When Does Salah Become Obligatory Upon Us?
Prerequisites of Prayer: Conditions of Obligation and Understanding Sanity in Islamic Law
Summary
Sh. Ali Mashhour continues his study of al-Wajiz fi Kitab al-Salah, focusing on the prerequisites and conditions of prayer. He explains that salah is obligatory upon every Muslim who meets three essential conditions: being Muslim, having reached the age of puberty, and being sane. Sh. Ali Mashhour details the signs of puberty (pubic hair, age 15, sexual maturity, and menstruation for girls) and explains that at puberty, angels begin recording both good and bad deeds. He then provides an in-depth discussion on sanity in Islamic law, defining it as the ability to hold coherent intentions, and distinguishes between insanity and stupidity by explaining that insanity involves incoherent goals pursued coherently, while stupidity involves coherent goals pursued incoherently.
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Continuing in al-wajiz fi kitab al-salah regarding the prerequisites to prayer. These following chapters are going to be dealing with the various prerequisites, various conditions of salah. Starting with upon whom salah is obligatory and continuing on into all nine conditions of prayer. Then we will get into the pillars and later obligations. But just other chapters, before we break down exactly what the any inner workings of salah are and what constitutes a a valid prayer from an invalid prayer, we are going to discuss a full picture of how the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was narrated to have prayed most of the time. So, 95% of the time, given he was in good health and what he consist- consistently did when he prayed, we will have a complete salah description of how he used to pray most of his life, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, from takbir all the way until at taslim. So, salah is obligatory upon who? Upon whom?
[Silence]
So, salah is obligatory upon every Muslim who is of age, of age meaning age of puberty, and his sanity or her sanity is intact. So, every sane pubescent any every sane Muslim over the age of puberty. So, here we have three conditions that the author mentions. Number one, Islam, person is Muslim. Number two, the person is at least of the age of puberty. Number three, the person is sane. And now, we'll see that in a lot of chapters, these conditions are repetitive, all right? But, we have to remember the definitions that we gave to these things early on. So, for instance, before when discussing fasting and discussing ghusl and some other things, we mentioned what is the age of puberty. We said the age of puberty is one of three things happens. And for girls, there is a fourth. Right? Three things that may that are an indication that this child has reached the age of puberty. And what that means is this child may not be an adult socially, but in Islam, they are held responsible for their actions at this age. Meaning in the hereafter. Meaning if they do not pray, they will be held accountable by Allah. If they do not fast, they'll be held accountable. If they commit a crime, they'll held be held accountable. Right? Three for boys and girls, and a fourth one for girls. Do we remember what they are? What.
[Arabic recitation]
Nabtil Ana, right, which is that hair, pubic hair, that hair grow around the private parts, pubic hair. Very specific type of hair that grows around the pubic parts. This pubic hair means that this child has reached the age of puberty. Okay, that's one. Age 15, okay, and three Al-ihtilam, which means that sexual maturity, that the child has a wet dream, right, or sexual maturity. The the the having of climax, sexual climax. This is three for boys and girls, and for girls, there's an additional one, which is menstruation. These four indicators mean that this child is what? Is of the age of puberty. That means that both angels are writing. In the Before this age of puberty, one angel is writing. Right? The angel of good deeds is writing. As soon as the child is able to is able to discern right from wrong, right from left, is able to have a coherent intention, usually by the age of seven, but some much earlier than that. Could be as early as 4 years old or 5 years old, the angel of good deeds is writing. But when does the angel of sin and bad deeds begin to write? At the age of puberty. Right? Okay. The second or the third thing that the author mentions is Al-aql. That the person is sane. Now, remember, sanity has very different definitions based on the context, but in Islamic law we define sanity. Do we remember what that definition is? Being able to hold a coherent intention. If we were to ask this person, "Why are you doing this?" they will give us a coherent answer as to why they're doing this. Do you know what the difference is between insanity and stupidity is? This is a very interesting topic. You ever think about that? What's the difference between stupidity and insanity? Huh? One of One of them, we give them a pass. Someone's insane, we give them a pass. What The other, we do not give an excuse. Someone is stupid, we don't allow them We don't give them a pass for that. The difference between insanity and stupidity. Ibn al-Jawzi has an entire book on this subject.
[Arabic recitation]
Al-Mughaffalin. And he says that in this book, the only disease that Isa ibn Maryam could not cure is stupidity. And what is the difference between insanity and stupidity? They say the difference between insanity and stupidity is that a person who is insane has an incoherent goal, but they go about it in a coherent manner. Whereas a person who is or stupidity is having a coherent goal. The goal is correct, but going about it in an incoherent manner. So we have goals. And then we have means to those goals, right? Insanity is that a person has an incoherent goal. The goal itself is crazy. But they go about it in a correct way. if that were a real truly coherent goal, I would do that too to achieve those ends. Whereas stupidity, it's the opposite. They have a coherent goal. But the way they go about achieving that goal is very incoherent. So I'll give you an example. Once there was a king and he loved doves. You know, he used to keep pigeons. And , you know, he had this huge city that he was the king of. And , you know, in a city, usually the city has walls and these walls have gates. So you close the gates, open the gates, right? And so someone left some of the cages open. And so when the king saw that the cages were left open and that some of the pigeons were escaping, he sent out a command to lock the gates to all of the city walls. Okay? This is stupidity or insanity? Stupidity. He wants to keep The goal is to keep the pigeons inside of the city, right? That's a coherent goal. But the means he went about it, closing the city gates, well, the pigeons fly. They don't go through the gates. Right? The other way is insanity. Insanity is a person has a coherent goal or they have a an incoherent goal, but the means they go about is what? Is is correct for the goal, but the goal itself is unclear. It's insane. And this is the difference between insanity and stupidity. These two things are conflated in modern society today. However, in Islamic law when a person is considered insane, say, what is this person who is sane? It's a person who is able to hold a coherent intention. Meaning the goals that they have in mind are coherent. They make sense.
[Arabic recitation]
That's your mission to turn it off. Okay? I hear by do you You are accountable to that right there.
[Arabic recitation]