What is the Ruling on Ṣalāt al-Raghā’ib?
Source: Fatāwā Amanpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amanpuri
❖ Question:
What do you say about Ṣalāt al-Raghā’ib?
❖ Answer:
Ṣalāt al-Raghā’ib is performed on the night of the first Friday of Rajab. This prayer is a bid‘ah (innovation) and an invention in the religion.
✿ Evidence from Hadith
Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه reported that the Prophet ﷺ said:
لا تختصوا ليلة الجمعة بقيام من بين الليالي
(Do not single out the night of Friday for night prayer over other nights.)
(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: 1144)
✿ Statements of Scholars
✔ Imām al-Nawawī رحمه الله (676H):
“This hadith clearly prohibits singling out the night of Friday for prayer or its day for fasting, as mentioned earlier. This is unanimously disliked. Scholars have used this as proof for the reprehensibility of the innovated prayer known as Ṣalāt al-Raghā’ib. May Allah destroy the one who fabricated and invented it, for it is an abhorrent bid‘ah, one of misguidance and ignorance. It contains manifest evils. Many imams authored valuable works condemning it, declaring its performers and inventors misguided, and listing its defects and invalidity. The proofs against it are too numerous to count.”
(Sharḥ al-Nawawī 8/262)
✔ ‘Allāmah Ibn al-Naḥḥās رحمه الله (814H):
“What they have innovated on that night — the prayer known as Ṣalāt al-Raghā’ib — is a bid‘ah. The hadith reported regarding it is fabricated by consensus of the muḥaddithīn.”
(Tanbīh al-Ghāfilīn, p. 496)
Conclusion:- Ṣalāt al-Raghā’ib is a fabricated practice with no basis in the Qur’an or Sunnah.
- The hadith about it is forged.
- Performing it is misguidance and a reprehensible bid‘ah according to the consensus of scholars.
