Shafa'a () is an

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

prayer File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)'' rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...

(''salat'') that is performed at night after '' Isha'' (night-time prayer) or before ''

Witr Witr () is an Islamic prayer (''salat'') that is performed at night after '' Isha'' (night-time prayer) or before '' fajr'' (dawn prayer). Witr has an odd number of '' raka'at'' prayed in pairs, with the final raka'ah prayed separately. Accord ...

'' (odd or imparity prayer).

Presentation

The term ''Chafa'a'' is cited in the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

into the '' Āyah 3'' of '' Surah Al-Fajr'':

Recitation

It is desirable (''

mustahabb ''Mustahabb'' () is an Islamic term referring to an action or thing that is recommended and favoured. ''Mustahabb'' actions are those whose ruling ('' ahkam'') in Islamic law falls between '' mubah'' (neutral; neither encouraged nor discouraged ...

'') in the ''Chafa'a prayer'' to recite the qiraat and

tilawa The Tilawa () is a recitation of the successive verses of the Qur'ān in a standardized and proven manner according to the rules of the ten recitations. Presentation # The ''Tilawa'' of the Quran is given in terms and meanings, because the Qi ...

of Surat

Al-Fatiha Al-Fatiha () is the first chapter () of the Quran. It consists of seven verses (') which consist of a prayer for guidance and mercy. Al-Fatiha is recited in Muslim obligatory and voluntary prayers, known as ''salah''. The primary literal mea ...

and the

surah A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into ayah, verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' (al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while ...

that follows it in a loud voice like a , just as it is desirable to recite Surat

Al-Ala Al-Aʻlā () is the eighty-seventh chapter ('' surah'') of the Qur'an, with 19 '' ayat'' or verses. Al-A'la describes the Islamic view of existence, the Oneness of Allah, and Divine revelation, additionally mentioning rewards and punishments ...

in the first ''

rak'ah A Rak'a ( ', lit. "bow"; plural: ') is a single iteration of prescribed movements and Dua, supplications performed by Muslims as part of the prescribed obligatory prayer known as salah. Each of the five daily prayers observed by Muslims consis ...

'', then recite Surat Al-Kafirun in the second ''rak'ah''. The ''

jurists A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a legal practition ...

'' have relied on the ''

loudness In acoustics, loudness is the subjectivity, subjective perception of sound pressure. More formally, it is defined as the "attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud". The relat ...

'' and the ''

silence Silence is the absence of ambient hearing, audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low sound intensity, intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be exten ...

'' in the ''Chafa'a prayer'', as well as the ''Witr prayer'', which is part of the law of God, which requires that the recitation be in the entire night prayer, including Chafa'a and Witr, sometimes loudly and sometimes in silence. This jurisprudential opinion was based on the prophetic ''

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

'' narrated by the

Mother of the Believers A total of eleven women are confirmed as having been married to Muhammad, the founder of Islam. As a sign of respect, Muslims refer to each of these wives with the title ''"Umm al-Mu'minin"'' (, ), which is derived from of the Quran. Muhammad' ...

Aisha bint Abi Bakr in the

Sunan Abu Dawood ''Sunan Abi Dawud'' () is the third hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. It was compiled by scholar Abu Dawud al-Sijistani (). Introduction Abu Dawood compiled twenty-one books related to Hadith and preferred those (plural of ...

and

Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal ''Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal'' () is a collection of musnad hadith compiled by the Islamic scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. AH 241/AD 855) to whom the Hanbali fiqh (legislation) is attributed. Description Musnad Ahmad, also known as Al-Musnad , is on ...

, which reads: Imam Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani said in his book Al-Risalah:

Liaison with Witr

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

'' jurists ('' fuqaha'') believe that it is mandatory (''

'') to separate the two ''rak'ahs'' of the "Chafa'a prayer" by performing the

taslim ''Salah'' (, also spelled ''salat'') is the practice of formal ibadah, worship in Islam, consisting of a series of ritual prayers performed at prescribed times daily. These prayers, which consist of units known as rak'a, ''rak'ah'', include ...

to get out of them, before continuing to perform the only ''rak'ah'' for the Witr prayer afterwards. These ''

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

s'' considered that the ''

makruh In Islamic terminology, something which is makruh or makrooh (, transliteration, transliterated: ''makrooh'' or ''makrūh'') is "disliked", literally "detestable" or "abominable". This is one of the Ahkam, five categories (''al-ahkam al-khamsa'') ...

'' ruling of the

ic ''

Ahkam ''Ahkam'' (, plural of , ) is an Islamic term with several meanings. In the Quran, the word ''hukm'' is variously used to mean arbitration, judgement, authority, or God's will. In the early Islamic period, the Kharijites gave it political conn ...

'' applies to the case of joining the ''Chafa'a prayer'' with the ''Witr prayer'' afterwards without separating them by pronouncing the phrase of ''taslim''. The scholars of

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

schools (''

madhahib A ''madhhab'' (, , pl. , ) refers to any school of thought within Islamic jurisprudence. The major Sunni ''madhhab'' are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE and by the twelfth century almost all ...

'') also relied on the rules of the ''

principles of Islamic jurisprudence Principles of Islamic jurisprudence () are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (''fiqh'') for deriving the rulings of Islamic law (''sharia''). Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence elaborates how the scri ...

'' to determine that it is objectionable (''makruh'') to limit the performance of the ''

'' without being preceded by ''Chafa'a''.

Compensation

If a Muslim does not perform the ''Chafa'a'' and ''Witr'' prayers until

dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the diffuse sky radiation, appearance of indirect sunlight being Rayleigh scattering, scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc ha ...

and until he performs the Fajr fard prayer, then he must make them up during the day to compensate for giving up on them during the previous night. Since the supererogatory prayer (''

nafl prayer In Islam, a Nafl Prayer, (pl. nawafil) (, ''ṣalāt al-nafl'') or optional prayer, is a type of a non-obligatory prayer. They are believed to give extra reward to the person performing them, similar to sunnah prayers. According to the followi ...

'') is performed during the hours of the day in a silent voice, the fulfillment of the ''Chafa'a'' and ''Witr'' prayers is performed in a non-loud voice, as when the '' Duha prayer'' is performed in a non-loud voice. ''

Maliki The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...

'' jurists have acknowledged that the bass voice is a delegate (''mustahabb'') in reciting the two ''Chafa'a'' and ''Witr'' prayers, whether he prays them at night after the evening prayer ('' Isha'') or makes up for them after the dawn prayer ('' Fajr'').

Gallery

File:FirstSurahKoran.jpg, ''

'' File:Quran - year 1874 - Page 123.jpg, ''

'' File:Quran Leaf from Mamluk Sultanate.jpg, ''

'' File:Qur'an Neirizi.jpg, '' Al-Kafirun'' File:Al-Kafirun.jpg, '' Al-Kafirun''

References