Yaser Birjas – The Mujahada In Standing For A Long Tahajjud

AI: Summary ©
The Prophet sallam was a secret holder of the throne and kept it secret with HudayGeneration and eventually became the head of the hill. The importance of reciting the secret for Jannah's recitation of surah alaihi wa sallam and the danger of assassination is emphasized. The recitation of the surah is discussed in terms of holding a mus clarity and not distracting oneself. The importance of not distracting oneself is emphasized, and the recitation process is advised.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, wa salamu alaykum wa barakatuhu,
wa nabiyyin wa muhammadin wa ala alihi wa
sahbihi wa sallam, wa taslimin kathiru thumma ma
ba'd.
This hadith that's coming up right now, hadith
on Mujahidah, and it's a challenge.
A challenge, I dare you.
I dare you all do it, if you
can.
Even if you try once in your lifetime.
Let's see if you can do that, inshallah
wa ta'ala.
Hadith number 102, in Riyadh al-Saliheen on
the Mujahidah, the struggle for the sake of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, qala wa an
abi Abdillah Hudhaifa ibn al-Yaman, al-Ansari
radiyallahu anhu wa radaq, qala al-ma'rufi
sahibi sirri Rasulillahi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, wa
anahu qal.
So Imam al-Nabi, rahim Allah, introducing Hudhaifa,
in a very interesting way, qal, this hadith
is on the authority of Abu Abdillah Hudhaifa
ibn al-Yaman, the secret keeper of the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He's like the secret holder of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
What does he mean by that?
See, there was an incident that happened in
the Battle of Tabuk.
When the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam went
to Tabuk, the hypocrites were hoping that they're
going to be facing the Romans, and the
Romans are going to wipe them out, and
they will be done, and we go back
again to Medina, take over our country, our
city, and so on.
That's what they were hoping.
But they couldn't stay in Medina because the
Prophet made a general call for everybody who's
capable to ride, they should come out with
him.
So the hypocrites had to go out, right?
On the way back, they said, look, if
he's going to go back and arrive in
Medina, that's it.
Our chance is over.
So they plotted against the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, the hypocrites, they plotted against the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to ambush him
and kind of assassinate him on the way
back.
How?
By provoking his camel in an area where
it's very dangerous and rocky.
So if the camel pushes the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam off its back and the
Prophet falls on these rocks, definitely he's going
to be badly hurt, if not even actually
killed.
That was their plan.
So they waited.
When it was the right time, and it
was at night, and as the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam was going through that street
in that valley, they jumped that camel to
provoke it.
Eventually, their attempt failed, and the Prophet was
able to keep hold of the camel sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, and they ran away all
over the place, scattered among the crowd in
the darkness of the night.
The Prophet was calling for help, obviously, so
by the time they arrived, Hudayfah was among
the first to arrive, and the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam told him, over there, they
went from that direction.
Hudayfah went to chase after them, comes back,
he couldn't catch anybody.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
did you know who they are?
He said, no, Rasulallah, I didn't.
I don't know.
I didn't see anybody.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, let
me tell you who they are.
Fulan, or Fulan, or Fulan, or Fulan, or
Fulan.
He starts counting all the people who participated
in that assassination attempt.
He gave him the names.
And these were, of course, from the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to Hudayfah, to keep
it as a secret with him.
Why?
If the Prophet is gone, at least Hudayfah
can recognize the people.
But it wasn't made public.
Why so?
Because it wasn't the time for it, and
it's not good to label people hypocrites in
the community in that way.
It creates fitna.
Especially if these people were dignitaries, or at
least they were well-known and they have
following.
That becomes dangerous.
So the Prophet kept that secret with Hudayfah,
and Hudayfah radiallahu anhu became Hamil al-Katim,
Sir Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the secret
holder of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Interestingly, Umar radiallahu anhu, after the passing of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, Umar, actually
before even that, he went to Hudayfah, he
says, I ask you by Allah azza wa
jal, Did the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
call me among the hypocrites?
Did he name me in the group?
Hudayfah just looked at Umar and said, No,
I'm not going to answer anyone after you.
Like, khalas, you're good.
So Umar, when he became the Khalifa, every
time there's a janazah in the masjid, he
looks, is Hudayfah here?
They say, no, he left.
It's okay, find someone to lead the salah.
As-salamu alaykum.
Like, he doesn't know if that person's on
the list or not, the blacklist or not.
So he would leave, radiallahu anhu.
That's why he called him Hamil al-Sirr
al-Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the one
who carries the secret for the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
What did he say?
He said, One night, I prayed with the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
In this narration, the salah was one single
raka'ah.
One single raka'ah.
Which means the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
did the entire tahajjud in the raka'ah
of al-Wutr.
Like, the Wutr raka'ah itself became his
tahajjud, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He said, I prayed with the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam one night.
He started reciting surah al-Baqarah.
Like all of us do.
The moment you recite it, your mind starts
wandering around.
When is he going to stop?
And then he says, I thought he would
do raka'ah at the hundred.
Like, one third of the surah, and he
would make raka'ah.
But he came to the hundred, and he
continued reciting.
He said, maybe he's going to finish the
whole surah in one raka'ah, and then
he makes raka'ah.
He finished surah al-Baqarah, and he continued
going.
When I thought he was going to make
raka'ah now, he started reciting surah al
-Nisa.
By the way, surah al-Baqarah, how many
juz' is surah al-Baqarah?
Almost two and a half, right?
And surah al-Nisa is also two juz'
You could say almost.
So he started surah al-Nisa.
I said the same thing, he thought, maybe
at the hundred he's going to make raka
'ah.
He continued all the way until he finished
the same thing.
When he's done with surah al-Nisa, he's
going to make raka'ah.
But then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
he started reciting surah al-Imran.
Like, oh my, it's la ilaha illallah, right?
And not just that, not just reciting surah
al-Baqarah, then surah al-Nisa, then go
back again to al-Imran.
He did them in that order, by the
way.
Baqarah, al-Nisa, then al-Imran.
Not just reciting it, no, he said, Which
means he is taking his time.
He's doing it with tartil, tarassul, just like
reciting beautifully, taking his time.
When an ayah requires to say subhanallah, he
would say subhanallah.
When there's an ayah that has soliciting something
from Allah, he would make dua' in his
tahajjud, in his salah, recitation.
So if the ayah speaks about Jannah, he
would say, While he's reciting, sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam.
If he comes by mention of Jahannam, he
says, While he's reciting.
And that's something acceptable and permissible in the
tahajjud salah.
Whether you're the imam or praying behind an
imam.
Like for example, if the imam says, He
would say subhanallah.
Not out loud, but he said to himself,
subhanallah.
And then we'll continue.
So the Prophet was reciting surah al-Baqarah,
al-Nisa, al-Imran, Taking his time, enjoying
the ibadah and the recitation, pondering, reflecting, Implementing
that with the dua' and request and tasbih
and dhikr.
So if reciting surah al-Baqarah, al-Nisa,
al-Imran, takes about five hours, Would that
extra probably be another half an hour, 45
minutes, just for the dua' and dhikr.
Then, Then he made ruku' sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam.
He starts saying, Praise be my Lord who
is the greatest.
The length of his ruku' was all close
to his standing.
The imam, he extends the ruku' five seconds.
Everybody starts complaining, my back, ya sheikh.
Right?
Like seriously.
Like one time, I prayed in a Muslim
country.
So normally, I make my salah as normal.
So I made my ruku'.
It seems to be not as their imam
usually prays.
So one of the older people came after
salah.
He says, Allahu Akbar.
This imam, when he's making ruku' he waits
until yawm al-qiyamah.
I could hear him saying that.
He's complaining about me.
I'm just like, la ilaha illallah.
Just by adding maybe two extra seconds.
And for him, it's just like, this is
until yawm al-qiyamah.
Like, la ilaha illallah.
So then, Then the Prophet says, He came
up from the ruku'.
He said, His standing from the ruku' was
close to the length of his ruku'.
Just standing.
What would he say standing?
The same thing.
Repeating it over and over again, over and
over again.
Reflecting and pondering on those words.
Of praise and thanking Allah.
Showing gratitude to Allah.
Then he did the sajda.
He was saying, Praise be to my Lord,
the Most High.
And his sajda was as long as his
standing.
What does that mean?
What time would it be when he ended
his salah?
Fajr time.
Like the entire night, he was doing the
salawat.
To the Prophet, that was mandatory.
Just to let you know.
The hajj every night was mandatory.
Allah commands him in surah al-muzzammil, Stand
up all night.
Except for a little.
Okay, half is okay.
So unqus, zid.
A little bit more, a little bit less.
So the Prophet would do that.
He sometimes would pray half of the night.
Sometimes one third of the night.
But that night in particular, he stood most
of the night.
Now that's, Hudaifah mentioned that story to us.
Another narration, or maybe it's the same incident.
But somebody else was with him was Abdullah
bin Mas'ud.
Abdullah bin Mas'ud reported the same story.
He says, Like I was standing with him
all this time.
Until I intended to do something bad.
Like I was intended to do something bad.
It was us.
How bad?
Yeah, you're talking about.
Because I was about to leave.
Like I literally said, I almost left him.
And he broke the salah and left.
This is how hard it was for Abdullah
bin Mas'ud.
But did he do that?
No, he didn't.
He finished with the Prophet.
But how would it look like when he
finished?
But this is how much al-mujahidah.
To stand in salah.
And recite.
And just kind of like pondering, reflecting.
Not just going over the words and the
ayat.
No, really implementing everything.
And put that practice in the ruku and
the sujood.
All of this.
In hadith Ali bin Abi Talib.
When the Prophet ﷺ was asked about.
What's the best part of tahajjud?
Like what is the most virtuous part of
tahajjud?
The essence of the night prayer, he says.
Is the length of the recitation.
It's not the length of your ruku and
sujood.
No, how long you stand.
That's what matters.
Not how many raka'ah you pray.
Like somebody pray a thousand raka'ah.
May Allah bless them.
But praying one raka'ah that long.
That's better.
Because that's what the Prophet ﷺ is saying
over here.
Because now you're reading the Qur'an.
And focus on it.
And reflecting on it.
And so on.
This is extremely, extremely important.
I don't know how many of you experienced
these long salawat.
But Asma'a r.a. The daughter of
Bakr as-Siddiq.
She said one day.
She came after Asr.
To the house of her sister Aisha.
And she found her.
She found the people in the majid praying.
After Asr.
When there was supposed to be no salah.
And Aisha was praying as well too.
She was in her room.
But she kind of like following the salah
from her place.
And it was an out loud salah.
After Asr.
How come they recite.
Asma'a spoke to Aisha.
While Aisha was in salah.
She said, what kind of salah is this?
What are you guys praying?
So Aisha.
While she's in salah.
She pointed to the sky.
So Asma'a, she said.
Aya?
Is there some sort of like a miracle
or a sign happening in the sky?
She goes yes.
She meant what?
Solar eclipse.
It was kusuf al-shams.
Solar eclipse.
So Asma'a joined the salah.
And I don't know how many of you
tried salat al-kusuf.
It's supposed to be the length of the
entire eclipse.
So two, three hours basically.
That's how long you should do that.
The same thing.
The length of the recitation.
So Asma'a, she said.
I kept standing.
By the time.
Salah was over.
She said.
I passed out.
That they woke her up actually with water
over her face.
This is how hard it was.
The length of the salah.
And I remember one time.
I keep reminding the story of Asma'a.
Why?
Because this happened to me.
I was very young.
Still a teenager.
And they said salat al-kusuf.
And it was my first time praying salat
al-kusuf.
I'm excited.
I'm going to do salat al-kusuf.
I'm going to pray behind sheikh.
So we went there.
To the masjid.
And I'm like.
What salat al-kusuf?
Seriously.
My legs.
By the end.
I couldn't stand any longer.
My legs were shaking.
Literally shaking.
Shaking and shaking.
Even the uncle next to me felt bad
for me.
Kind of like tempting me to sit down.
But I kept standing.
Until the salah was over.
I'm like.
But subhanallah.
Just the accomplishment at that young age.
Realizing I made it.
To the end of the salah.
Was something so sweet and so beautiful.
And here.
The mujahidah.
In maintaining your salat al-kusuf.
I don't know how many of you.
Can handle this.
But give it a try.
Give it a try at least once in
your lifetime.
Check one of those beautiful nights.
Where you're able to stay up.
Maybe in Ramadan.
When everybody is having fun.
Playing in the masjid or coming here.
Go by yourself.
Go to your private quarter.
You're awake.
Anyway.
Recite.
And if you cannot recite from your memory.
Hold the mushaf.
That's okay.
And make a long long tahajjud.
May Allah accept from all of you.
Any questions?
Yes.
What do you mean?
It's one single rakah?
Yeah.
The whole tahajjud was one single rakah.
Is there a minimum?
Is there a minimum?
That's up to you man.
What's your minimum?
30 ayah?
Well yeah.
The prophet.
The bare minimum.
To be considered doing tahajjud.
They said.
Like.
Something like surah.
Surah.
If you recite that.
That's good.
That's relatively okay.
So make recitation as long as.
Surah.
And then you make.
And then sujood and so on.
If you do that.
I guarantee you.
You'll finish almost within an hour.
If you do.
You'll finish in an hour.
And if you do that.
Maybe you recite 4 surahs like that.
You will have 8 rakah.
Almost half of the night.
If not even more.
Can you hold the mushaf.
While the imam is reciting.
Please don't do that.
If you're going to do this.
Pray all the way in the back.
In the corner.
So you don't distract anybody.
Because when you're holding your mushaf.
And 2 people standing next to you.
You're distracting everybody else.
And that's not fair.
So therefore I do not recommend for people
to hold the mushaf.
Listen to the imam.
But I don't understand Arabic.
It's okay.
Sometimes the imam doesn't understand Arabic.
So it's okay.
You need just to recite.
And just focus on the qiraa.
Hopefully you can feel it.
If you want to understand it.
Probably before the salah begins.
Go over the translation.
So you get an idea of what the
ayat are all about.
And hopefully you will have that connection.
Yeah that's fine.
Whether it's a phone or an actual mushaf.
It's a distraction.
Don't do it.
Even with the phone you keep flipping.
You're moving your finger.
Right.
By yourself.
If you're praying by yourself.
Hold the mushaf.
But not behind an imam.
By yourself that's fine.
Maybe some of you have seen that video.
Where the imam was reciting from his phone.
And then he skipped the page.
And he kept the whole people waiting for
him.
Yes.
What?
Oh are you talking about the tankees?
So some people they say this hadith.
Is an evidence or a proof.
That when it comes to reciting.
The Quran in salah.
You don't have to follow the order of
the surahs.
Right.
Because probably he recited surah al-baqarah.
And then he recited surah an-nisa.
And then he came back again to al
-imran.
So that's why they call it tankees.
But the hadith says it's okay.
They don't have to be in the same
order.
But if you're going to be reciting.
From the same surah.
In two rak'ahs.
It has to be in the right order.
Like you cannot start reciting from the end
of surah al-baqarah.
On your first rak'ah.
And your second rak'ah.
You start from the beginning of surah al
-baqarah.
Unless of course you finish the surah.
And you start over.
That's different.
But again.
Maybe a rebuttal to this opinion.
Is saying that the order of the mushaf
itself.
Is disputable.
In terms of who put it in the
order we see it today.
Was that from the prophet himself?
Or was that from the committee.
That Rebecca Siddiq assigned.
To put the mushaf in that order.
And the order of the ayat.
In each surah.
For sure it's from the prophet.
That's proven.
Because the prophet used to tell the sahaba.
Put this ayah in such and such surah.
Between so and so.
And so and so ayahs.
So the prophet he's the one who put
the surahs.
The ayat in the right order of the
surah.
But the order of the surahs.
In the mushaf.
That's where it's disputable.
So if you say.
It's the prophet.
Who he puts that order.
Then yeah.
Then that's an evidence.
That it's okay to recite the surahs.
In the same order.
But if you say it's not.
Then there's no evidence for it.
Basically you skip you say.
Like from the first rakah.
I started from the beginning of surah al
-baqarah.
And then I skipped.
Then in my second rakah.
I started the last part of it.
That's fine.
That's okay.
You should be alright.
In the same rakah you cannot skip surahs.
From the surah.
You cannot skip from the same surah.
You cannot in the same rakah.
Recite the beginning of surah al-baqarah.
And then you skip to for example.
Three four pages.
You go to another part of surah al
-baqarah.
And then you skip three four pages.
You cannot do this in the same rakah.
Although some ulama they say it's okay.
But the majority they say no no.
You need to keep the surah connected.
All the way together.
So what happens if I get stuck?
I'm reading from surah al-baqarah.
No one behind me by myself.
I'm stuck right now.
So what do I do?
Do I skip a page and move to
the next?
In that situation yes you can.
Because you're stuck.
No one is helping you.
You can skip an ayah or two.
And continue with your recitation.
Yes.
Do you need to recite the dua al
-qunoot in surah al-witr?
In the Hanafi school it's a wajib.
It's part of the witr itself.
But the majority of the fuqaha they don't
consider this to be part of the witr
at all.
Except in Ramadan.
With different opinions obviously.
Is it entire Ramadan?
Half Ramadan?
The last ten nights?
So I would say it's actually it's okay.
It's mustahab inshallah.
Yes.
You open a debate right now man.
Like if somebody is holding a mushaf or
a phone behind an imam and the imam
makes a mistake.
Can someone who recites from mushaf correct the
imam?
If the imam assigned that individual behind him
then yeah it's okay.
I've seen this in Medina.
And I prayed in a masjid where the
imam assigned one individual to hold a mushaf
behind him to ensure that he will correct
him if he makes a mistake.
The bigger debate is if the imam is
corrected by somebody who is not in the
jama'ah sitting in the back holding a
mushaf.
And then here's the imam makes a mistake.
He goes laqad.
Are you allowed to do that?
Are you allowed to follow this?
I would say actually some fuqaha they say
that breaks the salah.
But I don't think there is any evidence
to prove that.
So yeah if somebody corrects your recitation whether
the person is part of the salah or
not that should be fine.
Insha'Allah.
So I would say better for the imam
if no one, there's no hafad, no enough
hafad in the jama'ah to have somebody
behind him to follow him with the mushaf
so you can correct the recitation insha'Allah.
So can you hold a translation or a
mushaf with translation so you can at least
understand what the imam is reciting?
The answer is no.
You shouldn't be doing that.
I know some contemporary scholars right now they're
suggesting this.
As a matter of fact even bigger than
that they say to put it on the
big screens for the imam to follow.
The sunnah is to look down there.
So should put screens down there for everybody
insha'Allah.
I would say no.
We shouldn't be doing that.
And like I said try to understand before
you start your salah insha'Allah so you
can focus on your ibadah and your ta
'a.
As a matter of fact it's not even
English.
Even those who read Arabic they don't understand
the Quran properly without tafseer sometimes.
So even these people need to read tafseer
before they start their salah so they can
focus insha'Allah on their ibadah.
So if somebody would like to try this
hadith over here to pray one tahajjud night
with one rakah for example.
Should you start right away with trying that
rakah or should you start building towards that
like build your momentum.
Every weekend you do for example half a
juz and then three quarters and then one
juz and then two and then three until
you reach that level where you're comfortable to
do masha'Allah six juz, seven juz and
one rakah.
It's up to you.
It depends.
If you can bismillah go for it.
That's fine.
You can do eight and three insha'Allah.
Go practice it.