the two rakʿahs before dawn: “Say, ‘We have believed in Allah and in what has been sent down to us…’ (al-Baqarah 2:136) to the end of the verse, in place of ‘Say, O disbelievers’ (109:1) and ‘Say, O People of the Scripture, come…’ (Āl ʿImrān 3:64). These two verses lay down the very bases of faith and of tawḥīd—singling Allah Most High out for worship and negating any partner beside Him.

8 – As for the ḥadith of ʿĀʾishah, no. 293, it indicates the recommendation of reclining on one’s right side after the Fajr sunnah and before the obligatory prayer.

9 – Ibn al-Qayyim said: “There is a secret in his reclining on the right side: the heart is suspended on the left. When a person sleeps on his left side he falls into a heavy sleep, for he is in ease and comfort, and so his sleep becomes deep; but when he sleeps on his right side he is unsettled and does not sink into deep slumber because the heart is uneasy.”

I say: this brief rest provides relaxation and renewal for the Fajr prayer, and Allah knows best.

10 – As for the ḥadith of Abu Hurayrah, no. 294, it shows the recommendation of lying on the right side shortly before the dawn prayer.

Yet Ibn al-Qayyim, in Zād al-Maʿād, said of this ḥadith: “I heard Ibn Taymiyyah say, ‘It is baseless and not sound; what is sound is the practice, not the command. The command is reported solely by ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ziyād, and he erred in it.’”

However, al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said in Fatḥ al-Bārī (3/29): “The correct view is that it is a valid proof, and the command is to be taken as recommendation.”

Al-Nawawī said: “Its chain meets the conditions of the two Shaykhs.”

Al-Shawkānī said: “Its transmitters are those of the Ṣaḥīḥ.”