{"id":14366,"date":"2026-04-15T00:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/?p=14366"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:37:19","slug":"what-is-the-difference-between-fard-and-nafl-prayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/?p=14366","title":{"rendered":"What is the Difference Between Fard and Nafl Prayers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><strong>Question: <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Are the <em>Fard<\/em>\u00a0and <em>Nafl<\/em>\u00a0prayers offered in the same way? Do we have to recite a <em>surah<\/em> (chapter of the Qur\u2019an) after <a href=\"http:\/\/www.learning-quran.com\/quran-translations\/en-translation\/recitation-surat-al-fatihah\/\">Al-Fatihah<\/a> (The Opening) and <em>du`a\u2019<\/em> (supplication) after <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.prayerinislam.com\/fatwas-rulings\/how-to-make-sujud-prostration\/\">sujud<\/a><\/em> (prostration)?<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><strong>Answer:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Obligatory prayers are the prayers which Almighty Allah has commanded us to offer five-times a day at their fixed times. They are <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.prayerinislam.com\/guide-to-prayer\/obligatory-prayers-guide-to-prayer\/the-fajr-prayer\/\">Fajr<\/a><\/em> (Dawn) prayer, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prayerinislam.com\/guide-to-prayer\/obligatory-prayers-guide-to-prayer\/zhuhr-prayer\/\"><em>Zhuhr<\/em> <\/a>(Noon) prayer, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prayerinislam.com\/guide-to-prayer\/asr-the-middle-prayer\/\"><em>`Asr<\/em> <\/a>(Afternoon) prayer, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.prayerinislam.com\/guide-to-prayer\/obligatory-prayers-guide-to-prayer\/maghrib-prayer\/\">Maghrib<\/a><\/em> (Sunset) prayer, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prayerinislam.com\/guide-to-prayer\/the-isha-prayer\/\"><em>`Isha\u2019<\/em> <\/a>(Night) prayer.\u00a0Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him)\u00a0narrated that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-faith.com\/category\/prophet-muhammad\/\">the Prophet<\/a> (peace be upon him) said, &#8220;The five daily (prescribed) Salat, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prayerinislam.com\/fatwas-rulings\/ruling-of-friday-prayer\/\">Friday<\/a> (prayer) to the next Friday (prayer), and the fasting of Ramadan to the next Ramadan, is expiation of the sins committed in between them, so long as major sins are avoided.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-faith.com\/featured\/imam-muslim-leading-scholar-hadith\/\">Muslim<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) offered extra voluntarily prayers in addition to obligatory prayers. These prayers are called <em>Sunnah<\/em> or <em>Nafl <\/em>prayers.\u00a0Supererogatory prayers are divided into two categories: first is the regular <em>sunnah<\/em> prayers (<em>rawatib<\/em>) which are mentioned in the following <em>hadith:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Um Habibah (may Allah be pleased with her narrated that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: &#8220;Whoever prays twelve <em>rak`ahs<\/em> during the night and day other than the prescribed prayers, a house will be built for him in Paradise: four before <em>Zhuhr<\/em> and two <em>rak`ahs<\/em> afterward, two before <em>`Asr<\/em>, two after <em>Maghrib<\/em> and two before <em>Fajr<\/em>.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-faith.com\/featured\/at-tirmidhi-imam-of-hadith-and-fiqh\/\">At-Tirmidhi<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Second, there are many supererogatory prayers aside from these regular <em>sunnah<\/em> prayers such as two <em>rak`as<\/em> after ablution or after entering a mosque.<\/p>\n<p>The supererogatory prayers are normally offered individually without <em>Adhan<\/em> (call to prayer) or <em>Iqamah<\/em>.<a href='https:\/\/prayerinislam.com\/what-is-the-difference-between-fard-and-nafl-prayers\/' target='_blank'>Soucre Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> What is the Difference Between Fard and Nafl Prayers?  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1799,1563],"tags":[1859,4020,5855,4899,4900,9,1568,4050,1569,374,2166,4061,4901,1575,1940,1852,1576,1577,2096,2800,8942],"class_list":["post-14366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fatwas-rulings","category-prayer-in-islam","tag-ask-about-prayer","tag-etiquettes-of-prayer","tag-fard-and-nafl-prayers","tag-fard-prayers","tag-fatwa-of-prayer","tag-featured","tag-how-muslims-pray","tag-how-to-offer-salah","tag-how-to-pray","tag-muhammad-salah","tag-nafl-prayers","tag-obligatory-prayers","tag-performing-salat","tag-prayer-in-islam","tag-quran-in-prayer","tag-rulings-of-prayer","tag-salah","tag-salat","tag-sunnah-prayers","tag-supererogatory-prayers","tag-surah-after-al-fatihah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Fard-and-Nafl-Prayers.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}