Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn How to Pray in the Night 11092019
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AI: Transcript ©
The, selection of hadith that we're gonna read
today
chapter of the virtue of praying,
in the
night prayer that's referred to in these hadiths
is not the, the, the, the, the,
particular part of the night,
the 4th and the 5th,
6th of the night. Arabic is a remarkably,
remarkably
remarkably remarkably remarkably remarkably a remarkably a remarkably
a remarkably a remarkably a remarkably a remarkably
a remarkably a remarkably a remarkably a remarkably
a remarkably a language. And every hour of
the day and every hour of the night
has a special, name and a special word
for it. So
So if you divide the night into 6
parts, the first,
starting from,
not from your Shah, from and
the last one ending
the should be read
either in the first
part or in the second part. There's a
difference of opinion amongst the
the, they say that the best time for
is at the beginning.
This is why the people who hold fast
to that mad hub even in this country
in the winter, you'll see that like our
Somali brothers for example, who are almost exclusively,
they'll pray the shop prayer at 6 o'clock.
Bam. 5:30. Bam. It's done. It's finished. When
I left
that was that was
the time for for the in their
in their
on the other
Imam he takes the the the of
which is what?
Which is that the the the best time
to pray Isha is delayed after the first
3rd of the night has passed.
So that's after 2 parts out of 6.
I don't know if you guys have gotten
that far in fractions yet. Maybe you have,
your brother has it. You can explain it
to him when he gets home.
One of the wisdoms of praying the prayer
at that time is what?
Is that it should be the last thing
that a person does before they retire and
they go to sleep. Many countries in the
Muslim world. We've kind of left
No. No. You
put that back. Go. Put that back. When
you're 70, Inshallah, I'll bring it for you.
Okay? And
And you can use it and I'll bring
it for you. I'll set it up for
you and everything. Until then,
Insha'Allah, you get to you get to sit
like the Muslims.
So the idea is that the,
the
the the the the last thing that you
do
before going to sleep should be what?
What's
the problem in the Muslim world?
The first through the night when it ends,
it's like what? 7:30, 8 o'clock, 8:30? That's
when the party's just getting warmed up. It's
not even started yet. The party is like
stretching, you know, in order to get started,
you know. Like, you're you're you're just stretching
out in order to get the party started,
which is fine if you don't ever wanna
do anything in your life.
If you don't ever want to do anything
in your life, then go ahead and do
it. I'm not better than anyone else. I
grew up the same way, 11, 12 o'clock,
12:30,
1 o'clock, going to sleep, enjoying myself,
at night, having parties, meeting people and just,
you know, having fun. And, you know, this
is not a halal haram issue. You understand
what I'm saying? Not everything in life is
a halal haram issue.
For example,
if a husband and wife get married I
know you're not a lawyer. Ziyad may get
upset if like I ask you a legal
question because you'll be like, this guy doesn't
have a legal license. But he's not here.
So let's go ahead and do it anyway.
Nobody nobody will tell on you. Okay? So
is it legal for, like a 2 people
are married, husband and wife. Right?
Why
Why why don't we take a second? Let
let's take a second stab at this question.
Because you're turning someone back. Is it legal?
Yes or no?
Not really. Not really.
I knew this kid. He's going places.
Right? He's not legal. Right? Is it legal
for a husband to, like, I don't know,
break his wife's teeth?
No. Is it legal for
a wife to take her husband's car and
drive it off a cliff?
No. Is it legal for a husband to
take his, like, wife's, you know, like whatever
property and burn it? No. No. All these
things are illegal.
So and there they should be common sense
for most people. Some of our brothers and
sisters, they have like trouble understanding these things,
but generally, we take them to the side
and sit them down and say, okay, you
can't do this stuff. Right?
Generally.
And so
Masjid husband and wife, you know, and the
husband's like, you know what, Shaykh? I tried
my best.
I didn't kill her. I didn't burn her
stuff. I didn't break her teeth. I didn't,
drive her car off a cliff and she's
still not happy with me. What would you
say to such a person?
You'd say that the law is not what
makes
a marriage successful.
Okay? If you just follow the law and
then afterward wonder why is my marriage successful,
not successful, that's like dumb. That's not how,
like, human beings
work. That's not what the point of the
law is. The point of the law is
not there to, like, you know, the we
the people of the United States of America
in order to make, like, whatever,
domestic prosperity and harmony between, like, husbands and
wives, we write this constitution. That's not what
that that's that stuff is not for that.
It's for something completely different. Right? So there
are a number of things that are in
the sunnah. They may not be haram.
So like to stay up after Isha is
not really haram. You know, like eating a
ham sandwich is haram. Staying after Isha is
not haram, but it's not a good idea.
It's not a smart idea for somebody who
wants to do something with their life. And,
you know, It's not a smart idea for
somebody who wants to do something with their
life.
And so the idea is what is that
say, Omar al Adi al Haan who he
instituted this practice, which is that the prayer
would be prayed after the 1st 3rd of
the night was done. And then afterward, everybody
would just go straight to sleep.
Why? If you go to sleep, there's a
number of benefits of going to sleep right
after the prayer is done. The first benefit
is what? Is that that's the most healthy
and restful sleep that a person is gonna
get.
The sleep that a person gets from the,
from from the time that they've prayed
until around the time of midnight is the
most healthy and the restful sleep that a
person is going to get.
The second thing is what is that if
a person sleeps at that time, it will
be easy for them to wake up for,
tahajjud, which is what we're gonna talk about.
The and tahajjud in specific is what we're
gonna talk about. I I see you. I'll
get to you. Okay?
So that's the second that's the second thing.
The third thing is what?
Is that the, person who then wakes up
makes a habit of waking up for tahajjud.
Imagine if a person oversleeps from from from
their tahajjud, at least they'll catch fajr. Right?
The person whose habit is to pray tahajjud
every night, that person will,
that person will rarely if ever miss their
prayer.
All of these things when you put them
together, they make like a society built on
certain values. Of the messenger, he
said, he said that what? The is in
what? In in the early part of the
morning, and waking up in the early part
of the morning. That's why like in university
and things like that, your math class is
probably gonna be at 8 AM. And your
other like, you know, whatever sociology introduction to
sociology and like whatever like interpretive dance classes
and whatever, they're all gonna be later in
the morning if not in the afternoon. Why?
Because your mind can be relatively tired and,
get through those things. Whereas, like, calculus, precalculus,
algebra, you know, geometry, you're not going to
be able to hack those classes without having
your mind all together,
in the correct place.
Tell me, are you going to wake up
in the morning early if you go to
sleep at 8 PM?
Sorry. If you go to sleep at like
1 PM 1 AM, 2 AM, like
in the middle of the night. You're not
going to. Right? This is sadly and unfortunately
the situation in a large part of the
Muslim world. Not all of it but in
a large part of the Muslim world, that
the party is up real late at night,
and then in the morning, early in the
morning, nothing is open. Anything. No one's like,
making any work. If you try to get
something done in any, office or
in any place in the Muslim world after
fajr, it's very difficult.
There's some exceptions, but in general, it's it's
very difficult to get done. This is not
the way that things used to be from
from before.
This is not the way that the,
the the Muslim societies were structured
in pre modern times and pre colonial times.
And so part of this entire cycle is
what is the time.
That if you go to sleep right after
and you don't waste your time,
talking and you don't waste your time, enjoying
yourself, it's not that it's haram and there's
no, like, you can't enjoy yourself ever, but
there's a time for that. And the time
for that is not after a shot.
If you if you spend that time and
sleep, what will end up happening is that
you'll get this, like, real,
what will end up happening is that you'll
get this like real,
important
window of time that other people don't have,
which is what?
Which is the the the the 4th, the
5th, and the 6th part of the night.
Nothing else is going on. Nothing else is
going on.
And in that time, this is a time
specifically human beings
save this time
either for their own rest and the only
person that they will allow to interrupt this
time is the one that they love.
So this is a time that husbands and
wives,
are the only ones that, like, speak to
one another or parents and children are the
only ones who speak to each other at
this time. This is the time that the
messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam used
to, in specific say for Allah ta'ala.
And he said about this tahajjud time
that that that getting up and praying in
this time, this is the
affair of the righteous people amongst you and
of every group of righteous people from before
you.
Now, I've seen places in the Muslim world,
villages where almost everybody wakes up at this
time.
But unfortunately, it's completely like evaporated from from
our practice And there's a lot
of bad that's come from that. Why?
Because imagine a person prays in the daytime,
right? Where are you guys usually
at time?
School. School. Right?
So when you're in Thor in the first
rak eye, you're thinking about your math math
test, And in the 2nd rak'ai, you're thinking
about, like, you know, your English test. And
in the 3rd rak'ai, the guy next to
you is picking his nose and, like, there's
a lot of distraction.
That doesn't mean that that salat has no
function whatsoever, but one of the points of
the salat is to drag you out of
all of those things that you're doing in
the day and bring you back to remembering
Allah ta'ala.
So it's a different it's like a like
a, it's like a a, like a life
jacket thrown to someone who's drowning in the
middle of the ocean.
But is this the best way to teach
a person how to swim? Just throw them
in the ocean, in the deep ocean? No.
What's a good, a good way to learn
how to swim? You have like a pool.
You have like a,
you know, like lanes and you have like
a controlled environment where you can,
you know, not be too cold and not
be too warm. You know, you're safe. You
can learn things on your own terms.
Right? You can do things on your own
terms. And that's what the Hajj is.
That's what the Hajj is. It's a time
when
parts of the mind that are hyperactive and
distracted from other things are
shut down.
It's a time when you won't hear the
hammer
crack, crack, crack,
you know, building the bathroom. It's a time
when you're not gonna see light. In fact,
it's often times dark. In fact, if you
turn on the light, it will bother other
people as well. It's a time when you're
not bombarded with noises. It's a time when
all your senses as well as your heart
and as well as your mind, they're quiet.
So if you say in that time,
you understand what it means rather
than like the
people like they praddle their way through their
salah They
don't even say a lot. Like, allahu akbar
turns into a loper or something like that
and the person will muddle through their their
prayer. This is a time that you can
do these things and say these things and
more importantly, because there's no noise, you actually
feel what the effect is on on your
heart.
Now, this is a problem. What is the
problem is that we don't make time for
these things.
We don't know how to do these things.
We haven't seen how to do these things.
We haven't had elders that showed us how
to do these things for whatever reasons. You
know, maybe they're too busy. They had to
our fathers and our, grandparents, they had to
earn a living or whatever. They were unable
to show us, how to do these things.
But there's a time and a place everybody
has to learn. And this is also a
part of the of the deen, that a
person has to learn these things because there
are so many parts of the love of
Allah. A person is not going to be
able to learn except for by learning it
through tahajjud. This is one of the things
that I mentioned when I started reading this
chapter,
in another place,
is that if you look in the
it's a really long chapter.
It's a really long chapter. The sometimes the
chapters are only 3, 4, 5 hadith, 5,
6 hadith. This is a really long chapter.
It's a long chapter in the
and indeed it's a long chapter in every
book of hadith, but it's not a very
long chapter in our own lives.
That's sad.
And that's something that
gave us life that we can still work
on. So the first hadith we wanted to
read
was,
Why is it important that she's gonna be
the one who's narrating the hadith about the
prophet
Why?
Because she's the wife of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. That's an hour in which
other people are not gonna see him generally.
And so the imagine that like this like,
you know, the space of
of the, say the Aisha radiAllahu anha with
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was such
that she had like, he would pray in
that place and she would be sleeping. So
she would, like, sleep with her her legs
back just so that he had
enough space to pray.
It was in such close quarters, so she
knows about the the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
So she was asked,
and so she, responded that the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would not pray
in Ramadan or outside of Ramadan more than
11 rakas. More than 11 rakas. Okay?
This hadith has to do with the tajjud
of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
This is not a hadith of.
Why?
Because she says he didn't pray in Ramadan
or outside of Ramadan more than 11 rakas.
Does anyone pray outside of Ramadan?
No. This is a hadith about a different
prayer that the prophet
would not read more than pray more than
8 11 rakkais, which is what?
22222,
2. 4 rakahs of, of, of the regular
nawafil,
and then, so 8 rakas of the regular
in sets of 4. And then 2 rakas
of and 1 rakah of wither.
And so the idea is if we wanna
break the Hajjut, so this is the first
thing we're gonna learn about the Hajjut. If
we wanna break the Hajjut, in the beginning
it's gonna be hard.
It's not easy to wake up at that
time, especially if you don't go to sleep
on time. If you're up until 10 or
11 or whatever, it's gonna be really hard
to wake up at that time.
So the way you start is what? By
praying 2.
Then if you wanna do more, then pray
2 more. Then if you wanna do, pray
2 more or up to what? 6? Then
if you wanna pray, do 2 more, we're
up to 8.
Then if you wanna do more than what
do you do, you just start making them
longer. You start making them what?
Longer. So this is the first precept that
we learned from this. Hadith of the prophet
from
say
the
So he wouldn't pray more than 11 as
neither in Ramadan or outside of Ramadan. Yeah.
I mean, in his tahajjud
in his tahajjud. And so she said, don't
even ask about how beautiful they were and
how long they were. So they were very
beautiful that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he used to like focus and he used
to be very humble in those raka'as and
they used to be very long raka'as.
This is something that people don't know, but
before the 5 daily prayers were made far,
the farther this,
was what? It was to pray at nighttime,
to pray the tahajah. That was the first
way salat was prayed.
Then after coming to Madinah or sorry, after
the the isra and the end of the
time of the prophet in
then the 5 daily prayers were instituted.
And then praying the Hajj that night was,
then became a. It became a on the
rest of the ummah, but the prophet
was still a far that was still a
a an obligation on him. And so he
would pray for a third, a half, or
all of the night. He would pray for
a significant at least a third of the
night he would spend in prayer. His habits,
allallahu alaihi wasalam, was to spend about half
the night in prayer. Alaihi wasallahu
alaihi
wasallam. And so she said that then he
would pray,
another 4, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and don't ask
about
how, how how beautiful they are and how
long they were.
So what do we learn now
is that there's a break between
you pray 2 and 2 and then there's
a break, and then you pray 2 and
2 and then there's another break.
And so what is the break? The break
doesn't mean like I'm gonna go check my
Facebook. I'm gonna go and like, you know,
grab a glass of water. Although that's not
such a big deal if you do. But
like the point is not necessarily distract yourself
from the worship of Allah Ta'ala,
but just to have a little bit of
reflection and to, feel like the barakah of
what you just did. You did something
good. When you follow a the time after
a good deed also is a Mubarak time.
When a person finishes praying, the angels will,
gather in that place and will make
dua for
you. Allah,
forgive that person this person. Oh, Allah, have
mercy on this person. And the duas of
the angel is angels aren't just like, you
know, look with us. We're like, yeah, Insha'Allah,
we say, like, nice things and it, like,
means nothing. The duas, the angel are angels
are barakah and they're protection for a person
in this world. They're protection for a person
in the hereafter as well. It's something that
a person will feel feel if they have
any life inside of their heart. A person
will feel,
what the goodness of those things are. So
it's good to sit and reflect and think
about what you just did,
for some time. So there's 4
and then a small break and then another
4.
Then he would pray salallahu alayhi was some
the
he would pray 3 3 rakas.
After the 5 daily prayers, the most important
prayer a person will
pray is a. A person should never leave
it.
Many of the companions even
though they didn't say that it was far,
but if someone asked is it okay not
to pray, they refused to say, okay. It's
okay to not to pray.
A person should treat it as if they're
it's far. Not as a legal issue, but
as a a person who loves the sunnah
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that there's
no recording that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
ever left it, nor did his companions,
used to leave it.
So what would happen is the last thing
he would pray
is what?
And oftentimes we'll pray it right after isha
if you don't know if you're gonna wake
up or not. So it's, if you're not
gonna wake up, then it's better to pray
it right after your isha. But if you
know you're going to wake up, the sunnah
of the prophet was the habit of the
prophet
was to pray at the end and save
the best for last.
He said,
she asked him,
oh messenger of Allah, after you're done with
the 8,
did you used to sleep between the,
between your 8 rak'as of tajjud and between
your wither? And he would say,
my the 2 eyes,
sleep but the heart doesn't sleep. Meaning that
I'm awake and aware of what's going on.
And so even then those, who, consider it
to be a sunnah to rest between the
8 rakas and between the three,
They say that it's not necessarily that you're
going back to sleep, but that you're just
taking it easy and relaxing.
And this is the time that we see
the,
they prescribed a person who has like a
regiment of a regiment of dhikr
that they're going to say
or take the divine name Allah Allah or
any of the other masloon,
this is a good time to to say
those
as well. Why? So that there's some, some
sort of gap between,
between the,
the the different
of the night prayer and a person is,
using the barakah of one act of worship
in order to help them with the other.
And she also narrated, Radi allaha and had
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
be stood sleep in the first part of
the night and he used to wake up,
in the in the second half of the
night and pray. Again, these things are sunnahs.
Many people
they'll become very defensive about certain sunnahs and
then they'll forget the other sunnahs.
Every sunnah when you leave it, there's some
sort of harm that happens.
There's some sort of harm that happens. So
some people are real gung ho about having
a beard. I like having a, where's your
beard, stuff for like you don't have a
beard, man. This guy someone talked to this
guy after telling him to grow a beard
after inshallah. Right? So I some people are
gung ho about this. You know, once, one
of our,
a man came into his and he said,
Sheikh, I want to get married. I don't
know what to do. I want to get
married and nobody will marry their daughter.
And so the says, come. Let's
have a talk.
Let's have a talk.
And so they talk for some time, and
then afterward, he comes out and he, he
he then gives his daughter in marriage to
this man.
And then somebody in the in the madras
said, Sheikh, isn't it a sunnah to have
a walima?
Obviously, this guy is broke. You know, if
he owned, like, you know, 17 Metro PCS's
or whatever, there would be a line out
the door for, you know, people trying to
get their daughters married to him or whatever.
Right? But, obviously the guy's broke. So someone
asked him in front of everyone, isn't it
a sunnah to have a? Right? Why? Because
we have a very self serving idea what
the sunnah is supposed to be.
I get to eat so I'm gonna ask
is it the sunnah or not. So the
sheikh says, Allah knows who really cares about
the sunnah and who doesn't.
So because you brought it up, all of
you go home and bring bring a dish
of food, from home and that's the walima.
That's how what our walima is going to
be. So many people there are walaim. People
are better than us, better than you and
me. They're walaim. We're we're we're held like
that. We're held like
that. And so,
all of these things are sunnahs, you know.
People have but like, you know, the other
thing of what, like a poor man came
and he was The sheikh was pleased with
his aflak
and so he gave his daughter to him
in marriage despite his poverty. That's also a
sunnah but nobody's gonna say, oh, who's gonna
like,
who's going to revive the sunnah? What but
the sunnah of like eating the food in
the willimah, it's a sunnah too. We should
do it. I'm not saying not to do
it. I'm not even like knocking people for
doing it. But their concern with the sunnah
is just to, like, get one up, like,
to say something bad to another person, or
to eat something, or to, like, make themselves
pump themselves up about themselves.
And then there's some people who just wanna
do something. Why? Because the messenger, Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, did it. That one is
the one who, their practice is a sunnah.
There's gonna be barakah in it. At any
rate, every sunnah, whichever it is, whether it's
eating the wileema or whether it's,
you know,
giving your daughter to a person of good
akhlaq, even if they may not have the
most money in the world, or whether it's
waking or going to sleep in the first
part of the night and waking up in
the second part of it, there's some barakah
in that. There's some in that. And this
is something that the also say, and I've
experienced it myself as well. The rest that
you get from the sleep after after before
the midnight
is
much better than the rest that you get
from the late part of the night. When
you wake up for the Hajjat, if you
slept from like 8 until like 2, oftentimes
people involuntarily will wake up at this time,
and they can't go back to sleep. Why?
Because you're too rested.
Whereas what happens the person who's going to
sleep at midnight, it's like 6 o'clock, fajr,
the alarm is ringing. It's the same amount
of sleep a person gets.
But the body is also, like, linked to
the, you know, the biological clock is linked
to, like,
phenomena that are happening outside.
That sleep is so horrible. A person tries
to wake up and they can't wake themselves
up. It's just so horrible. You you feel
so tired. It's like you're chained to it.
And there's a biological,
connection and there's also a,
a spiritual connection as well that that the
shaytan is, has been given power over you
at that time.
Said, Abdullah bin Mas'rud radiAllahu anhu, one of
the first people to accept Islam at the
hands of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He's the one who used to carry the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam slippers. He's the
one who used to pour the water for
the prophet's
wudu. Maybe the ICC sink wasn't built then.
Right? So they used to pour water from
a container, and so imagine that's an honor
that the one who pours the water for
the wudu of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
and so he was very close to him.
So he said that,
once I prayed with the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam this tahajjud prayer.
He said that he was standing sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam so long
that,
I wanted I was thinking about doing something.
I was, like, on the verge of doing
something that would have been very sad.
This word, it's not
means evil. It's so.
Right? And in general as a stylistic preference
even though it's a Sifa, it's not
but it's
that
it's uh-uh
it's a uh-uh it's used as an idafa.
As a stylist
issue, it's used as an idafa.
So with the on the,
on the scene.
So the thing that makes you is happiness.
So is the thing that makes you sad
that like depresses you or makes you sad,
something that's sad. She said, I was like
right on the verge of doing something sad.
And so they said, what were you on
the verge of doing that was so sad?
And he said that I was just gonna
like finish my prayer on my own and
like break break my congregational intention
with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, just
finished the prayer on my own. Why? Because
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he
he, he he stood so long in prayer.
Right?
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, this was known
that he used to stand
in so long that it was it would
like hurt. Other people were not able to
do so.
Other people are not able to do so.
Have you ever stood in prayer so long
that your feet hurt? No. Probably not. Maybe.
Actually, you guys are pious guys. You probably
do it all every night at home. But
the idea is like many of us don't.
Why? Because if you do it in the
regular prayer, it's actually haram to do it
in the regular prayer. Because people are stuck.
Just like Abdul ibn Masood, imagine he's like
a such a great companion. He was there
at Uhud and Badr and all, you know,
the fatha and and like he one of
the first Quran memorizers and has such a
great maqam in this ummah. If it was
too much for him to handle, then imagine,
like, if you if you were to pray
that long like Isha or Maghrib or or
something like that, it would become a fitna
for people. It would make make life difficult
for them. So the sunnah is what is
to make those prayers relatively short. And if
you wanna pray a long prayer, then you
do it in your own tajjud. But what
was the tajjud of the prophet
is that he would, he would pray so
long that many of the companions were unable
to and then they a point came when
So the question comes
is, well, how long was it then?
And this is the the the last hadith
I wanted to read, tonight
before, inshallah, let letting everyone go.
It's a hadith of,
So this is a
a even more graphic description of how the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam used to pray
his tahajood.
Said the Khudayfatukhnul Yaman radiyaahu alaihi wa sallam.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would tell
him secrets
because he would keep secrets. So he would
tell him the secrets. One of the things
he knew, he's the only one from the
companions who was given the list of the
names of the Munafiqeen.
Said, Omar alaihiallahuan
who once cornered him during the, during his
and
he asked him,
He said, I ask you in the name
of Allah ta'ala. It's my name on the
list.
And this is something that we then we
learned from this that the fear of being
a is part of iman and the,
the idea that you got it made. That
there's no way that you're one of them
is a sign that you're probably one of
them.
So,
he said that,
I tell you by Allah ta'ala that your
name is not on the list, and I
tell you by Allah that if anyone asks
me ever again, I won't tell.
You're the only one I'll I'll disclose this
that you're not one of them. And so
Sayidna Umar alaihi wa, one who used to
watch when a janaza would leave, he would
see does the Rayfa join the,
Janaza. Yes or no?
And if he joins,
the Janaza, then say the Omar would join
it as well. And if he didn't, he
would just sit it out.
At any rate, this person is a close
person to the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. He said, I prayed with the
messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam one
night.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam after his
he started reading Surah Al Baqarah which as
Hafiz Rookhan knows is a long Surah.
You know, you guys all probably figured that
out at some point.
And so he he
he said that, Hudayfa said, he kept reading,
kept reading. I thought, well, he'll probably read
like a 100 ayahs, which is a lot.
Right? He said he'll probably read a 100
ayahs. It's like, it's what? It's it's more
than a, ajuz. Right?
To,
200
100 ayahs. Less than a *. Yeah. It's
less than a *, but it's about it's,
like, in that scale. Right? It's a lot.
Right? Yeah. Just A a 100 I is
more than 2 and a half pages, son.
Yeah. I said 21. Uh-huh. It's 21 pages.
21 pages? No. It's less than that. Gold
book. Gold book.
Go ahead. It's research. Research project.
Never say until you're dead sure. And if
it's 21 pages, I'll I'll I'll I'll give
you $5.
No. No. Halal dollars.
Like, careful careful. I don't careful careful.
No. What what what page it's on? I
I one
15. Okay. There you go. Let me put
it back.
This is a good lesson.
It's a good lesson for all of us.
So at any rate, the, so you thought
it's still it's a lot. It's a lot.
It's a lot to read in one one
rakat, you know. Like, I'll read 3, 4
pages in, like, in fajr sometimes and, like,
I
I I feel like the the like like
the little like the tawajah of death coming
from the back. So, you know, it's time
to wrap it up, you know.
Yeah. Yeah, man. You know, hey.
People gotta go to work. Right? So but
it's a lot. The point is it's a
lot. And so he said that I thought,
okay, he'll read a 100100 aya's make. And
so he said that he got to the
100th aya and he's like,
now here it comes. He's gonna make and
he said he just read it in
and then he read the whole rest of
the,
the whole rest of the, sort of,
Right? Which is, like, whatever, 286
ayahs,
at least in havs.
Right?
And so he's, like, well, you know, he'll
finish at the end of Baqarah. And then
he started reading Suratul Nisa.
Then after that he finished it and he
said, I thought he's gonna
make ruku. Then he started reading Suratul Al
Imran.
Now this is somewhat of like, you know,
I know that everyone's like chomping at the
bit like, well, isn't the order out of
order? This is something that's interesting actually. There's
22,
2, things that the commentators on this hadith
mentioned with regards to this hadith. 1 is
that,
the order of the Surah during
the lifetime of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam
would change.
And the Mus'haf of said, Abdullah bin Mas'ud
who was
copying this the writing of surahs into his
Mus'haf while
Wahi was still coming down
in his mushaaf
even though he's not the narrator of this
hadith, but in his mushaaf, it's it was
known amongst the ulema that Surat al Nisa
came
before Surat al Imran.
And just sometime later on, the prophet
said that the
Surah Alimran will come first and Surah Al
Nisa come second.
At this time, it's not even known if
any of these Surah's were complete yet.
Surat Al Baqarah almost certainly wasn't complete yet.
It's not there's still that had to be
revealed of it and it's not known whether
the surahs are complete yet or or anything.
So if a person was wondering why is
he reading Surat al Nisa before Surat al
Imran, this is a good question and this
is the reason.
That that that the, the the the order
would be changed later on and that order
hadn't come down. But still, it's a lot.
It's a lot of recitation. He said that
then he read, Surah Al Imran after Surah
Alisan, after Surah Al Baqarah.
And it's not that the messenger of Allah
was reading quickly.
Rather, he was enjoying every word of the
the.
He was enjoying every word of the saying
it properly,
pondering over it, ayat separate, keeping sentences and
clauses, separate. And, how
was he enjoying,
every word of it? That's also described in
detail
that, when he would
pass
by sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in aya in
which there's
Obviously, in order to do this, you have
to understand some amount of Arabic. You know,
you don't gotta be or
anything, but like you have to understand some
amount of Arabic in order to do this.
This is something that the messenger of Allah
salallahu alaihi wa sallam used to do in
his tahajjud prayer as opposed to the fard.
So some of the said that when a
person is leading the fard prayer, it's better
not to stop and do these things, but
just read the the Quran straight. But in
his tajjud, he used to do the and
it's part of your engagement with the Quran.
That you say something and Allah says something,
Allah says something and then you say something.
It's like a conversation between you and Allah
ta'ala. Obviously, a person will not have access
to that if they don't
know the pranic Arabic, and they don't have
access to that if they aren't listening to
what Allah ta'ala is saying.
And so he said that if he passed
by an eye in which there's Tasbeeh, he
would himself say, subhanAllah.
If he asked by asked pass by an
ayah in which something was being asked, he
would make dua and ask that from Allah,
ta'ala. If he passed by an ayah in
which there was refuge being sought, he would
take refuge in Allah ta'ala. If you pass
by an ayah,
that there's refuge being made, he would make
you a refuge take refuge in Allah ta'ala.
This is itself like a special relationship that
a person has with the book of Allah
ta'ala.
And it's difficult to do when you have
distraction.
You know, it's difficult to do even in
the farthest prayer when you have distraction because
you can't pay attention. You can't repeat the
ayaat again and again. You can't,
stop, you know, so much because the, you
know, things have to go on. You can't
just take, like, 20 minutes for, like, a
prayer.
But,
he
would do all of these things and then
he made ruku.
And in his ruku, he would say, subhanahu
wa bil Adhim,
transcendent
above blemish is my lord, the most magnificent.
And his ruku was so long that it
was like it reminded Hudayfa of the qiyam
of the standing of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
So imagine how long did he stand. Suratul
Baqarah, Suratul Nisa, Suratul Al Imran. And then
he would make, like, a super long,
ruku.
And,
then he would say
Allah, heard the one who prays, appears the
one who praises him,
or or our Lord to you as praise.
Then he would stand,
in the, in the standing, you know, after
the ruku.
For so long, it was as it seemed
like how long he was standing from the
recitation.
Reciting,
duas and ayat and not not ayat, but
duas and, the vicar of Allah ta'ala in
this in this time.
And then he,
made sajdah, and in his sajdah, he said,
subhanahu rabbil a'ala,
transcendent above,
blemishes my lord the most high. And his
sajdah was so long it was like,
it was like his it reminded me of
how long he was standing for, which is
really long time.
Now, a number of things happen when a
person does this.
A number of things happen when a person
does this. Is that what the heart completely
will,
will focus on Allah and
the the heart will say things, the things
that you say in dua at that point
are like, like Allah is is opening your
heart to ask for the things that you
need.
A person doesn't know what to ask Allah
for except for in these situations. The heart
is open to ask Allah for the things
that you need, and the fact that you're
asking is a sign that you're going to
receive.
Allah ta'ala wouldn't let you ask for something
if you didn't want to, give it to
you. The fact that you're asking is a
sign that you're going to receive from Allah
ta'ala. Now lest a person obviously our prayer
is nothing like the prayer of the prophet
and it was nothing like the prayer or
or
even the the prayer of of the the
companions of the,
from afterwards.
But I credit,
even though I I oftentimes will mention
and I'll mention Imam,
and Imam Malik, and Imam Shafi, and Imam
Ahmed, and Bukhari, and this and that. I
credit the practical
demonstration of how to pray tahajjud,
to one,
Egyptian,
brother who came to,
who came to,
Canada.
I before 911, you could cross the border
with Canada. It was like going down the
street. So we lived close to the border.
The nearest masjid actually would go to Canada
to go pray over there. So I prayed
tarawi, and I did a tikaf over there,
1 year when,
Ramadan was in the winter. Winter is like
the season of the because it's easy to
fast and you have a whole night to
pray your tajjud and make your dhikr.
And so I credit this this sheikh that,
we prayed, sorry, we stayed in tajjud over
there and he used to pray the tarawee,
and he would pray the 20.
And then afterward,
he would pray, after everyone would leave and
it was just the crew, he would pray,
8, and then he would, let people sleep.
And it's a long night and,
you know, they would wake up then and
then they would pray like at 3 o'clock
or 2:30 or something like that, and then
they would pray another 4 rakahs.
And in those 4, rakahs, I remember the
first night of, we we we he read
you know,
pausing and giving every word it's due,
both in its sound and its recitation and
its meaning.
In the first
in the second,
in the 3rd,
in the 4th. So still not as long
as the prophet
described in this in this,
in this hadith.
But it's so long. It's so long.
It's so long that you stand until your
feet hurt, then you make and tell your
back hurts, and then you, you know, make
and like, literally your your head turns upside
down. But something interesting happens when you do
that.
A lot of the, the the part of
a person's
spiritual makeup and even a person's physical makeup
that's inclined toward evil kinda shuts down.
It's kind of like, it's like kinda like
you strangled it, and it's like tapped out.
And you become a you that's, like, much
better than the normal you.
And what are you gonna do in that
sajdah? I'm like, this, half is Khaled, right,
from Egypt,
Khaled. Right?
He he, he he's making for, like, so
long
after having recited for so long. So a
person then opens it's like a faucet inside
of a person's heart. The only thing I
can compare it with is like when you
go to Hajj and you have to make
dua for so long when you're making
or so long in or so long between
the on the, you know,
when you're stoning on the,
that a person just opens the tap inside
of their heart and then they get lost
in it. You don't know where the time
goes.
You don't know where the time goes. This
is a
and it's a condition that that
you also experience one day when you fall
in love. Of course, this is embarrassing because
your parents are here, so you can't admit
that you'll fall in love with a girl
one day, but it probably will happen.
Hopefully, with your wife and nobody else.
And at the time, I thought it was
gross, but look, it's happening right now.
And what happens at that time
is that when you find the person that
you love, that you're married to, or at
least, like, never alone in, like, the same
room with, right, you'll talk to them,
and
the time will fly so fast, and you
won't know where the time went.
And And so there are some people and,
you know, by the way, falling in love
was a weird thing. That's not really what
we're talking about today, but there's no guarantee
that the person you fall in love with
is any good for you. Right? But imagine
that the person who has love for Allah
and the person who shares moments like that
with Allah
If you have that much love for Allah
that the time will fly and it will
pass, and you don't know where the time
went.
Then whose love is greater, your love or
the love of Allah?
So it's you know, the hope is what?
Is that the person who has this with
the with the Lord, this will destroy it
won't make a person stop sinning a 100%,
but it will destroy the, the, the pleasure
of sin.
Because a person will then sin and either
the sin will take away the pleasure of
this time with Allah or,
or the pleasure of being with Allah Ta'ala
will destroy the pleasure of the sin. And
if that person dies in such a state
on the day of judgment, imagine you love
someone so much that you could sit and
talk with them and you don't know where
the time is gonna go. If Allah ta'ala
if you love Allah ta'ala like that, that
means he loves you even more.
And,
all of this other kind of like, you
know,
like Rodney King level of beat down that's
gonna happen on the day of judgment.
You know, Allah will extricate you for it.
He didn't create you for that,
because you're from the ones who loved him.
And
imagine then there are people in this ummah
that for the last 40 years they've never
missed this appointment.
Sheikh Hashan, remember you went to go and
visit him in,
in Chicago. He literally says this, if anyone
tries to meet with him or talk to
him after a shot, he'll say, I'm sorry.
I have an appointment I have to keep.
And he'll just he'll just push people. Like
literally, what's his name? Maheem, the brother who's
the his scheduler from Jersey.
He said, one guy came to him and
said, I'm gonna kill myself. He's like, sorry.
I have an appointment. Like, he would not
he will not miss that appointment for
for for anything.
And this is how our masha'ik and our
elders,
were in the past, and it's not just
like something stupid or pretentious that people do.
There's benefit in it. You know, that salat
in the middle of the night, that's what
won battles. That salat in the middle of
the night, that's what, you know, caused like
salahdinayubi
and his armies to overcome the crusaders.
That salahdinayubi and his armies to overcome the
crusaders.
That salahdinayubi and the middle of the night
is why we still have you know, our
elders, they they saw everything destroyed and breaking
in front of them and around them. And,
despite that, because of that salat in the
middle of the night, still, like, some part
of iman, like, survived so we could like,
you know, I don't have such a nice
masjid and you know.
Don't have such a nice masjid and pharma,
you know.
And so imagine that there are people in
the Ummah that have been praying for 40
years, straight, and they have never missed their
appointment with Allah Ta'ala.
This is such a great maqam with Allah
Ta'ala because look, I'll be honest with you.
You know, I'm not praying to Hajjid every
night.
I should be, but I'm not. Usually what
ends up happening is like, oh, if you
go to Umrah or something like that, you
can get back into it. Ramadan, you get
back into it. Or like something really bad
is happening. You're like, oh yeah Allah, I
took this job at this masjid and I
don't know what to do now.
So Allah will bring you back to
Allah so Sabi Baha'i is also getting a
reward for it too. That Allah will bring
bring you to, you know, bring you back
to this this tajjud, you know, and sometimes
because you have no other, you know, no
other choice, he brings the circumstances to you
so that you come back to it. But
I'm not gonna pretend like I'm this dude
who's been doing this for like whatever the
last
10, 20, you know, years or whatever. Right?
But there are people in in the that
have been praying for 40 years. The homework
assignment is very simple.
I'm not even gonna ask you to pray
tahajah tonight.
What is it? It's very simple. It's very
simple. There are certain there
are certain stations of of sainthood with Allah
All of them,
they have more to do with what's in
your heart than what you're what you're doing.
So the that
that that everybody should receive from having come
to this Darzah. After all, someone should say
why did I, you know, waste, 50 minutes
after Isha'a listens to this mullah, bang on
about, like, you know, how pious other people
are. Right? So your homework assignment is what?
Just close your eyes and look inside of
your heart and say, yeah, Allah, whoever prays
this tahajjud, that person is like a great
person.
Why? Because this is a rule, any manship
of, any station of sainthood with the lord,
the one who bears witness to it, that
person also has a station of sainthood as
well.
Just to consider this just to consider this,
tahajjud to be an act of piety and
to behold it and say, You Allah, this
is like such a beautiful thing. Whoever does
this must be like a wonderful person.
That in and of itself is a type
of with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That is
also a station on the day of judgment
that people will receive a place in Jannah
forever because of it. And nobody is going
to get to the the station of except
for through this,
through the station. So everyone's like, oh, sheikh
is crazy. He always yells at people that
they're making too much noise and shut your
phones off, and blah blah blah, this that
and the other thing, and everything he says
is so hard. This is a very easy
thing to do. This is a in fact
it's easy it seems easy, it's not easy.
It's actually the hard part. Once you've done
this, the actual praying, the hadid is actually
very easy.
It's very easy because what's gonna happen?
You're gonna like leave the masjid and your
friends are gonna be like, oh, let's go
out and do this and do that and
the other thing and like, you know, some
of your favorite TV show is gonna come
on and this is gonna happen, that's gonna
happen either today or tomorrow or the next
day. And then a person will remember, oh,
it's a sunnah to like go to sleep
before. And I'm not even saying that you
you have to go to sleep. Go enjoy
yourself with your friends, you know. As long
as they're not getting drunk, as long as
they're drinking coffee or whatever, it's fine, you
know. Coffee and not like,
something something more disgusting than that, you know.
If someone drank a shisha, you know, you
could say, well, Sheikh Hamza doesn't like it
but I think it's a difference of opinion.
Fine. Whatever.
Don't ask, don't tell. Go do what you
want.
But what's the fitna at that time?
The fitna inside of the heart for whatever
reason, it's a fitna inside the heart. People
people would be like, oh, well, you know,
this tajid thing you talked about, that's just
impractical.
And then what did it what happened to
your wilaya? You lost it.
Go go smoke your shisha.
Go enjoy yourself.
Don't smoke shisha. But you know what I
mean. Go enjoy yourself. Go have your coffee,
your coke, and chat it up with your
friends, everything. Right? But inside of your heart,
this is your responsibility if you wanna carry
the sainthood inside of you, that never never
never say inside of your heart that this
is better than than if I had just
gone home and gone to sleep and woke
up in the middle of the night.
If a person can even do that, and
if a person that's all they get out
of this, time, then the time was a
good use of time inshallah, and it's a
great,
it's a great station with Allah ta'ala. Allah
ta'ala give all of us so much tawfiq.
And I
I I I admit in front of everyone
and I make the big disclaimer that this
is where all these things we're talking about.
I'm talking about other people I've seen. This
is not me. So don't
show up. And this guy this guy talk
big game about tahajjud and look look at
him. He's like in even worse shape than
we are. Right? So don't be surprised on
that day. I'm just the I'm just the
messenger.