Sifat Salat al-Nabi - al-Albani
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Ma'arif lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Sifat Salat al-Nabi min al-Takbir ila al-Taslim Ka'annaka Taraha (The Description of the Prophet's Prayer from the Opening Takbir to the Concluding Taslim as if You Saw It) is a legal and hadith treatise by the Syrian hadith scholar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani (d. 1420 AH / 1999 CE) detailing the step-by-step description of Islamic ritual prayer based on authentic prophetic traditions.
Purpose and Methodology
The work was composed to reconstruct the exact manner in which the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ performed the prayer, founded on the prophetic injunction: صَلُّوا كَمَا رَأيتمُوُني أُصَلِّي ("Pray as you have seen me pray"). In its preface, completed in Damascus in 1381 AH, al-Albani argued that every Muslim is obligated to follow the sound textual evidence directly rather than adhere blindly to any specific juridical school (taqlid).
The book traces the ritual prayer chronologically from its beginning to its end, covering acts such as facing the Ka'bah, the standing posture, the opening magnification (takbir), recitation, bowing (ruku'), prostration (sujud), sitting postures, the testimony (tashahhud), and the concluding salutation (taslim). Al-Albani derived each posture and supplication from verified narrations, providing critical evaluation of their chains of transmission (asand) and variant wordings.
Textual Versions and Editions
Al-Albani prepared three distinct versions of the work:
- Asl Sifat Salat al-Nabi (The Comprehensive Source): The unabridged original manuscript containing extensive hadith documentation (takhrij), detailed chains of transmission, textual variants, and attesting reports (shawahid). It was published posthumously by Maktabat al-Ma'arif in Riyadh in three volumes (1,217 pages) in 1427 AH / 2006 CE.
- Sifat Salat al-Nabi (The Standard Text): The intermediate, widely circulated version containing the main text alongside concise legal commentary and source citations, published by Maktabat al-Ma'arif in a single volume (225 pages).
- Talkhis Sifat Salat al-Nabi (The Abridgment): A concise manual created at the suggestion of publisher Zuhayr al-Shawish to make the prayer's description accessible to general readers without complex hadith citations, personal opinions, or analogical reasoning (qiyas). A 38-page edition was published by Maktabat al-Ma'arif in 1421 AH / 2000 CE.
Reception and Critique
The treatise gained wide reception across the contemporary Muslim world and is frequently cited in modern legal rulings as one of the prominent references on the subject. It also generated critical responses from opposing scholars; notably, Hasan ibn Ali al-Saqqaf authored Sahih Sifat Salat al-Nabi as a direct counter to al-Albani's methodology and legal conclusions.
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