of his obligatory prayer; thereafter the remainder of his deeds will be examined in the same way.”

Al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, and others transmitted this report. Al-Tirmidhī said, “It is a ḥasan ḥadīth.” Abū Dāwūd also narrated it through the chain of Abū Hurayrah in this wording, and then through the chain of Tamīm al-Dārī with the same meaning, with an authentic isnād.

(Tenth)
The prayer known as Ṣalāt al-Raghāʾib—twelve rakʿahs performed between Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ on the night of the first Friday in Rajab—and the prayer of the night of mid-Shaʿbān, which is one hundred rakʿahs, are both bidʿahs, reprehensible and detestable innovations. One must not be taken in by their mention in the books Qūt al-Qulūb and Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, nor by the ḥadīths cited therein; all of that is invalid. Nor should anyone be deceived by some scholars who, having mistaken their ruling, wrote a few pages recommending them, for they are in error. The eminent shaykh, Imām Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ismāʿīl al-Maqdisī, composed a valuable treatise refuting both prayers, and he did so with great skill—may Allah have mercy on him.

(Branch)
The positions of the jurists regarding the manner of performing voluntary rakʿahs:
We have already mentioned that, in our school, it is permissible in unrestricted nafl to end the prayer after one or two rakʿahs, and that it is also permissible to link many rakʿahs together, whether by night or by day. Abū Ḥanīfah held that it is never permissible to conclude any prayer with a single rakʿah. He further stated that the voluntary prayers of the day may be offered as two or four rakʿahs only, with no addition; and that the voluntary prayers of the night may be offered as two, four, six, or eight rakʿahs, with no addition. The authentic ḥadīths cited earlier in the section on Witr plainly support our view.

(Branch)
Our school maintains that the best practice in voluntary prayers, by night or day, is to give the salām after every two rakʿahs. Ibn al-Mundhir transmitted this opinion from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Ḥammād ibn Abī Sulaymān, Mālik, and Aḥmad, and he himself preferred it. It has been related from Ibn ʿUmar and Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh that, in the daytime, four rakʿahs are superior. Al-Awzāʿī and Abū Ḥanīfah said: night prayer is in pairs, whereas daytime prayer may be in fours if one wishes, or in twos if one wishes. Our proof is the afore-mentioned ḥadīth, “The prayer of the night and the day is in pairs,” and it is authentic, as we demonstrated earlier. Moreover, innumerable ḥadīths establish that the voluntary prayers of the day are in sets of two; they are well known in the Ṣaḥīḥ, such as the two rakʿahs before Ẓuhr and the two after it, likewise before ʿAṣr, after Maghrib and after ʿIshāʾ, the two rakʿahs of Duḥā, the greeting of the mosque, the two rakʿahs of Istikhārah, two rakʿahs upon returning from travel, two rakʿahs after ablution, and others besides. As for the ḥadīth reported from Abū Ayyūb—may Allah be pleased with him—raising it to the Prophet, “Four before Ẓuhr with no salām between them; the gates of heaven are opened for them,” it is weak, and its weakness is universally acknowledged. Among those who declared it weak are Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Bayhaqī; its chain revolves around ʿUbaydah ibn Muʿattib, and he is weak. Allah knows best.

(Branch)
Our school holds that, once the iqāmah for the obligatory prayer has been called, it is disliked to occupy oneself with any supererogatory prayer other than the greeting of the mosque and the Sunnah of Fajr. Ibn al-Mundhir transmitted this view from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, his son, Abū Hurayrah, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, and Ibn