says wakana is he says and when he would finish and reach to the standing position before sujud he would say oh our lord to you belongs all praise there's a four ways that he would say this.

[Silence]

Now we mentioned that the correct opinion is that when an individual rises from rukur to the standing position he says which translates to allah answers those who praise him so as you are rising just when we were going down in takbira till interqual we said it was the transitional.

[Arabic recitation]

Akbar and goes into rukur this is its equivalent in rising from rukur so now we say.

[Arabic recitation]

Once we reach the the standing position now we say.

[Arabic recitation]

Understanding this is something that is said by everyone whether you are an imam leading others or you are being led in prayer or you are praying by yourself all people who pray are going to say both.

[Arabic recitation]

Rabbin or allah or allah all four are correct so the transitional remembrance is and then in this position now i'm in a new position which is standing between sujud now i am saying oh allah our lord to you belongs all praise and this is appropriate because think about what it is we're saying we first recite the quran and we have our hands right hand over the left in a very humble way we are standing we are neither lazy in our stance nor are we arrogant and prideful in our stance the way the prophet salallahu we recite the quran with dignity this is the this is the standing position right the great words of allah and all of saleh revolves really around recitation of the quran that's what salah is really designed for salah is really designed to be a conducive environment for the contemplation of the quran this is what salah is designed for allah says and establish prayer for my remembrance meaning so that you may remember me and so that you may recite my words so we are reciting the quran we are contemplating deeply what it is we are reciting.

[Arabic recitation]

After hearing these great and magnificent and noble words so rich in meaning light upon light now we react to those words what is our reaction we bow out of exaltation to allah and humility in ourselves right.

[Arabic recitation]

Bowing position subhanallah perfect is he my great and greatest lord right now after we have reacted to those words of allah we are so overcome by the words of allah that we must break ourselves literally break our bodies almost in half fold ourselves to articulate our great exaltation of allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

We are rising from that allah answers those who praise him our lord to you belongs all praise now we pray we are setting the stage for sujud now because now we are going to get into sujud and this is the place where dua is most most recommended because the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam said the closest the human being is from his lord is insulted.

[Arabic recitation]

Li muhammadan and then we go into sujud and so it is not arbitrary in the way that we make saleh it is designed that way to instill in us a particular thing and that we may exhibit a particular thing he says.

[Silence]

And the way that he would his traditionally customarily the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would stand extensively after rukur so the length of his rukur would dictate the length of his standing after rukur the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam customarily based on how long he stayed in rakuw he would stand in a similar amount of time right so as long as he was in court would be as long as he is in the standing position after rukur and one of the dua that he would make after.

[Arabic recitation]

He would make this beautiful dua which we will translate o allah our lord to you belongs all praise the fill of the heavens and the fill of the earth and the fill of all that is in between the fill of anything after which you choose you are one who is worthy of greatness one who is worthy of the greatest of descriptions and the greatest of praise you are the best of which the servants have ever said or described you with and the best of what we have described him with is what he taught us he said and all of us to you is a servant there is nothing that will prevent your giving nor is there anything that will give what you have prevented nor can a person's own personal abilities surpass your will all will is from you he says.

[Silence]

Wash me of my sins with water and ice and snow and purify me and clean me of my sins just as a pure white garment is close is cleaned and rendered pure again and distance between me and my sins the distance that you have placed between the east and the west he says and it is also authentically reported that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would repeat in this position and that he would repeat in the standing position okay and he would continue to say al-hamdu to my lord belongs all praise to my lord belongs all praise and that he would continue to say this as long as he is in this position the same amount of time that he said subhanallah right so if it's ten times subhana rabbi allah he would say rabbi al-ham ten times in this standing position he says and and the author of the authentic compilation which is known as muslim he has collected in his authentic compilation on the authority of anas who was the very close confidante and servant of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam from the moment he came to medina until he departed this world anas narrates to us that the messenger of allah when he would say allah answers those who praise him so when he would move from the rokur to the standing position he would say semi-auto and he would remain standing so long that we those who were praying behind him would think that he had forgotten which position he was in right yes and he would also sit likewise between the two sujud so long that we praying behind him would think that maybe he forgot what position he was in says this is what is known and authentically reported and collected and preserved of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam's customary ways in these positions he says and as for making these two positions brief meaning after standing before sujud and sitting between the two sajdah making these two pillars these two positions of prayer making them brief this is something that started in the government of beni umayya which came after the death of ali some of the governors of that time of beni omaya they started to cut corners and these are some of the corners that they cut and so he's saying that these two positions this is how the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would behave in these positions in the standing between sujud and in the sitting between the two sajdah that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would make these positions as long as he made the positions that preceded them and followed okay so if it's standing the standing would be as long as the court if it's sitting it would be as long as the sujud he says this is what is known and authentically compiled of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's custom during the in in performing these acts in these two positions he says yet making these two positions brief in the midst of prayer so you're standing for a long time you make rokura for a long time you stand very briefly and then you go into sujud for a long time you sit very briefly and then you go into sujud for a long time he said this this kind of going over these two positions with such brevity this is something that was not known in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam it's not something that was happening with the companions rather this is something that some of the governors of the government of beni omega the government of benio maya came after the finality of the khilafah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that or this my my successorship of my prophethood will be for 30 years after those 30 years it will turn into a kingdom right and that is marked with the death of allah and about six months of the life of or the successorship of alhassan after which he stepped down and vacated for and the capital was moved to damascus to dimash and this is when the kingdom and the government of benio mayma benny umayyah began to reign and so the government of benio maya had governors and these governors they would lead the prayer this is how it was there was no separation as we say in america or in the west this concept of secularism which is the separation of church and state church being the religious and state being the political and social this is not something that is a is an islamic concept this is something that is new to us in islam the government is both together right the beginning stages of islam during the successorship of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam we see that they were the the leader was one he controlled the government and the military arm of the government and he also control controlled the religious and so he was a scholar as well and a role model this continued but then they separated and so we have the scholars and then we have the government or the rulers right the rulers are in charge of the enforcement and the scholars are the ones who are commissioned with preservation of the religion and interpretation of the law and so when this separation happened it was still not it was still new to people and so the way that it would work is that you would go to prayer you would pray behind the governor of your area and that governor would pray in a particular way and we would take our understanding of the religion from him because it was one but in the time of the government of benio maya it's split and so the governors were not necessarily as religious they were not as scholarly they were not as knowledgeable and it continues to separate today right and it continues every single year every single generation to become further and further and more distance from each other unfortunately as i've been tamiya rahim allah is mentioned in in multiple places throughout his works so in the time of benio maya some of the governors started to cut corners in their worship and these were some of the corners that they would cut so they would make rukur for a long time stand up briefly and then go into sujud and so they did this so often that people praying behind them thought that it was something that was part of the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam which it was not now now we will move and transition into the position of sujud he says and he would move into the position of sujud and he would not raise his hands what does this mean meaning before we went into the court we raised our hands after we raised our hands but he would not raise his hands again he said and the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam would fall into sujud in the following manner his knees would go first and then his hands and then his forehead and then his nose in that order and so that which is closest to the ground would go first this way right it's a difference amongst the scholars between was it correct to go on the hands first or was it correct to go on the knees first abner kaiyam here tells us clearly that it's the knees first and this is the opinion of the majority and it is also you know oftentimes what is brought up in this debate amongst the scholars is the issue of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam prohibited that an individual go into sujud as a camel goes to sit down right what is meant by this narration is not what part of your body touches the ground first that's not what this narration is speaking about this narration is actually speaking about el haya meaning rather you go on your knees first or on your hands first that you are not to fall down in a way that is not smooth and transitory right so if you go on your hands really heavy or if you're really heavy on your knees this is not this is this is not part of the sunnah this is what the prophet sallallahu alaihi lam prohibited that a person do in saleh it's not about an individual going on his hands or his knees in the correct opinion he says.

[Silence]

Foreign.

[Silence]

The issue that we just discussed with a little more detail he says when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would go into sujud he would transition into sujud the closest parts of his body first to the ground and then what follows okay he says and the opposite is true when he would raise up from sujud so when he would go into sujud his knees are closest to the ground he would start with the knees and then the hands and then the forehead and the nose until he would finally reach his destination when he would come up from exactly that process in opposition so he would begin with lifting his head and then his hands and then his knees he says and this is the exact opposite of how a camel goes to sit or to lay down and he has generally prohibited that a person imitate any animals in his salah okay so let's unpack that a little bit he says it is exactly the opposite of what a camel does if we notice a camel begins with going down on the front so when a camel goes to lay down it's sitting this when it goes to lay down it goes knees first and then the back not the knees it doesn't have knees i mean the front legs the front legs first and then the the back opposite of the human being when we go into sujud we go knees first and then we don't drop front first okay he says this is specifically for going into sujud we are not to imitate a camel in the way that it goes to lay down however in general the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has prohibited the imitation of animals in their gestures during any part of the salah so when we look at the body of narrations we see that he has prohibited going down that of a camel and he has prohibited the movement of the head a fox what does that mean specifically during salem when a person goes to make taslim a fox generally is a very smart cunning and very nervous animal it's a very nervous animal as a matter of fact some hunters in very cold areas the way that they know if a lake or a pond if the ice is thick enough to walk on it is they will look to see if a fox has walked over that body of water or not because a fox is so nervous so paranoid that it would never walk over that lake that body of frozen water unless it could basically carry 10 times its weight that's how nervous it is and so the the nervousness and the skittishness and paranoia of a fox cause it to look around very quickly very rapidly with its head right this is what is called iltifat and so the fox will move his head very quickly right left up down a person is not to do this in prayer in any part of prayer but especially during testimony this is not prohibit this is not permissible this is prohibited in prayer rather we are not to imitate any animals and a fox especially when we are making our tesleem he says he said and he has prohibited that a person lay his forearms on the ground as a beast does a beast meaning a lion a tiger a hyena any dogs that have their that their front their front limbs bend our elbows right and that is that when a person is in sujud this part of the hand should never touch the ground right it is the caffeine the part that comes in contact with the ground should be limited to the hands and the palms from the wrist on up to the forearm on up to the elbow they should not touch the ground this is what is called as if the russia you see that you know animals this cats dogs whatever when they lay when they sit they're sitting with their hands flat on the ground and their forearm flat on the ground this this is prohibited in sujood rather the forearms must be raised and we mentioned one of the reasons for that a little bit ago a he said and another thing that is prohibited is what is known as the position that a dog sits in if you notice a dog when it sits it sits with its hands between its legs the legs are coming up here the hands are together right here okay and it is sitting flat on the ground and its tail is coming out at the end when it's sitting this is prohibited in prayer so one of the pillars of prayer is that when a person met between the two sujud and for tashahud a person must be in the sitting position person must be in the sitting position now what is sitting anything that is considered sitting is permissible anything that is considered sitting is permissible except one type of sitting and that is that a person sit with their buttocks flat on the ground the feet and the knees coming up and the hands in between this is called this is impermissible in prayer as well he says another thing that is impermissible and prayer is pecking that of a crow what does that mean that means that a person's movement especially the sujud be very fast and swift right just like a crow that is eating you know seeds or something it will it will peck at the ground pecking is impermissible there has to be time when you go into sujud your body has to come to a full stop and rest in that position and then you will come up and come to a full stop and your body must settle in that position and then you will go into sujud again opposite of what a crow does he says he said and another thing which is impermissible is that a person flail his hands when he is making tesleem like that of a horse a horse's tail right and that is that in sahih muslim the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam it was mentioned that some of the companions when they would make taslim their hands are on their knees this and they would say assalamu alaikum warahmatullah and they would raise their hand this and then assalamu alaikum with allah and raise their hand like this so he he said do not move your hands that of the tails of horses when you make your tesleem do not do this this is the context some have in misinterpreted this narration to mean don't raise your hands before and before sujud and et cetera et cetera this is now what is intended by the narration the context of the narration is just before teslim the some of the companions were doing this so he prohibited this he said do not wave your hands that when you are making tesleem the tails of horses and this is enough for today insha'allah we will continue where we left off next week we will be discussing we will be discussing how the prophet salallahu wasallam would make proper sujud and we will discuss some of the things that he would say in sujud some of the things that he would not say and some of the etiquettes of this is the most important position the human being can ever be in and so it's important that we get it right thank you very much for listening in.