Do My Sunna Rak’as Count Toward a Vow to Pray Two Extra Rak’as Daily?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

I made a vow to pray two extra rak’as daily for thirty days. By “extra,” I meant two in addition to the obligatory prayers, not necessarily in addition to the regular sunnas. When I made the vow, I intended in my heart that I could fulfill it either by praying two separate voluntary rak’as or by praying the regular two-rak’a sunna, though I did not say this aloud. So far, I have been praying the regular sunna with the intention that those same rak’as fulfill the vow while also being the sunna, and I have not prayed separate rak’as for the vow. Is this valid? Do the sunna rak’as I have already prayed count toward the thirty days? If not, must I repeat all thirty?

Answer

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.

What you have been doing is valid, and the days you have already prayed count toward your vow. You do not have to repeat the thirty days.

A Vow Binds You to What You Meant, Not to Every Possible Reading

A vow binds you to what you actually meant, not to the widest sense your words could carry. Where the wording admits more than one reading, the Hanafi jurists give effect to the intention of the one who vowed: “This is where he had no intention; but where there was an intention, what he intended is binding on him.” [Shaykhizada, Majma’a al-Anhur] You meant the word extra to mean extra to the fard, and you had it in mind at the time that the regular sunna could serve. That is the vow you made, and you are not held to a stricter one than you never intended.

A Vowed Prayer That Coincides With the Sunna Is Covered by the Same Rak’as

The school also treats a vowed prayer that coincides with the sunna as covered by a single performance. The Fatawa al-Hindiyya records: “If he vows the sunnas and performs what he vowed, it is the sunna. And Taj al-Din, the father of the author of al-Muhit, said he is not thereby performing the sunna, because once he bound himself to it, it became another prayer, and so it does not stand in place of the sunna.” [al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya] The Hindiyya gives the first ruling plainly and names the second as the view of a single jurist, so what you have prayed so far stands.

For What’s Left, Take the Safer Road Without Restarting the Count

Because there is a real difference of view here, and because this is an obligation you placed on yourself, take the safer road for what is left. For the remaining days, pray your regular two-rak’a sunna as you always do, and then pray two separate rak’as with the intention of the vow alone. That is a few extra minutes a day, and it puts the matter beyond dispute. Do not restart the count.

Be Sparing With Vows Going Forward

After these thirty days are done, be sparing with vows. What you are already doing for the sake of Allah is better left as a gift than turned into a debt.

And Allah knows best.

Faraz Rabbani

Related Answers

• Is It Valid to Combine Multiple Intentions in One Prayer? — Explains when one prayer can carry more than one intention, the same principle behind praying the sunna and the vow together.
• What Should I Do If I Missed a Vowed Friday Prayer While Traveling? — Covers what happens when a vowed prayer is forgotten rather than deliberately combined with another.
• I Vowed to Pray the Sunna Prayers. What Should I Do? — A closely related vow-and-sunna question, answered on the Shafi’i school; useful alongside this Hanafi answer for context.