420 – ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) related: “Whenever the Prophet ﷺ saw rainfall he would say, ‘Allahumma ṣayyiban nāfiʿan’—‘O Allah, make it a beneficial downpour.’” Agreed upon (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• ṣayyiban: the direct object of an omitted verb—i.e., “make it a ṣayyib,” as appears in the version of al-Nasāʾī (1523). Ibn al-Athīr explains in al-Nihāyah that its original root contains a wāw because it derives from ṣāba, yaṣūbu, meaning “to descend”; thus it denotes a heavy, continuous rain.
• nāfiʿan (beneficial): an adjective describing “ṣayyiban,” excluding a harmful or ruinous downpour.

Points derived from the ḥadīth

1. It is recommended to supplicate when rain begins to fall, and the best wording is this particular supplication, for it is authentically transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ for that moment.
2. A ṣayyib is an abundant, pouring rain that brings fertility and life, benefiting both people and land.
3. Al-Ṭībī remarked that the addition “beneficial” is an exquisite completion, because a torrential rain can be hazardous; the qualifier safeguards against such feared harm. In Sharḥ al-Adhkār it is further noted that the safeguard may also be from rain that simply yields no benefit—broader than harm per se. Hence the Prophet ﷺ would say: “Allahumma suqyā raḥmah, lā suqyā ʿadhāb, wa lā balāʾ, wa lā hadm, wa lā gharq” (O Allah, [grant us] a rain of mercy, not a rain of punishment, trial, destruction, or drowning). Reported by al-Bayhaqī (3/362).
4. Imām al-Nawawī states in al-Adhkār: al-Shāfiʿī narrated in al-Umm, with his chain of transmission, a mursal report from the Prophet ﷺ: “Seek the answering of supplications at the time when armies clash in battle,