Are the Four Rakʿahs Before ʿIshā’ Prayer Considered Sunnah?
Source: Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri
Is there any Sunnah status for four rakʿahs before the obligatory ʿIshā’ (night) prayer?
There is no authentic proof from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ establishing four rakʿahs before ʿIshā’ as Sunnah. Therefore, declaring them as Sunnah is baseless and without evidence.
“Some people have inferred from the statement of ʿAllāmah Anwar Shāh Kashmīrī that one should pray four rakʿahs before and after ʿIshā’. I thought perhaps Ḥāfiẓ Qāsim ibn Qutlubughā had provided a ḥadīth for this in his book al-Ikhtiyār.
So I wrote to Shaykh Abū al-Wafā’ Afghānī, the head of Dār Iḥyā’ al-Maʿārif al-Nuʿmāniyyah, Hyderabad Deccan, since he had a photocopy of the manuscript. My purpose was for him to verify this section.
After reviewing the manuscript, he replied: ‘We found the section blank.’
This means that Ḥāfiẓ Qāsim ibn Qutlubughā, a deeply knowledgeable scholar who even authored a book to supplement Ḥāfiẓ Jamāl al-Dīn al-Zaylaʿī’s Takhrīj Aḥādīth al-Hidāyah, did not know of any ḥadīth supporting this issue.
Despite his immense knowledge, he could not cite a single narration for four rakʿahs before ʿIshā’.
On the other hand, books of Ḥanafī scholars affirm that four rakʿahs before ʿIshā’ are Sunnah.
It is possible that their evidence exists in some lost or unpublished manuscript. And Allah knows best.”
Maʿārif al-Sunan: vol. 4, pp. 115–116
Instead of admitting that there is no ḥadīth from the Prophet ﷺ nor any traceable practice from the Companions to support the notion, it is being implied that our religion has been lost due to missing manuscripts.
But what if a Rāfiḍī (Shīʿī) claims, “The evidence for our beliefs lies in some lost manuscript,”—
Would that be accepted as valid proof?
Source: Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri
❖ Question:
Is there any Sunnah status for four rakʿahs before the obligatory ʿIshā’ (night) prayer?
❖ Answer:
There is no authentic proof from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ establishing four rakʿahs before ʿIshā’ as Sunnah. Therefore, declaring them as Sunnah is baseless and without evidence.
✿ The Observation of ʿAllāmah Yūsuf Binnūrī رحمه الله (d. 1397 AH):
“Some people have inferred from the statement of ʿAllāmah Anwar Shāh Kashmīrī that one should pray four rakʿahs before and after ʿIshā’. I thought perhaps Ḥāfiẓ Qāsim ibn Qutlubughā had provided a ḥadīth for this in his book al-Ikhtiyār.
So I wrote to Shaykh Abū al-Wafā’ Afghānī, the head of Dār Iḥyā’ al-Maʿārif al-Nuʿmāniyyah, Hyderabad Deccan, since he had a photocopy of the manuscript. My purpose was for him to verify this section.
After reviewing the manuscript, he replied: ‘We found the section blank.’
This means that Ḥāfiẓ Qāsim ibn Qutlubughā, a deeply knowledgeable scholar who even authored a book to supplement Ḥāfiẓ Jamāl al-Dīn al-Zaylaʿī’s Takhrīj Aḥādīth al-Hidāyah, did not know of any ḥadīth supporting this issue.
Despite his immense knowledge, he could not cite a single narration for four rakʿahs before ʿIshā’.
On the other hand, books of Ḥanafī scholars affirm that four rakʿahs before ʿIshā’ are Sunnah.
It is possible that their evidence exists in some lost or unpublished manuscript. And Allah knows best.”
Maʿārif al-Sunan: vol. 4, pp. 115–116✿ Commentary by the Author:
Instead of admitting that there is no ḥadīth from the Prophet ﷺ nor any traceable practice from the Companions to support the notion, it is being implied that our religion has been lost due to missing manuscripts.
But what if a Rāfiḍī (Shīʿī) claims, “The evidence for our beliefs lies in some lost manuscript,”—
Would that be accepted as valid proof?
Summary:
- There is no authentic Sunnah for four rakʿahs before ʿIshā’ from the Prophet ﷺ.
- No ḥadīth or Companion report supports this practice.
- To declare it as Sunnah is without evidence.
- Claims of missing manuscripts cannot serve as Sharʿī proof in religion.
