The Prophetic Practice Related to the Standing Portion of the Islamic Prayer (As Salaat)

The Prophet (SWAS) used to stand for prayer whether they were obligatory prayers or voluntary prayers, except duing travelling when he (SWAS) used to pray the voluntary prayers sitting while mounted on his ride. In case of praying while susceptible to attack from an enemy he (SWAS) taught us to pray standing or mounted according to the situation.

The Prophet (SWAS) prayed sitting while he (SWAS) was ill and when he (SWAS) was weak with illness in the last year of his life. When he (SWAS) led congregational prayers in a sitting position due to illness he (SWAS) instructed his followers to sit when he (SWAS) sits during the prayer, as the congregation is supposed to follow the imam (prayer leader). In 1979, in his last year, when Maulana Mawdudi, led prayers in Buffalo, NY where he was being treated for cancer, he did so sitting due to weakness and the congregation prayed behind him in a sitting position as well. 

The Prophet (SWAS) instructed us to pray standing. If we cannot do so, we may sit and if we cannot sit we can pray lying down. He (SWAS) informed us that the prayer of a sitting person due to illness is worth half the reward as the prayer of a person who stands, and that of a lying person due to illness is half the reward of the prayer of worshipper who prays sitting down.

The Prophet (SWAS) also instructed to pray standing at sea unless we fear drowning.

He (SWAS) used to pray the voluntary pre-dawn (night) prayers either standing or sitting. Sometimes he (SWAS) used to start off praying sitting and continue praying standing in the first unit and then repeat the same sitting and standing sequence in the second unit of the prayer.

During the last year of his life, when he (SWAS) was weak with illness, he (SWAS) used to pray his voluntary prayers of glorification sitting. When he (SWAS) prayed sitting he (SWAS) used to sit cross legged. 

Sometimes he (SWAS) used to pray barefoot and sometimes wearing shoes. He (SWAS) explicitly forbade imitating the Jews who only prayed barefoot. Nevertheless, his practice was to take shoes off if he felt they had dirt or filth on them and he was observed to do so even during the prayers. When he did so, he kept the shoes not his left/right, so as to be a cause of discomfort for those around him. Rather he (SWAS) put them in between his feet. Nevertheless, if one is praying alone, putting the footwear to the left/right of oneself is acceptable.

Once the Prophet (SWAS) prayed on the pulpit (a structure of 3 steps that is used by the imam to deliver the sermon). He (SWAS) did this by starting the prayer while on the step of the pulpit, he (SWAS) bowed there and then came off the pulpit step to prostrate on the ground. When he (SWAS) came back up he (SWAS) reassended the pulpit and repeated his actions like during the first unit of the prayer until he (SWAS) completed it. Then he (SWAS) turned to the people and said, "O people! I have done this so that you may follow me and learn my prayer".

He (SWAS) commanded his followers to pray such that there is an object placed in front them (a sutrah), to prevent people to break the prayer by passing in front of them while they pray. As long as people pass beyond the sutrah it is okay, but if they were to try to pass between him and the sutrah, then he (SWAS) instructed that they be forcibly resisted to do so during the prayer by physically stopping them. The sutrah can be any object, be it a wall, a saddle, a spear staked into the ground, the side of an animal, or a tree. He specifically mentionned that the prayer is broken when a menstruating woman, a black dog or a donkey passes in between the worshipper and their sutrah. He (SWAS) prohibited praying towards any grave.