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The process of being a true slave of Allah requires disengaging from the world, and engaging with Him in night vigil; tahajjud. Our Creator has placed the most beautiful formula in our lives for us to be able to converse with Him intimately and He has given us the privilege to be alone in His presence; that is if we seek Him and forsake sleep.

Food for the Soul

Our creation is perfected with a combination of the body (jasad) and soul (ruh). While our body is created from substances of this Earth as described in the Qur’an, our soul is derived from heavenly properties, void of any worldly elements.

This is why when the People of the Book asked the Prophet ﷺ about the soul, he stayed silent until Allah revealed:

قُلِ ٱلرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّى

Say, "The ruh is from the command of my Lord." (17:85)

While all the physical needs of our body are fulfilled through the things of this Earth, the soul cannot be fulfilled by the things of this worldly nature because it comes from Allah. Thus, its well-being rests solely and entirely on our closeness to Allah. When our soul gains nearness to Allah, it becomes content and when it is distanced from Allah, it becomes restless.

Allah has created us so that we can manifest in ourselves the essence of worship and servitude. One of our objectives of being in this world is to cleanse our soul from tendencies that take us away from Allah. In order to do this, we need to bring about a perfect balance in our lives. This can be done by emulating the life of the Prophet ﷺ as he was the best of human beings who truly embodied this. He spent his days in worship and his nights in devotion to Allah, in seclusion.

Virtues of Tahajjud

Time spent in seclusion with Allah in the nighttime was the hallmark of the pious predecessors and it was a lifelong practice of the Prophet ﷺ himself. It is one of the greatest sources of nourishing the soul and nurturing the bond between the slave and the Creator.

Allah gave clear instructions to the Prophet ﷺ and explained how much prayer he should perform in the middle of the night. He said:

يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُزَّمِّلُ ‎﴿١﴾‏ قُمِ اللَّيْلَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا ‎﴿٢﴾‏ نِّصْفَهُ أَوِ انقُصْ مِنْهُ قَلِيلًا ‎﴿٣﴾‏ أَوْ زِدْ عَلَيْهِ وَرَتِّلِ الْقُرْآنَ تَرْتِيلًا ‎﴿٤﴾‏ إِنَّا سَنُلْقِي عَلَيْكَ قَوْلًا ثَقِيلًا ‎﴿٥﴾‏ إِنَّ نَاشِئَةَ اللَّيْلِ هِيَ أَشَدُّ وَطْئًا وَأَقْوَمُ قِيلًا ‎﴿٦﴾

O you wrapped ˹in your clothes˺! Stand all night ˹in prayer˺ except a little—˹pray˺ half the night, or a little less, or a little more—and recite the Quran ˹properly˺ in a measured way. ˹For˺ We will soon send upon you a weighty revelation. Indeed, worship in the night is more impactful and suitable for recitation. (73:1-6)

Wherever Allah has given the instructions or the encouragement for tahajjud, He has given its benefits as well. According to Imam al-Bukhari, getting up in the last part of the night will help keep every part of our body in sync. Both our actions as well as our words will become aligned. The most effective part is that it will help us in rectifying and keeping upright the words that we speak; specifically, the words of da'wah.

The sheer weight of divine revelation is something very heavy, which Allah has indicated in this verse. This is why there were remarkable physical changes that were apparent when the Prophet ﷺ used to receive revelation. His complexion turned pallid, and his sweat broke out like beads of pearls rolling down from his forehead despite a cold day. Thus, Allah is telling him that in order to endure this burden, he must rise for tahajjud and increase his own spiritual strength. Because reception of revelation requires spiritual endurance and not physical endurance.

Besides this, one of the most powerful elements of tahajjud is learning to be in solitude with Allah. Allah wants us to increase in our alone time with Him. Being in complete seclusion with Allah is one of the most effective ways to build our bond with Him. Until we learn to be alone with Allah, we will not understand what it means to be close to Him. This closeness requires devoting ourselves to Him in a time and place with completely no distractions. And fortunately, the time has already been given to us by Allah. It is in the calm and quiet hour, in the stillness and darkness of the night.

A Ritual of the Pious

Seclusion with Allah as a nightly routine is something that is beneficial and rewarding for all of us. The Prophet ﷺ has extolled tahajjud in numerous hadith and often encouraged his Companions to remain steadfast in it. It has been emphasized in the Qur’an and emphasized in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. This was his ongoing and consistent amal.

Abdullah ibn Umar relayed he once saw in his dream that two angels caught hold of him and took him to the Hellfire which was built like a well and had two poles in it. In the circle were people he recognized. So, he started saying,

أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ النَّارِ

"I seek refuge with Allah from the Fire."

Then, in the dream, he met another angel who consoled him not to be afraid. He narrated this dream to his sister, Hafsa, who then told it to the Prophet. When the Prophet ﷺ interpreted this dream, he remarked:

‏ "‏ نِعْمَ الرَّجُلُ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ، لَوْ كَانَ يُصَلِّي مِنَ اللَّيْلِ ‏"‏‏.‏

“Abdullah is a good man. I wish he prayed tahajjud.” Following this incident, Abdullah devoted himself to praying tahajjud.

In the Qur'an, Allah also describes the people of tahajjud. In Surah as-Sajdah, He tells us:

تَتَجَافَىٰ جُنُوبُهُمْ عَنِ ٱلْمَضَاجِعِ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ خَوْفًۭا وَطَمَعًۭا وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَـٰهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ

They abandon their beds, invoking their Lord with hope and fear, and donate from what We have provided for them. (32:16)

While in Surah al-Furqan, He mentioned:

وَالَّذِينَ يَبِيتُونَ لِرَبِّهِمْ سُجَّدًا وَقِيَامًا ‎﴿٦٤﴾‏ وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا اصْرِفْ عَنَّا عَذَابَ جَهَنَّمَ ۖ إِنَّ عَذَابَهَا كَانَ غَرَامًا ‎﴿٦٥﴾ ‏إِنَّهَا سَاءَتْ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَمُقَامًا ‎﴿٦٦﴾

˹The true slaves of Allah are˺ those who spend ˹a good portion of˺ the night, prostrating themselves and standing before their Lord. Those who pray, “Our Lord! Keep the punishment of Hell away from us, for its punishment is indeed unrelenting. It is certainly an evil place to settle and reside.” (25:64-66)

Despite cultivating this habit of nightly worship, the Companions never stopped seeking closeness to Allah. Amongst the traits of the pious is that they would do a good thing but considered it to be insufficient or deemed it unworthy of the acceptance of the Almighty. This was why even the most pious of slaves of Allah such as Yunus AS supplicated with humility:

لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ

“There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.”

Similarly, Abu Bakr RA asked the Prophet ﷺ to teach him a du'a to recite after his salah. The Prophet ﷺ recommended,

‏ "‏ قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي ظَلَمْتُ نَفْسِي ظُلْمًا كَثِيرًا، وَلاَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ، فَاغْفِرْ لِي مَغْفِرَةً مِنْ عِنْدِكَ، وَارْحَمْنِي، إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ ‏"‏‏.‏

"Say: O Allah! I have wronged my soul very much (oppressed myself), and none forgives the sins but You; so please bestow Your Forgiveness upon me. No doubt, You are the Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Sahih al-Bukhari)

Throughout our lives we have wronged ourselves and thus, we should never consider ourselves to be good enough for Allah. And because we acknowledge that we are amongst the wrongdoers, we have to seek Allah’s forgiveness for whatever shortcomings we have in our lives during tahajjud. This is the common practice of the people of tahajjud.

It is at this time of the night that Allah descends to the Earthly sky and starts making announcements, saying:

مَنْ يَدْعُونِي فَأَسْتَجِيبَ لَهُ مَنْ يَسْأَلُنِي فَأُعْطِيَهُ مَنْ يَسْتَغْفِرُنِي فَأَغْفِرَ لَهُ

“Is there anyone to invoke Me, so that I may respond to invocation? Is there anyone to ask Me, so that I may grant him his request? Is there anyone seeking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?” (Sahih al-Bukhari)

This announcement from the heavens continues until the salah of fajr and hence, it is the time when supplications are accepted by Allah. The Prophet ﷺ confirmed this fact when he was asked about the timing in which the supplications are answered. He relayed:

جَوْفَ اللَّيْلِ الْآخِرِ وَدُبُرَ الصَّلَوَاتِ الْمَكْتُوبَاتِ

“One in the last part of the night and at the end of the prescribed prayers.” (al-Tirmidhi)

The doors of du'a have been flung open by Allah in the hour of tahajjud. It is undoubtedly the best solution to every woe, problems or any unanswered du'a we have. All we have to do is ask — talk to Allah in those nightly vigils. This needs to become a part and parcel of every Muslim's life, and an ongoing routine instead of a new one.

Fulfilling the obligatory is not enough for a believer; it is merely an entry level form of submission to Allah. To further protect ourselves and our deen, and raise our ranks in Allah’s eyes, we have to go the extra mile and work on refining and cleansing our soul by bringing it closer to Allah. Our “spiritual lever” for reaching the next stage of closeness to Allah lies in observing tahajjud.

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