Prayer Regulations from Quranic Evidence

Al-Tahawi derives the obligation of the five daily prayers primarily from Surah al-Isra' (17:78): 'Establish the prayer at the declining of the sun to the darkening of the night, and the recitation of dawn, for the recitation of dawn is witnessed.' The scholars of Quranic law have interpreted 'the declining of the sun' as referring to Zuhr, 'the darkening of the night' as encompassing Asr, Maghrib, and Isha, and the 'recitation of dawn' as Fajr. Al-Tahawi uses this verse alongside Surah Hud (11:114), 'Establish the prayer at the two ends of the day and in the portions of the night,' to establish the Quranic foundations of all five prayers. The detail of each prayer's time is then determined by the prophetic practice, as the Quran provides only general parameters.

The qiblah obligation is derived from Surah al-Baqarah (2:150): 'From wherever you go out, turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque, and wherever you may be, turn your faces toward it.' Al-Tahawi notes that this verse was revealed after the earlier verse (2:144) directing the Prophet to face the Masjid al-Haram, and it establishes the direction of prayer for all Muslims in all locations. The Hanafi ruling on the qiblah for a person who cannot determine the direction is that he should make his best effort (ijtihad) to face the right direction, and if he prays based on his best judgment but was in fact facing the wrong direction, his prayer is valid. Al-Tahawi supports this with the verse 'Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity' (2:286), applying the principle of relief from hardship when exact determination is impossible.

The Hanafi approach to reconciling apparently conflicting verses on prayer using hadith is well illustrated in the chapter on the Friday prayer. Surah al-Jumu'ah (62:9) commands: 'O you who believe, when the call to prayer is made on the day of Friday, hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trade.' Al-Tahawi treats this as establishing the obligatory nature of Friday prayer for free adult Muslim men in settled areas. He then uses prophetic hadiths to resolve questions the verse leaves open: the minimum number of people required for a valid Friday prayer (the Hanafi position is three adult males plus the imam), whether Friday prayer can be performed in multiple locations in the same city, and the number of adhans before the prayer.

The Quranic verses on prayer direction during travel and fear (salah al-khawf) are treated by al-Tahawi to illustrate the Hanafi rules on shortening and combining prayers. Surah al-Nisa' (4:101) states: 'When you travel in the land, there is no blame on you if you shorten the prayer, if you fear that the disbelievers may cause you affliction.' The Hanafi school derives from this verse that shortening the four-rak'ah prayers to two during travel is obligatory (wajib), not merely permitted, based on 'Umar's famous report that the Prophet shortening was 'a gift from Allah which you should accept.' Al-Tahawi records this interpretation as the transmitted position of Abu Hanifa and his students, distinguishing the Hanafi view from that of the Shafi'is who hold shortening to be a permitted concession rather than an obligation.