Nawawi on making up missed prayers: scholarly consensus

Nawawi on making up missed prayers: scholarly consensus

Imam Nawawi stated in his al-Majmu` Sharh al-Muhadhdhab (3.86):

“There is consensus (ijma`) of the scholars whose opinion counts that whoever leaves a prayer intentionally must make it up. Abu Muhammad Ali Ibn Hazm differed with them on this, saying that such an individual cannot ever make them up and it is not at all valid to make them up. Rather, he said, one must do much good works and voluntary prayer in order that one’s scales be heavied on the day of judgement and one must seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent. This position of his, along with being in opposition to scholarly consensus (ijma`), is invalid in terms of the proof…

Among the proofs for the obligation to makeup is… that if makeup prayers are obligatory for the one who left the prayer forgetfully, then doing so for the one who left the prayer deliberately is more obviously incumbent.”

Imam Nawawi is referring here to the hadith related by Anas that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,

“Whoever forgets a prayer must perform it when they remember it…” [Bukhari (597), and Muslim (684)]

After Imam Nawawi’s time, the aberrant position of Ibn Hazm was embraced by Ibn Taymiyya and his loyal student, Ibn Qayyim, and soundly rejected by the scholars in their time and after.

In our times, this aberrant (shadhdh) opinion has been adopted by some modernists, but it remains invalid to follow.

Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani.

Faraz: The following is taken from the Hanbali fiqh list:

Bismillahi Al-Rahmani Al-Rahim

Missed Prayers & Ibn Taymiyyah

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Q Bismillah Wassalamu Alykum,

I'd like to know what the hanbali position is on missed prayers. I know that the hanafis, shafi'is and malikis say one has to make up all missed prayers. I HEARD that the hanbalis say one doesn't have to as long as tawba was done. Is that true? In either case, can you please offer daleel as to the how or why the madhab came to it's position?

Another question, a bit off topic, the previous question is more important though.

Do hanbalis take rulings from Ibn Taymiyyah? What about Ibn Qayyim? Was Ibn Qayyim as controversial as his teacher, Ibn Taymiyyah? Why do "salafies" use Ibn Qayyim as an example for not following a madhab when he was hanbali?

Jazakum Allah khayran _________________

A wa `alaykum al-salam

In sha Allah I will give a few quick notes here, and within a few days will write something longer concerning the issue of making up missed prayers. It is an issue that keeps coming up, so it is only fair that someone does a proper job at it.

The official position of great scholars such as Al-Khirqi, Ibn Al-Jawzi, Ibn Qudamah, `Ali Al-Mardawi, Al-Hijjawi, Al-Buhuti, Mar`i bin Yusuf, Al-Ba`li, and others (Allah have mercy upon them all) is that missed prayers must be made up, and that they must be made up in order unless it has been forgotten or the present prayer's time becomes constricted.

Ibn Taymiyyah and a few early scholars (Allah have mercy upon them all) were of the opinion that missed prayers do not need to be made up, since the person has become an apostate by intentionally missing the prayer and just as a kafir is not required to make up prayers when he enters Islam, neither is an apostate. I have yet to see something convincing that shows that this was ever used as the official position in the madhhab at any time, rather it seems to be a personal opinion that some scholars held.

We can see that the vast majority of Hanbali scholars, both pre-Ibn Taymiyyah and post-Ibn Taymiyyah, rejected this position. How, then, can someone follow it and claim to be following the Hanbali madhhab? The people after Ibn Taymiyyah who rejected it (Allah have mercy upon him and them) were not against Ibn Taymiyyah, rather they had a great deal of respect for him. But they were first and foremost Hanbalis, and so when they weighed his opinion against the principles of the school they rejected it.

In sha Allah I will look into this issue in depth.

And Allah knows best.

The Hanbalis in the next few generations after Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim Al-Jarwizzah (Allah have mercy upon them all) took the opinions of these two scholars and they reconciled them (for want of a better term) with the madhhab, weighing which opinion was strongest with respect to the foundations and principles of the school. Sometimes the position they took was taken, and sometimes it was not. Ibn Qayyim (Allah have mercy upon him) is just as controversial as his teacher, if not more so since he was the one who recorded and systematized Ibn Taymiyyah's ideas. And whether or not people want to admit it, these two controversial figures did have an influence on Islam that will always be with us; some of the influences were good, and some of them bad.

And Allah knows best.

As for why the Salafis like Ibn Qayyim (Allah have mercy upon him), it is probably because he is a scholar that the people they do not like (the vast majority of the scholars of Ahl Al-Sunnah) have virtually left these two scholars alone and have said many negative things about them--some justified, some perhaps not. But you should be aware that what the Salafis relate from these two people is not always complete. Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim (Allah have mercy upon them both) were two of the great supporters of taswwuf, something that very few Salafis seem comfortable with.

Also, Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim (Allah have mercy upon them both) saw themselves as reformers, which is something the Salafis like to position themselves as.

And Allah knows best.

wa al-salamu `alaykum --musa