The Kinds of Prayer

The following are the various kinds of prayer:

1. Obligatory (Fard), which includes the five daily prayers and the Friday’s noon congregational prayer. Failure to observe these prayers on time is a serious and punishable sin. However, funeral prayer which is known as “Farad Kifayah” in Arabic, which is a collective duty, is also obligatory in the sense that if no one comes out to perform the prayer on a deceased Muslim in a given community, the community as a whole is deemed sinful in the sight of Allah, but if it is performed by some of the people, then, the rest of the community are absolved of the sin.

2. Supererogatory (Wajib and Sunnah), which includes the prayers accompanying the obligatory services, and the congregations of the two great festivals (Eeds). Failure to observe these is a harmful negligence and a reproachable conduct.

3. Optional prayer which includes all voluntary prayers at any time of the day or the night. Two periods have a special preference: the later part of the night until just before the breaking of the dawn and the mid-morning period.

The Times of Prayer

Every Muslim, male or female, must offer at least five daily prayers in time, if there is no lawful reason for exemption, combination, or temporary delay, They are:

1. The Early Morning Prayer (Salatu-l-Fajr), which may be offered anytime after the dawn and before sunrise, a total period of about two hours.

2. The Noon Prayer (Salatu-l-Zuhr). This prayer may be offered anytime after the sun begins to decline from its Zenith until it is about midway on its course to setting. For example, if the sun sets at 7:00 p.m. the prayer time begins a little after 12:00 noon and continues until a little after 3:30 p.m. Soon after that, the time of next prayer begins. However, there are accurate calendars telling the time of each prayer. But if there is none available, one must resort to one’s best judgement.

3. The Mid-Afternoon Prayer (Salatu-l-‘Asr), which begins right after the expiration of the Noon Prayer time and extends to sunset.

4. The Sunset Prayer (Salatu-l-Maghrib). The time of this prayer begins immediately after sunset and extends till the red glow in the western horizon disappears. Normally it extends over a period of one hour and twenty to thirty minutes.