What are Sunnah Rawaatib?

Question

Allah will build a house in Heaven for whoever is diligent in observing 12 Sunnah Rak'aat, called Sunnah Rawaatib.

(A version of this is at Islam Q&A.)

What are Sunnah Rawaatib?

Answer 1

The 12 sunnah e muakaddah prayers in the whole day.

"Allah will build a house in Heaven for whoever is diligent in observing 12 Sunnah Rak'aat (as follows): 4 Rak'aat before and 2 after the Dhuhr (Midday) Prayer, 2 after the Maghrib (Sunset Prayer), 2 after the ‘Ishaa’ (Evening) Prayer and 2 before the Fajr (Dawn) Prayer." Hadith sahih narrated by at-Tirmidhi No. 379 and by others. Hadith No. 6183 in Sahih al-Jaami’

Answer 2

Basically as sunnan ar-rawatib السنن الرواتب are sunah or optional prayers related to a mandatory prayer.

• Some prayers have only sunan qabliya السنن القبلية: sunnah prayres that must or should be prayed before the fard (obligatory) prayer:
  Like in case of the sobh prayer (fard of fajr) there's the sunnah of fajr which should be performed before. But it could be prayed as qada' afterwards, but one is asked not to wait and not to pray until sunrise.
  An other example is 'Asr.
• Other's have only sunnah ba'diyah السنن البعدية: sunnah prayers that must be prayed afterwards like Maghrib and 'Isha'.
• And some have both sunnah qabliyah and sunnah ba'adiyah: the example is dhor where it is recommended to pray a few raka'at before and a few afterwards.

And you are recommended to perform them.

Note that different ahadith quote different amounts of rak'at of these sunnan especially for dhor and maghrib. Here some references (Sahih al-Bukhari; Jami' at-Tirmdihi, Sunan an-Nasa-i, Sunan ibn Majah, Sunan abi-Dawod) for different statements.

Some madhabs stick on a certain amount and form.

Here a fatwa in Arabic (islamweb #275101) on the issue.