Salah in Al-Muhalla: Prayer in the Dhahiri School

Ibn Hazm's treatment of prayer in Al-Muhalla is among the most compelling chapters of the work, demonstrating the Dhahiri school's potential to arrive at compelling positions through strict textual analysis. Some of his prayer positions align with the four Sunni schools, some match one school against the others, and some are unique to the Dhahiri approach.

For al-Fatihah in prayer, Ibn Hazm is among the strongest advocates of its obligatory recitation in every rak'ah, citing the mutawatir hadith 'There is no prayer for one who does not recite the Opening of the Book' (al-Bukhari, Muslim). He goes further than some schools in insisting that this applies even to the follower praying behind an imam — the follower must recite al-Fatihah themselves during the imam's silent moments. This position, shared with the Shafi'i school, is the most textually supported position on the question.

On the opening takbir, Ibn Hazm affirms that 'Allahu Akbar' is the established formula, based on the prophetic practice. But unlike the strict Hanafi position, he argues from a different direction: the hadith 'The key of prayer is taharah, its ihram (entry) is the takbir, and its tahallul (exit) is the salam' establishes the function of the takbir as the entry-point into the prayer's sacred state, and the specific wording is established by prophetic practice rather than by the theoretical impossibility of synonyms.

Ibn Hazm's treatment of the five prayer times reveals his methodological distinctiveness. He argues directly from the hadiths describing prayer times — particularly the hadith of Jibril — without the interpretive elaborations that distinguish one school from another. His prayer times are therefore closest to what the primary texts directly state, without the additional distinctions (such as the Hanafi late 'Asr time) that other schools develop through ijtihad.

On the question of whether missing a prayer (qada') is obligatory or merely recommended, Ibn Hazm famously argued — in a position rejected by all four schools — that a person who deliberately misses a prayer has no valid qada' for it, because the texts specify that the prayer is prescribed at its specific time, and fulfilling it outside that time is not the same act. One who misses a prayer deliberately has thereby incurred a sin without a means of erasing it through qada' — they can only seek forgiveness and perform more voluntary prayers. This extreme position, though rejected by the four schools, is based on a literal reading of the relevant texts and illustrates the Dhahiri method's potential for novel conclusions.

Ibn Hazm's treatment of Friday prayer highlights his consensus with the four schools on the obligation of Jumu'ah for free adult Muslim males in a settled community, while differing on the minimum number required. He argues from the Quranic command — 'O you who believe, when the call is made for prayer on Friday, hasten to the remembrance of Allah' (62:9) — that the obligation applies to any number of Muslims present, without specifying a numerical minimum beyond the imam and the congregation (which must be more than one person to constitute a congregation at all).