It is also recommended to perform the Duḥā prayer from time to time; its minimum is two rakʿahs and its maximum is eight. Its window begins once the forbidden time ends and lasts until shortly before the sun reaches its zenith, with the best moment being when the heat becomes intense.

Likewise recommended are the mosque-greeting prayer, the two rakʿahs after wuḍūʾ, and enlivening the interval between the two evening prayers (Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ), for that period forms part of the night vigil.

Section

The prostration of recitation is a Sunnah for both the reader and the listener, provided the break between verse and prostration is brief. In all its prerequisites it is treated like a voluntary prayer.

After an opening takbīr, he says “Allāhu akbar” as he goes into prostration and again as he rises, then sits and gives the salām without reciting the tashahhud. If a congregant knowingly prostrates for his own recitation or for that of someone other than his imam, his prayer is invalid.

In an audible prayer the follower must keep pace with his imam;1 should he deliberately fail to do so, his prayer is nullified.2

The listener prostrates only when the reader is someone who could lawfully lead him in prayer: he does not prostrate if the reader himself does not,3 nor may he do so in front of the reader or on his left while space remains on his right. He does not prostrate for the recitation of a woman or a hermaphrodite,4 but he does prostrate for that of an illiterate man, a chronically sick person, or a discerning child.

The prostration of gratitude is recommended whenever a fresh blessing is bestowed or a calamity is averted.