✍ Excerpted from: “Ghair Masnoon Nafli Namazain” by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Ameenpuri
❖ Ṣalāt al-Fatḥ – Is There a Prayer After Conquest?
Some later scholars have deemed it recommended (mustaḥabb) for a victorious leader or commander to offer a specific “Prayer of Conquest” (Ṣalāt al-Fatḥ). However, there is no authentic evidence to support this view. Below is a detailed analysis of the narrations commonly presented in support:
📚 Evidence #1
Narrated by al-Shaʿbī رحمه الله:
لما فتح خالد الحيرة صلى صلاة الفتح ثماني ركعات لا يسلم فيهن، ثم انصرف
“When Khālid ibn al-Walīd رضي الله عنه conquered Ḥīrah, he offered eight rakʿahs of the Prayer of Conquest in one sitting without taslīm (salām), then departed.”
,
This narration is fabricated.
The chain of narration is weak due to the following reasons:
➊ Saif ibn ʿUmar al-Kūfī is unanimously agreed upon by hadith critics to be weak and rejected.
➋ Shuʿayb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Kūfī is unknown (majhūl).
❖ Imām Ibn ʿAdī رحمه الله said:
“He has some narrations and reports, but he is not well-known. His narrations are few and contain anomalies, and some include disparagement of the Salaf.”
❖ Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī رحمه الله said:
“He is majhūl (unknown).”
➌ The narrator ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad in the chain is not clearly identified.
📚 Evidence #2
It is claimed that Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ رضي الله عنه, upon entering the throne room of Kisrā (Chosroes) as a conqueror, offered eight rakʿahs of Ṣalāt al-Fatḥ with the Muslims.
This narration is also fabricated.
Reasons for rejection:
➊ Again, Saif ibn ʿUmar is the narrator—unanimously considered a liar (kadhdhāb) and rejected (matrūk).
➋ Shuʿayb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Rifāʿī al-Kūfī is unknown.
❖ A similar fabricated narration also appears in Futūḥ al-Shām by al-Wāqidī (2/187), a book which is:
➌ Based on Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Wāqidī, who is himself a liar (kadhdhāb). Therefore, the book is unreliable.
➍ The chain of narration above al-Wāqidī is also missing or untraceable.
❖ Important Note
On the day of the Conquest of Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ offered eight rakʿahs in the home of Umm Hānī رضي الله عنها. However, these were Duḥā (forenoon) prayers, not a special “Prayer of Conquest.”
✅ Conclusion
- There is no authentic hadith that proves the legislation of Ṣalāt al-Fatḥ (a specific prayer upon victory or conquest).
- The narrations used as evidence are either weak, fabricated, or based on unknown narrators.
- The only prayers that are acceptable to Allah are those which are proven from the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.
- Introducing new, self-invented acts of worship—even with good intention—holds no validity in Islam.
