Voluntary Prayers at Home After Eid Salah
Written by: Imran Ayyub Lahori
❖ Performing Nafl After Eid Prayer at Home
It is established through authentic narration that no additional prayers were performed by the Prophet ﷺ at the Eid ground, either before or after the Eid prayer. However, it is proven that after returning home, the Prophet ﷺ would pray two Rakʿahs.
✦ Evidence from the Sunnah:
➊ Narrated by Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (رضي الله عنه):
“The Prophet ﷺ would not offer any prayer before the Eid (at the Eid ground), but once he returned to his home, he would offer two Rakʿahs.”
📚 Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Mājah: 1069, Ibn Mājah: 1293
✔ Declared ḥasan by Hāfiẓ al-Būṣīrī in Miṣbāḥ al-Zujājah: 1/423 and by Ibn Ḥajar in Fatḥ al-Bārī: 3/159
❖ Scholarly Opinions:
✔ Imām Aḥmad and Imām Mālik:
→ No supererogatory (nafl) prayer should be offered before or after the Eid prayer.
✔ Companions with same view:
→ ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar, ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, Ḥudhayfah, Salamah ibn al-Akwaʿ, and Jābir (رضي الله عنهم).
✔ Ḥanafī scholars:
→ No prayer before Eid, but permissible to offer nafl prayers after Eid.
✔ Shāfiʿī scholars:
→ The Imām should not pray before or after, but the followers (muqtadīs) may offer voluntary prayers both before and after Eid.
📚 Al-Mughnī: 3/280, Nayl al-Awṭār: 2/603, Fatḥ al-Bārī: 3/159, Sharḥ Muslim by al-Nawawī: 3/448
✅ Summary:
➤ No nafl is to be performed at the Eid ground either before or after Eid Salah.
➤ After returning home, it is recommended (mustaḥabb) to perform two Rakʿahs, based on the practice of the Prophet ﷺ.
