Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

dear burhan, Assalam Alaykum

may Allah (swt) reward you for the excellent work in hosting the islamhelpline.com, Ameen. i always look forward to receiving your emails and i find this forum is like an eye-opener to many of us who have blindly followed religion.

i recently read through one of your emails the subject of which was:

"477-3410:Washeq Bida"

after going through the entire article, i wanted clarification on one of your statements:

"Other than the superogatory ‘tarawih’ or night prayers of Ramadan, there are no other prayers of ‘significant nights’ which have been endorsed by the Messenger of Allah (saws)."

we do pray in congregation for the last ten days of ramadan which is called "Qayam Al Layl" in search of Lailat-ul-Qadr. is these prayers nafl prayers?

what is your opinion on these prayers in light of Quraan and Hadith?

once again I highly appreciate the work done by you and your colleagues. may Allah (swt) give you all guidance and strength to keep up with the good work !!! Ameen

Allah Hafiz 

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Tarawih and Qiyam Layl Night Prayer

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

May Allah Subhanah reward you with the best of this world and the Hereafter for your kind comments of encouragement for our humble efforts in the propagation of the Truth. If our humble and modest efforts have helped even one brother or sister get closer to Allah and His Deen of Truth, then we would consider ourselves indeed fortunate to have been given this opportunity by the Lord Most Merciful to serve in His Cause. We hope, beg, and pray the Merciful Lord accepts our humble and weak efforts, forgives us our shortcomings, and saves you, us, and all the believers from the torment of the Hell Fire. Ameen.

Your Question: we do pray in congregation for the last ten days of ramadan which is called "Qayam Al Layl" in search of Lailat-ul-Qadr. is these prayers nafl prayers?

what is your opinion on these prayers in light of Quraan and Hadith?

Abu Hurairah reports that the Prophet (saws) would encourage people to perform the special ‘qiyam-ul-layl’ (night prayers) during Ramadan without commanding them as obligatory and he said: "Whoever prays during the nights of Ramadan with a firm belief and hoping for reward, all of his previous sins would be forgiven."

Related by the Bukhari and Muslim.

Beloved brother in Islam, both the ‘tarawih’ prayers that are prayed after Isha and the ‘qiyam-al-layl’ prayers that are prayed in the last ten days of Ramadan are both included and amongst the ‘Qiyam-al-layl’ (night prayers) encouraged by the Messenger of Allah (saws) during the blessed nights of Ramadan. The ‘tarawih’ prayers themselves are no more than ‘Qiyam-al-layl’ or night prayers; but due to the magnificent significance of the ‘laylatul Qadr’ in the last ten days of Ramadan, additional ‘qiyam-al-layl’ prayers are offered to enable one to further worship their Lord Most Merciful in these most blessed of nights.

Your Question: is these prayers nafl prayers?

All prayers other than the daily five obligatory prayers and the two Eid prayers are ‘nafl’ or voluntary; and whichever of these ‘nafl’ or voluntary prayers were prayed by the Messenger of Allah (saws) are known as his Sunnah for the believers.

Both the ‘tarawih’ and the ‘qiyam-al-layl’ prayers are voluntary and thus ‘nafl’; if one offers them one will earn himself a huge reward from their Lord Most Merciful, and if one does not offer them for any reason, there is absolutely no sin.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan