How Did Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Pray? 5 Authentic Hadith

How did Prophet Muhammad pray? Every Muslim asks this at some point, and the Prophet ﷺ answered it himself: pray as you have seen me praying. The Companions who watched him closely then described what they saw, from the first takbir to the final salam. Here are five authentic hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim that show it, step by step.

1. “Pray as you have seen me praying”

Malik ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him) came to Madinah with a group of young men and stayed with the Prophet ﷺ for twenty days. When they were sent home to teach their families, this was part of the parting advice:

This short line is the foundation for everything below. The Prophet ﷺ did not hand these young men a written manual; he told them to copy what they had seen. That is why the Companions took such care to describe his prayer, and why their descriptions still matter.

Malik later did exactly that: he came to a mosque in Basra and prayed in front of people, saying he was not leading the prayer for its own sake but to show them how he had seen the Prophet ﷺ pray (Bukhari 677; see HadeethEnc 5391).

Try this: pick one part of your prayer this week, such as ruku or the sitting, and compare it with the descriptions below.

2. Aishah’s description, from takbir to taslim

Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) gives one of the fullest summaries of how the Prophet ﷺ prayed:

Notice how much of this is about stillness. He did not go down to sujud until he had stood up straight, and he did not go into the second sujud until he had sat up. The Encyclopedia of Translated Prophetic Hadiths explains that the tashahhud here is the “At-tahiyyatu lillah…” greeting, and that the taslim is the salam said once to the right and once to the left (HadeethEnc 10906).

Try this: after ruku, let your back settle completely before you go down. The same after the first sujud.

3. Abu Humaid: “I remember his prayer best”

Muhammad ibn ‘Amr ibn ‘Ata’ was sitting with a group of Companions when they started talking about the Prophet’s prayer. Abu Humaid as-Sa‘idi (may Allah be pleased with him) spoke up:

This narration adds detail Aishah’s summary leaves out: the hands firmly on the knees in ruku, the toes facing the qiblah in sujud, and two different ways of sitting. In the middle tashahhud he sat on his left foot; in the last one he brought the left foot forward and sat on the ground.

Try this: in your next sujud, check that your toes point towards the qiblah and your forearms are lifted off the ground.

4. Raising the hands

‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) described when the Prophet ﷺ raised his hands. His son Salim narrates it from him:

In the same narration Ibn ‘Umar adds that the Prophet ﷺ did not do this in the prostrations. HadeethEnc notes two more authentic details: Abu Humaid also reported raising the hands when standing up after the first tashahhud, and Malik ibn al-Huwayrith reported raising them to the level of the ears, in Bukhari and Muslim (HadeethEnc 3095). Practice on raising the hands differs between the schools of fiqh, and scholars differ on it, so ask a qualified local scholar about what you follow.

Try this: make the opening takbir slowly and deliberately, with the hands raised, as the start of a conversation with Allah.

5. Placing the right hand over the left

Wa’il ibn Hujr (may Allah be pleased with him) watched the Prophet ﷺ begin the prayer:

Sahl ibn Sa‘d (may Allah be pleased with him) also said that people were commanded to place the right hand on the left forearm in the prayer, and the narrator Abu Hazim understood this command to come from the Prophet ﷺ (Bukhari 740). Where exactly the hands rest is another point the schools of fiqh discuss; we do not give a ruling here.

Try this: notice your hands while you recite al-Fatihah: resting, still, and not fidgeting.

How did Prophet Muhammad pray? Bringing it together

Put these five hadith side by side and a clear picture appears: the takbir with raised hands, the right hand over the left, al-Fatihah, a level back in ruku, standing straight, calm sujud with the toes towards the qiblah, sitting upright, the tashahhud, and the taslim. Prayer starts even before this, with wudu made the way the Prophet ﷺ made it, and what he said in each position is covered in what to say in ruku and sujud.

Reflection: the Companions did not just admire the Prophet’s prayer; they memorized it closely enough to argue about who remembered it best. That care is a gift to us. Learning his prayer is not about getting every detail perfect overnight, but about bringing our salah a little closer to his, one position at a time.

Video: how to pray step by step

Questions people ask

Key lessons

• The Prophet ﷺ told us to pray as we have seen him pray (Bukhari 631).
• He began with the takbir and ended with the taslim (Muslim 498).
• He kept his back level in ruku and stood fully upright after it.
• He was calm in sujud and sat upright between the two prostrations.
• Details such as raising and placing the hands are discussed by the schools of fiqh; ask a local scholar.

Choose one detail from these hadith and bring it into your next prayer. Small, steady changes add up.

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