Verily, all praise is due to Allaah. We praise Him, we seek His assistance and we ask
Him for His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allaah from the evils of our selves and the
evils of our actions. Whoever Allaah guides, no one that can lead him astray, and
whoever is led astray, no one can guide him. I bear witness that there is no deity
worthy of worship in truth except Allaah – He stands alone and with no partners. And I
bear witness that Muhammad (sallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is His slave and
Messenger.
To Proceed:
It is authentically reported on Ibn Mas’ood (radyAllaahu ‘anhu) in mawqoof form,1
but it

takes the ruling of being marfoo’ (raised)2

to the Prophet, that he said:

“How will you be when a calamity (i.e. innovation) engulfs you (in which) the
adult will grow old (with it) and the youth will be raised upon it, and the people
will take it as a Sunnah. When any part of it is abandoned, it will be said: ‘Have
you abandoned the Sunnah?’
They said: “When will that be?”
He said: “(It will be) When your scholars have passed away, your reciters have
increased, your Fuqahaa have become few, your leaders become many, your
trusted ones decrease, the worldly life is sought after by (doing) the works of the
Hereafter, and knowledge is sought for other than the Religion.”

 A most rewarding and fulfilling part of a Muslim’s worship are those blessed moments that he spends praying in the depth of the night, privately addressing his Great Lord, sincerely glorifying Him, humbly imploring Him beseeching His forgiveness and asking Him for favors. The voluntary night prayer , or qiyaam, is indispensable for a person’s moral, spiritual, and physical welfare. Yet, it is greatly misunderstood and largely neglected by most Muslims