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Tashahhud

From Imam Khomeini Wiki

Tashahhud, meaning bearing witness to the oneness of God and the mission of His Messenger. This testimony in prayer is considered a kind of renewal of faith and a review of monotheistic beliefs.

Importance and Position of Tashahhud

Tashahhud in religious and mystical terminology means bearing witness to the oneness of the Almighty and the mission of the Messenger, the Prophet (s).[1] People of gnosis, considering the hadiths transmitted regarding tashahhud in prayer, have addressed the position of tashahhud, its types, and its relationship with wilaya.[2] Imam Khomeini, also, paying attention to some hadiths, has discussed tashahhud, its position in prayer, its reality, and its relationship with wilaya.[3]

Reality of Tashahhud

In the view of the people of gnosis, the reality of tashahhud is precisely the presence before the Lord; because in the station of tashahhud, the wayfarer is liberated from multiplicity and plenteousness and attains unity. The praying person in the state of tashahhud is a witness to the Truth and is immersed in Him; hence, in tashahhud, neither does multiplicity become a veil for unity, nor does unity become a veil for multiplicity; therefore, he testifies and bears witness to the oneness of God and that all names belong to Him, and no one is His partner in them.[4] In tashahhud, the praying person testifies to the oneness and uniqueness of the Almighty Lord and negates any kind of polytheism from the Almighty God. Also, in tashahhud, he testifies and bears witness to the Messenger of God being a servant and bondsman. In fact, these acknowledgments and testimonies are considered a kind of renewal of faith and a review of pure monotheistic beliefs.[5]

Imam Khomeini also considers the reality of tashahhud to be the exit from annihilation to subsistence (baqa') and from unity to multiplicity, and believes that the wayfaring praying person must know that the reality of prayer is the attainment of true monotheism and testifying to the oneness of the Almighty, which flows throughout the prayer, and this is the very secret of the "firstness" (awwaliyyat) and "lastness" (akhiriyyat) of the Almighty, a secret which is the journey from God and to God; hence, the heart of the wayfarer in this divine journey must have its testimony be true and purified from hypocrisy and polytheism.[6]

Imam Khomeini, in expressing the difference between the testimony at the beginning of the prayer and the testimony at the end of the prayer, believes that the testimony at the beginning of the prayer and before wayfaring is a devotional or intellectual testimony, and the wayfarer is still in the creational determinations (ta'ayyunat-i khalqi); but the testimony at the end of the prayer, meaning tashahhud, is the end of wayfaring and passing the creational determinations and reaching the station of truth (maqam-i haqqi) and returning from unity to multiplicity, such that this kind of testimony is a true and empowering testimony.[7]

Tashahhud and the Issue of Wilaya

In tashahhud, the praying person testifies and bears witness to the Messenger of God being a servant and bondsman, and the obligatory salawat that is sent in the tashahhud of the prayer upon the Holy Prophet (s) and the Family of Infallibility and Purity (a) has been legislated and established by the divine order and command, which points to the deep connection and relationship between testifying to the oneness and uniqueness of God in prayer with the issue of wilaya.[8]

Imam Khomeini, also in expressing the relationship of tashahhud with wilaya, believes that the wayfarer, during tashahhud to the mission and servitude of the Prophet (s), seeks assistance and seeks intercession from the mission of the Holy Prophet and the station of wilaya of the Infallible Imams, and the secret of the manifestation of "firstness" and "lastness," which is from the stations of wilaya, becomes known to him; because knowing the sanctity of the Holy Prophet (s) and his progeny is important, and the wayfarer must make his heart understand that if it were not for the complete Muhammadan unveiling (kashf-i tamm-i Muhammadi), no one would have had a way to the servitude of the Truth and reaching the station of proximity and the ascension of knowledge, because the Prophet and the Infallible Imams are the full-view mirrors of the essential, attributive, and active manifestation of the Almighty.[9]

Tashahhud Tashahhud in jurisprudential terminology is that the praying person, in the second rak'at of all obligatory prayers, the third rak'at of the Maghrib prayer, and the fourth rak'at of the Zuhr, Asr, and Isha prayers, after the second prostration, while seated and in a state of body tranquility, recites a specific dhikr.[10] Tashahhud is obligatory, but it is not a pillar (rukn), meaning that only in the case of intentional abandonment is the prayer invalidated, and in case of a mistake, the prayer is not invalidated.[11] The dhikr of tashahhud is also obligatory, and it is to say: "Ashhadu an la ilaha illa llah, wahdahu la sharika lah, wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh. Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammadin wa ali Muhammad."[12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Gawharīn, Sharḥ-i iṣṭilāḥāt-i taṣawwuf, 7/47; Hujwīrī, Kashf al-maḥjūb, 378; Nasafī, Irshād dar maʿrifat, 192; Maybudī, Kashf al-asrār wa ʿuddat al-abrār, 10/575.
  2. ↑ Maybudī, Kashf al-asrār wa ʿuddat al-abrār, 10/575; Nasafī, Irshād dar maʿrifat, 192; Al-Ṣadūq, ʿIlal al-sharāyiʿ, 2/316; Malikī Tabrīzī, Asrār al-ṣalāt, 362-376; Hujwīrī, Kashf al-maḥjūb, 378; Qummī, Asrār al-ʿibādāt wa ḥaqīqat al-ṣalāt, 181; Narāqī, Miʿrāj al-saʿāda, 863; Shīrāzī, Manāhij anwār al-maʿrifa fī sharḥ Miṣbāḥ al-sharīʿa, 1/375.
  3. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Ādāb al-ṣalāt, 363; Sirr al-ṣalāt, 108-112.
  4. ↑ Al-Qushayrī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt, 1/227; Qummī, Asrār al-ʿibāda wa ḥaqīqat al-ṣalāt, 112-113; Kāshānī, Majmūʿa-yi rasāʾil wa muṣannafāt, 442.
  5. ↑ Gawharīn, Sharḥ-i iṣṭilāḥāt-i taṣawwuf, 7/47-48; Samandarī, Asrār al-ṣalāt, 175; Yazdānpināh, Āyīn-i bandagī, 450-451; Shīrāzī, Manāhij anwār al-maʿrifa fī sharḥ Miṣbāḥ al-sharīʿa, 1/375.
  6. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Ādāb al-ṣalāt, 362-363; Sirr al-ṣalāt, 108-109.
  7. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Ādāb al-ṣalāt, 363.
  8. ↑ Farghānī, Mashāriq al-darārī, 90; Yazdānpināh, Āyīn-i bandagī, 517-518.
  9. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Ādāb al-ṣalāt, 363; Sirr al-ṣalāt, 111-112.
  10. ↑ Al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, al-Mabsūṭ fī fiqh al-Imāmiyya, 1/115; Al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī, Tadhkirat al-fuqahāʾ, 3/227; Imām Khumaynī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, 1/188; Risāla-yi tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil, 171.
  11. ↑ Al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, al-Mabsūṭ fī fiqh al-Imāmiyya, 1/115; Al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī, Tadhkirat al-fuqahāʾ, 3/227; Imām Khumaynī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, 1/188; Risāla-yi tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil, 171.
  12. ↑ Al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, al-Mabsūṭ fī fiqh al-Imāmiyya, 1/115; Al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī, Tadhkirat al-fuqahāʾ, 3/227; Imām Khumaynī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, 1/188; Risāla-yi tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil, 171.

References

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