First: Its ruling.
Second: Its description and virtue.
Third: Performing it briefly.
Fourth: What is recited in it.
Fifth: Lying down afterward.
Sixth: Whoever misses it.
These issues are discussed in detail as follows:
First: Its Ruling
The regular sunnah prayer of Fajr is among the most emphatically stressed of the regular sunnah prayers. The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—would observe it consistently and never omit it, whether at home or while traveling.
Nothing authentically reported from him—peace and blessings be upon him—indicates that it is obligatory. (1)
The evidence that the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—performed the two rak‘ahs of Fajr while traveling is the authentic report from Abū Maryam, who said:
“We were traveling with the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—and journeyed through one night. As dawn approached, the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—stopped and went to sleep, and the people slept as well. We did not awaken until the sun had risen upon us. The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—then instructed the caller to prayer to give the call. He then performed the two rak‘ahs before Fajr, after which he instructed him to give the call to commence the prayer. He led the people in prayer and then told us of what would occur until the Hour is established.” (2)
(1) As for the hadith narrated from Abū Hurayra and attributed to the Prophet, “Do not abandon it, even if cavalry drives you off” (meaning the sunnah prayer of Fajr), it is weak.
Abū Dāwūd records it (1/487, *'Awn*), as does al-Tahāwī in *Sharh Ma'ānī al-Āthār* (1/299). Their chain of transmission includes Abd al-Rahmān ibn Ishāq al-Madanī, who is weak, and Ibn Sīlān, whose status is unknown. Success is from Allah.
(2) An authentic hadith by virtue of corroborating evidence (*sahīh li-ghayrihi*).
Al-Nasā'ī records it in the Book of Prayer Times, chapter “How to Make Up a Missed Prayer” (*Sahīh Sunan al-Nasā'ī*, with abridged chains, hadith no. 605; 1/133).
A report with the same meaning is narrated from Abū Hurayra by Muslim in his *Sahīh* (hadith no. 680). It also has numerous corroborating reports in Abū Dāwūd, in the Book of Prayer, chapter “One Who Sleeps through a Prayer or Forgets It” (*Sahīh Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, with abridged chains, 1/88–90).
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya said: “The Prophet’s practice—peace and blessings be upon him—while traveling was to restrict himself to the obligatory prayers. No report has been preserved from him—peace and blessings be upon him—of his performing the regular sunnah prayer associated with an obligatory prayer, either before or after it, except for the Witr prayer and the sunnah prayer of Fajr, neither of which he would omit, whether at home or traveling.” *Zād al-Ma'ād* (1/473).