An Examination of Salafiyyah Scholars' Discourse on Kneeling and Bending as Manners of Greeting in Islam
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52461/pjqs.v2i2.2375Abstract
Bending, bowing, and kneeling are popular greetings across various tribes and societies, especially in Nigeria. The admissibility or otherwise of these manners has attracted the attention of Salafiyyah scholars in Islam. Relying on different sources, both from the Qur'ān and aḥādith, the past and present scholars in the Salafiyyah bloc have declared these manners as forbidden in Islam, which may even constitute Shirk (associating partners with Allah). The objective of this paper is to examine various pieces of evidence that are relied upon by these scholars for making such declarations, having realized that the issues of kneeling or bending, among others, are not expressly declared as such in either of the two primary sources of Islamic legislation compared to other acts that constitute ḥarām or Shirk. The exegetical and analytical methods of research were adopted in this paper. The two methods enable the assessment of relevant verses of the Qur'an and aḥādith of the Prophet in the light of classical Mufassirūn's submissions on those verses and renditions of scholars like Al-Bani on most cited aḥādīth on the issue of bending as a manner of greeting in Islam. After a critical examination, the finding revealed that most verses are grossly misconstrued; the most relied upon ḥadīth is weak, while the supporting ones are unfounded. It was also discovered that there are a lot of misconceptions, misunderstandings, and overgeneralizations in the Salafiyyah scholars' submissions regarding the issues of bending and other manners of greeting. This paper, therefore, concluded that there is no substantive basis for a declaration of kneeling and bending while greeting as either ḥarām or Shirk due to the absence of express provision from the Qur'ān and ḥadith.
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