instead of pronouncing the takbīr, and in the first sermon he implores:

“O Allah, send down upon us life-giving rain—relieving, wholesome, pleasant, plentiful, copious, drenching, saturating, continuous. O Allah, give us this rain and do not make us among the despairing. O Allah, we seek Your forgiveness; truly You are ever-Forgiving, so pour out upon us unceasing, abundant showers.”

After the opening section of the second sermon he turns to face the qiblah, intensifying his supplications both softly and aloud. As he does so he turns his cloak around, placing the right side on the left and the left on the right. According to the later opinion, he inverts it as well, making its upper part the lower and the lower the upper, and the congregation does the same.

I (al-Nawawī) add: He keeps it reversed until he removes his garments. If the imam neglects to perform the prayer for rain, the people may carry it out themselves. If he delivers the sermon before the prayer, that is permissible.

It is recommended to go out at the first rainfall of the year, uncovering part of one’s body—other than the private parts—so the rain may touch it, and to bathe or perform wuḍūʾ in the running water. One glorifies Allah when thunder or lightning occurs, avoids staring at the lightning, and says when rain begins: “O Allah, make it a beneficial downpour,” then supplicates as he wishes. When the rain stops he says: “We have been given rain by the grace and mercy of Allah.”

It is disliked to say, “We were rained upon by such-and-such a star,” or to curse the wind. Should the people suffer harm from excessive rain, the Sunnah is to ask Allah to move it elsewhere, saying: “O Allah, around us and not upon us,” and no special prayer is offered for that. And Allah knows best.