format_quote Originally Posted by
Flos
Assalamu alaikum,
Lately, I'm trying to establish sleep habits similar or if ever possible same as of our Prophet saws.
What I've read of hadith and explanations and mostly related to night sunnah was that our Prophet saws would sleep between Qiyamul Layl and Fajr. Also, he saws would sleep right after Isha salaah.
So many Muslims around the world wake up for Tahajjud prayer at least one hour before Fajr and of course don't sleep. So my question to this would be: Is there anywhere explanation why it's better to get up before Fajr and pray Tahajjud, then Fajr Sunnah, then Fajr Fard, instead of our Prophet's saws way? - Did I miss something?
My next concerns are, mostly, leading to Summertime problems where I live (Europe).
In June and July Fajr starts around 2:30 (I think the earliest is at 2:20). And Isha starts sometimes around 11 PM. That means that Isha and Tahajjud should be connected, meaning - no sleep before Fajr at all and most of Muslims over here actually do that.
This leads to sunnah regarding sleeping during morning.
Sunnah I read and its explanation is that it's Makruh, not just to sleep before sunrise but also after that and that it's ok to sleep a bit before Dhukhr time and during Dhukr for half an hour.
I used to, before, during summertime, go to sleep after Fajr time (sunrise), since it's around 4 AM. I can't imagine staying up until 1 PM, or noon, especially during working week, when the work starts at 9 AM and I've been up whole night.
Could anyone explain all this to me, since I didn't manage to find a solution?
Asalaamualaykum:
Firstly, the objective of Thahajud is not a sleep and wake up test. The objective of Thahajud is to pray Thahajud in privacy whereby its only you and your Rabb. The best and most fitting time is when everyone is asleep and you have as much privacy as humanly possible. It's very important to understand that although we have a sunnah of certain actions, that sunnah in certain cases is a guideline and not a Fard.
Let me give you an example: Many people (both men and woman in certain parts of the muslim world are shift workers like in factories and so on). If a person comes back home say 10pm in the night, prays Isha & sleep, It will be merely impossible to wake up for Thahajud. Reality is they might even feel Fajr a task.
In these cases, the person does not have to "sleep" and then wake up again. They can merely wait a little while after Isha, everyone will be fast asleep, and pray Thahajud in the earlier part of the night rather than the latter. Although most reward would be the latter, the person is praying Thahajud ( in their circumstances) rather than dismissing it totally.
Like you pointed out yourself, I also live in Europe, and summer can be very testing as the time between Isha and Fajr and a mere 4 to 5 hours.
In these cases its very important to go to a Aalim/a locally as fiqh issues can change as per circumstances based on geography and life style etc.
To conclude, yes a person should try their utter best to fulfil the sunnah as reported in Hadith, however, sometimes, the reality of life 1500 years later will impact the Fiqh and Hadith application.