In the name of Allah, the Most-Merciful, the All-Compassionate
"May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be Upon You"
Praise be to Allah, we seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our own souls and from our bad deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever Allah leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
Bismillah Walhamdulillah Was Salaatu Was Salaam 'ala Rasulillah
As-Salaam Alaikum Wa-Rahmatullahi Wa-Barakatuhu
"May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be Upon You"
Praise be to Allah, we seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our own souls and from our bad deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever Allah leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
Bismillah Walhamdulillah Was Salaatu Was Salaam 'ala Rasulillah
As-Salaam Alaikum Wa-Rahmatullahi Wa-Barakatuhu
When I was reforming my salah in recent years, I came across some non-regular salah called tahajjud, witr and taraweeh. Now, there is a lot of fatwas and differences regarding the timing and frequency of these salahs. Let’s look at some of the mis-conceptions that many scholars have regarding this.
Tahajjud:
Salat – ul – Tahajjud is the salah that our Prophet (PBUH) used to perform in late night hours until the first light. Many hadiths are available to confirm it. This prayer was obligatory for him, but not for his Ummah. After 5 prayers were established, this became Nafil (optional).
17:79 And pray in the small watches of the morning: (it would be) an additional
prayer (or spiritual profit) for thee: soon will thy Lord raise thee to a
Station of Praise and Glory!
Again, tahajjud is not fardh or wajib. It is strictly Nafil. Evidence is pretty clear on this. There are 5 prescribed prayers which are fardh, and not praying them is sin. There is a special status for the person who prays tahajjud, which makes it a rare salah, because if it is wajib and not praying was sin, it would have been mentioned as other fardh prayers. Allah doesn’t want us to deprive ourselves from sleep every single night, since he himself said that night is for rest.
In fact, most of the scholars agreed on this that Tahajjud is optional.
Witr:
Witr means odd, so one rakat that makes all the previous rakats odd is witr.
From evidence, it is clear that our Prophet used to pray witr after Tahajjud. I have yet to see evidence that says that our Prophet prayed witr after Isha prayer without sleeping in between.
Narrated Ibn Umar:
Once a person asked Allah's Apostle about the night
prayer. Allah's Apostle replied, "The night prayer is offered as two Rakat
followed by two Rakat and so on and if anyone is afraid of the approaching dawn
(Fajr prayer) he should pray one Raka and this will be a Witr for all the Rakat
which he has prayed before." Nafi' told that 'Abdullah bin 'Umar used to say
Taslim between (the first) two Rakat and (the third) odd one in the Witr prayer,
when he wanted to attend to a certain matter (during that interval between the
Rakat). (Bukhari Volume 2, Book 16, Number 105)
Witr is truly one rakah, and it is better, praying it in 3 rakah is permissible.
Narrated Ibn 'Umar:
The Prophet used to offer
(Nawafil) prayers on his Rahila (mount) facing its direction by signals, but not
the compulsory prayer. He also used to pray Witr on his (mount) Rahila. (Bukhari
Volume 2, Book 16, Number 114)
Tahajjud is not fardh, and is not wajib. Witr is part of tahajjud, so all the rulings of thajjud should apply. Prophet Mohammad never prayed witr outside of Tahajjud.
People, who argue that witr can be prayed right after Isha at the beginning of the night, use the following hadith as proof. However, this hadith does not say that you can pray after Isha without sleeping or that this salah is wajib, it is only permitting people for waking up at midnight compare to waking up more then on time in the night.
The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah
be upon him) said: “Whoever fears that he will not get up at the end of the
night, let him pray Witr at the beginning of the night, but whoever thinks that
he will be able to get up at the end of the night, let him pray Witr at the end
of the night, for prayer at the end of the night is witnessed (by the angels)
and that is better.” Narrated by Muslim, 755
In fact, any format of Ibadah that was not taught by our Prophet is Bid’aa, and making it a habbit to pray witr after Isha is Bid’aa.
Let’s assume that this is not Bid’a to make witr regular part of the Isha prayer. So, everyone who does that cannot pray the true thajjud at the late night, since following hadith prohibits it. What a loss for them!
Talq ibn 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) who said:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "There
cannot be two witrs in one night."
Taraweeh:
Just like witr, taraweeh is the tahajjud prayer that Prophet (PBUH) started for a few days in congregation, but then stopped in the fear that it will become fardh upon the ummah. Umar (RWT) restarted the congregation, but never declared it fardh. So, it is permissible to pray Tahajjud for Ramadhan (Taraweeh) in congregation, but not preferred. Remember, Tahajjud is a special act that Allah loves because his slave wakes up when everyone else is sleeping, and the dua during that time weighs a lot.
Praying tahajjud, witr, and taraweeh in congregation is allowed.
Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:
Once I passed the night in the
house of Maimuna (his aunt). I slept across the bed while Allah's Apostle and
his wife slept length-wise. The Prophet slept till midnight or nearly so and
woke up rubbing his face and recited ten verses from Surat "Aal-Imran." Allah's
Apostle went towards a leather skin and performed ablution in the most perfect
way and then stood for the prayer. I did the same and stood beside him. The
Prophet put his right hand on my head, twisted my ear and then prayed two Rakat
five times and then ended his prayer with Witr. He laid down till the Muadh-dhin
came then he stood up and offered two Rakat (Sunna of Fajr prayer) and then went
out and offered the Fajr prayer. (Bukhari Volume 2, Book 16, Number 106)
Imam Abu-hanifa based his ruling on the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) who is reported to have said: “Witr is a right that a servant of Allah owes to his Lord, so, the one who does not perform Witr does not belong to me, i.e., doesn’t follow my sunnah.”
First, I can’t find any reference on where this came from. Last, I could interpret this as that if we pray thajjud and don’t pray witr, then we are creating our own format, which is not the sunnah of our Prophet, hence this hadith. Why would be one rakat that is always prayed at the end of the night has more value then, the preceding rakats. So, I wish I can dialogue with Imam Abu hanfia on this, who is my role model, but it is too late.
In fact, witr cannot be fardh or wajib without making thajjud fardh or wajib, as the following hadith is telling us.
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) answered the
one who asked him how many prayers Almighty Allah made obligatory on him saying: “Allah has prescribed five prayer in the day and the night.” The questioner
said, “Am I obliged to do more?” He said: “No, unless you perform supererogatory
prayers.” The man went away saying: “By Allah, I will not increase or decrease
beyond these obligatory prayers.” Then, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon
him) said, “He would succeed if he did what he said.” (Reported by Muslim)”
Would we believe, some hanafi scholars, who have known to reverse Imam abu-hanifa’s teaching, or Sahih Hadith from our Prophet. I would always go with the later.
One of my relative came up to me and asks me one night after Isha. “Why don’t you pray witr?” I told him that I am concentrating on fardh, and skipping optional intentionally to reform myself. Later on, I found out that that we don’t have to pray witr, as he was preaching.
Most of the Muslims and Imams are stuck following their traditions, and even after they know that their scholars have mistaken, they don’t have courage to correct themselves. I don’t see any difference between this attitude and the attitude of Ibrahim’s father, when a young boy 16 year old (Ibrahim) says to all the scholars of his village. Why do you worship these idols, and they reply that their forefathers have done this, and they can’t abandon it. At that age, Ibrahim may not have wahi or became the prophet; he just had guts to stand up to the illogical beliefs that have no foundation in Quran and Sunnah.
Of course, this stems from the fact that many are subscribing to some firqa, and everything that firqa teaches them, they have to follow. Whereas, they should take what conforms to Islam, and leave what doesn’t.
I don’t claim to have better understanding then all the scholars, but I call it as I see it. If you have a proof against this, please present it to me.
May Allah protect us from the fitna of firqa (Hanafi, Shafi, Hanbali, Devbondi, Brelwi, Salafi, Maliki, Jafri…).
May Allah give us strength to follow Islam completely,
Adnan Jumani
A Muslim and nothing more.
References:
http://www.turntoislam.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57363
http://www.sunnah.org/ibadaat/fasting/night_prayer_in_ramadan.htm
Sahih Bukhari
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503546896#ixzz0n9mb9JGs
