Chapter on Seeking Rain (Ṣalāt al-Istisqāʾ)
Linguistically, istisqāʾ means to ask for water for oneself or for others.
In the legal sense, it is to request rain from Allah, Exalted be He, when drought occurs, following a particular procedure.
The rain-seeking prayer belongs to those acts of worship that are tied to specific causes, like the eclipse prayer and the funeral prayer; it becomes prescribed whenever its cause appears.
Its cause is people’s suffering from drought because rainfall has ceased, wells have dried up, or rivers have run low.
First hadith
ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿĀṣim al-Māzinī reported: “The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, went out to seek rain. He faced the qiblah and supplicated, then turned his cloak inside out and performed two rakʿahs, reciting aloud.” In another wording: “He went to the prayer ground.” ⦗1⦘
Overall meaning
When the earth became barren in the Prophet’s time, he led the people to the open plain to beseech Allah for rain. He faced the qiblah—where prayers are most likely answered—and called upon Allah to send relief to the Muslims and lift the drought from them. As a hopeful sign that their condition would change from barrenness to abundance and from hardship to ease, he reversed his cloak from one side to the other, then led them in the rain-seeking prayer of two rakʿahs, reciting aloud because it is a congregational prayer.
Points derived from the hadith
1- The legitimacy of Ṣalāt al-Istisqāʾ. The scholars unanimously recommend it, except Abū Ḥanīfah, who holds that seeking rain is prescribed by supplication alone; his own colleagues disagreed with him.
2- A sermon is legislated for it, containing elements appropriate to the situation: seeking forgiveness, humble entreaty, supplication, warning against injustices, and commanding repentance.
3- The sermon should precede the prayer, as stated in some reports. However, in the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad it is related that the prayer comes before the sermon, and this is the view of the majority of scholars among the Shāfiʿīs, Ḥanbalīs, and others.