Name: Ep. 4: How to Pray Tahajjud | Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society
Uploaded: 2021-10-28T22:30:00.000Z
Channel: Dr. Tamara Gray
Description: When is the best time to pray Tahajjud? How many rak’at, or units of prayer, should you perform, and what do they look like? What did the Prophet ﷺ do? In this episode, Dr. Tamara goes through some practical tips to help us perfect our Tahajjud prayer.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Tahajjud: Waking Soul &amp; Society

 So how do you pray tahajjud?  How is it different than any other prayer?  Well, first of all, let's talk about timing.  We know that qiyam al-layl and tahajjud  are kind of interchangeable words.  Usually, if you pray it after A'ishah,  so right now we're talking about the time  between salat al-A'ishah and salat al-fajr.  This is the nighttime,  between the nighttime prayer and the morning prayer.  Now, if you pray before you sleep,  we usually call this qiyam al-layl.  And if you sleep and then wake up,  we usually call this tahajjud.  How do you pray it?  You've prayed salat al-A'ishah,  you've prayed your sunnah of A'ishah,  and now what?  If you're going to pray qiyam al-layl,  you can stand up and make intention for two extra raka'ah,  and you just pray two raka'ahs,  and then you can sleep.  Or you can sleep after A'ishah,  or do the dishes or whatever you do,  and then you go to bed,  wake up before fajr.  Now, simplest, you can wake up  even 15 minutes before fajr.  And just make wudu and pray two raka'ahs of tahajjud,  and then you wait for the fajr prayer and you pray.  That's the simplest, that's the basic.  Two raka'ahs of tahajjud.  Now, here we have also salat al-witr.  Okay, so witr is our very strong sunnah,  and it's meant to be prayed at night.  So the next step we can say is  you're gonna wake up just a tiny bit earlier,  pray two raka'ahs of sunnah tahajjud,  and then pray witr,  depending on which madhhab you're praying,  you're going to pray all three raka'ahs together,  or two and then one.  Now, what else can we do at night?  Of course, first of all,  there is, what has the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam  told us about the numbers of raka'ahs to pray at night?  We have many different narrations  that talk about the number of raka'ahs.  Abdullah bin Umar, radiAllahu anhu,  tells us that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam  would pray 11 raka'ahs,  so that's eight plus three,  which is the eight raka'ahs of tahajjud  plus three of witr,  eight being two, two, two, two.  Now, mind you, the prayer of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam  was not the prayer of your regular  Ahmad or Tala.  It was a prayer that was long and extended.  So we don't need to hold ourselves to eight raka'ahs.  What we need to think about  is the time at night that we want to pray,  and I really want to emphasize thinking about habit growing.  So think about, I'm going to do two raka'ahs,  I'm gonna start with two,  then I'm going to do four,  and then I'm going to do six,  and then I'm going to do eight.  Now, maybe I'm doing eight,  maybe now I want to expand each of these raka'ahs  and make each one longer.  Maybe I'll just do four, but I'll make them longer.  Or maybe I'll do something else.  Here are a few ideas of things to do at night.  Our community, one of the things that our community  is struggling with is missed prayers.  Many, many, many Muslims today, unfortunately,  have a lot of followed prayers that we have missed.  One really beautiful way to use the night  is to make up your followed prayers.  So to say, well, you know what, when I was 14,  I should have been praying, but I wasn't,  when I was 15, I should have been praying,  when I wasn't, I'm just going to do what I can  to make up these prayers.  Now, for some people, they get really serious about it.  They print out a paper and they start marking off  the prayers so that they can reach a point  where all these prayers are made up,  and they do it at night.  That's a time when things are quiet.  If you're praying anyway, it's just easier, really,  to pray a full day of qada'ah  rather than raka'atayn, two raka'ahs, two raka'ahs,  two raka'ahs.  But either way, whatever you want to do,  it is beneficial to pray at night.  Now, what should these raka'ahs look like?  When you are reciting Quran at night,  you recite the Quran out loud.  You benefit from listening to it yourself.  Your recitation improves, and maybe you'll be like,  Oh, Sayyid, areedullahu anhu,  where the angels are coming down  and listening to your recitation.  Now, of course, I know that not everyone's Quran  memorization is good enough to be able to do this at night.  So in the Shafi'i Madhhab,  you can set the mushaf in front of you.  You can get a music stand,  a cheap music stand from anywhere, really.  Go to your local shop,  better than those big online stores,  and buy one, put it in front of you.  Then you can get a mushaf that is bound  with a spiral-bound mushaf that will lay flat,  or anyone that's big enough,  even a tablet on a stand like that.  And then it's right in front of you.  So you can pray a longer prayer.  You can pray a whole page or two pages in that raka'ah  where you're slowly meditating  and thinking about these verses,  listening to the verses as they enter into your heart,  and spending time.  And remember what Hudhayfa, areedullahu anhu,  told us about the prayer of the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,  that the standing was eq…

Tahajjud: Waking Soul & Society

Dr. Tamara Gray

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