Hadith Lesson: On Imāms and Mu’adhins

As-Salāmu ‘Alaykum wa RaḥmatuLlāhi wa Barakātuh. A‘ūdhu BiLlāhi Minash-shayṭāni r-rajīm. BismiLlāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm. Wa ṣ-Salātu wa s-Salāmu ‘alá Rasūlinā Muḥammadin Sayyidi l-Awwalīna wa l-Akhirīn. Madad yā RasūlAllāh, Madad yā Sādāti Aṣḥābi RasūliLlāh, Madad yā Mashāyikhinā, Dastūr Mawlana Sheikh Abdullāh al-Fā’iz ad-Dāghistāni, Sheikh Muḥammad Nāẓim al-Ḥaqqānī. Madad.

1Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “Pray with the Surat ash-Shams and such short Surahs like it.” So when there is an imām, he should pray according to the state of the congregation. Surat ash-Shams is of medium length; it is short but there are even shorter ones like Surat Ad-Duha and so on. He ﷺ says the imāms should lead the prayers with similar Surahs.

2Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “Whether a good or a bad person, pray behind every Muslim imām. Whether a good or a bad person, perform the Janazah prayer on every Muslim who dies so that he is good. Whether a good or a bad person, do jihād together with the Muslim commanders.” So when you have an imām in front of you, you mustn’t look how he is or research whether he’s good or bad. You should follow behind the imām. And when there is a Janazah prayer, even if one person performs the Janazah prayer, it will be lifted off other Muslims. If no one performed it, they will all carry the burden. When there is Jihad, perform Jihad under the command of the commander or the one who is in charge of the country, without wondering if is he good or bad. Soldiers must be under his command. 3Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “The prayer behind a pious person is accepted.” The prayer behind the person who fears Allāh ﷻ, keeps away from sin is accepted. “A gift given to the pious person is accepted.” It is accepted to him. And it is more accepted in the sight of Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla. The gift given to good people, to deserving people is acceptable. “To sit with a pious good person who fears Allāh ﷻ and keeps away from sin is a worship. And to converse with him is Ṣadaqah.” So when you sit and talk to him, it is also considered as charity. Allāh ﷻ writes this reward for you.

4Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “The imām and the mu’adhin are given the same reward as the entire congregation.” The more people hear the mu’adhin, the more reward he attains. The more people pray behind the imām, the more reward is written for them.

5Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “The one who recites the Qur’an best among you should lead you in prayer.”

6Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “Let the most beautiful among you lead you as an imām. For he is more suited to have the best of manners among you.” That is, let the one who has nūr (light), whose face has more nūr and is more beautiful, be the imām, says our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu alayhi wa sallam. Since his morals will also be better. Because a person’s manners will also show on his face.

7Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “Whoever visits people should not stand as an imām among them. Let one of them stand as an imām.” So if you go on a visit, don’t jump directly to the stand as imām. Let one of them be the imām. If they insist forcing you, “We want you to be the imām,” then that’s another matter.

8Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “If a person who’s praying has an imām, the imām’s recitation is a [sufficient] recitation for him.” So according to the Hanafi Madhhab, when we follow the imām, we neither recite Al-Fatiha nor the second Surah. Other Madhhabs are of course different. What our Prophet ﷺ said is, what the imām reads is enough for you. His reading is enough for you. So you don’t need to read. Of course, this is according to the Hanafi Madhhab. In the Shafi’i Madhhab, one must probably read Al-Fatihah. I don’t know about the other Madhhabs. There are four Madhhabs. They are all true Madhhabs. Each one is different. But this ḥadīth sharīf states what must be done according to our Madhhab.

9Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “The imām is prohibited from praying on something higher than where the congregation behind him are.” So he

should be as the congregation. It is wrong to stand on something much higher. Of course, the place of the congregation at this time is flat and straight. Sometimes, there is a fatwa according to every place.

10-Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “Whoever leads a nation against their will, his prayer does not go beyond his ears.” He doesn’t attain the reward. Even if it is accepted, there is no reward for it.

11-Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “Whoever leads the congregation in prayer as imām and prays in full and on time, his reward belongs to him and the congregation.” The imām who leads the prayer on time, and without missing the time, his reward is both his and the congregation’s. “Whoever misses something, the sin is only upon him. That sin doesn’t reach the congregation.” So if he does something wrong or misses something, it’s not the congregation’s fault. The congregation attains its reward in full, but the imām doesn’t attain it.

12-Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “Whoever leads prayer as an imām while there is someone among them who recites the Qur’an of Allāh ﷻ more beautifully, and is more knowledgeable than him, he will be in a decline in value until the Day of Judgement.”

13-Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “Whoever puts his head in prostration before the imām, and raises it before the imām has no prayer.” So his reward is deficient. The imām moves first. You must move after the imām. You make takbīr after the imām. Sometimes, here too, they do something beautiful. When the imām says Allahu Akbar, you should say Allahu Akbar after him. So after the imām says the first takbir (Allahu Akbar), you say Allahu Akbar after him. Not with the imām and not before the imām. You must say the takbīr after the imām.

14-Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ forbade the imām from being a mu’adhin for the prayer time. Someone else should be the mu’adhin. Being imām is different than being mu’adhin. The reward is different.

15-Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “Do not pray a prayer twice in one day.” So you should pray Fajr prayer once. “If I pray it once more, I will have more rewards.” No. “If I pray Dhuhr once more, I will have more rewards.” Do not pray it twice, says our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. You can pray it as nāfilah. If there is a Qada’ (missed prayer), then you can pray it in place of the Qada’ prayer. But you mustn’t pray the same prayer twice, says our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

16-Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “You must not join a prayer with another until you have engaged in conversation or gone out.” So let there be some time between the prayers, says our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam.

17-Qala RasuluLlah salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ (peace be upon him ﷺ) says:

Our Holy Prophet ﷺ is saying, “The person who reads the Qur’an most beautifully among the congregation should lead the prayer as imam.”

Sadaqa RasuluLlah fi ma qal, aw kama qal. The Messenger of Allāh ﷻ says the truth in what he ﷺ said or as he ﷺ said.

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Ihda’ – Dedication:

Ziyadatan ila sharafi’ ‘n-Nabi, sallaLlahu `alayhi wa sallam wa Alihi wa Asahabihi l-kiram, wa ila arwahi jamee’i al Anbiya’i wa l-Mursalin wa Khudama’i sharai’ihim wa ila arwahi al ‘Aimmati al arba’a, wa ila arwahi Mashayyikhina fi tTariqati n-Naqshbandiyyati l-Aliyyah, khassatan Imamu t-Tariqah wa Ghawthu lKhaliqah Khwaja Bahauddin Muhammad al-Uwaisiyi l-Bukhari, Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al Ghujduwani, Mawlana Shaykh Sharafuddin al Daghestani, Mawlana Shaykh Abdullah al Faiz al Daghestani, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al Haqqani, wa sai’ri Sadatina wa s-Siddiqiyun, wa man nahnu fi hadratihim wa jiwarihim, for the souls of all our passed ones, for the souls of all Shaheeds. For goodness to come and evil to be gone. Li-Llahi Ta’ala, Al-Fatiha.

[(Translation) To the honor of the Prophet, Prayers and Peace be upon Him, and his family, and his companions, and the souls of all the prophets as well as of His messengers and of those who served their Sharia, and to the souls of the four Imams. And to the souls of our Mashayikh of the Most Distinguished

Naqshbandi Tariqa, in particular to the soul of the Imam of the Tariqa Ghawth alKhaliqa (the Help of Creation), Khwaja Bahauddin Muhammad al-Uwaisiyi lBukhari, Sayyidina Abdul Khaliq al Ghujduwani, Mawlana Shaykh Sharafuddin al Daghestani, Mawlana Shaykh Abdullah al Faiz al Daghestani, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al Haqqani, and the rest of our masters and Siddiqiyun, and to whom we are in their presence and near them, for the souls of all our passed ones, for the souls of all Shaheeds. For goodness to come and evil to be gone. To Allah Almighty. Al Fatiha.]

Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani 29 April 2025/ 01 Dhul Qa’dah 1446 Beylerbeyi Dergah, Istanbul