al-Jami li-Ahkam al-Salat - Mahmoud Uwayda
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- al-Jami li-Ahkam al-Salat - Mahmoud Uwayda
al-Jamiʿ li-Ahkam al-Salat (The Compendium of the Rulings of Prayer) is a legal treatise authored by Abu Iyas Mahmud ibn Abd al-Latif Uwayda, dedicated to the jurisprudence and rulings governing Islamic prayer (salat) through direct reliance on textual evidence.
Background and Purpose
Uwayda began drafting the work in 1407 AH (1987 CE), though its publication was delayed due to circumstantial obstacles. When publication became possible, he revised the text and incorporated extensive additions before its initial release in 2001. Subsequent editions followed in 2002 and an expanded, revised third edition in 2003–2004 published in Amman, Jordan. The author relinquished copyright protection for the book and allowed it to be distributed freely, granting permission for anyone to reprint, distribute, and sell it on the condition that no alterations, additions, or omissions are made to the text.
The author stated that his objective was not merely to produce another book of Islamic jurisprudence, but to present an exemplary model for writing fiqh. He sought to counter blind imitation (taqlid) by presenting comprehensive textual proofs, scrutinizing traditional juristic opinions against those texts, and advocating for reopening the doors of independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) to qualified scholars. Following this work, Uwayda applied the same methodology to a companion compendium on fasting titled al-Jamiʿ li-Ahkam al-Siyam.
Methodology
The work restricts its legal derivations to direct textual sources—the Quran and the Sunnah—excluding supplementary juristic mechanisms such as analogical deduction (qiyas) and juristic preference (istihsan), on the premise that acts of ritual worship (ʿibadat) are strictly text-bound (tawqifiyyah). Consequently, Uwayda characterized the work as pure textual jurisprudence (fiqh al-nusus).
In arriving at his legal conclusions, the author relied on his own direct ijtihad rather than adhering to established legal schools (madhhabs), noting that his verdicts might align with or diverge from classical positions. In hadith methodology, he restricted his proofs to traditions classified as authentic (sahih) or good (hasan) by the general body or a group of hadith scholars, entirely avoiding narrations unanimously regarded as weak (daʿif). For disputed narrations, acceptance was determined by their conformity with authenticated evidence.
Structure and Contents
The book opens with a prerequisite discussion on ritual purity (taharah), addressing the removal of ritual impurities through ablution (wudu), full-body washing (ghusl), and dry purification (tayammum). The primary body of the text covers the full spectrum of prayer-related rulings across organized chapters, including:
- The obligation and merits of the prescribed prayers.
- The defined times of the five daily prayers (Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha, and Fajr).
- Contemporary and exceptional timing issues, such as prayer times in polar regions and when an imam delays prayers.
- Rulings on making up missed prayers.
- Regulations governing mosques and prayer locations, including mosque etiquette, prayer on chairs or non-ground surfaces, places where prayer is prohibited or disliked, and the prohibition of taking graves as places of worship.
Answer updated