Oct 29, 2012

Posted by in Daily Pearls, Prayer | 4 Comments

Zuhr prayer

Hadrat Aishah (r.a.), the mother of the believers, reported: ‘The Messenger of Allah (saws) never omitted four rakah (voluntary) prayer before the ‘dhuhr’ prayer and the two rakah (voluntary) prayer before dawn (Fajr) prayer.’(Bukhari)

Commentary:

Amongst the ‘nafl’ or extra prayers which the Prophet (saws) never failed to offer were the four-rakah voluntary prayers before the obligatory ‘dhuhr’ prayer and the two-rakah voluntary prayer before the obligatory ‘fajr’ prayer. 

These six-rakahs are amongst the twelve rakahs of what is known as the Sunnah Muaqqedah prayers which the Prophet (saws) almost never ever missed.  The other Sunnah Muaqqedah prayers other than the ones listed above are:

1. two-rakahs after the obligatory ‘dhuhr’ prayer.

2. two-rakahs after the obligatory ‘magrib’ prayer.

3. and two-rakahs after the obligatory ‘isha’ prayer.

  1. Sunshine says:

    The commentary is very good.It helps to understand the hadith very well.

  2. arjuman says:

    THIS IS A GOOD INFORMATION.

  3. As Salamualaikum,
    JazakAllah khairan for the post, it is very enlightening, but insha’Allah it would be also good if a short description of the meaning of "nafl prayers" and "sunnah muaqqedah prayers" was written. Or maybe it has been mentioned in a seperate post. I don’t know.

  4. Walaikum assalam sister S

    JazakALlahu Khairan for your suggestion. The meaning have been added to in the comment below:

    Sunnah and Nafl prayers are acts of worship that are not obligatory which the Holy Prophet performed either regularly or occasionally.

    There are different categories of optional salaah, viz. Sunnatu Mu’akkadah – prayers that the Holy Prophet observed regularly and strongly encouraged his followers to do likewise. E.g Witr Prayer, Tahajjud Prayer

    Sunnatu Ghair-il-Mu’akkadah – prayers that the Holy Prophet did not perform regularly and may therefore be offered at our discretion.

    The Sunnah prayers linked to the 5 fard salaah are called Raatibah Prayers of which 10 raka’ahs are Mu’akkadah, and 12 are Ghair-il-Ma’akaddah.

    Nafl prayers are optional prayers for which no particular time, place nor purpose is prescribed. E.g. Salatul Isthikara, Tahiyyatul Masjid.

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