“The first thing to be taken account of from the deeds of the slave
on the day of judgments will be the solaah. If it is not so he will
fail and lose and if something is deficient in his obligatory prayers,
the Lord will say: “Check if my slave has any optional solaah to
his credit.” The deficiency will be made good from that. After that,
the rest of his deeds will examined in a similar way.”
The prophet (pbuh) said to Rabiah bin Malik Al-Aslami:
“Ask me for something.” He said, “I ask you your company in
Paradise,” He said, “Is there anything besides that?” He replied,
“That’s it.” The Prophet (pbuh) said: “Help in (in that) by making
lots of Sajdah your self.
Optional solaah encompasses the sunnah solaah of Fajr, Zuhr, ‘Asr, Maghrib and ‘Ishaa and witr and solaah offered after wudhu’ and tahajjud and others.
Night solaah and other forms of optional worship
Night solaah is the optional solah in Islam. This solaah is a prayer offered at night after having sleep. Islam did not set a limit or state the number of rakaat should be performed. And this solaah have to be added one more prayer between solaat al-‘Ishaa and solaat al-fajar.Other than optional solaah that could be perform at night are solaat al-hajat, solaat al-tawbah solaat al-tasbih etc.
Apart the optional solaah, the night should be full with other optional worship of Allah as follows:
Reciting the Quran
Chanting zikrullah (remembrance of Allah)
Selawat for the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
Recalling what have be done in this life either we are a good slave or not.
It is allowed to pray in congregation, but it is better to pray individually because this what the prophet did himself.
The timing of night solaah
The time for praying night solaah is from ‘Ishaa’ until fajar. But praying at the end of night is better for those who can manage it because the prophet said:
“Whoever is afraid that he will not get up at the end of the night, let him pray witr at the beginning night but whoever feels that he will be able to get up at the end of the night, let him pray witr at the end of the night for prayer at the end witnessed (by the angels) and that is better.
Place offering night solaah
The best place to offer this solaah is in your own home. The prophet said:
“The best solaah is that of a man is in his house except for obligatory
solaah.”
“The solaah of a man in his house is more meritorious than his
prayer in mosque except the obligatory solaah.”
Imam Nawawi also said:
“Stress was placed on praying optional solaah in the home
because it further removes the chance of praying just to show off and
it brings blessing to the house and mercy descend upon it as well as
angels and the Satan clears out.”
Conclusion
Performing solaah is the light for muslims. The light will shine the real way of muslims, the light for who perform it in this world and on the day of judgment. Therefore all muslims should take this great opportunity promised by Allah to grab all the advantages from these night solaah.
Abu Hurairah said:
“Allah’s messenger used to stand until his feet would swell. It was
said to him, O essenger of Allah! You do all that when Allah
has forgiven you your past and future sins?” He said:, “Shouldn’t
I be a grateful slave?”
Let’s compare ourselves! We are a normal people not the messenger of Allah in which full with sins so why not we wake up at the midnight and perform all those optional worship.
