The Duha Prayer Problem: What Bukhari 1177 Really Reveals About Muhammad’s Practice

Introduction: A Simple Hadith That Undermines an Entire Narrative

Every Muslim has heard the same claim repeated endlessly:

“The Duha prayer is a Sunnah of the Prophet.”

But very few have ever opened the source texts to see whether that claim is actually true.

And when you finally do?
You discover something awkward, something inconvenient, something rarely acknowledged in da‘wah circles:

The Prophet Muhammad never performed the Duha prayer.
The only person who did was Aisha.

And that is not coming from critics.
That is coming straight from Sahih al-Bukhari, the collection Muslims call “the most authentic book on earth after the Qur’an.”

This article lays out the evidence clearly, without hedging, without sugar-coating, and without the typical apologetic escape hatches. If a practice is called “Sunnah,” then the Prophet must have actually done it. And if he didn’t, then calling it Sunnah is not just misleading — it is revisionism.

Let’s walk through what the sources actually say.

1. The Hadith Itself: Bukhari 1177

Here is the narration in plain words:

Sahih al-Bukhari 1177

Narrated Aisha:

“I never saw the Prophet ﷺ offering the Duha prayer, but I always offer it.”

Stop and let the weight of that settle.

Aisha is not reporting:

  • “He rarely prayed it,”

  • “He did it sometimes,” or

  • “He recommended it but I never happened to see it.”

No. She says:

“I never saw him do it.”

In Islam, Aisha is the Prophet’s closest witness. She lived with him. She saw his habits behind closed doors. If anyone would know whether he prayed Duha, it’s her.

And her testimony is unambiguous:

Muhammad did not pray Duha.

2. What This Immediately Destroys

Islamic ritual theology relies on a simple premise:

Sunnah = What Muhammad did, instructed, or approved.

But Bukhari 1177 blows that premise apart.

Problem #1: You cannot call Duha a Sunnah if Muhammad never practiced it.

A practice cannot magically become Sunnah because:

  • someone liked it,

  • someone thought it was spiritual,

  • or someone retroactively elevated it in later centuries.

If Muhammad didn’t do it, it is not Sunnah.
Period.

Problem #2: Aisha’s personal habit ≠ Prophetic Sunnah

Aisha saying “I do it” does not make it Sunnah.
A companion’s action has zero legislative authority.

Yet Islam today treats it as though:

“Aisha prayed it” = “Muhammad commanded it.”

That is not how Sunnah works.

Problem #3: Later Islamic tradition retrofits practices that the Prophet never performed

This is the broader structural issue.
Islam’s fiqh tradition routinely elevates:

  • personal habits

  • companion preferences

  • tribal customs

  • regional practices

…into “Sunnah,” even when there is no prophetic foundation.

Duha is one of the clearest examples.

3. The Contradiction Problem: Other Hadith Say the Opposite

Bukhari 1177 is not alone.
There are hadith that directly contradict it, claiming that:

  • Muhammad prayed Duha regularly,

  • Muhammad prayed 8 rak‘ahs of Duha,

  • Muhammad instructed others to pray Duha,

  • Muhammad warned against abandoning it.

This leaves the believer in a bind:

Set A: “Muhammad prayed Duha frequently.”

Set B: “Muhammad never prayed Duha.” (Aisha)

Both cannot be true.

This is not a minor discrepancy in wording — it is a contradiction in core historical behavior.

And when the hadith corpus contradicts itself about whether the Prophet performed a prayer that Muslims today treat as Sunnah, it exposes something serious:

Hadith transmission is inconsistent, unstable, and historically unreliable.

Different regions, tribes, and narrators preserved different memories. Centuries later, compilers like Bukhari attempted to stitch those memories together into “authentic collections.” The seams are visible. The cracks are obvious.

Duha is one of those cracks.

4. The Qur’an Adds Another Blow: Duha Prayer Is Nowhere in Scripture

If Duha were a divinely mandated spiritual practice:

  • The Qur’an would mention it.

  • The Prophet would perform it.

  • Aisha would have witnessed it.

Yet:

  • The Qur’an says nothing.

  • Muhammad did not do it.

  • Aisha explicitly says he didn’t.

This leaves us with a simple conclusion:

Duha is a post-Qur’anic, post-prophetic invention.
A later ritual retrofitted into Islam.

5. How Duha Became Sunnah Without the Prophet

This part requires brutal honesty.

Religious communities evolve. Rituals expand. Practices accumulate. Over time:

  • personal habits become communal norms

  • communal norms become recommended practices

  • recommended practices become “Sunnah”

  • “Sunnah” becomes sacred tradition

That process happened across all religions — and Islam is no exception.

Aisha liked Duha.
Other companions adopted it.
Later Muslims spiritualized it.
Hadith authors canonized it.
Fiqh schools legislated it.
Da‘wah preachers today sanctify it.

But none of this traces back to Muhammad.

And Bukhari 1177 is the smoking gun.

6. The Modern Da‘wah Spin Is Dishonest

When modern preachers claim:

“Duha brings blessings!”
“The Prophet prayed it!”
“This is Sunnah!”
“This strengthens your relationship with Allah!”

They are not quoting Muhammad.
They are not quoting the Qur’an.
They are not quoting the earliest Muslim community.

They are quoting later theology projected backwards onto prophetic history.

Anyone who pretends this hadith “highlights the importance of Duha” is doing rhetorical gymnastics.
The text literally says the opposite:

Muhammad didn’t do it. Aisha did.

There is no world in which that becomes:

“This shows how important Duha was to the Prophet.”

That is not interpretation.
That is invention.

7. The Real Lesson of Bukhari 1177

Here is the honest conclusion — the one the hadith actually teaches:

1. Muhammad never prayed Duha.

Aisha, his closest witness, is explicit.

2. Duha is not Sunnah.

A Sunnah the Prophet didn’t practice is a contradiction in terms.

3. Islamic rituals expanded beyond what Muhammad did.

Later Muslims introduced practices and retroactively attached them to Muhammad.

4. The hadith corpus contradicts itself.

Some narrations say Muhammad prayed Duha; others say he never did.

5. The Qur’an remains silent on Duha.

There is no scriptural basis for this prayer.

This is not a small issue.
It exposes the very machinery through which “Islamic tradition” was built — layer by layer, often long after the Prophet’s death.

Conclusion: A Hadith Muslims Wish Didn’t Exist

Sahih al-Bukhari 1177 is a rare moment of transparency inside the hadith literature.
It reveals something modern Muslims are seldom told:

Not everything called “Sunnah” came from Muhammad.
And some practices he simply never did.

Duha is one of them.
Aisha’s personal prayer routine became a later Islamic ritual — nothing more, nothing less.

If Islam wants to claim authenticity, continuity, and fidelity to the Prophet, then it must confront the uncomfortable reality that the tradition contains practices the Prophet never performed, never commanded, and never endorsed.

Sometimes, the most revealing hadith are the ones nobody wants to look at too closely.

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