Fatwa ID: 04156

Answered by: Shaykh Umer Khan

Question

قال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ما أذن الله لعبد في شيء أفضل من ركعتين يصليهما وإن البر ليذر على رأس العبد ما دام في صلاته وما تقرب العباد إلى الله بمثل ما خرج منه

What is the explanation of this Hadith?

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

This Hadīth is from the Jāmiʻ of Imām Al-Tirmidhī (Hadīth 2911), under the chapter of the virtues of the Qur'ān. A rough translation is as follows:

The Prophet ﷺsaid: "Allāh does not listen to anything more virtuous from a worshipper than two rakʻahs (units) of prayer that he performs. Indeed, righteousness spreads over the head over the worshipper as long as he stays in his prayer. And the worshippers shall not draw nearer to Allāh with similar to what came from Him."

Regarding "what came from Him", Imām Al-Tirmidhī mentions that Abū Al-Naḍr said: "meaning the Qur'ān". The scholars have explained that the most virtuous of the acts of worship is the performance of prayer and that the best way to gain closeness to Allāh is through His words (i.e. the Qur'ān). They also explained that the "righteousness spreading over the head" is the mercy of Allāh and a reward from Him as a result of the piety of the worshipper in prayer. (Tuḥfatu al-Aḥwadhī, 8/184-185).

Only Allah knows best

Written by Shaykh Umer Khan

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham