Fiqh Al-Ibadah 6 — Al-Awqāt al-Makrūhah — the disliked times of prayer, iʿādah and qaḍāʾ الأَوْقَاتُ المَكْرُوهَة

1 · Where this lesson sits #

Each prayer has a beginning and an ending time. The next question is: inside a day, are there times when you should not pray at all? The answer is three of them — and then a long list of prayers that are exempt because they have a cause.

A story to frame the lesson. At a madrasa, a man was seen praying after ʿAṣr — "beautifully, with enormous khushūʿ, another level altogether". Asked afterwards what he had prayed, he said "the sunnah", and did not know that praying then is makrūh. The moral frames the whole lesson: devotion is not the measure. "However much khushūʿ you bring to it — the how matters just as much. What, why, how — all three."

The two-part test, which runs through the lesson: ikhlāṣ — for whom are you doing it — and ittibāʿ, doing it the way it was shown. For the second, two ḥadīths: khudhū ʿannī manāsikakum ("take your rites from me", said of Ḥajj) and ṣallū kamā raʾaytumūnī uṣallī ("pray as you have seen me pray").

2 · The three disliked times #

The evidence. Muslim (831) from ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir (may Allah be pleased with him):

The same three, in another order: after ʿAṣr until the Maghrib adhān; istiwāʾ, with Friday excepted; and after Fajr until the sun has risen.

3 · The exception: a prayer that has a preceding cause #

The dislike applies to a prayer with no preceding cause, and to a burial deliberately scheduled into one of these times. It does not apply where the burial simply fell there by coincidence, or where the prayer has a cause behind it.

Prayers that have a cause:

• the sunnah after wuḍūʾ
• taḥiyyat al-masjid — greeting the mosque
• making up a missed prayer
• the janāzah prayer — "a death has occurred", so it is prayed whenever it falls
• istikhārah, prayed when you are about to make a decision — a marriage, going to see a prospective bride

The evidence for making up a missed prayer. Al-Bukhārī (572) and Muslim (684) from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet ﷺ said:

Then he recited وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي — "And establish the prayer for My remembrance" (Ṭā Hā 20:14).

The argument drawn from it: his words "when he remembers it" mean that the legally prescribed time for that missed prayer is the moment he remembers it. So if he remembers during a prohibited time, he prays it then — the prayer is excluded from the general prohibition.

And the Prophet ﷺ himself prayed after ʿAṣr. Al-Bukhārī (1176) and Muslim (834) from Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her), who asked him about two rakʿahs he prayed after ʿAṣr:

What the Prophet ﷺ prayed then was the baʿdiyyah sunnah of Ẓuhr, made up after ʿAṣr — "that may be done". This is ṣalāh dhāt sabab, a prayer that comes with a reason behind it. Other prayers with a preceding cause are treated by analogy with making up a missed prayer.

4 · Makkah is exempt entirely #

The Sacred Precinct (Ḥaram) of Makkah is completely exempted from this prohibition:

"In Makkah there is no such restriction — we may pray at any time, whatever the hour."

5 · Four rakʿahs before ʿAṣr #

On the qabliyyah sunnah before ʿAṣr: رَحِمَ اللَّهُ امْرَأً صَلَّى قَبْلَ الْعَصْرِ أَرْبَعًا — "May Allah have mercy on a man who prays four rakʿahs before ʿAṣr." The point is practical: pray it when you can — "four rakʿahs, or two" — and Allah's mercy is obtained.

6 · Iʿādah — repeating a prayer #

Iʿādah means: you performed an obligatory prayer, then noticed a deficiency or shortcoming in its recommended manners or completing elements, and you pray it again without that deficiency.

Example: a man prays Ẓuhr alone, then finds a congregation praying it. It is recommended that he repeat it with them — the first prayer is the obligatory one, the second is voluntary (nāfilah).

The evidence. Al-Tirmidhī (219): the Prophet ﷺ prayed Fajr and saw two men who had not prayed with him. He asked why; they said they had already prayed in their dwellings. He said:

Riḥālinā (رِحَالِنَا): our homes and places of residence. One word in the English of the ḥadīth matters: observing — the Prophet ﷺ noticed the two men who had not prayed.

The same case, three ways:

• you prayed alone and the congregation begins — repeat;
• you prayed in a small congregation and a larger one becomes available — repeat;
• on a journey you combined Ẓuhr and ʿAṣr, then the ʿAṣr adhān is called while you are in the masjid — pray with them. "Is that iʿādah or qaḍāʾ? Iʿādah."

When repeating is not called for. If there was no deficiency in the first prayer, and the second would not be more complete than it, repetition is not recommended. The operative test: "The second must be more excellent than the first. If the two are the same, repeating is not obligatory. Only when the second prayer is better than the first is it recommended." And the case to avoid: knowing a congregation is coming and praying alone anyway is "playing with the prayer".

7 · Qaḍāʾ — making up a missed prayer #

Qaḍāʾ means performing the prayer after its time has ended — or when so little of the time remains that there is not enough for one rakʿah. Otherwise it is adāʾ, performance within the time.

A worked case: Ẓuhr got late, you make the takbīr, and there is not even time for one rakʿah before the adhān — then it is qaḍāʾ. If there is, it is adāʾ. Praying in a panic is not obligatory.

The majority position, across the schools: whoever leaves a prayer must make it up, whether by forgetfulness or deliberately — with this difference:

• Missed with a valid excuse (forgetfulness, sleep) — not sinful, and not required to hasten.
• Missed without a valid excuse, i.e. deliberately — sinful, and must make it up at the first opportunity.

The evidence: "Whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it, let him pray it when he remembers it. There is no expiation for it except that" (man nāma ʿan ṣalātin aw nasiyahā) — al-Bukhārī no. 572, Muslim no. 684. "No expiation except that" means missed obligatory prayers must be made up however many, and however long ago.

In the Shāfiʿī madhhab: if you let the time pass deliberately, you must pray it immediately — that is obligatory. If you overslept or forgot while genuinely occupied, doing it immediately is not obligatory; later, when you get the opportunity, is enough. And deliberate abandonment is a sin you must repent of (tawbah) as well as make up.

8 · The traveller who can neither make wuḍūʾ nor tayammum #

The scenario: you are travelling, stuck in your seat. You cannot make wuḍūʾ; tayammum is not possible either; praying itself is hard. What then?

The three opinions:

1. You need not pray then, but you must make it up (qaḍāʾ).
2. You must pray, and you must also make it up.
3. You pray as best you can, and you need not make it up — neither qaḍāʾ nor iʿādah.

The verdict is the second, given as the Shāfiʿī position: "You must pray. At that time, in whatever way is available and possible — sitting in your seat, standing, however you can — and afterwards you must make it up." The practical rider: think about it in advance, plan for it; do not walk into it carelessly.

The reasoning behind the third opinion, and why it is rejected: a prayer has conditions (shurūṭ), and if the conditions cannot be met the obligation does not attach — "you are ready to act, but none of the preconditions is available." Against it, some imams hold the make-up is still due, since qaḍāʾ is for what was left deliberately or forgotten, and this man neither forgot nor chose. The "no prayer and no make-up" view is "some scholars' view — not the accepted view."

9 · Who is obliged to pray #

The three conditions: bāligh (reached puberty), ʿāqil (sane, and conscious rather than unconscious), and ritually pure.

The apostate who returns makes up what he left, while one coming to Islam for the first time owes nothing for before.

The evidence for the exemptions:

The ḥadīth names the insane person, and everyone whose intellect is lost for an excusable cause is treated by analogy with him. The sleeping person is the exception inside the exception: he owes the make-up, by the ḥadīth of forgetting and sleeping above.

10 · Teaching children to pray #

A child is instructed to pray after completing seven years, and at ten he is struck for leaving it, to accustom him to prayer.

Al-Tirmidhī's wording is "teach the child", and he graded the ḥadīth ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.

From seven, begin teaching the child the matters of the prayer; from ten, be somewhat firmer — "strike them" means a light smack, alongside telling him off and whatever else brings him to the prayer — "but until they reach puberty it is not obligatory upon them," so encouragement is the main instrument. The same schedule applies to fasting: it too is from seven, encouraged rather than imposed, prayer first. And a warning: making a child under seven keep a fast as though it were obligatory is not recommended.

11 · Adab in the prayer — waswasah, the takbīr, tajāfī, and correction #

Waswasah. Repeating the prayer is permitted, but it must not turn into waswasah — obsessive misgiving — "that is a disease." The case: a man says Allāhu akbar, then says it again, and again, until the imām has gone into rukūʿ or already given the salām. Once is fine; a second time, perhaps; a third is too much. The devil of the prayer is Khinzab, who makes you recite al-Fātiḥah and then doubt whether you recited it. The remedy is procedural: give the misgiving one chance, set the intention, make the takbīr, then say "I will not repeat it again" — "that is how you break Shayṭān."

Tajāfī in sujūd: drawing the arms in so the elbows touch the thighs is contrary to the sunnah — the forearms and the thighs are held apart.

Correcting someone you see praying wrongly: with ḥikmah and with love — "go and say, 'it is like this'" — not by running up and shouting, not by scolding. "That is daʿwah. And daʿwah is one thing wherever you are — in the masjid, at home, on the road, in your business."

12 · Practice — a question to research #

The ḥadīth "the pen has been lifted from three… from the sleeping person until he wakes up" raises a question to go and search for. In earlier times there were no alarms; today a man sets an alarm before he sleeps. If you sleep with no alarm at all and miss Ṣubḥ — is setting one obligatory? On the face of the ḥadīth, "from the sleeping person until he wakes up" covers him. But some are strict about Ṣubḥ specifically and say sleeping without an alarm is no excuse. The question is left open deliberately: "the searching is what is required of you, whether you find the answer or do not find it."