Name: Ep. 2: The Sincere Prayer | Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society
Uploaded: 2021-10-14T21:00:00.000Z
Channel: Dr. Tamara Gray
Description: Those who came before us set a brilliant example in their practice of Tahajjud. Dr. Tamara shares a few of their stories in this episode and describes how sincerity, gratitude, and consistency in their nightly prayers can continue to inspire us.

DH 2026 General Donation

DH 2026 Donation

Cookie Consent Banner

Rituals and deeds performed to demonstrate submission and devotion to God, such as prayer and fasting. These acts purify the soul and strengthen the believer's connection with their Creator.

Acts of Worship

Ep. 1:  Why Tahajjud? | Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society

Ep. 2: The Sincere Prayer | Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society

EP. 3: Turning to Tahajjud in Hard Times | Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society

Ep. 4: How to Pray Tahajjud | Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society

Ep. 5: Benefits of a Tahajjud Habit | Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society

Ep. 6: How to Wake Up for Tahajjud | Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society

All Members

Fellows

Researchers

Senior Fellow

Dr. Tamara Gray

How did our pious predecessors accomplish so much in their lifetimes and change the world while maintaining a deep connection with the Lord of the Universe?

When we look at what fuels their unwavering inner strength and resolve, we see that they were habitual risers for nightly worship. Whether we strive to be like them or are simply looking for strength to make it through another day, tahajjud is prescribed as the best sunnah prayer to perform.

Journey with Dr. Tamara Gray to awaken your soul with this beautiful prayer, and learn how you can not only build your inner strength but also benefit society.

Series

Video

Sharia, or Islamic law, is the divinely ordained path governing ritual devotion and aspects of daily life. This section covers research on Islamic jurisprudence, including worship, commerce, family law, and penal codes.

Sharia

Tahajjud: Waking Soul &amp; Society

 Tahajjud was the lifestyle and the way of the earliest people.  I remember when I lived in Damascus and I would look outside my window in the night time before Fajr.  And I would look at all the little windows because the buildings were very big and many, many floors.  And I felt like there were many windows and each window would either be dark or shine brightly with the light, especially at night.  And I would look and think about how many people get up and pray Tahajjud in this day and age.  And of course, SubhanAllah, most of the lights were out.  And I would think about one of the Tabi'een and what he would say.  That the angels look down upon the earth and they see the homes of those who pray Tahajjud as shining stars.  Just as we look up at the sky and we see those shining stars and they are lights for us.  And think about those who are in, like, go out to the countryside and look at the stars, not from the city.  And it used to make me really sad and still does sometimes.  When I think about how dark the earth must look today to the angels.  So many of the houses are without that light at night.  You know, Junaid, someone saw him in a dream after he died.  And they asked him, how did it go?  How did the questioning go?  How are you now?  Think about that, to see someone after their death and wonder what was that experience like?  And Junaid, if you don't know who he was, he was a person who was known to be a person of great faith, many, many good deeds, great scholarship, great knowledge.  And his answer in the dream was everything has left except for the two raka'as I prayed at night with sincerity.  So we want to ask ourselves, are we praying these two raka'as at night with sincerity?  Are we building that relationship?  Tustari, a mufassir, one who wrote a very beautiful explanation of the Qur'an.  And he was three years old. He asked his father, I want to wake up for tahajjud.  And his father told him, you're too young.  And he said to his father at three, very precocious, precocious three-year-old.  He said, OK, but when Allah asks me why I didn't get up, I'm going to say because you didn't teach me, you didn't help me.  And so the father started waking him up at three years old.  You know, when I first became a Muslim, I was struggling with the farood.  I really, it was hard for me to pray each one in its time, to pray dhuhr, to pray asr.  Actually, wudu was difficult in those first early days.  And I was a Muslim. I had been a Muslim maybe for a month and a half or two months.  And I moved in with the most lovely, amazing Malaysian women, Malaysian sisters.  And the very first night of prayer was Salat al-'Isha.  And my roommate stood up to pray imam for us.  And I prayed with her and I took off my, right, we finished praying al-Isha, and I took off my prayer clothes.  And she looked at me and she said, are you going to pray dhuhr?  And I said, actually, I didn't know what dhuhr was.  I had never, ever heard of dhuhr.  And this was before Google.  So I wasn't able to pull out my phone and look it up or anything like that.  And so I was, I went silent. I was also at 18.  It was really hard for me to tell people I didn't know things.  I liked to be the one who knew everything back then.  And so I didn't say anything. I just stared at her.  And then she said, oh, you prayed after tahajjud, don't you?  I also had no idea what tahajjud was, but I said, yeah, that's what I do.  And so she said, shall I wake you? And I said, yes.  SubhanAllah, so she did.  And I rushed and tried to look it up in my books that I had and tried to find out what in the world is this thing she's talking about.  Alhamdulillah, because of the blessing of living with such amazing young women,  I was able to benefit early, early on from this most blessed prayer that really changes lives.  SubhanAllah, and really was the way of the early people.  You know, Tamim, may Allah be pleased with him, one of the companions of Rasulullah,  it is said that once, that once he missed tahajjud, he's known as, you may have heard of him,  he's known as the one who lit up the mosque.  He was the first one ever to put lanterns or lamps in the masjid.  Anyway, one night he missed qiyam al-layl, or he missed tahajjud, and he was so grieved.  Now, I want to just slow this story down, because think about what are the things that we grieve.  Maybe you grieve if you lose a lot of money in the stock market.  Maybe you grieve if there was a house you wanted to buy, but you weren't able to get it.  Maybe you, of course we grieve loss of those that we love,  and we grieve maybe a grade that we didn't get that we wanted to get,  or a paper that we wanted to finish but didn't get finished on time,  or a degree that we worked hard for but weren't able to finish,  or a degree that we worked hard for but we were late in finishing.  These are all the things that we might think about, really spending some time feeling bad about.  Now, Tamim, he was so grieved…

Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society

Dr. Tamara Gray

Other series

40 Hadiths on Social Justice

Confident Muslim

Sayedaty

The Faith Revival

Proofs of Prophethood

To Know Him is to Love Him: Finding Answers Through Allah's Attributes

Khutbahs

Virtues of Dhul Hijjah

Firm Roots

The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam

Connect with us

Yaqeen app

Ameen app