Combining Intentions

bismillah ar-rahman ar-rahim

when it comes to combining the intention for more than one prayer in the act of a single prayer…this is done with supererogatory prayers that are not tied to specific times of day or specific events, known as “an-nafl al-muTlaq”…

as listed in Bushra al-Karim, with the sharh of al-Muqaddamah al-Hadramiyyah, Shaykh BaFadl includes in these type of supererogatory prayers the 2 rak’ah prayers for: greeting the masjid, sunnah prayer after making wudu’, al-istikhara, sunnah prayer of tawaf, sunnah prayer before travelling, salat al-Haaja, the sunnah prayer of praying in a place where no one has ever worshipped Allah before, and other sunnah prayers like this that are not tied to specific times of day or events…instead they can occur at almost any time and are generally associated with some act (such as wudu or entering the masjid, etc.)

this means that the intention (niyyah) for any of these prayers can be subsumed under the intention (niyyah) of another prayer, whether fard or sunnah. However, fard prayers and sunnah prayers that are tied to specific times or events (such as the rawatib before and after fard prayers, salat ad-Duhaa, Eid prayer, etc.) cannot be subsumed under the intention of another prayer. for example, if you are entering the masjid during the mid- morning before Zuhr, you can intend to pray salat ad-Duhaa and include the intention to pray tahiyyat al-masjid (greeting the masjid) “under” your intention to pray Duhaa. However, you cannot include your Duhaa prayer under a late Fajr prayer that you are making up. typically, i remember the students in my madrasah in Hadramawt used to try to maximize the reward and include as many prayers as they could under one intention whenever the opportunity presented itself…so they would always enter the masjid to pray: Duhaa, tahiyyat al-masjid, sunnah of wudu, istikhara, and tawba, all at the same time.

wa Allahu a`lam

forgive me
wassalaam
-Omar Mahmood