and in humble entreaty while proclaiming Allah’s greatness.”

That, indeed, is what befits the occasion, for the worshippers have gone out to beg for rain and irrigation, and the best means to secure it are supplication and seeking forgiveness.

4 – Ibn al-Qayyim said: “There is absolutely no call to prayer for it.” The Shaykh added: “Drawing an analogy with the eclipse prayer is invalid.”

Its editor comments: It differs from the ʿĪd prayer in that no specific time is set for it—although the preferred moment is the time of the ʿĪd prayer—and there is unanimous agreement that it is not performed during the prohibited times. Nevertheless, it resembles the ʿĪd prayer in the number of rakʿahs, the additional takbīrs, and the audible recitation.

• Scholarly disagreement:

The scholars have differed over the sermon. The well-known view in Imām Aḥmad’s school is that the prayer for rain is followed by one sermon, based on the report related by Abū Dāwūd and others from Ibn ʿAbbās describing the Prophet’s sermon: “but he did not preach a sermon like the one he had just delivered.”

Sharḥ al-Mufradāt states: “This is the sound position of the school, held by the overwhelming majority of its adherents; it was also the view of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, and it is one of the school’s distinct positions.”

Imāms Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī, however, held that two sermons are prescribed. This is also one narration from Imām Aḥmad and was chosen by a number of Ḥanbalī authorities, among them al-Khiraqī and Ibn Ḥāmid. The matter is flexible, yet adherence to the prophetic precedent is preferable.