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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Role of the in Building the Virtuous Community Book Eight: The System of Devotional Acts of the Virtuous Community Daily Devotional Acts Daily Prayers, Supererogatory Prayers and Details According to the code of Islamic law, the performance of the daily ritual prayer is obligatory five times a day amounting to seventeen units of prayer (i.e.

rak’ah ); two at dawn (before sunrise), four just after midday, four in the afternoon, three at dusk (immediately after sunset), and four in the earlier hours of night. This is an object of agreement among all Muslims. On journeys, the four-unit prayers become two units; however, jurisprudents of the various Muslim sects disagree regarding some details and certain conditions. Along with its particularities, the ritual prayer is one of the most significant pillars on which Islam has been founded.

It also represents the best example of the unity of the Muslim nation, since all agree upon it. It is also the best of all devotional acts after the recognition of Almighty Allah, as is maintained by some traditions because it expresses the relationship and connection between man and the Almighty—a relationship that must be constant and never cut off.

For this reason, prayer must not lapse under any circumstance; rather, it must be performed in all states, including health and sickness, security and fear and, when no other means is possible it must even be performed through gestures.[^1] One of the highly recommended acts is to offer a number of units of prayer before and after these ritual obligatory prayers. Such supererogatory prayers are nawafil (sing. nafilah ) or rawatib .

In the traditions of the (‘a), the number of the units of these daily supererogatory prayers is twice the number of units of obligatory prayers.

They are thirty-four units in all; four units before dawn, eight before afternoon, eight before evening, four after sunset, two in the sitting position after the early night prayer (regarded as one unit only), eight for the night prayer, whose time is between midnight and dawn, two after the night prayer (called al-Shaf’ ), and one after that (called al-Witr ).[^2] Shaykh al-Kulayni has reported through an authentic chain of authority that Hannan that ‘Amr ibn Hurayth asked Imam al-Sadiq (‘a) to inform him about the prayers the Holy Prophet (S) used to offer.