The fact is that you shouldn’t forget 1400 years, which have elapsed since. Quite a few things have been happening, and taqwa has suffered a lot ever since. And there have been liars, there have been people who, because they stuck to a certain view, invent things and attribute them to Rasul-e-Karim consciously. This has been done in the spoken word, so why could it not have happened in the act of Rasul-e-Karim? For example, Hazrat Imam Bukhari once pursued a tradition, and he covered quite a long distance.
For a year or so he was after that tradition. And ultimately he was told that this tradition actually came from such and such Sufi, who is such a pious man that he never goes out, he is always found in the cellar, underground cellar, and among the books he is writing or reading, he is almost imprisoned. So he went to him and asked him, Where did you hear this hadith from? Because it has been placed down to you. And his answer was, I invented it myself. He said, what? He said, yes, what I am telling you. He said, don’t you know that it’s a big crime to do that? He said, but no, all the good things can be invented, because if I say those good things, nobody is going to listen to me.
If I attribute it to Sufism, everybody is going to listen. And thousands of such traditions were invented by such foolish people, and there were criminals involved in this. Also there were feuds between Shias and Sunnis, and sect and sect. And in the later ages, the ulema were not righteous people. They insisted on creating certain differences, to make different distinctions between one sect and another and so on. But that is what happened much later.
In the time of Hazrat Surya Kareem Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam too, there is positive evidence of various traditions emanating from him. For instance, Hazrat Surya Kareem Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam used to stand up while he was young, without pausing, after the second sajda. Just straight from the sajda, he would spring up, rise to a standing posture, and while he suffered from wounds, and also he was attempted to be poisoned and so on, his health gave out. And ultimately in the old age, he just couldn’t rise in one jump from the prostration to the standing position. So he would wait a little bit, and then stand up.
Now this tradition, this became a tradition of course, but there were people who accepted Islam in later periods, those who knew him right from the beginning, and had been following him before, there were some who understood. But there were others who didn’t understand. So two types of traditions were related. One reached Hazrat Imam Shafi, that Surya Kareem Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, whenever he got up, he rested, and then stood up. Either those who were present misunderstood him and thought he had changed his way, and never bothered to ask why. Or people who had accepted Islam later on, they reported this matter, and carried this tradition along with them.
So Imam Abu Nifa received a tradition from the early period, when he used to stand up directly. So this is the difference then. Similarly, it is just possible that Ahazrat Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, at some time may have put his hand down here, at some others here, because he might have intentionally wanted to demonstrate that either way is okay. If in your customs, this is better, or with some people it suits to have hold their hands a bit below. Hazrat Surya Kareem Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was a perfect demonstrator.
So if there was a variation and a spectrum in between, it was up to him to demonstrate that. And maybe that happened. This was okay, and that was okay. Then Rafa Yadain. At times, some traditions tell us that when Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, maybe this is our entrance, when he was very strongly moved, while saying Allahu Akbar, he would raise his hands like we do in Takbeer of Eid. But normally he didn’t. But with some scholars or jurisprudence, the problem was that they only heard those traditions which related to his raising the hand.
And there were others who did not hear of that tradition. And when you are looking back after 1400 years from now, you are forgetting the fact that the books of tradition came to be written down much later than the jurisprudence took root in Islamic history. Imams of Fiqh, that is the scholars of jurisprudence, they appeared much earlier than the books of the traditions and the Muhaddithin and the Imams of Hadith. They came later. So now you have the advantage to have all the books together. And one tradition you read in Bukhari, another you read in Muslim, and another in some other book. And now with having a glance over the whole horizon of traditions, you can pick and you can reconcile.
But at that time when the books of traditions had not yet been written down, and people were scattered all over who had learnt Islam from the Prophet ﷺ, so they carried the concept of Islam as they had seen. Also while I am saying the prayer, if somebody, a newcomer comes and stands four or five lines behind me, he will not be able to grasp exactly what is happening. Maybe, for example, after Rasul-ul-Krim ﷺ has got up, he has seen him standing like this. And while he was doing this, he couldn’t observe from that distance. If such a man has accepted Islam on that day, has gone back, what would be his message to his people? The only time I saw Rasul-ul-Krim ﷺ, he was hanging his hands by his sides. And he will carry that impression, and a tradition would create.
So many possibilities are there. The best attitude is this, that you shouldn’t fight with each other on minor issues. If a thing is proved from Rasul-ul-Krim ﷺ, even once in his lifetime, no Muslim has a right to declare that to be wrong. That is the safest principle. So be grand-hearted about it. Do as you please, but don’t object to others because they are minor things. The spirit of namaz is what lives within. And the general construction of namaz is about the same. Whether you hang your hands or put them here or below, the rakat and what you say, the fundamentals of namaz still remain the same. So you shouldn’t pay far too much attention to it, to increase dissension rather than bring the people together.
