|
There has not been a prophet
or messenger that did not spent his nights
worshipping the One Who had sent him. Qiyam
Al-Layl (Night Vigil Prayer) has always been a
sign of believers. The people of the Ummah
that preceded us revived their nights with
Prayer and supplication and besought their
Lord at a time when He is closer to them. Abu
Bakr As-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased by him)
once said to `Umar,
O
`Umar! Verily, Allah has rights by night that
He does not accept during the day, and verily
Allah has rights by day that He does not
accept during the night.
Truly, the Paradise of the
believer in this world lies in his or her
place of Prayer.
Night Prayer of the
Prophets
"It
used to be said that the characteristics of
the Prophets and the righteous, the chosen
ones from Mankind and whose hearts are pure,
are three: They were forbearing, oft-returning
(to Allah), and they all had a portion of
Qiyam Al-Layl." (Al-Fudhayl ibn `Iyadh)
Moses (peace and
blessings be upon him). Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)
said, "I passed by Musa on the night
of my Ascension while he was in his grave
praying" (Muslim, Ahmad, and
An-Nasa'i).
Jesus (peace and
blessings be upon him). He used to say
"Verily the night and the day are two
stores so look to what you do in them."
Ibn `Abbas (may Allah be pleased by him) said
regarding Prophet `Isa, "Wherever the
night caught up with him, he would stand
praying until the morning" (Al-Bidayah
wan-Nihayah by Ibn Kathir).
David (peace and
blessings be upon him). Prophet
Muhammd said, "Dawud [i.e. David] was
the most devout worshipper among the
humankind" (Muslim and At-Tirmidhi).
He also said, "The
most beloved of Prayers to Allah is the Prayer
of Dawud, and the most beloved of fasts to
Allah is the fast of Dawud. He used to sleep
half of the night, stand up in Prayer a third
of it, and sleep a sixth of it, and he used to
fast on alternate days" (Al-Bukhari).
Solomon (peace and
blessings be on him).
Prophet Muhammad said,
"The mother of Sulayman ibn Dawud
[Solomon, the son of David] said to Sulayman
'O my son, do not sleep a lot at night because
indeed sleeping too much at night will leave a
man in poverty on the Day of Judgment" (A
weak hadith narrated by Ibn Majah and
Al-Bayhaqi).
Night Prayer of the
Righteous
The Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) said, "Upon you
is to observe the Night Prayer, for it is the
way of the righteous that came before
you" (At-Tirmidhi).
Whenever Mu`adh ibn Jabal rose
to pray at night, he would call out,
O Allah, indeed the eyes
of people are asleep and the stars have
receded, but You are the Ever Living and
Eternal. O Allah, my way to Paradise is
slow and my fleeing from Hellfire is weak.
O Allah, grant me Guidance from You which
you return to me on the Day of Judgment,
truly You do not fail in Your Promise. (Hilyat
Al-Awliya by Abu Nu'aym)
Abul-`Aliyah.
"We used to consider it a big sin that a
man learns Qur'an then he sleeps without
reciting some of it (in Prayer)" (Al-Zuhd,
by Ahmad ibn Hanbal).
Al-Hasan Al-Basri.
"If a slave falls asleep in prostration
(out of tiredness), Allah boasts him before
the Angels saying, 'Look at My slave, he
worships Me whilst his soul is with Me and he
is in prostration'" (Al-Zuhd by Ahmad ibn
Hanbal).
He also said,
By Allah, I have
accompanied a people who spent these dark
nights prostrating and praying to their
Lord. Their tears would flow down their
cheeks, one time they would be bowing and
another time they are in prostration. They
beseech and implore their Lord to free
themselves (from the Hellfire) and the
long night did not bore them because of
the hope in their hearts for the Day of
Return. May Allah have mercy upon a person
who competes with them in these deeds and
who is not content with (please clarify)
falling short. Truly, the world has cut
off its inhabitants and the deeds of a
people are only returned to them. (Mukhtasar
Qiyam Al-Layl, by Al-Marwazi)
Once, it was said to Yunus ibn
`Ubayd,
Have you ever seen anyone
performs as the deeds of Al-Hasan
Al-Basri? He said, "By Allah, I have
not seen anyone who even speaks like him
so how can I see anyone do like his
deeds!" His words of admonition used
to make the hearts weep while the
admonition of other people does not even
make the eyes weep. (Tanbih Al-Mughtarin,
by Al-Sha`rani)
Al-Rabi` ibn Khuthaym. He
bought a horse for thirty thousand and used it
to partake in battles. One day he sent his
servant Yasar (on an errand) and tied his
horse. When the servant returned, he said,
"O Rabi`! Where is your horse? He said,
'It has been stolen.' He said, 'While you were
looking!' He said, 'Yes, Yasar.
However, I was beseeching my
Lord the Almighty and there is nothing to
distract me from beseeching my Lord.' Then he
made du`aa' (supplication) for the thief
saying, 'O Allah, he stole from me and it was
not I who stole it from him. O Allah, if he is
wealthy, guide him and if he is poor then give
him wealth.'" (Al-Zuhd, by Imam Ahmad ibn
Hanbal)
Hasan Al-Banna.
"The minutes of the night are expensive,
so do not render them cheap by
heedlessness."
One of the Salaf used to say,
"For 40 years, nothing has upset me as
much as the rise of dawn (i.e. because it
marks the end of Tahajjud, the optional late
night Prayer)."
`Amr ibn Al-Aswad.
He used to have an expensive garment of 200
dirhams that he wore exclusively for the night
Prayer (Al-Bidayah Wa An- Nihayah, by Ibn
Kathir).
Imam Hamza ibn Habib.
Ibn Habib is one of the Seven Reciters, whose
readings of the Qur'an are authentic. Muhammad
Ibn Al-Fudhayl said about him,
I do not consider that
Allah keeps punishment away from the
people of Kufa except by (the virtues of)
Hamza. He used to read the Qur'an until
the people departed, then he would pray
four units, then he would pray between
Zhuhr and `Asr Prayers, and between
Maghrib and `Isha' Prayers. One of his
neighbors said that he never used to sleep
at night and that they would often hear
him recite the Qur'an melodiously. Hamza
himself used to say, "I would look
into the mushaf (copy of Qur'an) until I
feared losing my sight!" (Ma'rifat
al-Qurraa' Al-Kibar)
Abu Ja`far. He
is also one of the Seven Reciters. Nafi` (may
Allah be pleased by him) said,
When Abu Ja`far was being
washed (for his funeral), they saw that
between his neck and heart was a script
like that of the mushaf. No one from among
those present doubted that this was the
light of the Qur'an. (Siyar A`lam
An-Nubala', by Imam Ad-Dhahabi)
`Abdullah ibn Ghalib
Al-Hadani. It is narrated in Mukhtasar
Qiyam Al-Layl by Imam Al-Samarqandi that
When the enemy approached
(in battle), he would say "What can
sadden me in this world? By Allah, there
is no happiness in it for the wise one. By
Allah, were it not for my love of spending
the night in prostration and placing my
forehead down before You. O Master,
in-between movement of limbs and joints
(i.e. praying), in the depth of the nights
all in hope of Your reward and Pleasure,
were it not for this, I would have hoped
to leave this world and its people.' Then
he would break the scabbard of his sword
and go forth to fight until he was killed.
When he was buried, they found the
fragrance of musk at his grave and the
people began to take the dust of his grave
as if it were musk.
A man once saw him in a
dream and said, 'O Abu Faras, what have
you done?' He said, 'The best of deeds.'
He asked, 'Where have you gone?' He said,
'To Paradise,' He said, 'With what?' He
said, 'By having conviction (yaqin) and
standing for long periods in Tahajjud
(night Prayer) and suffering from thirst
in the midday heat (i.e. fasting).' He
said, 'And what is this sweet fragrance at
your grave?' He said, 'That is the
fragrance of recitation and thirst.' He
said, 'Advise me.' He said, 'Seize
goodness for yourself; do not miss nights
and days, for indeed I have seen that the
righteous ones attain piety through piety.
Qatadah. He
would say, "A hypocrite does not remain
vigil at night (in Prayer)" (Hilyat
Al-Awliya', by Abu Nu'aym).
Abu Salman Al-Darani.
He said, "If it was not for the Night
Prayer, I wouldn't have liked to remain in
this world."
Prophet Muhammad said,
"Our Lord descends
during the last third of each night to the
lower heaven, and says, 'Is there anyone
who calls on Me that I may respond to
them? Is there anyone who asks Me that I
may give unto them? Is there anyone who
requests My forgiveness that I may forgive
them?'" (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Rabi`ah Al-`Abidah.
When questioned by her husband as to why she
gets up to pray at night, she simply said,
"I only rise up when I am called" (Sifat
As-Safwah by Ibn Al-Qayyim).
`Utbah.
He would be found walking along the seashore
at night saying,
O Allah, if
You punish me, then I do love You,
And if You
have mercy upon me, then still I love You.
Allah says in a hadith qudsi
(Divine Hadith), "O My Slaves, it
is only your deeds that I record for you; then
I shall reward you for them" (Muslim).
|
