Numbers of the Prayers from the Qur’an

12 months ago
1 minute

One of our Imams, Imam al-Hadi Yahya bin al-Hussein (ʿalayhi al-salām), proved from the Qur’an that the prayers are five in his book al-Muntakhab.

The summary of his argument is thus:

Allah says:

“Preserve the prayers and the middle prayer” (Qur’an 2:238).

Imam al-Hadi (ʿalayhi al-salām) said that there cannot be a middle prayer unless there were five. This is because:

  • If there were only three prayers, it would not be grammatically correct to use the plural “prayers.”
  • If one omits the middle prayer from three prayers, that would leave only two — which is expressed in the dual tense in Arabic, not the plural.
  • The minimum number of odd prayers that could properly have a middle is five. If we omit the middle prayer from five, that leaves four — which is still plural in Arabic grammar.

May Allah bless Imam al-Hadi (ʿalayhi al-salām)!

How true is the mutawātir ḥadīth from the Prophet ﷺ:

“The two of them (i.e. the Qur’an and Ahlul Bayt) will not separate from each other until they reach the Fount of Kawthar.”