ABSTRACT
Western scholars have already noticed that according to Muslim sources, before the five daily prayers became part of the "pillars" of Islam, the Muslims used to pray only twice a day. This attitude towards the hours of sunrise and sunset had direct bearings on salat al-duha; in fact, in the first decades after Muhammad's death there were several pious Muslims who wished to suppress the duha prayer altogether, declaring it to be unlawful. Many pious Muslims indeed thought that salat al-duha was legitimate as long as it was performed in Mecca as part of the tawaf. The fact that salat al-fajr substituted for salat al-duha as an official morning prayer already before the number of prayers was extended to five is most significant. Muslim scholars sometimes made a point of stressing that the concession relating to prayers following the fajr and the asr was exclusive to Mecca.
