Duha Prayer: Its Time and How Many Rak'ah

Duha is the voluntary forenoon prayer. Its time runs from when the sun is fully up until it passes its height, and the reports give two rak'ah as enough, four as the Prophet's ﷺ usual count, and eight on the day of the conquest of Makkah. You can pray it on any morning, at home, at work or on the road, in a few quiet minutes.

This guide gives each report with its collection, its number and its grade, all read on sunnah.com.

Every report quoted here is in Sahih al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim, and its grade is the collection's own, sahih: sunnah.com shows no separate grade for these two collections. Where a question needs a ruling for your own case, it says so and leaves the answer to your teacher.

What the Duha Prayer Is

Duha is the forenoon: the bright part of the morning, after the sun has risen. The Duha prayer is a voluntary prayer offered in that part of the day. It is not one of the five obligatory prayers that our guide to the five daily prayers explains. It belongs with the voluntary prayers mapped in our guide to sunnah and nafl prayers.

Its place in the Sunnah rests on short, clear reports. Abu Hurayrah said: "My friend (the Prophet) advised me to do three things and I shall not leave them till I die": "To fast three days every month, to offer the Duha prayer, and to offer witr before sleeping" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1178).

Abu Dharr reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: "In the morning charity is due from every bone in the body of every one of you." The hadith counts glorifying Allah (SWT), praising Him, enjoining good and forbidding wrong among those charities, and it ends: "and two rak'ahs which one prays in the forenoon will suffice" (Sahih Muslim 720).

Read that second hadith slowly. Every joint of your body owes a charity each morning, and two rak'ah are enough to pay it.

When Its Time Starts and Ends

The clearest map of the morning is the hadith of Amr ibn Abasa (Sahih Muslim 832). The Prophet ﷺ told him: "Observe the dawn prayer, then stop praying when the sun is rising till it is fully up."

He went on: "Then pray, for the prayer is witnessed and attended (by angels) till the shadow becomes about the length of a lance; then cease prayer, for at that time Hell is heated up. Then when the shadow moves forward, pray."

Imam al-Nawawi gathered the Duha reports in Riyad as-Salihin. The Arabic title of the chapter that holds hadith 1143 says that Duha may be prayed from the time the sun has risen high until it passes its height (zawal), and that it is best when the heat grows strong and the forenoon is well advanced.

The hadith gives no number of minutes. On your timetable, sunrise and Dhuhr are the two edges, and Duha sits between them, with a margin after sunrise and another before Dhuhr. Sunrise is also the moment Fajr's time ends. How wide each margin should be is a question for your local mosque.

The Best Time: When the Heat Rises

Zaid ibn Arqam once saw people praying early in the forenoon. Sahih Muslim 748a records what he said: "They well know that prayer at another time than this is more excellent, for Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: The prayer of those who are penitent is observed when your weaned camels feel the heat of the sun."

The penitent (al-awwabin) are those who turn back to Allah (SWT) again and again. The young camels feel the heat when the sun has climbed well into the sky, and al-Nawawi's chapter title reads the hadith that way: the best Duha is prayed when the heat grows strong.

So you have two good choices. Pray early, once the sun is fully up, and you are inside Duha's time. Pray in the late morning, before the midday pause, and you have also met the moment the hadith praises. If your mornings are full, the early prayer is still Duha.

How Many Rak'ah: What Each Report Says

Three reports give a number. Each is in one of the two Sahih collections, and sunnah.com shows no separate grade for those, so the grade below is the collection's own.

Asked how many rak'ah the Prophet ﷺ prayed at the forenoon prayer, Aisha replied: "Four rak'ahs, but sometimes more as he pleased" (Sahih Muslim 719a).

Umm Hani said: "On the day of the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet (ﷺ) entered my house, took a bath and offered eight rak`at." She added: "I had never seen the Prophet (ﷺ) offering such a light prayer but he performed bowing and prostrations perfectly" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1176).

Aisha also said: "I never saw the Prophet (ﷺ) offering the Duha prayer but I always offer it" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1177). Al-Bukhari placed it under the chapter "Whoever did not offer the Duha prayer and thought it permissible (to offer it)". How her two reports fit together is a question your teacher can walk you through.

This guide sets no upper limit. The reports name two, four, eight and "more as he pleased". If you want to pray more than eight, ask a local scholar.

How to Pray It, Step by Step

1. Check the time. The sun is fully up, and Dhuhr has not come in.
2. Make your intention for the Duha prayer, a voluntary prayer for Allah (SWT) alone.
3. Pray two rak'ah as you pray any voluntary prayer of two rak'ah. Our guide to performing salah step by step walks through each position.
4. Keep it light, but whole. Umm Hani saw a light prayer whose bowing and prostrations were complete.
5. For more than two, ask your teacher how to divide the rak'ah. This guide gives no form for that.
6. Give it a fixed place in your morning: the first quiet minutes at work, or the break between classes.

If the night prayer is also on your heart, our guide to praying Tahajjud pairs well with this one: one prayer in the dark, one in the light.

Frequently Asked Questions

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