How many rakats of sunnah a day?

[IslamUnites]

AssalamuAlaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

The other day my brother was listening to a talk by shaykh Anwar al-Awlaki. In his talk the shaykh said that if a person was to perform 16 rakats of sunnah a day, he will enter paradise ( something along those lines). Now, I feel quite confused, because I thought there was 20 rakats of sunnah a day? Which is correct?

Also if there is something weak in the hanafi madhab, should we give preferance to a strong hadith? For example in the case of witr prayer, after 2 rakats we read attahiyatu and then stand up and after the takbir we read dua qunoot. This is weak compared to the hadith which says that after 2 rakat we should say assalamu'alaikum warahmatullah over both shoulders and then stand up and read dua qunoot. My brother has been arguing that we have to follow the stronger hadith. I will greatly apprciate your help and advice on this matter.

May you be rewarded in abundance, ameen.

[Oscar-Mike]

These are known as rawatib prayers.

Umm Habiba, the wife of the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him), reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: If any Muslim servant (of Allah) prays for the sake of Allah twelve rak'ahs (of Sun'an) every day, over and above the obligatory ones, Allah will build for him a house in paradise, or a house will be built for him in paradise; and I have not abandoned to observe the in after (hearing it from the Messenger of Allah). (So said also 'Amr and Nu'man.) Sahih Muslim Book #4, Hadith #1581

"Allaah will build a house in Heaven for whoever is diligent in observing 12 Sunnah Rak'aat (as follows): 4 Rak'aat before and 2 after the Dhuhr (Midday) Prayer, 2 after the Maghrib (Sunset Prayer), 2 after the ‘Ishaa’ (Evening) Prayer and 2 before the Fajr (Dawn) Prayer." Hadith sahih narrated by at-Tirmidhi No. 379 and by others.

[abulayl]

+ 4 before asr and isha(sunnate ghaire muaqqadah)

[krazy_angel23]

Also if there is something weak in the hanafi madhab, should we give preferance to a strong hadith? For example in the case of witr prayer, after 2 rakats we read attahiyatu and then stand up and after the takbir we read dua qunoot. This is weak compared to the hadith which says that after 2 rakat we should say assalamu'alaikum warahmatullah over both shoulders and then stand up and read dua qunoot. My brother has been arguing that we have to follow the stronger hadith. I will greatly apprciate your help and advice on this matter.

May you be rewarded in abundance, ameen.

Imam Sahib understood ahadith and fiqh much more and deeper than we can even dream of understnding these sciences. if the mas'ala of witrs being read in such a manner is only mentioned in this one weak hadith then u can b sed 2 have a point but that is not the case there are so many ahadith suppourting the method the Ahnaafs have opted for ( check in Sunan Abi Dawud). ahadith with strong asnaad. if Imam sahib had a weak hadith on one hand and a stronger one on the other would he have not acted upon the stronger one? if normal laypeople like us recognised that the hadith suppourting this method was weak, would this miss the attention of Imam sahib who was an expert in this field?!

sorry, i know ur bro is the one who is arguing about doing amal on the stronger hadith but it makes me really angry when people think they can understand deen better than our pious salaf.

[bugmenot]

+ 4 before asr and isha(sunnate ghaire muaqqadah)

technically before isha' there are not "sunnah"


as for witr see http://www.al-inaam.com/dhadith/qna/hanafi_witr.htm

[abdulwahhab]

+ 4 before asr and isha(sunnate ghaire muaqqadah)

You can call sunnah ghair muaqqadah as mustahab so they are not accounted for. When talking about sunnah only, it is mostly in reference to sunnah muaqqadah. Similarly, when talking about something being makrooh, it is mostly in reference to makrooh tahrimi.

[tryingtobegood]

AA,

They have a good salah chart with all the details of Nafl, Sunnah, and Fard prayers at the following site. I tried to copy and paste it but the tables did not format correctly.


http://www.journeytojannah.com/salah.asp

[The Fake Shaykh]

The Sunna Prayers Related to the Obligatory Prayers: A Detailed Exposition

for full read: http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.a...ID=1226&CATE=4

The confirmed sunna prayers

There are twelve confirmed sunna prayers that are associated with the fard prayers.

On the authority of the mother of the believers, Umm Habiba Ramla bint Abi Sufyan, she said, ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) say “ There is no Muslim servant of Allah who prays twelve supererogatory rakats from other than the obligatory prayer for the sake of Allah most high except that Allah make s f or him a house in paradise”’ [Muslim]. Tirmidhi adds to this in a well and rigorously authenticated narration, ‘ Four before Zuhr, two rakats after it, two after maghrib, two after Isha and two before Fajr’.

[hope1]

You can call sunnah ghair muaqqadah as mustahab so they are not accounted for. When talking about sunnah only, it is mostly in reference to sunnah muaqqadah. Similarly, when talking about something being makrooh, it is mostly in reference to makrooh tahrimi.

Assalamu alaikum,

Brother there is a significant difference between sunnate muakkadah, sunnate ghair muakkadah and mustahab. Each is different. And it seems from Beheshti Zewar that the 4 rak'at before Isha is mustahab and not sunnah.

[bladeknight]

How many sunnah rakats are there in a day? I think this was the question. I pray only the fard prayers because I am not sure how many sunnah prayers there are. Can you tell me how many sunnah rakats are there in each timing i.e timing for fajr how many sunnah rakats there are, timing of zuhr how many rakats of sunnah there are etc.