Chapter

The Fear Prayer has been authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ in several forms, all of which are permissible. …

His statement, “Chapter: The Fear Prayer,” and so forth: this is the third of the excusing circumstances. The first excuse is travel; the second is illness and similar conditions; and the third is fear—that is, fear of an enemy, whatever kind of enemy it may be, whether human or a predatory beast. For example, a person may be in a land inhabited by dangerous beasts and need to perform the Fear Prayer. It is not a condition that the enemy be from among humankind; rather, whenever a person fears any enemy for his life, the Fear Prayer is legislated for him.

His statement, “has been authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ in several forms, all of which are permissible,” means that the sunnah has reported six, or seven, forms from the Prophet ﷺ.

The apparent meaning of the author’s statement, “all of which are permissible,” is that each form may be performed in any circumstance. Yet it may be said that none of these forms of prayer is permissible except in the particular circumstance in which the Prophet ﷺ performed it. We shall mention two of these forms:

The first form is that which accords with the apparent meaning of the Quran: the commander of the army divides his troops into two groups, one group praying with him and the other stationed before the enemy, lest he attack. He leads the first group in one rakʿah. Then, when he rises for the second, they complete the prayer on their own—that is, they intend to separate from the imam and complete it independently—while the imam remains standing. Once they have completed their prayer, they go and take the place of the second group before the enemy. The second group then comes and joins the imam in the second rakʿah. In this case, the imam prolongs the second rakʿah more than the first so that the second group may catch up with him. This is an exception to what was mentioned earlier in the chapter on