Asl Sifat Salat al-Nabi
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Maʿārif lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ
Asl Sifat Salat al-Nabi (The Original Source on the Description of the Prophet's Prayer) is an extensive multi-volume hadith and legal work by the hadith scholar Nasir al-Din al-Albani (1332–1420 AH / 1914–1999 CE), providing an exhaustive critical documentation and juristic analysis of the prophetic prayer from the opening takbir to the concluding taslim.
Purpose and Scope
Al-Albani composed the treatise after finding no single comprehensive work dedicated to gathering all aspects of the Prophet's manner of prayer. His objective was to provide Muslims seeking to emulate the Prophet ﷺ with a thoroughly verified reference to fulfill the prophetic command: صَلُّوا كَمَا رَأيتمُوُني أُصَلِّي ("Pray as you have seen me pray").
Methodology and Structure
In compiling the work, al-Albani gathered relevant narrations across various hadith compilations and stipulated that he would include only those reports whose transmission chains were established as authentic (sahih) or sound (hasan) according to the rules and principles of hadith criticism. He deliberately excluded reports transmitted solely through obscure (majhul) or weak (da'if) narrators, arguing that sound reports provide complete sufficiency and that weak reports yield only rejected conjecture (al-zann al-marjuh), whether concerning physical postures (hay'at), invocations (adhkar), or virtues (fada'il).
The text serves as the unabridged source work (al-asl), offering detailed hadith extraction (takhrij), tracing textual variants (alfaz), transmission routes (turuq), and critically evaluating chains of transmission (asanid) and supporting corroborations (shawahid).
Relationship to Abridgments and Publication
Al-Albani frequently cited this expansive manuscript in his other works under names such as al-Kitab al-Asl or Asl Sifat al-Salah. Its core text and summary notes were published during his lifetime as Sifat Salat al-Nabi min al-Takbir ila al-Taslim Ka'annaka Taraha, which gained wide circulation and went through numerous editions. An even more concise summary, titled Talkhis Sifat Salat al-Nabi, was later prepared by the author at the suggestion of Zuhayr al-Shawish.
The unabridged Asl was published in three volumes totaling 1,217 pages in 1427 AH / 2006 CE by Maktabat al-Ma'arif in Riyadh, with the editors collating the author's original manuscript with the textual revisions and additions he had incorporated into later editions of the popular abridgment.
Answer updated