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The Concept of Qiyam Laylat Al-Qadr
Author : Mufti. Zakaria Ali Salman
Date Added : 29-12-2024

Reflecting on the immense reward given to those who observe the Night of Decree (Laylat Al-Qadr), one should strive to seize it. When we know that the reward for observing Laylat al-Qadr is equivalent to a thousand months, as stated in the verse (Which means): "The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months." [Al-Qadr/3], we realize the significance of observing it. We also understand the wisdom behind its concealment from us, encouraging us to strive in seeking and searching for it and to take precaution to ensure we catch it.

Our role model in this is the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), who, when the last ten nights began, would stay awake, awaken his family, and devote himself to worship, tightening his belt." [Agreed upon].

The Prophet (PBUH) used to seclude himself in the mosque (I'tikaf) for ten days every Ramadan. In the year of his passing, he observed I'tikaf for twenty days." [Al-Bukhari].

I'tikaf involves withdrawal, but the Prophet’s withdrawal is unlike any other. He was the commander of the army, head of state, teacher of the nation, its mufti, judge, and imam, as well as a family man with relatives, friends, and acquaintances. Above all, he was divinely guided and free from sin, yet despite all this, he observed I'tikaf.

If the moment of divine acceptance were a fixed hour that one could attain simply by sitting during that time, sinners, oppressors, and transgressors would be the keenest to attend that hour. This is why it is wisely concealed from the lazy, so they must exert effort, and from the diligent, so they do not neglect it.

One should not let any signs distract them from persistent observance and effort, especially since some signs appear after the night has passed. A person in I'tikaf may mistakenly think they have seen its signs and abandon I'tikaf, thus missing the guaranteed reward for something uncertain. This would be a significant loss and ignorance. How could it be otherwise when the Prophet (PBUH) did not end his I'tikaf even when he knew he had observed Laylat Al-Qadr? He continued until the end of the month.

I share this with my beloved brothers and sisters in faith to prevent Satan from deceiving them into abandoning the observance of this great night, which may not recur. Life’s end is unknown, and free time may not be available in another year, not to mention health and other circumstances.

Laylat Al-Qadr has two aspects:

1. The moment of acceptance: This is the supreme happiness when prayers are answered, and a person receives their heart’s desires. Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) asked: "O Messenger of Allah, if I know which night is the Night of Decree, what should I say?" He replied: "Say: O Allah, You are Forgiving and love forgiveness, so forgive me" [At-Tirmidhi]. Material wealth, spouses, and children are important, as are position and status. However, more important than all these is safety on the Day of Judgment, as mentioned in the following verse, stating (What means):  "And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of what you count." [Al-Hajj/47].

2. Attaining the reward: Whoever performs a single unit of prayer on this night receives the reward of praying for a thousand months. Whoever utters a word of glorification (Tasbih) is rewarded as though they had uttered it thirty thousand times, multiplied by the reward of the fighters in the cause of Allah. Such immense reward and abundant blessings!

Here, Satan may employ his traps, either by leading you to sin—God forbid—or by distracting you with permissible amusement. If he fails in both, he may settle for making you perform a lesser good deed to prevent you from attaining the greater reward.

Congratulations to you, those who observe Laylat Al-Qadr! If you perform I'tikaf, your prayer counts as part of its observance, listening to a sermon is part of its observance, reading the Quran is part of its observance, speaking a kind word is part of its observance, and even resting to renew your energy for worship is part of its observance.

For this reason, the noble companions would pray for months to reach Ramadan, hoping to enjoy these great rewards. They wished to encounter this blessed night, to pray to Allah to alleviate distress, illuminate paths, grant victory to the nation of the Messenger of Allah, and make them a mercy to the world by spreading the religion of guidance and avoiding ways of misguidance.                                       

O Allah, endear faith to us and adorn it in our hearts. Make us detest disbelief, defiance, and disobedience, and make us among the rightly guided.

The published article reflects the opinion of its author

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Summarized Fatawaa

"I told my family at night: 'I will fast tomorrow as qaḍā' (a make-up fast),' but I forgot to make the intention before sleeping. Is my fast valid?"

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
 
The intention is obligatory in acts of worship. For obligatory fasting, the required intention is to resolve to fast during the night [before dawn]. Its proper locus is the heart, while verbalizing the intention out loud in acts of worship is a sunnah — so that the tongue may align with the heart. If the intent behind the statement in question was the intention to fast, then it is valid; but if the intent was merely to inform someone, or reflected hesitation or doubt, then it is not valid.
 
It is stated in *Bushrā al-Karīm* (Vol.1/P.216): "It is a sunnah to verbalize the intention — that is, whatever has already been intended in the heart, whether an obligatory or a voluntary act — such as specifying the number of rak‘ahs, just before the opening takbīr — so that the tongue may assist the heart, and because this is further removed from whispered doubts (waswasah), and in order to accommodate the view of those who held it obligatory in every act of worship that requires an intention (even though this is a minority position), by analogy with Ḥajj."
 
Accordingly: if the intention to fast arose in your heart before the second adhān [i.e., before Fajr], then your fast is valid.
 
And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.

What is the ruling on performing the night prayer (*qiyām al-layl*) between the first and second adhān of Fajr? And which is better: delaying the prayer until shortly before the Fajr adhān, or performing it earlier than that?

 

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
The time for night prayer (qiyām al-layl) begins after the Maghrib prayer and lasts until the second adhān of Fajr. The best time for it is the last third of the night, and best of all are the fourth and fifth sixths of the night. If the night is divided into two halves, the latter half is better.
Whoever intends to pray at night is encouraged to delay the Witr until he has prayed the night prayer. If he knows that he will not wake up, it is better for him to pray and perform Witr before sleeping, so that he does not miss both the night prayer and the Witr.
It is stated in Mughnī al-Muḥtāj (Vpl.1/p.462): “I say: The voluntary prayer of the night, that is, the absolute voluntary prayer (al-nafl al-muṭlaq), is better than the absolute voluntary prayer of the day, because of the report in Muslim: ‘The best prayer after the obligatory prayer is the night prayer.’ In another narration of his: ‘In the night there is an hour that no Muslim man meets while asking Allah for any good of this world and the next except that He gives it to him, and that is every night.’ It is also because the night is a time of heedlessness. I restricted the voluntary prayer to the absolute kind following the commentator, although what the ḥadīth and the underlying meaning require is that the night rawātib be preferred over the day rawātib, since the jurists preferred the two rakʿahs of Fajr over everything except Witr. The middle of the night is better than its two ends if it is divided into thirds, because heedlessness is greatest then and worship is hardest. If he wishes to pray during some third, the best is the fourth and fifth sixths, based on the ḥadīth in the two Ṣaḥīḥs: ‘The most beloved prayer to Allah the Exalted is the prayer of Dāwūd: he would sleep half the night, stand for a third of it, and sleep for a sixth.’ Then the latter part is better than the first if he divides it into two halves, because of the saying of Allah the Exalted: ‘And in the hours before dawn they would ask forgiveness’ [al-Dhāriyāt: 18], and the report of the two Shaykhs: ‘Our Lord, Blessed and Exalted, descends,’ meaning His command descends, ‘to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains, and says: Who calls upon Me, that I may answer him? Who asks of Me, that I may give him? Who seeks My forgiveness, that I may forgive him?’”
It is also stated in ʿUmdat al-Sālik (p. 60): “It is better to perform it [the Witr] immediately after the sunnah of ʿIshāʾ, unless he has tahajjud, in which case it is better to delay it so that he performs Witr after it. If he performs Witr and then wishes to pray tahajjud, he prays two rakʿahs at a time and does not repeat the Witr, nor does he need to cancel it with a single rakʿah before the tahajjud. It is recommended that he not deliberately pray after it.”
Qiyām al-layl is a term applied to any prayer performed at night. Tahajjud, on the other hand, refers to the night prayer that follows sleep, whether it is prayed after Maghrib or after ʿIshāʾ, or the prayer performed after ʿIshāʾ without sleep. On this basis, the Witr is also called tahajjud, since it is only prayed after ʿIshāʾ.
It is stated in al-Majmūʿ (Vol.4/p.84): “The sound position, as stated in al-Umm and al-Mukhtaṣar, is that the Witr is called tahajjud.”
It is stated in Nihāyat al-Zayn (Vol.1/p.114): “Among the absolute voluntary prayers is qiyām al-layl. If it is performed after sleep, even during the time of Maghrib and after having prayed ʿIshāʾ early (taqdīman), it is called tahajjud.”
And it is stated in Ḥāshiyat al-Bujayrimī ʿalā al-Khaṭīb (Vol.1/p.418): “His statement: ‘(the night prayer)’: the genitive construction (iḍāfah) carries the sense of fī, meaning a prayer in the night. His statement: ‘(it would be more fitting)’: the reason it is more fitting is that the night prayer includes both tahajjud and other prayers.” And Allah Almighty knows best.

What is the ruling on performing dry ablution (tayammum) on a wall or stone?

One of the conditions for tayammum is that it be with pure, clean dust (soil). It is not valid to perform tayammum by striking stones, a wall, sand that has no dust (i.e., that does not produce dust), pebbles alone, or clay, as these are not from the earth or its same category. And Allah the Almighty knows best.

A man led the people in prayer as imam, and at the end of the prayer he performed a prostration of forgetfulness (*sujūd al-sahw*) because he had omitted a short *sūrah* after al-Fātiḥah. What is the ruling on his prayer and that of those praying behind him?

 

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
According to the Shāfiʿī school, it is sunnah to recite a sūrah after al-Fātiḥah in the prayer. One who omits it has a valid prayer, and no prostration of forgetfulness (sujūd al-sahw) is prescribed for omitting it. If someone performs sujūd al-sahw for its omission while knowing the ruling and remembering it, his prayer is invalidated. But one who is ignorant of the ruling, or who did so out of forgetfulness, his prayer is not invalidated, because this is among the matters that are obscure to people, and ignorance of it is not restricted to those who recently entered Islam.
Shaykh al-Islām al-Shams al-Ramlī said in Nihāyat al-Muḥtāj ilā Sharḥ al-Minhāj (Vol.2/p.70): “The remaining sunnahs are not compensated for by prostration, such as the remembrances (adhkār) of bowing and prostration, that is, the opening supplication (duʿāʾ al-iftitāḥ) and the sūrah, in accordance with the base rule, because they are not of the same nature as what has been reported [as compensable]. If one prostrates for any of them deliberately, his prayer is invalidated, unless he is excused due to ignorance. As for the objection raised that the ignorant person does not know that sujūd al-sahw is prescribed, and whoever knows it knows its place, this is refuted by denying such a necessary connection, for the ignorant person may hear only that sujūd al-sahw is prescribed before the salām, and so assume that it applies to every sunnah and is not restricted to its prescribed place.”
This is among the matters that are obscure, in which the mukallaf is excused for ignorance, as stated by al-Shabrāmallisī in his Ḥāshiyah ʿalā Nihāyat al-Muḥtāj (Vol.2/p.70).
However, if the imam prostrates, and the follower (maʾmūm) presumes that his imam’s prostration is for a reason for which one does not prostrate, it is not permissible to follow him in it, so long as the follower knows the ruling.
Accordingly, the prayer of one who did not recite a sūrah after al-Fātiḥah is valid, and sujūd al-sahw is not prescribed for it. Whoever prostrates out of ignorance or forgetfulness, his prayer is valid, because this is among the issues hidden from the general public. But whoever prostrates while knowing the ruling and remembering it, his prayer is invalidated. And Allah Almighty knows best.

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