Imam Shafi rahmatullahi alayh said : of the narrations that have reached us, verily, dua is accepted on five nights:
-
the night of Juma,
- the night of Eid Al-Adha,
- the night of Eid Al-Fitr,
- the first night of Rajab,
- and the 15th night of Shabaan.
The strong objections raised by some of our past fuqaha' - a famous one is in the Majmu' and an extreme one is in the Irshad - concerning the prayer of the night of Nisf Sha'ban must be understood in their proper fiqhi context.
The reason for their objections is to counter the opinion of those who stipulate that an intention be specified for this prayer (which can be derived from the Qawl of Imam al-Ghazali).
It is important for the teacher to point out to the student - and for the ordinary person to note - that these objections were made, not because there is a specific objection to performing 'ibada on this night or to doing qiyam al-layl this night, but for an academic reason.
And that is in order to draw the legal point that the prayer of Nisf Sha'ban is not a specially legislated prayer, unlike the Tarawih for example, because there is just not enough primary evidence (whether from the Qur'an or the Hadiths) to make it so, and that is all.
Going beyond quoting and relying solely on a dead reference from one of our "yellow books", this reason is how our living scholars today understand the objections made by some of our past fuqaha'.
So, when a student reading with a teacher reaches the passage in the Fath al-Mu'in which says that the Ragha'ib of Rajab and the Nisf Sha'ban prayers are a blameworthy innovation, the wise teacher in fiqh will then have qualified these objections based on what is in the Fath al-Mu'in's own glosses, the I'anat al-Talibin
Salat al-Ragha’ib
