Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Assalamoalikum warahamatullahi wabarakatuhu,

May Allah reward you for your services towards mankind insha Allah.Brother i have a question. In prayers after reciting surah Al-Fatiha if one recites a surah for example surah Al-Baqara and obviously one has to say Bismillah Hir Rahman nir Raheem before reciting any surah from the beginning but if one recites some ayats from the beginning of Surah Al-Baqara in the first raka`at and continues this Surah in the second raka`at so whether one has to say Authubillah Minashaitan nir rajeem or just Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem because i have heard that if we are not reciting the surah from the beginning then we should say only Aauthubillah minashaitaan nir rajeem.Please clear this confusion.May Allah reward you for your help Ameen.

Jazakumullahu khairan 

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Answer:

Recite before Quran

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 16 Surah Nahl verse 98:

98 When thou dost recite the Quran seek Allah's protection from Shaytaan, the rejected one.

Allah Subhanah has Commanded and Guided the believers that whenever they start the recitation of the Glorious Quran, they should first and foremost seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytaan.

The Sunnah and practice of the Messenger of Allah (saws) in prayer was that after declaring the ‘takbeer’ (Allah-o-Akbar) to signal the start of prayer, he (saws) would make a supplication he (saws) willed to Allah, declare ‘Aoodo billaahe minas Shaytaan ar-rajeem’ once, then ‘Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem’ and then recite the Surah Fatihah.

If the subsequent verses he (saws) intended to recite were from the beginning of a Surah, he (saws) would first declare ‘Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem), and if the subsequent verses were from the middle of a Surah, he would simply recite them without reciting ‘Aoodo billaah….’ Or ‘Bismillaah….’.

At the beginning of the second rakah, the Messenger of Allah (saws) would not recite the ‘Aoodo billaahe….’ again, but simply start the recitation of Surah Fatihah by first declaring ‘Bismilaaah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem’.

Thus in conclusion it is Sunnah (some scholars are of the opinion that it is ‘wajib’ or obligatory) that one recite ‘Aoodo billahe minas Shaytaan ar-rajeem’ once before the recitation of the Surah Fatihah in the first rakah in prayer, and that one declaration of seeking refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytaan would suffice for all the recitation of the Quranic verses in that prayer.

For all the other subsequent verses one recites from the Glorious Quran in prayer after Surah Fatihah, if one intends to recite a Surah from the beginning one must start with ‘Bismillah……’, and if one intends to recite some verses from the middle of the Surah there is absolutely no obligation either to declare ‘Aoodo billlaah…..’ or ‘Bismillaah…’, but simply recite the intended verses.

The ‘Aoddo billahe minas Shaytaan ar-rajeem’ that the worshipper declares at the beginning in his first rakah before the recitation of Surah Fatihah suffices for all the recitation of the Quran in that prayer.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan