The Station of Adab (Etiquette) – 1

Dr Ovamir Anjum (Al;-Jummah.com)
Translations from Ibn Al-Qayyim’s Madarij Al-Salikin (Steps of the Seekers) |
The Author Of Al-Manâzil states:
Al-Adab is to be wary of the extremities of exaggeration (ghuluww) and neglect (jafâ’), realizing the harm of transgression.
This is one of the best definitions, for transgressing to either extremity is lack of adab. Al-Adab is to stand in between the two extremities, neither falling short of observing the limits of the Shariʿah to perfection, nor transgressing what have been their limits, for both acts are transgression and Allah loves not the transgressors [Sûrat Al-Baqarah, 2:190]. Hence, transgression is nothing but bad adab.
One of the salaf has said:
The religion of Allah is midway between the one who exaggerates in it and the one who neglects it.
The loss of adab by neglect is exemplified by someone who does not completely wash the limbs in ablution and fails to offer ṣalawât with the etiquette that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has established and practiced. The behaviors of this etiquette number to nearly a hundred, including obligatory and recommended elements.
The loss of adab by exaggeration may be exemplified by obsessive doubt about whether one did proper intention (nyya), or raising one’s voice in doing it, or raising one’s voice in supplications and ṣalawât that have been legislated to be said silently, or prolonging what the Sunnah requires to be short or omitted, such as the first tashahhud and salâm, which it is Sunnah to omit, or to prolong this over and against the practice of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
It is not wrong to] prolong it compared to what the salah thieves nowadays do, those who peck –like birds in sujud, instead of praying with tranquility and presence. [The reference is to the aḥâdîth where the Prophet ﷺ likens those who pray hastily to “the worst kind of thieves,” in Al-Mustadrak, Musnad, and elsewhere, and “peckers” in Bukhâri 757, 793; Muslim 397, and others].
The Prophet ﷺ did not command a thing and then oppose it. Allah protected him from such conduct –contrary to what many people who make their ṣalawât extremely short think. [It was not the Prophet’s ṣalawât that were too long ﷺ but rather such people’s ṣalawât that are too brief]. He would command them to be light in their ṣalawât.
And, by way of exemplifying what “light” means here, he himself used to lead them with Sûrat Al-Ṣâffât –which takes about 15-20 minutes to recite. Again, he would command them to be light in their ṣalawât and pray Ṣalât Al-Zuhr in such a way that one could go to Al-Baqîʿ [the Muslim cemetery about half a kilometer (or a third of mile) from Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi] to [pay respects] to his family, complete ablution, and return to join the Prophet still in the first cycle (rakʿah) of the prayer. This is the lightening of salah that he commanded as opposed to ‘stealing’ and ‘pecking’ [by making the ṣalawât extremely short, as people nowadays do], for the latter amounts to stopping short of actually praying, and being content with its name [i.e., calling it Prayer].
Someone who is really hungry would never stop at one or two bites, for this would do him little good. Only someone who eats for formality will take a couple bites and be content. But if one is truly hungry, one does not stop eating until one has eaten enough, if he can. But alas! The hearts of people are now already filled with other things, and there is little hunger for the Prayer.