Wednesday, 18 May 2016

Imaam Ahmad changed his opinion about the Qiraa’ah of Imaam Hamza and Kisaa’ee in the Salaah




Sulaymaan ar Ruhaylee

Translated by Umm ‘Abdir Rahmaan Tara Hashim 1437/2016

Reader: 
“Ahmad disliked the Qiraa’ah of Hamza and Kisaa’ee and the Idghaam al Kabeer of Abee Amr”

Explanation of Shaykh Sulaymaan:

“Yes, there is a narration from Imaam Ahmad that he disliked the Qiraa’ah of Hamza, Kisaa’ee and Abee Amr with the Idghaam al Kabeer. Why? They said this was due because of the emphasis on the extra elongation and the imaalah. The extra elongation could lead to an increase of the letters (of the Qur’aan) and imaalah could lead to a letter being dropped and a letter is a good deed and a good deed is increased to ten good deeds. So a person who prays could lose this great reward. So there is a narration of Imaam Ahmad that mentions him disliking these Qiraa’aat. Why? Because to him they were not authentic and trusted Qiraa’aat but the consequences of the extra madd would mean increasing a letter clearly. That is why it was disliked (makrooh) according to this narration. And I stress and repeat ‘according to this narration’. The imaalah causes a letter to be dropped or could lead to the dropping of a letter and the reward for this dropped letter would be lost. For these reasons it was disliked.
It has come from Imaam Ahmad that he changed his opinion on this and that is what is correct. He changed his opinion on the dislike of these Qiraa’aat and this is what is correct. Every Qiraa’ah that is authentic and not ‘odd’ is permissible for the one praying to recite without being disliked including these Qiraa’aat (Hamza, Kisaa’ee, Abee Amr). However, the Fuqahaa say that the Imaam should take into account the state of those he is leading and not put them to trial. I mean, my brothers, if the congregation are not familiar with a Qiraa’ah the Imaam should not read with that Qiraa’ah. For example, the Qiraa’ah of Warsh is not known to the common people here (in Saudi) so it is not correct for an Imaam to read Warsh. Yes the Salah would be valid if he read with it but it is not appropriate to read it so as not to put the people to trial. This Qiraa’ah would busy them in their salah from concentrating on their salaah. Or even one of the common people could remove the imaam from his position and become violent.
Likewise, the people of knowledge have warned that it is not appropriate to combine more than one Qiraa’ah in one salaah. Either within one rak’ah or across two raka’aat. Meaning, in one rak’ah he reads Qiraa’ah Hafs in the first aayah, then Warsh in the second aayah then Kisaa’ee in the third etc. Or Across two rak’aat for example he reads Qiraa’ah Hafs in the first rak’ah and Warsh in the second rak’ah. This does not mean that the salaah is invalid, I repeat, the prayer is valid as long as the Qiraa’ah is authentic. However, by way of preventing fitnah and not distracting the people while they are praying it is required that the Imaam seeks the means for humility in the prayer for himself and for the people. This is why.
Having said this, if a person were to lead students of knowledge and he read in one prayer according to the Qiraa’ah of Hafs and in another prayer with the Qiraa’ah of Warsh there is nothing wrong with this at all.”

Source in Arabic: Click Here (4:54)               

    تراجع الإمام أحمد عن كراهية القراءة حمزة والكسائي في الصلاة

Notes: 

Qiraa’ah : Method of Recitation. Each Qiraa’ah has its own special rules of recitation (tajweed) and is named after the reciter (Qaaree) who was famous for that method of recitation.

The Ten Authentic Qiraa’aat:

1.    Naafi’
2.    Ibn Katheer
3.    Aboo ‘Amr
4.    Ibn ‘Aamir
5.    ‘Aasim *
6.    Hamzah
7.    Al Kisaa’ee
8.    Aboo Ja’far
9.    Ya’qoob
10.  Khalaf


Tashdeed al Madd asshadeed: In the Qiraa’ah of Hamzah he lengthens the madd munfasil and madd muttasil 6 counts. (Qiraa’ah Hafs is 4 to 5 counts).

Imaalah: The sound which is between a straight alif and a straight yaa. It leans towards ya. (The Egyptian dialect is a very clear example of imaalah).

Idghaam al Kabeer: This is not to be confused with the idgham of noon saakinah which is taught according to Hafs ‘an ‘Aasim.
Idghaam al kabeer is according to another Qiraa’ah and it is the merging of two letters into one and the second letter becomes doubled. There are two types – small merging (the first of the two letters are vowelless) and big merging (the first of the two letters are vowelled).

The Rules of Idghaam al Kabeer in Qiraa'ah Hamzah