How to and when can you perform Du'a prayers? what other kind of prayers are there?

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crimsontide06

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I have the regular salat prayers down and know how to do them. Now how about du'a prayers? These I assume are simply your personal prayers to God about whatever you want to pray about.


What other kinds of prayers are there and what are they for?

I usually do personal prayers right after the regular salat prayers. When I do them I do the movements of salat without words, but I do my personal prayers when on the ground(hands, knees).

Since this is about prayers...what are these extra raka prayers I have read about..something about doing them before each salat prayer?

Thanks!
 
Salaam to you,

Yes there are plenty of extra prayers you can do, generally 2 raka. Basic suna prayers before and after the 5 main ones. Asr does not have after and Maghrib does not have before, others you may do. There must be over 30 different prayers for all kinds of reasons. Even to help you with the choices presented. A or B? Which to do? You may perform the 'istikharah' and Allah will give you your answer. Believe it?

You may be able to buy books or guides on them. Best go to a centre/mosque to learn :statisfie
 
:salamext: brother,

I think you might be confusing Salah and Du'a.

Salah refers to the specific actions and sayings, beginning with the first takbeer (called takbeeratul Ihram) and ends with tasleem (when you turn your head to the right and left and say Assalaamu Alaykum Warahmatullah). There are 5 obligatory Salah in a day. Then there are regularly-observed voluntary prayers performed along with these obligatory prayers. These voluntary prayers are highly virtuous and should not be neglected because they are among the greatest actions of worship by which one becomes closer to Allaah :swt: after the obligatory prayers. Some of them are prayed before the obligatory prayers and some of them are prayed after.

There are also other voluntary prayers - some of these have specific times and others which are not restricted to certain times.

Regarding du'a, this can be translated as supplication. I am not sure what the technical definition is, but it is basically a form of worship where we call upon Allaah :swt:. Allaah :swt: loves to be asked and encourages His slaves to ask of Him. He says (interpretation of the meaning):

And your Lord said: “Invoke Me I will respond to your (invocation)... [Ghaafir 40:60]

Some du'as have been taught to us in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and we are also free to make our personal supplications to ask Allaah :swt: for whatever beneficial thing we want. The Prophet :saws: taught us a number of etiquettes for making du'a, such as lifting our hands, praising Allaah :swt: and sending peace and blessings on the Prophet :saws: at the beginning of the du'a. During our Salah, we are actually making du'a a number of times (we seek forgiveness, mercy and guidance etc. from Allaah :swt:), and there are times in our Salah such as prostration and at the end where we can supplicate with any du'a. As for whether it can be said in english or not within the prayer, I don't know about this, but outside of prayer it can be said in any language.

I hope this has been easy to understand, and Allaah :swt: knows best.
 
I am making a simple guess here about the exact intentions of the question, so please correct me if I am mistaken.

The du'a prayers which are asked about are probably those sunat prayers aka supplementary prayers which are performed specifically to make a du'a aka plea to Allah. There are a few that I know of.

One very common sunat prayer is the tahajjud prayer. This is performed at night. It comprises 2 rakaat but can be repeated many times. One of the requirements is that you must go to sleep first. Then wake yourself up solely for the purpose of praying to Allah and pleading for Allah's help. Allah promised that there is no hijab aka barrier between Allah and whoever cries out to Allah in the dead of the night. The whole idea of the tahajjud prayer, from what I understand, is that you rouse yourself from sleep because of Allah. This is what makes the tahajjud prayer very powerful.

Another sunat prayer is the isra' prayer. This is performed after sunrise. Not at the point of sunrise to avoid behaving like the fire-worshippers but after the sunrise. The pre-condition is that you do not take part in any activities, or even fall asleep, after the subuh prayer, other than reading the Quran, zikir or talking about Islam. It is said that whosoever performs the isra' prayer will be given smooth sailing in all his affairs thoughout the day.

Following on the isra' prayer is the dhuha prayer. This is performed when the sun is high in the sky but before the time for zuhur prayer. It is said that whosoever performs the dhuha prayer shall not be wanting in halal rezki thoughout the day. Performed after having done the isra' prayer earlier in the morning, it becomes a very powerful combination. The way I see it, part of the power of the isra' and dhuha prayers come from the conscious effort on our part to put Allah first and foremost in our thoughts, that in the midst of our daily work, we do not forget that Allah and Allah alone makes things happen.

As for the sunat prayers performed before or after the wajib prayers, their main purpose is to provide extra coverage, so to say, in case our wajib prayer is not performed totally correctly. It's like making up for any shortcomings in our wajib prayers.

For the references ie dalil for the purpose of the sunat prayers, I am sure you can find plenty if you know how to ask Google nicely and in the right way. Or, better yet, ask a Muslim scholar near to you like, say, the imam of your masjid.
 

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