Prayers Prescribed

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

238. Hafithoo AAala alssalawati waalssalati alwusta waqoomoo lillahi qaniteena

---

2:238. Guard the prayers and the middle prayer and stand for Allah in total devotion.^{451 to 455}

---

451. To guard is to be careful about. To guard the prayers would obviously mean to offer the prayers properly at proper times as divinely prescribed. It is a variation of the divine command to establish prayers (aqueemis sualaat) given elsewhere in the Qur'aan.

452. And what are the prayer timings divinely prescribed in the Qur'aan? In the chronological order of revelation, the earliest revealed Verse prescribing a fixed time for prayers is 17:78. In this Verse the only time fixed is between the sunset and the deep darkness of the night – obviously the dusk, the time when we offer our maghrib prayers now. Then in Verse 11:114 Allah directs us to establish prayers at the ends of the day and proximities of night. This is an unambiguous description of the dawn (fajr) and dusk (maghrib) as the divinely prescribed revised timings for prayers (sualawaat). And now, in this Verse 2:238, we are currently studying, Allah is asking us to guard not only the prayers prescribed earlier, but also the prayer newly introduced under this very Verse 2:238 – the middle prayer. This is in keeping with the Qur'aanic practice of gradual, step by step, legislation. The timing of the middle prayer has got to be mid-way between the dawn and the dusk prayers prescribed earlier. It corresponds to the noon (zhuhr) prayer, or to the weekly Jumuah prayer, we now offer.

453. But where is the Qur'aanic authentication for our uasur and uishaa prayers? I do not find it anywhere. But interpreters twist the plain meanings of the above-quoted and other Verses of the Qur'aan to count the number of prayers in a day to five. They paraphrase li dulookis shamsi ilaa ghasaquinl layli in Verse 17:78, for example, to include therein the four prayers of zhuhr, uasur, maghrib and uishaa. They translate dulookis shamsi as declination of the sun as against the clear dictionary meaning thereof as setting of the sun. As we have seen above, Verse 11:114 would corroborate with Verse 17:78 if the meaning of the phrase in the latter Verse is taken as 'setting of the sun'. There are several other Verses in the Qur'aan wherein we have been directed to praise and glorify Allah and to read the Qur'aan and ponder over it, at various times of the day and of the night. But those Verses do not specify the timings as the timings for prayers (sualawaat). Those Verses only ask us to glorify Allah and to read and ponder over the Qur'aan at other times also, besides doing so during the prayers.

454. How the translators have twisted the plain meanings of the Qur'aanic Verses in this regard is too vast a subject to be dealt with completely in these footnotes. A cyber-friend has done a thorough research on the subject and has recorded his findings in an e-booklet. If he permits me, I shall, inshaAllah, publish his work on the index page of my website. [The work, SALAAH IN THE QUR'AN, has since been published. Click here to access it.]

455. The prayers ought to be for Allah alone. We should have no thoughts, other than of Allah, during the prayers. But the fact of the matter is that our prayers are contaminated by these other thoughts, and thus get devalued and unfruitful. The other reason for our prayers being ineffective is that we glorify and address others, besides Allah, during and after the prayers at places of worship. Places of worship should be exclusive for glorification of Allah alone. And of the Unseen, He alone should be addressed or called upon for anything.

---

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 30^th of August 2019.