Worship of the night

 Sleep and wakefulness are opposites.  They are the lot of every human being, regardless of gender.  There are people who are awake, who eat and drink, walk and talk, yet they are asleep.  They are those who have become heedless.

 

Heedlessness and laziness assail both men and women.  As the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) is the leader and guide of all humankind, along with men, He encouraged women also to spend the night in worship and instructed them to steer clear of heedlessness and laziness.

 

Importance of night worship

 

The greatest and most accomplished enemy of human beings is Satan.  He spends each moment in searching for ways to misguide Muslims and he knows all the ways through which human beings can be misled.  From this viewpoint, the whole life of Muslims is a kind of wakefulness.  If they become heedless, then Satan will overpower them.

 

For this reason, Muslims have been instructed to spend the night in worship and prepare for the hereafter.  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) has instructed us to save themselves from heedlessness.  He has declared traversing the path of knowledge and putting the same into practice as the means of deliverance and success.

 

The way someone is saved when they heed the warning about an attacking army of the warner and leave in time and the person who doesn’t heed that warning will be destroyed, similarly those who start their journey of the hereafter heeding the words of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) will be delivered in the hereafter.  As mentioned in Hadith No. 6482 of Sahih Bukhari.

 

Night worship for preparation of the hereafter

 

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) trained and instructed the ladies of His time as well and made their hearts worthy of divine solace and mercy.  When the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) would get up for worship in the night, He would also wake up the Mothers of the believers.  As mentioned in Sahih Bukhari, Hadith No. 1126.

 

The aforementioned Hadith says that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) would say:  What trials are descending this night and what bounties of Allah Most High are being sent!  Let someone awaken the Mothers of the believers...

 

Worship in the night is not the specialty of the men alone.  It is the specialty of women and their beauty as well.  The aforementioned Hadith describes the benefits and blessings of night worship.  Those who spend the whole night in sleep remain deprived of the mercy and bounties of Allah Most High.  May Allah guide us in standing before Him and prostrating to Him in the dead of the night.