Salah in Kanz ad-Daqa'iq

The prayer chapter of Kanz ad-Daqa'iq presents the Hanafi prayer law in an-Nasafi's dense, precise format. Each ruling is stated with the minimum number of words necessary to convey the legal content, requiring the student to engage carefully with each phrase.

Prayer times are stated with the Hanafi school's specific parameters, including the distinctive Hanafi position on the 'Asr time: according to Imam Abu Hanifa, the preferred 'Asr time begins when every object's shadow reaches twice its own length (plus the meridian shadow), while his students Abu Yusuf and Muhammad agree with the other three schools that it begins when the shadow equals the object's length. An-Nasafi notes that the operative fatwa follows the students' position — illustrating the text's attention to specifying the ruling adopted for practice.

The obligations (fara'id) and wajibat of prayer are presented in the hierarchical manner characteristic of Hanafi legal texts. The student learns which elements are at the highest level of obligation (fard — whose omission, whether intentional or forgetful, invalidates the prayer) and which are at the intermediate level (wajib — whose intentional omission invalidates but whose forgetful omission requires sujud as-sahw). This graduated system is one of the Hanafi school's distinctive contributions to the analysis of prayer structure.

The treatment of the follower's recitation behind the imam states the Hanafi position clearly: the follower does not recite al-Fatihah or any other Quran when praying behind an imam, because the imam's recitation suffices. The evidence — 'Whoever has an imam, the imam's recitation is his recitation' (Ibn Majah) — is cited in the commentaries, while the text itself states the ruling.

Sujud as-sahw (prostration of forgetfulness) is triggered in the Hanafi school by omitting or delaying a wajib act, or by adding an action to the prayer. The method — two prostrations performed before the salam — and the conditions for when it is required versus when it is not are stated with the precision that the text's curriculum function demands.

For the Friday prayer (Jumu'ah), the Hanafi conditions are stated: it requires a city or large settled area (misr), a minimum congregation (the imam plus three followers, according to some Hanafi positions), and two khutbahs before the prayer. The khutbah conditions — standing, in the mosque, with the congregants present — reflect the prophetic practice as the Hanafi school transmitted it.

An-Nasafi's treatment of the witr prayer as wajib (not merely sunnah mu'akkadah as in the Shafi'i school) and its specification as three rak'ahs with qunut in the third is a key Hanafi teaching. The three-rak'ah witr, performed in the last third of the night ideally, is one of the most cherished practices of Hanafi devotional life. The qunut supplication ('Allahumma inna nasta'inuka...') is recited after the standing from ruku' in the third rak'ah, before prostration.