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Factors That Facilitate Performance of the Night Prayer
Shaykh Ahmad Fareed's "Al Bahr ar-Ra'iq"
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Know that regular performance of the night prayer is very difficult except
for those whom Allah `azza wa jall guides. There are seven external and
internal factors that facilitate performance of this prayer.
External Factors
1. Not eating and drinking a lot, so that one is not overcome by sleep. As
some have said: "Do not eat a lot, so that you do not have to drink a lot
and
sleep a lot!"
2. Not preoccupying oneself during the day with daily tasks exhaust a
person's physical and mental strength, for this also causes sleep.
3. Not leaving daily afternoon nap, so as to help oneself with it in
performance of the night prayer.
4. Sinning as little as possible during the day, for sinning causes the heart
to harden and prevents it from receiving mercy.
Even kings of this world do not allow seclusion and intimate discourse with
them except to the people who obey them, whom they love and who are sincere
to them.
Some said to Ibn Mas`ood, may Allah be pleased with him, "We are unable
to
perform the night prayer." He told them: "Your sins are distancing
you (from
it)."
Someone said to al Hasan al Basri: "We are unable to perform the night
prayer
so prescribe me a cure." He said, "Do not disobey Him during the day
and He
will help you stand before Him during the night."
Ath-Thawri said, "I was prevented from standing in prayer at night for
five
months due to a sin I had committed."
Al-Hasan al-Basri, may Allah have mercy on him, when he would enter the
market and heard all that people say in it from shouting and vain talk, he
would say: "I think that these have bad nights."
All types of sins contribute to hardness of the heart and prevent from
performance of the night prayer, even though some sins are more harmful than
others, such as eating what is haram. On the other hand, eating what is
halal, like few other things, cleans the heart and guides it to what is good.
This is best known by those who watch and control their hearts, due to
experiencing it, after the Sharee`ah's testimony to this fact. This is why
some of them rightly said, "How many bites have prevented performance of
the
night prayer! How many glances have prevented recitation of a Quranic soorah!
Verily the slave eats a bite or does an action and because of it he
is prevented from standing in performance of the sunnah (i.e. the night
prayer)."
Internal Factors
1. Protection of the heart from innovation, hatred towards Muslims and
superfluous worldly concerns. One preoccupied with this world is unable to
perform the night prayer and if he does, he does not think about his prayer,
but about his worldly concerns, wandering in his sinful thoughts (whisperings
of Shaytan). It has been said about such:
The guard informed me that you are sleeping
And you, even when you are awake, are sleeping.
2. Fear of sins and death and short hopes keep the heart alive, so when the
servant thinks about pits of the Hellfire and people's condition in the
hereafter, his sleep immediately disappears. `Abdullah bin Rawaaha said:
"Verily, when the servant of Allah is reminded of Paradise, his longing
for
it increases, and when he is reminded of the Fire, his sleep immediately
disappears."
Ibn al Mubarak, may Allah have mercy on him, said,
When the night is completely dark,
It finds them staying up in the night.
Fear has chased away their sleep so they stay up,
While those who feel secure in this life quietly sleep on.
3. Knowing the virtue of standing in prayer at night, as related in Quranic
verses and traditions, until that knowledge intensifies one's hope and
longing for its reward, and when that state is achieved, one's desire for
higher levels in Paradise will also increase.
