As for the ‘Ishā’ prayer, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) recited the surah beginning “By the fig and the olive” (1). He prescribed for Mu‘ādh the surahs beginning “By the sun (2) and its brightness,” “Glorify the Name of your Lord, the Most High,” and “By the night when it covers,” and others like them. He rebuked Mu‘ādh for reciting al-Baqarah (The Cow) in this prayer: Mu‘ādh had prayed with him, then gone to Banū ‘Amr ibn ‘Awf and repeated the prayer as their imam, after as much of the night had passed as Allah willed, reciting al-Baqarah. It was for this reason that he said to him: “Are you driving people away from prayer, Mu‘ādh?” (3). Those who rush through their prayers seized upon these words, paying no attention to what came before or after them!

As for the Friday prayer, he used to recite the two surahs (4), al-Jumu‘ah (Friday) and al-Munāfiqīn (The Hypocrites) (5), in full (6), as well as the two surahs (7), Sabbih (Glorify) and al-Ghāshiyah (The Overwhelming) (8). He never confined his recitation (9) to the closing passages of the first two surahs, from “O you who believe” to the end of each. Doing so is contrary to the practice he consistently maintained.

As for recitation in the Eid prayers, he would sometimes recite the two surahs, Qāf and Iqtarabat (It Has Drawn Near), in full (10),