Fard
Fard names an act Islamic law demands with full binding force, rewarded for doing it and answerable for leaving it without excuse.
What it means for me: Fard marks the acts that are not optional for you. Learning which duties in your prayer, fasting, and dealings are fard comes before anything voluntary. Everything beyond it is extra generosity, not extra debt.
Example: A questioner asks about a step in prayer, and the answer says, 'this is fard.' She understands the step is required, not left to preference, and that skipping it is not a small matter.
Do not confuse with: Wajib — most scholars use the two words for the same meaning. In practice the distinction rarely changes what is asked of you. Where a school separates them, the difference is about evidence, not daily practice.
If scholars differ: The majority treat fard and wajib as two names for one meaning. The Hanafi school separates them: fard rests on decisive evidence, wajib on evidence that is probable, each carrying its own legal effect. The full five-term scale, from wajib to haram, is set out in Wajib, sunnah, mubah, makruh, and haram, explained.
See the term in context
Are the Sunnah prayers that precede a Fard prayer to be performed before the prayer's time begins, or after it, or before the Iqamah for the prayer?
The regular Sunan (supererogatory prayers) are of two types: pre-Fard (two rak'ahs before Fajr and four before Dhuhr), and post-Fard (two rak'ahs after Dhuhr, two rak'ahs after Maghrib, and two rak'ahs after Ishaa).…
What is incumbent upon one who intermingled the intention for a fard (obligatory) prayer with the intention for the sunnah (supererogatory) prayer preceding it, and sometimes performed the fard prayer after intending for the sunnah and then the fard, and sometimes insisted on intending directly for the fard, and this continued for three months?
You are afflicted with waswasah (obsessive whispering), and it is obligatory upon you to disregard it and continue with your prayer. So, if you intend an obligatory prayer and then waswasah comes to you suggesting that…
Is it permissible for someone praying a supererogatory (nafl) prayer to lead another person in a fard (obligatory) prayer, and if so, should he pray the fard prayer afterwards? And if it is not permissible, how would the person being led (ma'mum) know that the imam is praying a supererogatory prayer?
The preponderant opinion is that it is permissible for someone performing a fard (obligatory) prayer to be led by someone performing a nafl (supererogatory) prayer. It is not necessary to inform the follower of this,…
Questions that use it
If there is an obligatory act (fard) that has auxiliary acts (some of which are obligatory, some are Sunnah, and some are permissible), and a person performs these acts with the intention of assisting in the performance of the obligatory act, does the priority of these auxiliary acts (the obligatory, Sunnah, and permissible ones) change compared to their original priority?
How can one reconcile the Hadith "Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim" with considering knowledge—such as medicine and other fields essential for the well-being of worldly affairs—a communal obligation (fard kifaya)?
Is it permissible to change the intention from a fard (obligatory) prayer to a sunnah (supererogatory) prayer upon realizing that the time for the fard prayer has not yet begun?