Worship - Praying
| Purification | Praying | ||||||||||
| 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 |
| Zakah | Fasting | Pilgrimage | |||||||||
| 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | ||||||
Lesson 42
Voluntary Prayers
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·
Unconfirmed Sunnah accompanying the
obligatory prayers are two Rak`ahs prayer before and after the Noon prayer plus
the confirmed Sunnah prayer, two Rak`ahs prayer before the Afternoon prayer, two
Rak`ahs prayer before the Sunset prayer, and two Rak`ahs prayer after the
Evening prayer plus the Witr prayer.[23]
·
Voluntary Sunnah are also:
a) Two Rak`ahs greeting
prayer on entering the mosque.
b)
At-Tarawih prayers on the
nights of Ramadan, from eight to twenty Rak`ahs
c) Tasabih (glorification)
prayer, to be performed once in life.
d) The prostration during
recitation, when reciting or hearing the Qur’anic verses of prostration.
e)
Ad-Duha (forenoon) prayer
from four to eight Rak`ahs.
f) Two Rak`ahs prayer after
ablution.
g) Two Rak`ahs prayer for
seeking guidance (Istikharah) with its specific invocation.
h) Two Rak`ahs prayer to
repent
i) Prostration of gratitude.
j) Two Rak`ahs prayer on
arrival after traveling.
k) Two Rak`ahs prayer before
the Evening prayer.
·
It is recommended to perform
voluntary prayers at any time other than the forbidden times. These are
when the sun has risen, that is, after the sunrise for almost ten
minutes, and afternoon until sunset.[24]
· Janazah (funeral) prayer: It is a communal obligation. It has the same conditions of regular prayers. It is performed while standing upright without bowing or prostrating. It is one Rak`ah with four Takbirahs: to recite Al-Fatihah after the first Takbirah, to invoke benediction on the Prophet (peace be upon him) like the formula of the Tashahhud after the second Takbirah to supplicate for the dead person after the third one, and to utter any other supplication after the fourth one, then the final greeting at the end of the prayer.[
Evidence from Qur'an and Sunnah
The unconfirmed Sunnah prayers:
`Abdullah Ibn `Umar
(may Allah be pleased with him) narrated:
“I offered with
Allah's Prophet a two Rak`ahs prayer before the Zhuhr (Noon) prayer and two
Rak`ahs after the Zhuhr prayer, two Rak`ahs after Jumu`ah (Friday), Maghrib
(Sunset) and `Isha’ (Evening) prayers.” (Reported
by Al-Bukhari)
`A’ishah (may Allah
be pleased with her) narrated:
“There is a prayer between the two Adhans
(Adhan and Iqamah).”
(Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“May
Allah show mercy to a man who prays four Rak`ahs before the Afternoon
prayer.” (Reported by At-Tirmidhi)
Nawafil (voluntary prayers):
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“Allah,
the Exalted, said, ‘And My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing Nawafil (pray or do extra good deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him.” (Reported by Al-Bukhari)
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“The
first thing about which the people will be called to account out of their
actions on the Day of Judgment is prayer. Our Lord, the Exalted, will say to
the angels - though He knows better: Look into the prayer of My servant and
see whether he has offered it perfectly or imperfectly. If it is perfect,
that will be recorded perfect. If it is defective, He will say: See if there
are some optional prayers offered by My servant. If there are optional
prayers to his credit, He will say: Compensate the obligatory prayer by the
optional prayer for My servant. Then all the actions will be considered
similarly.” (Reported by Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi, and Ahmad)
The
prayer of greeting the mosque:
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“If
anyone of you enters a mosque, he should not sit until he has offered a two
Rak`ahs prayer.” (Reported by Al-Bukhari
and Muslim)
“The Prophet of Allah
(peace be upon him) said:
“Allah,
the Exalted, says: Son of Adam, do not be helpless in performing four
Rak`ahs for Me at the beginning of the day, and I will supply what you need
till the end of it.” (Reported by At-Tirmidhi)
Tarawih
prayer of the month of Ramadan:
The Messenger of Allah
(peace be upon him) said:
“He who performs
the optional prayer during Ramadan out of faith and hoping to earn a reward,
his past sins will be pardoned.”
(Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Two
Rak`ahs after performing ablution:
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“If a Muslim performs ablution and does it
well and offers prayer, all his
(sins)
during the period from one prayer to another would be pardoned by Allah.”
(Reported by Muslim)
Arrival
from a travel:
Ka`b Ibn Malik (may
Allah be pleased with him) narrated:
“When
the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) came back from a journey, he used
to start with the mosque wherein he prayed two Rak`ahs.”
(Reported by Muslim)
The
two Rak`ahs prayer of repentance:
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“When a servant
(of Allah)
commits a sin, and he performs ablution well, and then stands and prays two
Rak`ahs, and asks pardon of Allah, Allah pardons him.”
(Reported by At-Tirmidhi)
Before
the prayer of Sunset:
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“’Pray before the Maghrib
(Sunset)
prayer.’ He (said it thrice)
and in the third time, he said,
‘Whoever wants to offer it can do so.’”
(Reported by Al-Bukhari)
Istikharah
prayer:
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“If anyone of you
thinks of doing any job, he should offer a two Rak`ahs prayer other than the
compulsory ones and say (after the prayer):
'O Allah! I ask guidance from
Your Knowledge, And power from Your Might and I ask for Your Great
Blessings. You are capable and I am not. You know and I do not and You know
the unseen. O Allah! If You know that this job is good for my religion and
my subsistence and in my hereafter - (or said: If it is better for my present
and later needs) - then ordain it for me and make it easy for me to get and
then bless me in it. And if You know that this job is harmful to me in my
religion and subsistence and in the Hereafter -
(or said: If it is worse for
my present and later needs) then keep it away from me and let me be away
from it, and ordain for me whatever is good for me, and make me satisfied
with it.' The Prophet added that the person should name (mention) his
need.”
(Reported by Al-Bukhari, At-Tirmidhi, An-Nasa’i, and
Abu Dawud)
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“He
who performs ablution properly and then performs two Rak`ahs while
perfecting them, Allah will give him what he asks sooner or later.”
(Reported by Ahmad)
Tasbih
(glorification) prayer:
The Prophet of Allah
(peace be upon him) said to Al-`Abbas Ibn `Abdul-Muttalib:
“`Abbas, my uncle, shall I
not give you, shall I not present to you, shall I not donate to you, shall I
not produce for you ten things? If you act upon them, Allah will forgive you
your sins, first and last, old and new, involuntary and voluntary, small and
great, secret and open. These are the ten things: you should pray four
Rak`ahs, reciting in each one Fatihat Al-Kitab and a Surah. When you finish
the recitation of the first Rak`ah, you should say fifteen times while
standing: “Subhana Allah Wal Hamdu Lillah Wa La Ilaha Illa Allah Wallahu
Akbar” (Glory be to Allah, Praise be to Allah, There is no god but Allah,
Allah is the Greatest). Then, you should bow and say it ten times while
bowing. Then, you should raise your head after bowing and say it ten times.
Then, you should kneel down in prostration and say it ten times while
prostrating yourself. Then, you should raise your head after prostration and
say it ten times. Then, you should prostrate yourself and say it ten times.
Then, you should raise your head after prostrating and say it ten times.
These are seventy-five times in each Rak`ah.
You should do that in four Rak`ahs. If you can observe it once daily, do so;
if not, then once weekly; if not, then once a month; if not, then once a
year; if not, then once in your lifetime.”
(Reported by Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah)
Prostration
of gratitude:
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“I
begged my Lord and made intercession for my people, and He gave me a third
of my people, so I prostrated myself in gratitude to my Lord. Then I raised
my head and begged my Lord for my people, and He gave me a third of my
people, so I prostrated myself in gratitude to my Lord. Then I raised my
head and begged my Lord for my people and He gave me the remaining third, so
I prostrated myself in gratitude to my Lord.”
(Reported by Abu Dawud)
Recitation
prostration:
The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said:
“When the son of Adam recites the Ayah
(verse)
of Sajdah (prostration)
and then falls down in prostration, Satan goes into seclusion and weeps and
says: Woe unto me, the son of Adam was commanded to prostrate, and he
prostrated and Paradise was entitled to him, and I was commanded to
prostrate, but I refused and I am doomed to Hell.”
(Reported by Muslim)
`Amr Ibn Al-`As (may
Allah be pleased with him) narrated:
“The
Prophet (peace be upon him) taught me fifteen prostrations while reciting
the Qur'an, including three in Al-Mufassal (The Surahs starting from Qaf
Surah to the end of the Holy Qur’an) and two in Surah Al-Hajj.
(Reported by Abu Dawud)
Janazah (funeral) prayer:
The Messenger of Allah
(peace be upon him) said:
“If three rows of men
offer funeral prayer over anyone, his (entry into Paradise) will
become certain.”
(Reported by At-Tirmidhi)
