Restricting the Fajr prayer on Friday to a single surah to lighten the burden
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you. Your Eminence, the father, the questioner says: Some imams in the Fajr prayer on Friday limit themselves to reciting only Surat al-Sajdah, or only Surat al-Insan, in order to lighten the burden on the worshippers. Is this prescribed?
The Shaykh:
No, this is laziness. This is laziness. Either he recites both surahs in full, or he leaves both of them out. As for reciting half of one in the first rak'ah and half in the second, and leaving out the second surah, this is not what the Sunnah prescribes. The Sunnah is to recite both: al-Sajdah in the first rak'ah and al-Insan in the second. That is the Sunnah. But if you restrict yourself to one surah and divide it, you have not followed the Sunnah. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah reward you. Your Eminence, the father, the questioner says:
The Shaykh:
And regarding the worshippers, it is not more comfortable for them than you dividing the surah. The surahs al-Sajdah and al-Insan are short, praise be to Allah. But the difficulty lies in the recitation of the reciter. Some people tire the people with their recitation; he drags out the verses, cuts them off, repeats them, and tires those behind him. But harmonious, moderate recitation is something that the listener and the ma'mum enjoy. So you should pay attention to this. This is a burden. This is something you see as hardship, and there is a prescribed way for it as well. Yes.
May Allah reward you. Your Eminence, the father, the questioner says: Some imams in the Fajr prayer on Friday limit themselves to reciting only Surat al-Sajdah, or only Surat al-Insan, in order to lighten the burden on the worshippers. Is this prescribed?
The Shaykh:
No, this is laziness. This is laziness. Either he recites both surahs in full, or he leaves both of them out. As for reciting half of one in the first rak'ah and half in the second, and leaving out the second surah, this is not what the Sunnah prescribes. The Sunnah is to recite both: al-Sajdah in the first rak'ah and al-Insan in the second. That is the Sunnah. But if you restrict yourself to one surah and divide it, you have not followed the Sunnah. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah reward you. Your Eminence, the father, the questioner says:
The Shaykh:
And regarding the worshippers, it is not more comfortable for them than you dividing the surah. The surahs al-Sajdah and al-Insan are short, praise be to Allah. But the difficulty lies in the recitation of the reciter. Some people tire the people with their recitation; he drags out the verses, cuts them off, repeats them, and tires those behind him. But harmonious, moderate recitation is something that the listener and the ma'mum enjoy. So you should pay attention to this. This is a burden. This is something you see as hardship, and there is a prescribed way for it as well. Yes.
Source
شرح أخصر المختصرات في الفقه، كتاب القضاء — islamhouse.com (1:04:10)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.