The dawn prayer, Fajr, has four rakats: two obligatory (fard) and two sunnah. A piece on Ittefaq's religion page says the Prophet (peace be upon him) valued these two sunnah rakats above any other voluntary prayer, and that the hadith allow someone who misses them to make them up later.
The piece begins with the place of prayer in Islam. Salat is the second of the five pillars and one of the obligatory acts of worship, and the writer notes that prayer is mentioned 82 times in the Quran. A hadith narrated by Ubadah ibn al-Samit says that whoever performs ablution well, prays on time and completes the bowing and humility of prayer has Allah's promise of forgiveness (Mishkat, hadith 570).
On the special status of the Fajr sunnah, Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said she never saw the Prophet as careful about any voluntary prayer as he was about the two rakats before Fajr (Sahih Muslim, hadith 1559). Hafsa said that when the time of Fajr came, he prayed nothing but two short rakats (Sahih Muslim, hadith 1551).
If someone finds the congregation for the obligatory prayer has already started before they have prayed the sunnah, the piece says they can pray the sunnah afterwards. The two sunnah rakats of Fajr may even be prayed after sunrise. It cites a hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah: whoever has not prayed the two rakats of Fajr before the obligatory prayer should pray them after the sun has risen (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, hadith 423).
The message of the piece is that a missed Fajr sunnah should not simply be dropped but made up when possible, because the Prophet gave this prayer particular importance. For finer points of practice, readers can ask a local scholar.
Photo: Masumcity / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Ittefaq
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