What is mandub? What is mandub meaning in islam?
Mandub are acts that have been encouraged by Allah and His Messenger without any binding necessity to fulfil them. For example; verses in the Qur’an that mention; having a witness present during divorce, appointing a duration for the debtor, writing down business contracts, etc are all considered mandub acts by Scholars.
The terms Sunnah, Nafila and Mustahab have been used interchangeably with Mandub in fiqh books. However it should be noted that there are slight differences between each of the terms.
Sunnah: The actions and practices of the Prophet (p.b.u.h). There are two types of Sunnah: Sunnah al huda and Sunnah zawaid . Sunnah Zawaid are the acts of our Prophet which had no relation to his preechings or message, they were his humanly actions.
Sunnah al-huda is divided into two sub categories: Sunnah mu’akkada and Sunnah ghayr mu’akkada.
Sunnah mu’akkadah: These are acts that the Prophet (p.b.u.h) would frequently carry out, and omit rarely. For example; saying the iqama before fard prayers (for men), calling the azan, praying in congregation, performing i’tikaf. Sunnah ghayr mu’akkadah: Acts of worship that the Prophet would perform sometimes and omit at other times. For example; the sunnah prayer of ‘Asr and the first four sunnah of ‘Isha prayer.
Nafila: Extra ‘ibada that are not compulsory, but make the doer gain rewards.
Mustahab: Voluntarily (tatawwu’) good deeds -other than the fard and wajib- that the Prophet encouraged, did at times and omitted at other times. The Salaf were very keen to carry out the mustahab acts with great ambition.
Source: Fiqh1 (According To The Maliki School Of Islamic Law), Erkam Publications
