بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The Issue of 80 Duroods After Asr on Fridays Explained from

Al-Qawlul Badee of Hafidh Sakhawi

Introduction:

Recently, there is a lot of discussion surrounding the following narration which the great muhaddith and sage, Hazrat Shaikh Maulana Muhammad Zakariyah Kandhalvi placed in his “Fadhaail Durood”.

“Whoever remains seated in his place after the ‘Asr salah on a Friday and recites:

[اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدِنِ النَّبِيِّ الْأُمِّيِّ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَسَلِّمْ تَسْلِيْمًا],

will have 80 years of sins forgiven, and 80 years of worship recorded for him”

It should be borne in mind that Hazrat Shaikh was a critical research scholar and never mentioned anything without first having a reference. Most of what he has written concerning this narration was taken from the khalifah of the Hafidh of the Dunyaa, Allamah Ibn Harj Asqalani, Hafidh Shamsud Deen Sakhaawi. Hafidh Sakhaawi has a beautiful book on Salaat was Salaam (Durood) called “Al-Qawlul Badee’ fis Salaat alal Habibi-sh-Shafee’”. This was one of Hazrat Shaikh’s main reference on this issue. He also used Allamah Zabidi’s amazing commentary on Ghazali’s ‘Ihyaa’, named ‘Ithaafus Saadatil Muttaqeen’ and Imam Suyuti’s ‘Jame’us Saghir’ as references. I decided to translate the referenced passage from “Al-Qawlul Badee’” and explain it in a manner that would remove the confusion surrounding it. It will also remove any blame from this great luminary. If anyone was to point fingers at Hazrat Shaikh on this issue, he would actually be speaking ill of Hafidh Sakhaawi, Imam Suyuti, Allamah Zabidi and others who were all experts of grading ahadith. After translating it, I decided to refer to Hazrat Shaikhs’ “Fadhail Durood” to refresh what he had written on the issue. Low and behold, the most beautiful summary, which anyone could ask for, was penned a few decades ago by the muhaddith of his era, Hazrat Shaikh.

Growing up as a child, we constantly heard this book being read out in our local masajid after the Fardh Salah. From it, we learnt many ahadith which encouraged us to do good deeds. No one can deny the success of this book, in its intended purpose, from the day it was written until present time. The objective with which it was written is to encourage the Ummah into doing good deeds. The name “Fadhaail –ul- A’amaal” (Virtues of Good Deed) says it all.

Nevertheless, if one re-reads “Fadhaail A’maal” after studying the major books of hadith, its commentaries and the principles of grading hadith he would be amazed and dumbfounded at Hazrat Shaikh’s prowess in grading hadith and reconciling between the seemingly contradictory narrations. Did we really appreciate these discussions when we used to listen to it before studying these sciences in depth? The Arabic proverb says, “Only a person of virtue can recognise virtue”, and we have only scratched the surface. What is the light of a candle in comparison to the mid-day sun, shining bright? We have reproduced Hazrat Shaikh’s summary here.

In anyhttp://www.fiqhulislam.co/archives/5942https://fiqhulislam.com/80-duroods-on-fridays-by-hazrat-shaikh/ case, we will explain Hafidh Sakhawi’s passage from another angle. We will sift through the narrations and point out which ones have a chain, which don’t, which ones were graded by the muhaddithun and what was the grade. Hopefully this will remove the confusion surrounding the issue.  وبالله التوفيق

Note: The translation of Hafidh Sakhawi’s actual words are highlighted in blue; our explanation is in black. Reading only the blue text, one will cover two full pages (four sides) of Hafidh Sakhawi’s “Al-Qawlul Badee”.

The discussion will cover nine (9) narrations, they are labelled by letters [A-I], between brackets [], for easier reference. We have divided the article in a few pages, some shorter than others, for easy reading. The conclusion of the article is on page 10, while a summary of it is on page 11.