Excellence of worship of the night

Excellence of worship of the night

 

Sleeping for the whole night is the sign of the heedless and due to the effect cast by Satan.  When the Satan casts his effect on any human being, then that person’s nights are spent in heedlessness and the day is spent in laziness and lethargy.

 

Thus, there is a Hadith in Sahih Bukhari:

 

Translation: It is narrated on the authority of Hadhrat Abu Hurairah (May Allah be well pleased with him) that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  When any one of you goes to sleep, Satan ties three knots at the nape of the neck.  On every knot, he says:  The night is very long for you.  You sleep for the whole night.  When a believer awakens and makes a mention of Almighty Allah, one knot is unraveled.  Then, if that person performs ablution, then another knot is unraveled.  If that person offers Salaat, all the knots are unraveled.  Then the next morning that person awakens glad and fit and fine otherwise he (or she) awakens miserable and lethargic.  (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith No. 1142; Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 3269)

 

This Hadith teaches us that if the effect of Satan, the accursed, can be undone, it can be done with the benevolence of Allah Most High and with spending the night in worship.  The benefits of spending the night in worship that are described n the Hadith aren’t for any particular night and neither has any condition been described with it that this distinction is for those who spend every night of the year in worship, but whichever night a Muslim spends in worship, that person will get the reward and benefits of it.  Be it any night or a particular night like Shab Meraj, Shab Bara'at, Shab Qadr, the nights preceding the 2 Eids, etc.

 

Now it can’t be said that spending Shab Meraj, etc. in worship is a reprehensible innovation because Shab Meraj is also included in the aforementioned Hadith.  If the benefit of sending any night in worship of Allah is this, then the benefits of spending the night of Meraj is worship should be even greater.

 

If someone insists that excellence mentioned in the aforementioned Hadith does not include Shab Meraj and such nights, then present a Hadith which says so, which states clearly that Shab Meraj is NOT a night of worship and remembrance of Allah.  No one can limit the excellence of worshipping in the night based on one’s own whim and wish.  And certainly no one can be allowed to play around with the rules of the Shariah!