Abu
Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allaah
(sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said: “Do you think that I face the Qiblah
(and do not know what you are doing)? By Allaah, your bowing and prostrating
are not hidden from me; I can see you behind my back.”[1]
Abu
Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) also reported: The Messenger of Allaah
(sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) led us in praying Zuhr, and in the last row
there was a man who prayed badly. When he said the salaam, the Messenger of Allaah
(sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) called him and said: “O So and so, do you not
fear Allaah? Do you not see how you pray? You think that you could hide from me
some of what you do, but by Allaah I can see behind me as well as I can see in
front of me.”[2]
Commenting
on this issue, Imaam An-Nawawee (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “The
scholars said: What this means is that Allaah, may He be exalted, created for
the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) the ability in the back of his head
to see what was behind him, and he (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) was granted
more extraordinary abilities than this. This is not contrary to reason or
textual evidence; rather the texts confirm this, so we must believe in it.
Al-Qaadee said: Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (may Allaah have mercy on him) and the
majority of the scholars said that this seeing was in a literal and real sense.”[3]
Does
this unique characteristic include times of prayer and other situations? The
text refers to prayer; as for other situations, there is no text that speaks of
them. According to some scholars such is possible, but according to others it
applied only to the case of prayer.
Al-Haafiz
Ibn Hajar (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “The apparent meaning of the
hadeeth is that this was something limited to the case of prayer, but it may be
that this happened in all situations. That was also narrated from Mujaahid.”[4]
Mullah
‘Alee al-Qaaree said: “The words ‘I can see you behind my back’ do not
necessarily mean that this occurred all the time, because it is contrary to the
report which says “I do not know what is behind my wall.” Hence this was unique
to the case of prayer and his knowledge about the worshippers behind him. And Allaah
knows best.[5]
Shaykh
Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: He could see them behind
his back, and this is something that was unique to the Prophet (sallallaahu
alayhi wa sallam): in this particular situation (i.e., prayer) he could see the
people behind his back. But in other situations, he could not see anything
behind his back.[6][7]
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