Question:
Asak,What is the ruling for performing Salatul Tasbeeh ? Is this form of prayer approved from the Sunnah ? JazakAllahu Khayran
Answer:
All praise is due to Allah.
Some Ulema regarded the ahadith narrated concerning Salat at Tasbeeh as weak, while others stated that, if taken together, they reach the level of Hasan li ghayrihi (acceptable do to numerous mutually strengthening chains). Based upon this, there is a scholarly difference of opinion regarding the permissibility of performing this prayer.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said: Salaat al-Tasaabeeh is not prescribed, because the hadeeth is da’eef (weak). Imaam Ahmad said there is no sound evidence for it. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said it is a fabrication, and he said that none of the imaams recommended it. He (may Allaah have mercy on him) spoke the truth, because whoever examines this prayer will find that it is odd in the way it is performed … Moreover, if it were prescribed, it would have been something that was reported in many reports because of its great virtue and reward. Since there are no such reports and none of the imaams described it as being recommended, we know that it is not proven. The oddness in the way in which it is performed is as described in the hadeeth narrated concerning it, which says that it is to be performed once every day, or once every week, or once every month, or once every year, or once in a lifetime. This indicates that these reports are not sound; if it were prescribed, it would be something to be done on a regular basis, and one would not be given such a variety of options.
Whichever opinion one follows, one should not allow this to be a means of creating dissention. Indeed, dissention is evil.
And Allah knows best.