صلاة الفرض
Ṣalāh al-Farḍ
The obligatory ritual prayer: the five daily prayers that every adult Muslim must perform; neglecting them without excuse is a sin.
What it means
Ṣalāh al-farḍ is the prayer that the sharīʿa makes a binding duty. The five daily prayers are the chief example: fajr (dawn), ẓuhr (midday), ʿaṣr (afternoon), maghrib (sunset) and ʿishāʾ (night). The Quran says that prayer is “prescribed for the believers at fixed times” (4:103). Most schools also place the Friday congregational prayer and the funeral prayer in the obligatory class, the Friday prayer as a personal duty for men who are resident and able, the funeral prayer as a duty on the community. The word farḍ contrasts with nāfila and sunna, which are optional and recommended prayers. A Muslim who misses an obligatory prayer is expected to make it up.
Often misunderstood as
The book’s listing for this phrase describes it as commendable but not obligatory, which reverses the sense of the word farḍ, meaning an obligation.
What the sources say
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that Islam is built on five, and prayer is named after the declaration of faith (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). A man asked him whether he had any duty beyond the five daily prayers, and the Prophet answered that he had none unless he chose to do more.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 55, listed as ṢALAH AL FARḌ. The definition is restated here.