Salah in the Maliki School

Prayer in the Maliki school as presented in Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil reflects the school's deep roots in the practice of Medina transmitted through generations of scholars. The Maliki approach to prayer law often appeals to the 'amal (practice) of the Medinan community alongside explicit hadith evidence, giving it a distinctive character compared to the other schools.

The Maliki school identifies eighteen obligatory acts of prayer (fara'id), similar to but not identical with the Shafi'i enumeration. Notable Maliki positions include: the Basmalah is not recited before al-Fatihah in the Maliki school (neither aloud nor silently in the standard Maliki practice of Medina, based on the transmitted 'amal), and the hands are typically left at the sides during prayer (sadl) rather than folded — though some Maliki scholars permitted folding. These practices reflect the preserved Medinan practice as Imam Malik understood it.

The recitation of al-Fatihah is obligatory (fard) in every rak'ah in the Maliki school, following the hadith: 'There is no prayer for one who does not recite the Opening of the Book.' Al-Kharshi notes that the Maliki school generally follows the principle that al-Fatihah must be recited in the language of revelation (Arabic) and in sequence — the ruling is identical in this respect to the other schools.

The Maliki school's position on the Friday prayer reflects Imam Malik's approach of requiring the conditions practiced in Medina: a permanent Muslim community (jama'ah mustaqarrah), the mosque being within a settlement (misr), and a minimum of twelve free adult males according to the dominant Maliki opinion (differing from the Hanafi requirement of three and the Shafi'i and Hanbali requirement of forty).

For travelers, the Maliki school permits shortening of prayers when a journey exceeds approximately 80 kilometers (four burud) and combining of prayers during travel. Combining prayers at home due to rain, mud, or extreme cold is also permitted in the Maliki school — a unique leniency that accommodates the realities of the North African and West African climates where the school is dominant.

Al-Kharshi discusses the prostration of forgetfulness (sujud as-sahw) with attention to the Maliki school's distinctive rules. The Maliki school performs sujud as-sahw before the salam when something has been omitted (naqs) and after the salam when something has been added (ziyada). This before/after distinction based on the nature of the error is unique to the Maliki school among the four schools.

The Maliki school's position on qunut in the Fajr prayer is one of its most well-known distinctive rulings: qunut is sunnah in the Fajr prayer (recited before the ruku' of the second rak'ah), in contrast to the Hanafi school's prohibition and the Shafi'i school's recommendation only in the witr of Ramadan's second half. This is based on the Maliki acceptance of the hadith reports of Anas ibn Malik on the Prophet's qunut in the Fajr prayer.