Can I Skip a Surah and Recite the One After It During Two Cycles of Prayer?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalamu Alaikum,

Can a person recite one surah in the first rakah and then in the second rakah he skips the next in sequence and jump to the third? For instance, if a person recites Surah Maun in the first rakah, can he skip Al Kauthar and recite Kafirun in the second rakah? Will he be sinful if he does this?

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I pray that you are in the best of health and faith, insha’Allah.

Yes, it is disliked to recite a chapter (surah) in one cycle (rak`at), and then to deliberately skip a chapter and recite the one after it in the following cycle. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]

The reason for this is that the jurists deemed this to resemble (a) abandoning or leaving out a part of the Qur’an, and (b) deeming a part of the Qur’an to be superior to another.

Please also see: Combining Different Parts of Different Chapters of the Qur’an in a Single Cycle: Permissible or Not?

And Allah alone gives success.

Wassalam,

Tabraze Azam

Checked & Approved by Faraz Rabbani