The First and Final Tashahhud, and Lengthening the First التشهد الأول والأخير وإطالة الأول

Questioner: May Allah be good to you — is there a distinction between the first sitting in the tashahhud and the last in the wording?

No, there is no distinction, because if I mean, with regard to special cases, the first tashahhud will be present in the [final] tashahhud. (audio unclear) the length, the sitting, and the posture — yes, there is a distinction.

The first tashahhud, according to the correct view, ends with your saying: "And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger" — the first tashahhud — because of the hadith of Abu 'Ubaydah from his father. This hadith is interrupted (munqati'): Abu 'Ubaydah did not hear from his father. It is in al-Tirmidhi. But Imam Ya'qub ibn Sufyan, 'Ali ibn al-Madini, al-Daraqutni, and other hadith masters mentioned that the people of hadith permitted including the narrations of Abu 'Ubaydah from his father in the connected [narrations], because of Abu 'Ubaydah's knowledge of his father's hadiths. On this basis, the chain here is strong.

As for the sitting: in the first tashahhud he sits in iftirash [sitting on the left foot]; in the first tashahhud he sits in iftirash; likewise in the Fajr prayer he sits in iftirash. As for the prayer with two tashahhuds, in the second he sits in tawarruk [sitting on the left hip]. [This is] the Sunnah, because of the hadith of Abu Humayd in the Sahih of Imam al-Bukhari. And he adds to the first tashahhud: "O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad..." When he has finished the blessings and the invocation of barakah (tabrik), he seeks refuge with Allah from the punishment of Hell, [from] the punishment of the grave, from the trial of life and death, and from the trial of the False Messiah (al-Masih al-Dajjal), and supplicates with whatever he loves, because of his statement ﷺ: "Then let him choose whatever supplication pleases him most," agreed upon as authentic from the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud. In this case there is a difference and distinction between this one and this one. But if the prayer has a single tashahhud — the prayer in which the tashahhud is followed by the taslim — he comes with [the tashahhud] (audio unclear), then comes with the blessings and the tabrik, then comes with the supplication, then says the taslim.

Questioner: If an imam lengthens the first tashahhud — he usually lengthens [it with] the blessings on the Prophet ﷺ and the supplication, continuing on this [way] — is he considered to have committed a violation?

No, it is a matter of disagreement. This is the school of the Shafi'is: the Shafi'is hold that the blessings on the Prophet in the first tashahhud are like the blessings on him ﷺ in the second tashahhud, (audio unclear) in that the general [evidences]. And this has come from the Prophet ﷺ in the night prayer: he sat at the eighth [rak'ah] and (audio unclear), and sent blessings on the Prophet, then stood and prayed the ninth. They take this as evidence, and (audio unclear) obligatory and non-obligatory prayer. It came in the night prayer; and also, if a person does it sometimes, there is no harm in it. But to do it constantly...

Questioner: Does it need an established, transmitted text on the subject?

What the Shafi'is take as evidence are the general texts. They say: there is no evidence that this is specific to the first tashahhud and this is specific to the second tashahhud. In fact there is evidence, but it has a defect ('illah): its narrators are trustworthy, but [Ibn] Ishaq is alone in narrating it, in Ibn Khuzaymah. In it, the Prophet, when he said, "I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger," (audio unclear). This narration is in Ibn Khuzaymah, but Muhammad ibn Ishaq is alone in narrating it, and the hadith — the root of the hadith is in the two Sahihs without the addition; the root of the hadith is in the Sahih without this addition — and Ibn Ishaq's being alone is not accepted in the like of this.

Questioner: So censuring [it] — is he not censured?

No, no, he is not censured. It is a matter of disagreement and ijtihad, and they have evidences for the school of al-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him.

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