What are the kinds of prayers?
Prayer is the most important type of worship, for it displays a person's sincerity and loyalty to God. In the words of God's Messenger, it is the pillar or main support of religious life (Daylami, al-Firdaws, 2:404).
There are several kinds of prayers, as follows:
Obligatory (fard). The five daily prescribed prayers and the Jumu'a (Friday) prayer. The latter is not obligatory for women, but they can pray it if they wish. The funeral prayer is obligatory, but not upon every individual. If some people perform it, others do not have to.
Necessary (wajib). The 'Iyd (religious festive days) prayers and the witr prayer (performed after the late evening or night prayer until dawn).
Sunna (those performed or advised by the Prophet). Those performed before or after the daily prescribed prayers, tahajjud (performed after the late evening prayer after sleeping for a while), tarawih (performed after the late evening prayer during Ramadan), khusuf and kusuf (performed during solar and lunar eclipses), and the prayer for rain (salat al-istisqa).
Supererogatory and rewarded (nafila). Salat al-ishraq (performed some three quarters after sunrise), salat al-duha (forenoon or broad daylight prayer, performed until some three quarters before the noon prayer), and salat al-awwabin (performed between the evening and late evening prayers). There are some other supererogatory prayers, such as salat al-tawba (performed before asking God to forgive us), salat al-istikhara (performed to ask God to make something good for us), salat al-tasbih (the prayer of glorifying God), the prayer performed when leaving on a journey, and the prayer per-formed when returning from a journey.
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