The Islamic Personality by Sheikh Taqīuddīn An-Nabahānī

Since the obligation of imitating the Messenger (SAW) is proven, and that the condition of the imitation is that the same like His action should be acted, then the ('ilm) knowledge of the direction (quality) of His action is one of the conditions for the carrying on. Therefore it is inevitable to know the ways by which the quality of His action can be known, in order that the action will be performed in accordance with the quality that He performed it as, i.e. waajib, mandoob, or mubaah. As for His action that is not a clarifier for a previous address, it is apparent that knowing the quality of the action is by knowing the selfsame action, if it is of that which one can get closer (to Allah Ta'ala) by performing it, then it is the mandoob, and if it is not of that which one can get closer by performing it, then it is the mubaah. As for His action which is a clarifier for a previous address, it is limited to the obligation (wujoob), preference (nadb), or the permissibility (ibaahah), so there are four ways to know the (direction) quality of His action: 1- The way that includes the three (directions/qualities). 2- The way of knowing the waajib.

3- The way of knowing the mandoob.

4- The way of knowing the mubaah.

1- The way that includes the three, it is of four things: one of them is by mentioning, i.e. the Prophet (SAW) mentions the obligation, the preference, or the permissibility of the action, i.e. by saying: this action is waajib, or mandoob, or mubaah.

The second thing is the equality: that is when the Prophet (SAW) equalizes an action to another action which has a known (direction) quality, by performing an action then saying: this action is like or equal to that so and so action which has a known quality, so that shows the quality of the action what ever it is. The third thing is: by knowing that His action is adherence to an Aayah that determines one of the three verdicts, like if it is known that a certain action was adherence to an Aayah which denotes the obligation as an example, so if He equalized it to another action, then it becomes known that it is waajib too, and the same would be said in the preference and the permissibility.

The forth thing is: by knowing that His action is a clarifier for a summed up (mujmal) Aayah which denotes one of the verdicts, so if it denotes the permissibility, or the preference, or the obligation of a summed up matter, then the Messenger (SAW) clarified it by His action, then His action would be mubaah, or mandoob, or fardh, because the clarifier is like the clarified matter, like the saying of Allah Ta'ala: .. {And do establish the prayer…) 43 Surat Al-Baqarah, He (SAW) said while performing it: Do pray as you see me praying" compiled by Al-Bukhari, and the same in the Hajj (manaasik) rituals…and so on. 2- The way of knowing the waajib, it is of three things: The first: the signs that show that the thing is waajib, like the azthaan (call to prayer) and the iqaamah (call to establish the prayer), they are signs for the obligation of the prayer.

The second: if the performance of the action being fulfillment of a vow (nazthr) He made, since fulfilling the nazthr is waajib, as if He says: if the enemy got defeated, then it is my duty to Allah Ta'ala that I fast tomorrow, then He fasted the morrow after the defeat, so that shows that it is waajib.

The third: being the action forbidden if it is not waajib, like the two extra ruku' (kneeling) in the eclipse prayer; that is because adding a practical pillar deliberately abolishes the prayer, so if they are not waajib they would have been forbidden. The second ruku' in the eclipse prayer is additional, and it abolishes the (normal) prayer, but being performed by the Messenger means it is fardh (in the eclipse prayer). The legitimacy of the second ruku' cannot be of the mandoob or the mubaah in this particular prayer, because the first ruku' is waajib; its repetition shows that the repeated one is waajib, since it is a repetition of a waajib, like the second sujood (prostration). As for the inattentiveness sujood (al-sahoo) and the recitation sujood (al-tilaawah) in the prayer and others, they are not repetition because the verbal daleel beside the action show that they are mandoob, so they have a daleel for the nadb (preference). And as for lifting up the hands successively in the feast ('eid) prayer, that is not adding a pillar deliberately, moreover, lifting up the hands is a movement and it does not abolish the prayer. Accordingly the action that denotes the obligation is an action that whish if it is not waajib; it would be forbidden, i.e. if it is not fardh; we would be ordered to abstain from it.

3- The way of knowing the mandoob is of two things: The first of them: is that the action has been performed with the intention of getting nearer to Allah Ta'ala, and it is abstracted from any additional indication to the origin of the nearness, i.e. it is abstracted from any indication that specifies the obligation or the permissibility, because the obligation is originally negated, and because it is for the nearness; it negates the permissibility, so the nadb (preference) gets determined. The second of them: if the action was performed as a making up (qadhaa') for a mandoob, then it will be mandoob too, since the making up resembles the original performance (adaa'). And it is not correct to say: if one slept the whole time; the adaa' (of the prayers) is not obligatory upon him with the obligation of the qadhaa', it should not be said so, because the adaa' in this situation became obligatory upon him by the occurrence of the cause (sabab) of the obligation in his right.

4- The way of knowing the mubaah is of two things:

The first: If the Messenger (SAW) continued to do an action then He quitted it without abrogation. His complete quitting of what He used to do continuously, it denotes the optional request, and this is the mubaah, so it is a daleel of the permissibility (ibaahah).

The second: If the Messenger performs an action which has no sign of any thing (direction or quality), and since the Messenger does not do a forbidden or hated (action), and since the obligation and the preferable are originally negated, so that action is mubaah.