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2.Stand all night except a
little.
3.Half of it or a little
less than that.
4.Or a little more. And
recite the Qur’an in a slow, (pleasant tone and) style.
5.Verily, We shall send down
to you a weighty Word.
6.Verily, the rising by
night is very hard and most potent and good for governing (the soul), and most
suitable for the Word. (Al-Muzzammil
73: 1-7)
When the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
started preaching Islam to his people, the pagans and infidels of Makkah
tremendously increased their opposition to his teachings of Oneness of God. The
above quoted verses were then revealed
to train him to face and cope with the situation. The objective was to fully
prepare the Prophet (SAW) to enable him to fulfill his great mission and
responsibility. It was necessary to inculcate power and energy in him to endure
the consequences with patience and perseverance. Only the night prayers i.e.
salat-ul-layl could develop this power, and endurance.
It is narrated by many companions
that the Prophet SAW used to lie down in the bed and cover himself, after
getting disheartened by the taunts and ridicules of the pagans. He was
addressed as Muzzammil as a mark of love to tell him that the time of wrapping,
and covering himself with distress was over.
Allah SWT had advised the Prophet SAW
to stand at night except for a short while. Here to stand means standing in the
Presence of Allah i.e. to offer Salat. He also mentions this standing as a sign
of good believers:
Those who spend the night in
adoration of their Lord prostrating and standing (Al-Furqan 25: 64).
This way the night Salat was made obligatory. The five times a day salats had not been ordained by that time. The night Salat became voluntary, after the five times Salat became obligatory. Now here, let us first study the importance of Salat itself.
Allah SWT tells the believers that Salat is His remembrance,
Verily, I am God. There is
no God but I. So serve thou Me, and establish regular Salat for celebrating My
praise (Ta-Ha
20: 14).
Allah
also advises believers to seek His help by offering Salat. This is exactly why
the night Salat was ordained i.e. to seek Allah’s help in patiently bearing the
heavy load of preaching. Allah says,
O you who believe! Seek help with patient perseverance and salat. For God is with those who patiently persevere (Al-Baqarah 2: 153).
Let us first clearly understand the meaning of
Night Salat. In general, first a believer should go to bed at night to sleep,
after he has offered his I'sha (the fifth and the
last) prayer of the day. Then, in the middle of the night he should get up, by
disturbing his sleep, from his bed. After proper ablution and purification, he
should stand and offer salat. It is Sunnah to offer the night prayer a bit
later than the midnight. In Ramazan, it has taken the
form of Taraweeh. In order to follow the Sunnah, we
shall later study the method and the quantity of night salat of the Prophet SAW
This additional salat is called night prayer. It is now a voluntary night
salat. Its importance can easily be understood by the fact that Allah SWT has
at different places in the Qur’an encouraged the believers to offer it. For
example,
And part of the night
prostrate you to Him. And glorify Him a long night through (Al-Insan 76: 26).
Also,
At another place He treats those as His pious believers whose backs do not
touch their beds; and the believers pray to Him with fear and hope. He says,
Their backs do forsake their
beds of sleep, the while they call on their Lord in fear and hope. And they
spend out of the sustenance which We have bestowed on them (As-Sajdah 32: 16). At a
third place, Allah says,
They were in the habit of
sleeping but a little by night. And in the hours of early dawn they (were
found) praying for forgiveness (Az-Zariyat 51:
17-18).
There are some ahadees
as well, which emphasize the importance of night salats.
In one hadees, the Prophet SAW said, “ The preferred salat, after the
obligatory salats, is the one which is offered in the
middle of the night” (Abu Hurairah RA, Musnad Ahmad). This also means that
night salats can not replace an obligatory salat, no
matter how many of those are offered. Similarly, in another hadees the Prophet
SAW has advised the believers to offer night salat, because it was the way of
the past pious peoples. It brings a believer nearer to Allah. It is also a
penance of sin. It also stops a believer from committing sins (Abu Amamah RA,
Tirmidhi).
In a hadees, Hazrat
A’isha RA has narrated that the Prophet SAW used to
offer eleven rak’at (a unit of salat) of night salat.
He used to prostrate for a long time during the salat, and complete his salat
after every two rak’ats (Agreed Upon). In another
hadees, she has narrated that the Prophet SAW used to offer thirteen rak’ats, which included the two voluntary rak’ats of Fajr (dawn) as well. Yet in a third hadees, she
said that the Prophet SAW used to offer sometimes seven, sometimes nine, and
sometimes eleven rak’ats of night salats,
all other than two voluntary rak’ats of Fajr
(Bukhari). It is now clear from these ahadees that
the Prophet SAW used to offer a minimum of seven and a maximum of eleven rak’ats in total in night salats.
If we exclude three rak’ats of vitr (an indispensable
salat after the last obligatory salat i.e. I’sha, of
the day) from those total numbers, the minimum and the maximum numbers of rak’ats of night salats of the
Prophet SAW would then be four and eight respectively.
Allah SWT further directs that the Qur’an should be recited with tartil
(slowly and enchantingly). In other words, the recitation of the Qur’an should be done slowly in melodious voice in order to
comprehend and meditate its meanings.
In one hadees, it is narrated that
the Prophet SAW would first offer two short rak’ats
in Qiyam-ul-Layl. This then would be followed by two
long rak’ats. After that, he would then offer two rak’ats shorter in duration than the two middle ones (Zaid Bin Khalid RA, Muslim). It
is also narrated that the Prophet SAW used to recite two adjacent chapters of
Al-Mufassal group (Chapters from Qaf
to the last) in each rak’at of his night salats Abdullah Bin Masud RA, Agreed Upon). In fact the purpose of the night Salat is to seek nearness and help of Allah. The more time
a believer spends in his Qiyam-ul-Layl, the nearer he
becomes to his Lord. A Persian poet very rightly expresses the idea in his
famous couplet as “ I could have expressed all my desires of the world in a few
words. But for the pleasure of your company I have lengthened my story.”
Allah said that He was to send down a heavy Word to the Prophet SAW.
That is why the night salat was enjoined. The night salat should not be treated as the objective itself. It was
prescribed to impart training to build up strength. Today unfortunately, the qiyam-ul-layl itself has been taken as an objective. Once a
believer is successful in acquiring a habit of offering night salat, he thinks that he has fulfilled the purpose of his creation.
Allama Iqbal, a renowned
poet of Urdu and Persian, has pointed out this grave
misunderstanding in one of his couplet. In the couplet, the Satan advises his
disciples to keep a Muslim busy in the morning remembrance, and strengthen him
in his monastic temperament. In fact, the true purpose of acquiring the power
to bear the heavy load of His Word is to enable a believer to invite people to
His Word, and to implement it in the society. The Prophet SAW was destined to
be a model for the mankind. He was to face tough opposition of the entire world
of non-believers. He was to revolutionize the whole system of Faith, norms,
morals and civilization. And this is a very heavy and difficult job. Also, the
night salats were prescribed in order to make the
Prophet SAW and his companions RA ready for the great Jihad i.e. establishment
of the Deen of Allah. The Prophet SAW was a da’ee (One who calls or invites) to Allah, a witness of the
Truth, a bearer of glad tidings, and a Warner. All these duties were neither easy
at that time nor are today, nor are going to be ever over. As a poet has
rightly said, “There is no spare time for a believer. There is a lot of work
still to be done. The total propagation of the light of Tauhid
still requires efforts, strength, and
endurance.”
The Prophet SAW has perfectly
fulfilled his mission. He had completely routed the falsehood with the help of
the strength acquired by the night salat. He fully
succeeded in establishing the system of justice and Tauhid
in the entire Arabian Peninsula. Not only the Muslim ummah,
but also Allah SWT Himself had witnessed that the Prophet SAW had completed his
mission. A believer must remember that the Prophet SAW had ordered the
believers that they should communicate from him even that might be a single
verse (Jabir Bin Abdullah
RA, Bukhari). In the same hadees, he continued, “
Those who are present should communicate to those who are absent.” This was
addressed to entire Muslim ummah. This included all
learned and illiterate, old and young, men and women, Arabs and non-Arabs
alike. Now, therefore, this responsibility of implementing the command of His
Word has been transferred to us. Allah SWT also assigns this duty to all the
believers:
Thus have we made of you an ummah justly balanced, that you might be witness over the
nations; and the Apostle a witness over yourselves (Al-Baqarah
2: 143).
In
fact the duties of inviting people to God, and witnessing the Truth, which were
difficult for the Prophet SAW, are much more difficult for us. Thus in order to
perform these duties we are in greater need of developing the habit of standing
for salat at nights in order to develop strength and
endurance to stand up against the evil,
and with much greater zeal and devotion. The night salats
would not only strengthen our resolve, but also help us in fulfilling our
duties to God. Unfortunately, we have forgotten and neglected our objectives
and mission; and have blindly accepted the philosophy of life and teachings of
the West. The night salats would lead us back to the
right path, and the true philosophy of life.