Zaid Ibn Wahb related that Hudhaifah [RA] once saw a man [doing salaah] performing his ruku' and sujud so fast. He [Hudhaifah RA] said to him,
'You have not performed salaah, and if you died on such a state, you would die on a state opposite to the pure Fitrah with which Allaah sent Muhammad. [Bukhaari]
This 'Athar indicates the obligation of being in a state of ease in both ruku' and sujud, the lack of which renders one's salaah invalid.
This event resembles that which happened at the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be on him) and was related by Abu Hurairah (RA); he said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be on him) entered the mosque and then a man followed him and performed salaah. Having done the salaah, the man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be on him) and greeted him.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be on him) returned the greeting and said,
'Go back and perform salaah again, for indeed you have not performed salaah [in the correct manner)'. He said this three times [after each of which the man repeated his salaah in the same manner he did before]. The man then said: 'By him who sent you with the Truth, I can't do better than that. Teach me [how to perform Salaah properly).
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be on him) then said:
‘When you want to perform salaah, do wudul' perfectly, then stand to the direction of the qiblah and recite takbeer. Then recite from the Our'aan that which is easy for you. Then do ruku' till you achieve quiescence in it, then rise from it completely, then kneel down and do sujud till you feel calm, then rise from it till you sit completely, then do another sujud till you feel calm. Follow these steps in all your salaah '.[Bukhari]
This hadeeth indicates the Obligation of being at ease in Salaah; whoever is not, has indeed failed to apply the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allaah be on him) order and salaah remains as a debt on his account. Pay heed to the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allaah be on him) order to be at ease in ruku' and when rising from it. It is not enough just to raise oneself from ruku' but to stand completely afterwards. Unfortunately, many Muslims fall in this mistake especially when doing supererogatory salaah. Regarding this, AI-Qurtubee said:
'A Muslim should perform his salaah properly and perfectly be it an obligatory or optional one.
The optional salaah would be an extra good deed that brings a Muslim nearer to Allaah as is narrated in the Qudsee hadeeth that states:
'My slave keeps coming nearer to Me by doing optional acts of worship till I love him ...'.
The obligation of being in a state of ease in salaah applies also to the optional salaah especially when it is needed to compensate for the defects found in the obligatory one. Those who fail to perform the obligatory salaah properly, would surely fail to perform the optional one properly too. Unfortunately, many people even those well known by their performance of supererogatory acts of worship- fail to perform the optional salaah properly due to their ignorance of its importance as if it is not of the acts for doing which one gains rewards!!
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited