Namazların Uyuma ve Unutma Dışında Sebeplerle Kazası Meselesi: Hendek Savaşı’ndaki Bir Uygulamanın Delâleti İle İlgili Değerlendirmeler
The Issue of Deliberately Abandoning of Prayers for Reasons Exclusive of Sleeping and Forgetting: Rewiewing the Evidence based on the Practice in the Battle of al-Khandaq

Summary/Abstract: The most widely explained worship in Islam is al-ṣalah/prayer. In the Qur'an and particularly in the hadiths, details about all the elements of this worship have been addressed. One of the issues mentioned relatedly prayer in these two sources is the element of time. The Prophet points out two excuses for performing prayers outside of their time; these are namely sleeping and forgetting. Accordingly, a person who does not perform a prayer due to sleep or forgetting should compensate it when he wakes up or remembers it. Note that both of these are unconscious states of human being. From this hadith, it can be understood that the religion does not accept any other excuses for performing prayers outside of the times appointed for them. Despite this clear and obvious approach, some legal scholars also discussed whether other excuses could be considered legitimate to deliberately abandoning prayers. According to some scholars, a person may even make up for prayers that he left out of laziness without any valid reason. Because human nature is prone to make mistakes. If attention is paid, there is a very significant difference between this last view and the hadiths confining the deliberately abandoning prayers only to sleep and forgetting problems. The most important ground of these scholars, who tend to expand the framework that allows for the making up of prayers, is the practice of the Messenger of Allah in the Battle of al-Khandaq. According to the narrations, while the war was going on, the Prophet performed some prayers outside their own times. Moreover, there is no indication of an armed and hot conflict between Muslims and polytheists at the time when the Prophet was praying in the narrations. Focused on this particular case, two interpretations can be made; the Prophet may have forgotten the prayer or only the prayers in question, or he may have deliberately left it for later due to the severity of the war. Before this practice of the Messenger of Allah can be considered evidence for the claim in question, the narration and its context must first be clarified. If we understand this particular case as it was forgotten, then we will be speaking of an involuntary application. Thus, his behavior will not be evidence for those who want to expand the framework of the excuses that may cause compensation of prayers. In other words, this action must have been performed consciously in order to be evidence for the claim in question. We have some indications that will pave to way to explore the reason of the Prophet's practice. Even if it is concluded that there is a conscious saving from these data, this time, a serious obstacle is encountered, such as fear prayer, which seems to emphasize the element of time. One of the aims of this article is primarily to determine the reason why the Prophet performed some prayers outside of their own times in the Battle of al-Khandaq. Then, this article elaborates the relationship between the fear prayer, which is described in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, for this determined reason. In this way, it is investigated whether it is a generally accepted rule to leave a prayer out of its time due to the fear of war or the enemy. The result of this investigation is very important; because there are some comparable grounds with the practice in the Battle of al-Khandaq. If this is accepted as a general rule, the framework of the issues that may cause a prayer to be left to accident can be expanded; excuses that can be considered force majeure and legitimate in terms of daily life can be added to the unconscious states of sleeping and forgetting- which are determined by religion. In this context, it can be said that it is of great importance to determine the historical sequence between the verses and hadiths that talk about the Battle of al-Khandaq and the fear prayer. Because, this finding is in a position to point to the result of the abolition of the previous provision. But there is also the possibility that the matter may go in the opposite direction. In other words, if the practice in the Battle of al-Khandaq took place after the data on the fear prayer were revealed, it would become important evidence in favor of the claim in question. To reveal this important evidence and shed light on the main issue, historical and hadith sources should have reviewed from various angles. Accordingly, it will be necessary to search for the answer whether during their journeys after the Battle of al-Khandaq and in particular during the war, the Prophet and his companions followed the rule related to the prayer of fear or opted to leave it to compensation. In this respect, the article aims to represent much smaller dimension of this broad framework, excluding the general aspects of the issue such as the accident of prayers, whether it is possible or not, and proofs. The article reaches a conclusion through the determination of this mentioned relationship, which has clues in various hadith, fiqh, history and commentary books.

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