Was Rafa Yadain really abolished?🤔
﷽
إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلاَ مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَلاَ هَادِيَ إِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ وَأَحْسَنَ الْهَدْىِ هَدْىُ مُحَمَّدٍ وَشَرَّ الأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلاَلَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلاَلَةٍ فِي النَّارِ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لاَ شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمَّا بَعْدُ
Praise be to Allah, we seek His help. Whomsoever Allah guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever Allah leaves astray, no one can guide. The truest of word is the Book of Allah and best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. The worst of things are those that are newly invented; every newly-invented thing is an innovation and every innovation is going astray, and every going astray is in the Fire. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah (alone with no partners) and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. To proceed
(this is how Prophet SAW used to start his speech Nisai 3278, Nisai 1578)
رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي ﴿٢٥﴾ وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي ﴿٢٦﴾ وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِّن لِّسَانِي ﴿٢٧﴾ يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي ﴿٢٨﴾(Taha)
My Lord, open up my heart [with assurance] And ease for me my task And untie the knot from my tongue That they may understand my speech.[20:25-28] Ameen
Note: Before diving into it, this topic is not as important as Tauheed and other beliefs, for example if a person is an Ahmadi/ Qadyani and he do or don't do Rafa Yadain that is not important and that won't benefit him in any way because his beliefs are corrupted.
Rafa Yadain, the meaning of this word is, Rafa means to raise and Yadain is plural of Yad means hands, so it means to raise hands. The intention behind it is that you are giving up your will in front of the will of Allah, *Hands up*. Now doing Rafa Yadain in Salah has been a conflict in Subcontinent for a long time. I will try to share the research that I have done on this topic in light of Sahih Ahadith and the comments of Muhaditeen on it and let you guys decide the outcome of it.
First thing first, the very first Rafa Yadain which is done to enter the Salah which is done with Takbeer e Tehreema, it is the ijma/ consensus of Ummah that it needs to be done so, that is out of the way and the Rafa Yadain which is done in Eid prayer along with extra takbirs, it is also done by almost the whole ummah. Next comes the Rafa Yadain in Funeral prayer with extra takbirs now there is a conflict in it, some do and some don't. Then the Rafa Yadain in witr prayer before reciting dua e qunoot again some do and some don't. The biggest bone of contention Rafa Yadain or the big boss of Rafa Yadain on which there is conflict is the one which is done before going into Ruku, getting up from Ruku and in start of third or odd rakah.
So, first I would present the hadith which points out that Rafa Yadain should be done, then I will present some of the objections that people make.
Ahadith on Rafa Yadain:
Narrated Malik:
We came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and stayed with him for twenty days and nights. We were all young and of about the same age. The Prophet (ﷺ) was very kind and merciful. When he realized our longing for our families, he asked about our homes and the people there and we told him. Then he asked us to go back to our families and stay with them and teach them (the religion) and to order them to do good things. He also mentioned some other things which I have (remembered or [??] ) forgotten. The Prophet (ﷺ) then added, "Pray as you have seen me praying and when it is the time for the prayer one of you should pronounce the Adhan and the oldest of you should lead the prayer.
[Sahih Bukhari 631]
the Prophet S.A.W.W said صَلُّوا كَمَا رَأَيْتُمُونِي أُصَلِّي (Pray as you have seen me praying). It means that a muslim cannot pray as he wishes, he should pray the way the Prophet S.A.W.W has prayed. The same Companion Malik bin Hawaraith R.A prayed in front of a Tabii, Abu Qilabah.
Narrated Abu Qilaba:
I saw Malik bin Huwairith saying Takbir and raising both his hands (on starting the prayers and raising his hands on bowing and also on raising his head after bowing. Malik bin Huwairith said, "Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) did the same."
[Sahih Bukhari 737]
Similarly, there are Ahadith from Ibn Umar R.A and Mawla Ali R.A and many other companions
Narrated Salim bin `Abdullah (grandson of Umar Farooq R.A):
My father said, "Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) used to raise both his hands up to the level of his shoulders when opening the prayer; and on saying the Takbir for bowing. And on raising his head from bowing he used to do the same and then say "Sami`a l-lahu liman hamidah, Rabbana wa laka l-hamd." And he did not do that (i.e. raising his hands) in prostrations.
[Sahih Bukhari 735]
In another narration it is added that
" ..and he used to do the same on rising from the second rak`a (for the 3rd rak`a). Ibn `Umar said: "The Prophet (ﷺ) used to do the same."
[Sahih Bukhari 739] [Sunan Nasai 1182] (Sahih Darussalam)
It was narrated that ‘Ali bin Abu Talib said:
“When the Prophet (ﷺ) stood up to offer a prescribed prayer, he said Allahu Akbar and raised his hands until they were parallel to his shoulders. When he wanted to bow he did likewise; when he raised his head from bowing he did likewise; and when he stood up after the two prostrations he did likewise.”* (It means after two Rakah)
[Ibn Majah 864] (Hasan Darussalam)
I think these are enough to point out that Prophet S.A.W.W taught his companions to do Rafa Yadain.
Objection against Rafa Yadain:
Now let's talk about some objections that people or Ulama make.
- People say that it was done because the Munafiqeen (Hypocrites) used to hide idols in their armpits while praying
- First thing you should ask is, in which Hadith is this mentioned.
- Secondly, if there is no such hadith which points to it then answer this, do you genuinely believe that some munafiq would have the courage to do such a thing in the same masjid where Omar Farooq R.A, Mawla Ali R.A and Ameer Hamza R.A used to pray.
- Thirdly, what about the first Rafa Yadain, doing that first one should also drop the idol right?
- In addition to the above argument people also say that Rafa Yadain was done before Hijrat e Madinah.
- Firstly again, in which Hadith is this mentioned
- Secondly, the Hadith which I mentioned above [Sahih Bukhari 631]. The companion who is narrating this hadith Malik bin Hawarith R.A, he became Muslim after Gazwa Hunain around 8 or 9 H and Hijrat e Madinah happened in 1 H. On top of that he is teaching a Tabii [Sahih Bukhari 737], it means it's after the death of Prophet S.A.W.W. Why would he teach something which was canceled? (Wail bin Hijr R.A, another companion of Prophet, also became a Muslim after Conquest of Makkah he has also narrated the hadith of Rafa Yadain [Sahih Muslim 401 or 896])
- Thirdly, there were no Munafiqeen in Makkan period because it was a time of hardship, Muslims were beaten, they were taken as prisoner and all so
- Some ulama, say that the Prophet S.A.W.W forbade this act by saying
How is it that I see you lifting your hands like the tails of headstrong horses? Be calm in prayer. [Sahih Muslim 430 or 968]
- Firstly, if you are an alim then you should know that in Sahih Muslim when there is a hadith mentioned, all it's narration are mentioned along with it, as some narration may have some extra words which clarifies the context of it, which means that it is the same hadith with different version of narration from different narrators.
- Secondly, the heading which Imam Nabwi has written above this hadith is also important
- Thirdly, the very next hadith explains that the Prophet S.A.W.W was not referring to Rafa Yadain when he said that,
Jabir b. Samura reported:
When we said prayer with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), we pronounced: Peace be upon you and Mercy of Allah, peace be upon you and Mercy of Allah, and made gesture with the hand on both the sides. Upon this the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him said: What do you point out with your hands as if they are the tails of headstrong horses? This is enough for you that one should place one's hand on one's thigh and then pronounce salutation upon one's brother on the right side and then on the left.
[Sahih Muslim 431 or 970]
- Lastly, I would add that the Prophet S.A.W.W wouldn't discard his own Sunnah with such harsh words.
Alqamah narrated that :Abdullah bin Mas'ud said: "Shall I not demonstrate the Salat of Allah's Messenger to you?" Then he offered Salat and he did not raise his hands except while saying the first Takbir."
- Now that is a solid evidence you may think, I would ask you guys to go to these hadith and check it's status as well.
- Secondly, Imam Tirmidhi before adding this hadith in his collection, he added the comments of different Sahaba, Tabieen and Muhaditeen who did Rafa Yadain, he also added the comments or I would say the verdict of Abdullah bin Mubarak R.Alai who is a student of Imam Abu Haneefa R.Alai on it, which is [Jami Tirmidhi 256]. If you open this link in English version it has only one line but if you see the Arabic, it is a big paragraph and I would say that the English translator tried to hide the truth Wallahu Alam. If you open this hadith in Islam 360 you can read it there I will attach the image of it below it is in urdu.
Abdullah ibn Mubarak said that those who do Rafa Yadain their Hadith is valid and then on authority of Imam Zuhri (teacher of Bukhari) said that the hadith of Abdullah ibn Masood R.A on single Rafa Yadain is invalid/ not proven.
- Lastly, I would say that when studying a hadith, if some act was done before and later on it was canceled then it is mentioned explicitly, like in this Hadith [Abu Daud 747]. It won't be considered cancelled if it is not mentioned explicitly in any hadith.
In the end I would say few things:
- Imam Bukhari wrote a whole book of Hadith known as Juz Rafa Yadain and in it there is a hadith that Ibn Umar R.A used to throw rocks at a person who due to laziness would abandon Rafa Yadain (the problem with English is most of the literature is not found in english it is mostly in Urdu or Arabic)
- Abdullah bin Mubarak R.Alai student of Imam Nouman a.k.a Imam Abu Hanefa R.Alai, there is a conversation among them regarding Rafa Yadain, Abdullah bin Mubarak did Rafa Yadain and Imam Abu Hanefa said that I was worried that you are gonna fly, when you did Rafa Yadain, Abdullah bin Mubarak said that as I didn't fly on the first one, so I won't fly on the others as well. It is also found in Juz Rafa Yadain and Sunan Kubra Al Bayhaqi and other books, you can see the image below
- Lastly, in Sunan Dar qutni, Imam Dar qutni said that my teacher Abu Jaafar Ahmad bin Ishaq used to dictate us that I was also on the same deen as of Imam Abu Haneefa but then I saw Prophet S.A.W.W in my dream and he was praying with Rafa Yadain so I started doing Rafa Yadian.
- Sunan Dar Qutni 1110 or 1125
Sunan Dar Qutni 1125
Lastly, I would say that Abdul Qadir Jilani R.Alai a.k.a by Brailvi brothers as Ghous Pak. In his book Gunia tut Talibeen, he also mentions Rafa yadain in his prayer
 |
| Gunia tut talibeen by Abdul Qadir Jilani. Page 40 |
Lastly, I would like to mention the Sahih ul isnad Ahadith which Rafa Yadain was instructed.
Sahih Bukhari 735-739
Muslim 390, 391
Nasai 877,878,879,881,1024
Abi Dawud 721,722,729,744,761
Ibn Majah 858,859,862,863
Tirmidhi 255, 304
etc
Don't divide yourself into sects follow Quran and Sunnah.
O Allah! Enable us to see the Truth as Truth and give us the ability to follow it. And show us the falsehood as false and give us the ability to refrain from it. Ameen
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