Salat al-Khawf

Salat al-Khawf: Mafhum, Samahah, Anwa‘, Kayfiyyah, wa-Ahkam fi Daw’ al-Kitab wa-al-Sunnah (The Fear Prayer: Concept, Leniency, Types, Modality, and Rulings in Light of the Quran and Sunnah) is a legal treatise on the fear prayer by Saeed bin Wahf al-Qahtani (d. 1440 AH / 2018 CE) Salat al-Khawf.

Composition and Purpose

The treatise was completed on Wednesday afternoon, 17 Muharram 1422 AH (11 April 2001 CE), as the thirty-fifth entry in the author’s published book series Salat al-Khawf. Al-Qahtani wrote the work as a concise manual examining the nature and regulations of salat al-khawf (the prayer performed under conditions of imminent danger or military combat), emphasizing the facilitation (taysir) and lifting of hardship (raf‘ al-haraj) embedded within Islamic legal injunctions Salat al-Khawf. In formulating and selecting legal positions throughout the treatise, he drew extensively upon the rulings and preferences of his teacher Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baz Salat al-Khawf.

Structure and Contents

The treatise begins with an introduction and is arranged into several thematic sections covering legal definitions, foundational scriptural evidence, modalities of performance, and special battlefield scenarios:

• Concept and Linguistic Foundations: Defining prayer (salah) linguistically as supplication and technically as a specific act of worship, alongside fear (khawf) as internal perturbation arising from expecting an impending harm or losing a cherished good Salat al-Khawf.
• Leniency and Removal of Hardship: Compiling Quranic passages and prophetic traditions demonstrating the principle of ease in religious duties, including verses establishing that hardship brings facilitation, as well as narrations illustrating the Companions' adherence to flexibility rather than rigidity Salat al-Khawf+1.
• Legal Legitimacy and Consensus: Grounding the validity of the fear prayer in the Quran ( وَإِذَا كُنتَ فِيهِمْ فَأَقَمْتَ لَهُمُ الصَّلاَةَ —"And when you are among them and lead them in prayer..." [An-Nisa: 102]), extensive hadith reports, and the consensus (ijma‘) of the Companions, who performed it after the Prophet’s death during events such as the Battle of Siffin and various campaigns under Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abu Hurayrah, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, Sa'id ibn al-'As, and Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman Salat al-Khawf. Al-Qahtani notes and rejects isolated views, such as the claim attributed to Abu Yusuf that the prayer was restricted to the lifetime of the Prophet, and the claim of abrogation raised by Isma'il ibn Yahya al-Muzani Salat al-Khawf.
• Forms and Modalities: Documenting multiple authentic methods established in the Sunnah, maintaining that all confirmed forms are permissible and may be chosen according to military necessity Salat al-Khawf:
  1. The method matching the Quran's text: As transmitted by Sahl ibn Abi Hathmah during the Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa‘, where the leader prays one unit (rak‘ah) with the first group while the second guards, the first finishes independently while he remains standing, and the second group joins him for his second unit Salat al-Khawf.
  2. Enemy in the direction of the Qiblah: As reported by Jabir ibn Abd Allah at Usfan, where both rows begin behind the imam, but only the front row prostrates with him while the rear row remains standing to guard, alternating positions for the second unit Salat al-Khawf+1.
  3. Sequential completion: As related by Abdullah ibn Umar, where the imam leads each detachment in one unit, issues the final salutation (taslim), and each group subsequently completes its missing unit Salat al-Khawf+1.
  4. Two separate prayers by the imam: Where the imam prays two full units with the first contingent, salutes, and then repeats two units with the second contingent, serving as a voluntary prayer for the imam and an obligatory one for the followers, as reported by Jabir and Abu Bakrah Salat al-Khawf+1.
  5. One unit per group without making up: As related from Abdullah ibn Abbas and Hudhayfah at Dhi Qarad Salat al-Khawf.
• Performance in Residence (al-Hadar): Establishing that when fear occurs without travel, the prayer is performed in full without reducing the total number of units (four units for four-unit prayers, and three for Maghrib), alternating groups across the units Salat al-Khawf.
• Intense Clashes and Hand-to-Hand Combat (al-Musayafah): Outlining procedures for combatants unable to form ranks, whether on foot or mounted, who pray individually by gesturing (i’ma’) for bowings and prostrations in whatever direction they face Salat al-Khawf. Al-Qahtani details a disagreement between scholars: the majority maintain that the prayer must not be delayed past its time even in fierce fighting, whereas another group—including Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari, Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i, Makhul al-Shami, and preferred by Ibn Baz and Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen—permits postponing the prayer until fighting eases if fighters are entirely incapable of comprehending or performing their prayer, citing the Companions’ delay of the Fajr prayer until after sunrise during the siege of Tustar Salat al-Khawf+1.