—for what remains. Yet when Allah, exalted is He, calls His servant to account for the prayer and it is found sound, he will surely have prospered and succeeded; otherwise he will have failed and lost. Thereafter Allah—glorified be He—looks into the servant’s deeds to see whether he has any voluntary prayers, for by them the obligatory prayers are completed. It is therefore out of Allah’s bounty, mercy, favor, and kindness that He has legislated supererogatory prayers for us: after the obligatory prayers, before them, and at all times save the times that are prohibited. A person’s obligatory prayer is bound to contain some defect, and these voluntary prayers make up for it.

For the noon (ẓuhr) prayer there are four rakʿahs beforehand, offered with two separate taslīms, and two rakʿahs afterwards. The afternoon (ʿaṣr) prayer has no regular sunnah attached to it, but it does have an unrestricted sunnah, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “Between every two calls to prayer there is a prayer.” The sunset (maghrib) prayer has a regular sunnah of two rakʿahs afterwards and an unrestricted sunnah before it. The night (ʿishāʾ) prayer has two rakʿahs after it, while the dawn (fajr) prayer has two rakʿahs before it. In addition, there are the night prayer (qiyām al-layl), the witr prayer, and the forenoon prayer (ṣalāt al-ḍuḥā). All of these supererogatory prayers increase the worshiper’s reward and compensate for any deficiency that may have occurred in the obligatory prayer. This is one of Allah’s blessings, and we ask Him to help us and you to remember Him, to thank Him, and to worship Him in the best manner.