Tahajjud, () also known as the "night prayer" or "Qiyam-u-lail", as well as "Namaaz-e-Shab" (نماز شب) in
Persian (later borrowed into
Urdu and Hindi) is a voluntary
prayer
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rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...
performed by followers of
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
. It is not one of the
five obligatory prayers required of all
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
s, although the Islamic prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
was recorded as performing the tahajjud prayer regularly himself and encouraging his companions. The Tahajjud prayer is usually performed in the last third of the night.
Evidence in
Next to these
Qur'an
The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...
ic verses, there also exist a number of
hadith
Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...
s (narrated and confirmed traditions from Muhammad) that reinforce the importance of Tahajjud Prayer. In various hadiths, it has been mentioned as ''Qiyamul Sabah'' (standing of morning), ''Salatul Sabah'' (prayer of morning) and ''Tahajjud''.
Recommended time
To perform tahajjud signifies the act of rising from sleep during the night and then praying.
Tahajjud may be performed before or after ''
imsak'' (imsak is when the fasting starts) but before the obligatory
Fajr prayer.
Commenting on this subject,
Ibn Hajar says:
"The best time for tahajjud is the last third portion of the night." (
Abu Hurairah:
Fiqh
''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.[Fiqh](_blank)
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...
)
claimed that he heard Muhammad as saying:
Masruq ibn al-Ajda' narrated:
Number of rakats
Tahajjud Prayer does not entail a specific number of rak`ahs that must be performed, nor is there any maximum limit that may be performed. It would be fulfilled even if one prayed just one rak`ah of
Witr after `
Ishaa'; however, it is traditionally prayed with at least two
rak'at which is known as shif'a followed by witr as this is what Muhammad did before fajr.
''
Abdullah ibn Umar narrated that Muhammad said:''
Bukhari, Hadith 990
References
External links
Tahajjud information at Arabian Tongue
Tahajjud prayer time calculatorTahajjud/Qiyam al-Layl (Night Prayer)
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Salah
Salah terminology
Islamic terminology