 The remembrance of Allah is the greatest deed ever performed by a human being. It elevates his life, brings him peace, tranquility and happiness, and enables him to fulfill the real mission of his life in this world. When Allah the Almighty describes believers in the Holy Quran, He says, those who believe and whose hearts are set at rest by the remembrance of Allah. Tonight's episode is an attempt to examine the Quranic verses and traditions which talk about and discuss the merits of Salatul-Layl, respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam. As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Welcome to the 13th episode of Life from Karbala, Ramadan series with Mir host Ahmad Ali. For the dear viewers who are just tuning in for the first time, before prior to this episode we discussed the most controversial topics which are mentioned in the Holy Quran. This is all discussed with my dear and esteemed guest, Sayyid Hussain Al-Qazweeni, who has joined me once again in tonight's episode. As-salamu alaikum Sayyidina. How are you? Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. As we get further into Ramadan, we kind of feel that we don't want it to be so close because we do feel the blessings which are bestowed in this holy month. But Sayyidina Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam states, there is no action more beloved to Allah SWT and nothing more that saves man from the evil of this world and hereafter than the remembrance of Allah SWT. If you want to apply this narration to Salatul-Layl, because as traditions say, Salatul-Layl is very highly considered to Ahl-Bayt al-Alihim as-salam and to our pious Maraja and scholars. However, sir, first I would like to talk about what Salatul-Layl is. Is it just an ordinary prayer that anyone can perform? Is it a specific prayer at a specific time? And what is significance and why do we see the emphasis on Salatul-Layl? Salatul-Layl is one of those special acts of worship that only a select few, a selected elite, have the opportunity to pray. It's not something very common. It's not something that everyone has the opportunity to perform. I could say it's a selected elite. I don't mean by selected elite as in Allah purposely allows some people to pray but he doesn't allow others to pray. But some people, Allah gives them a boost. He gives them a bigger chance because they chose to pray Salatul-Layl. They chose to dedicate some minutes of their nights to pray this special Salat. I think Salatul-Layl is one of those acts that distinguishes the righteous from the unrighteous. Or to say it distinguishes the ones that are really righteous from the ones that only do what's mandatory. There's two types of Muslims. Those that only do what is mandatory. Of course there's many types of Muslims. But I'm talking about religious Muslims. There's those that only do the mandatory things. Pray five times a day fast during the month of Ramadan. Only fast 30 days out of the month. No more. For the prayers they only do what is necessary. Salatul-Layl has two units. They do two units and then they go to bed. Salatul-Layl is four. Salatul-Layl is four. Exactly what's necessary and that's it. And then you have another kind of Muslims that, you know, the wajjabat, the obligatory worship is not enough. They still feel a need. You know it's just like food. There are some people for them, two meals a day is enough. Three meals a day is enough. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. For others it's not enough. They still get hungry. Their body needs nutrition. Children. Children, they don't have three meals a day. They have 30 meals a day. Why? Because of course they're very small meals, but they're various meals at various times because their body needs it. Some people praying five times a day is not enough. Fasting 30 days out of the year is not enough. Let's put fasting aside. Prayers. Five times a day is not enough. It's not enough. They feel the need. There's a need inside them to speak to Allah swt. To communicate. Praying puts them at ease, at comfort. We live in trouble sometimes. Life is full of difficulties. And we're always hearing about tragedies. Accidents, bombings, terrorism. We live at a time, unfortunately. If you don't die in a bombing, you die in a car accident. If you don't die in a car accident, you die in cancer. May Allah SWT remove all these tragedies. Remove all of these tragedies away from us. You rarely find someone that dies a regular death. These things, they really put pressure and stress on a person. When you start thinking about it, that I could die at any moment. We live in the age of terrorism. And the age of cancer. And the age of car accidents. You know, a human being, when he starts to think about this. This could put a lot of pressure and stress on a person. For some, the only way to remove the stress is through prayer. It's through communicating with the Almighty. The all-powerful. The one who created us and created everything else on this planet. And everyone else on this planet. The one who everything is in his hands. This is one. Two. It's about love as well. Salat al-Layl is really about love. When you love someone, you speak to him or her a couple of times a day. But the most important phone call or the most important message or text is the one right before going to sleep. It's the good night message. It's the have a good night message. When you're speaking to someone, the one that you love, not a friend, not your neighbor. Someone you love. But at night you go to sleep without saying good night. You're calling it a night. That's an insult. This is not in one culture. This is in a lot of cultures. We also have a romantic relationship with Allah. There are some that love Allah. It's not that they just obey. Do this, do that. Do as Allah says. You know they have a relationship with Allah. Of course when I say romantic, not to be misunderstood. But Allah is different. For some Allah is love and Allah loves us. Allah gave us all these things. Doesn't this mean that he loves us? Allah brought us into this life. He gave us wonderful parents. He gave us an education. He gives us whatever we want. Isn't that sign of his love? Shouldn't we love him back? Shouldn't love be mutual? Salat al-Layl is a manifestation of love. Before you go to bed. Before you call it a day. Before you call it a night. When everyone else is tired. And everyone wants to go to sleep. You stand up in the middle of the night. For a couple of minutes. It's not a two hour ritual. It takes 20 minutes. Maybe less. Maybe more. Maybe 15 minutes. It depends on what you recite. It depends on what you recite. And how long do you like to speak to Allah? You pray. You say your thanks. You offer your thanks to Allah. You say what you'd like to say. It's an open dialogue. You can tell Allah whatever you'd like. Whatever is in your heart. You want to complain. You want to thank him. You want to ask him for certain things. You want to tell him how your day went. How good your day was. How bad your day was. Say whatever you'd like to Allah swt. And then go to sleep. This is a manifestation of love. And I think those that genuinely love Allah swt. They pray Salatul Layl. And they're addicted to Salatul Layl. They cannot stop. Ask those that pray Salatul Layl. All year long. Ask them not to pray for one night. Impossible. They won't do it. Because Salatul Layl means so much to them. It's so beautiful. They're so connected to it. And it's their way of connecting to Allah. See what's beautiful about Salatul Layl. Is that we don't have to do it. That's the beauty about it. Who's your favorite employee? If you were the owner of a company. Who would be your best employee? The one that comes on the hours that he has to. Or the one that stays over. Even when he doesn't need to. The one who might show up on a Sunday. When he could be spending that Sunday with his family. But he'll show up. Even if he's not being paid for it. Those are your favorite employees. Salatul Layl is a Salat that we don't have to pray. Yet some still choose to. That's the beauty about it. And we have narrations that Allah tells his angels. That look, this is my servant. Instead of going to sleep. And the hour of Salatul Layl is after midnight. It's an hour where most people are asleep. I've heard otherwise. I've heard that it's after sunset. After Maghrib and Aisha. No. Salatul Layl. We'll talk about the laws of Salatul Layl. Salatul Layl begins from midnight. Muntasaful Layl. Which is right in the middle of where sunset and Fajr is. It starts from there. Yes. If someone could not stay up till that time. And wants to go to sleep. They could pray it before that. But not from sunset. Salatul Layl is meant to be slept. Salatul Layl is meant to be prayed in the middle of the night. When everyone's asleep. When everyone's tired. That's the beauty about it. Also, you know, one of the beautiful things about Salatul Layl. Is that, why is it so significant? Is that you can't show off with it. You can show off with everything. With Salatul Sobh. Salatul Dhuhr. Salatul Asr. You come to the mosque. You pray in front of people. You could show off. You could show off with your money. With your khums. With your zakat. The way you spend. You built a mosque. You can show off. You can show people. But not Salatul Layl. Salatul Layl. Everyone's asleep. Who are you going to show off to? Who are you going to show off to? Everyone's asleep. Everyone's at home. People are asleep. That's why it's so special. Salatul Layl is only for Allah. It's for no one else. You can show off with every other act of worship. With Hajj. With Umrah. With Ziyarah. You say, I did this. I did that. But you can't show off with Salatul Layl. It's only for Allah. It's a genuine act. It's a sincere act for Allah. Also, it shows determination. A person who's tired. Who's not tired at 12 midnight? You're tired. You've come back from a hard day at work. You're studying. You have to get up at 5 in the morning. Or 6 in the morning to go to school. Or to go to work. Or you have an exam. Or you have children that you just put to sleep. And they get up in the middle of the night. They cry if you have toddlers. You know, everyone wants... It's a resting time. Yes. Midnight is a time to rest. Somewhere to get up and perform a lute. You know, when you perform a lute, what happens? Sleep goes away. Yes. No one wants to wash their face at 12 minutes. That makes sleep go away. And you get up and pray. Especially during winter. It's cold. You want to get under the sheets and cover. You get up and you pray for a couple of minutes. That shows determination. Yes. That shows love. That shows your loyalty. Ta'Allah, Azawajan. There's a Hadith. Hadith al-Qudsih. I believe... Allah told Musa, Ya Musa. Kethaba man za'ama anhu yuhibbuni wa idha jannah aliyah illayl naama anni. Ya Musa. A person who claims to love me. Yet at night he goes and he sleeps without praying a couple of raka'at. This person is a liar. This person is a liar. Isn't that too somewhat extreme? Because people do claim to love Allah SWT but they do perform various worships in the day. Yes. But yet at night maybe they're tired. But love has various levels. Degrees, yes. It has various degrees. You know, you might love Mr. X. But if he's in the hospital, will you go spend the whole night with him in the hospital? No. But his son will. But his son might not spend the night, the whole night. His father will probably spend the entire night. So there's love. A friend will love him to some degree. His son will love him to another degree. But his father will love him unconditionally. So we can say absolute love. Absolute love. Absolute love. This is a manifestation of absolute love. Allah is trying to say that, you know, I've done so much for you. It won't kill you to stand up in the middle of the night before you sleep and thank me. And pray to me. You know, Christians have this. They have salat al-layh. But it's not necessarily performing gulu and standing and praying. Right before sleep they say a prayer. Yes. They thank Allah for what they're doing. That's salat al-layh. For them, that's like salat al-layh. Can we do that too? Yes. With recommended prayers, Allah is easy going. Yeah, well yeah. If you don't want to stand, you can sit. You don't want to sit, lie down. Do whatever you'd like. You can't face the qabla, don't face the qabla. With recommended prayers, it's easy going. Allah has made it easy. Why? To say, you know, I'm not forcing you to do it the hard way. You can do it the easy way. Any way you like. Any way you like. And still, people don't take advantage of that. Still, people don't take advantage of that. You could be sitting in your car, going to work, and praying. Some people do ha'la. Some people do ha'la. I'm not saying reciting Quran. Night shift. Pray. While you're driving. For a recour, put your head down a little bit. For sujood, a little bit more. That's salam. And you'll be rewarded. Islam has made it so easy to pray. Nawafil. Recommended prayers. Yes, when it comes to wajabat, they have to, you know, they have to be done properly. Stand in front of the qabla. Stand, not sit. And so on and so forth. But with Nawafil, Allah has made it so easy. Yes. But still, we don't take an opportunity. We don't take advantage of this opportunity. Unfortunately. So, just like we, you know, if we're traveling, we call our kids, our kids, our spouse. We call your wife, your husband, your fiance, right before going to sleep. Consider it like that. Salatul layit is a couple of minutes right before going to sleep. We offer some prayers. Ta'allah. And I could say that those who start praying Salatul layit once, twice, three times, they will not stop if they pay attention, if they concentrate. Yes. They will love it so much that they can't stop. It's like the Ziyar of Imam Hussain. Those that come for arba'een once, they come every year. They fall in love. Yes. It's like Hajj. You go to Hajj once, you fall in love. You like to go every year. Salatul layit is like that. It is so spiritually beautiful. Yes. That you don't want to stop. That's actually very beautiful because we do see the emphasis which Allah SWT places on this prayer because as you mentioned, it has various blessings from Allah SWT placed in the middle of the night where everyone's asleep, yet you're up worshiping Allah SWT but if we can continue the discussion after a short break, if you will, respect the viewers. Do stay tuned after the break for insha'Allah. We'll get into the laws and what Salatul layit actually is in further detail. That's after the break. Do stay tuned. Viewers, welcome back. Hope you insha'Allah enjoyed whatever you have been presented with the break. But before the break, we talked about the significance of Salatul layit and what Allah SWT the Prophet and the Bait emphasized on Salatul layit. Back to the discussion with my dear guest, Sayed Hussain Al-Qazweeni. Welcome back. How are you Sayed? Thank you very much. Thank you very much for joining us over the past few episodes. My pleasure. Allah SWT. Sayed Nam. The first part of the episode, we talked about what Salatul layit is and why the significance, what the significance story and why the emphasis Allah SWT placed in this prayer. But scholars have stated or indicated that whatever is mustahab recommended upon the believers is somewhat obligatory or mandatory upon the prophets. Or the prophets may make it obligatory upon themselves to do a certain recommended act upon the believers. And this is known for the prophets because they've reached that cognizant understanding of Allah SWT and who Allah SWT is. So if you want to apply this to the Holy Prophet of Islam, Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and his purified progeny, was Salatul layit obligatory on him or did he make it incumbent upon himself? You know, Salatul layit has been mentioned in the Quran directly or indirectly in several verses. Some of those verses are pertaining to Rasulullah SAW. And we see that Rasulullah is clearly ordered to pray Salatul layit. It's an order. Thus Salatul layit was mandatory upon Rasulullah SAW. We have a verse that says She says Asa rubber, he's being ordered and from that, Tahajjud is Salatul layit and in the Sunni school of thought they call it Salatul tahajjud because they also have Salatul layit. They call it Salatul tahajjud and they call it Salatul layit. It's the same thing. In fact, if we want to look at the Qur'anic concept, their concept is closer to the Qur'anic concept. Because the Qur'an is saying that it is a Tahajjud with Laila, a Tahajjud with Laila is to pray at night. Asa Rabbuka Iyyaba, ataka maqaman mahmouda, maqaman mahmouda is a special place for usur Allah, as a result of praying Salat al-Lail. Salat al-Lail was made incumbent upon Rasulullah, and as a reward he was given al maqaman mahmouda. Scholars, they have various opinions on what is al maqaman mahmouda. Some say that it's a special place in paradise, it's a special place in paradise that is reserved only for Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Al maqaman mahmouda is a level in paradise that is reserved only for Rasulullah. Is it not called Tuba or no? I don't know, maybe, perhaps. But Asa Rabbuka Iyyaba ataka maqaman mahmouda, others say maqaman mahmouda is not a physical place, it's a position, and that position is the position of Shafa'a, the position of intercession. Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, as a result of praying Salat al-Lail his reward is Shafa'a for his nation. Rasulullah has the ability to intercede upon his nation. For those that are sinful, those that have sins, Allah will forgive his nation for the sake of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, as a reward of praying Salat al-Lail. So was this obligatory upon him? Who's obligatory upon Rasulullah? Yes. All the one that he who is covered, who wears a cloak, or a person who wears a cloak from both sides, and what do you mean from both sides? See it's a long cloak, something like this. The right portion he throws it on his left side. In the left side he throws it on the right side. So he's covered. They didn't have shirts, they didn't have coats, so how do you stay warm by wearing your cloak in that way? This is called tazammul, or al-muzammil, al-muzammil is to wear a cloak and then bring the right side over the left side and the left side. You know when you're wearing a scarf over your neck, you put the right side over the left side of your neck, or your shoulder, and you bring the left side over the right side of your shoulder? That's called muzammil. Ya ayuh al-muzammil, qum al-layla, illa qalila, Allah is ordering him to pray the entire night except a couple of hours, qum al-layla illa qalila, nusfahu awam qusminhu qalila. Get up, half of the night, don't sleep ya Rasulullah, sleep, let others sleep, but you stand, speak to us. A prophet has to be spiritually prepared, spiritually connected to Allah, nusfahu awam qusminhu qalila. So if you can't stand to pray half of the night, reduce a little bit, awzid alayhi, if you can do more, do more, awzid alayhi, waraktilil al-Qur'anatartila, in your Salah, perform Tartila of the Qur'an, recite the Qur'an, that's the beauty, that's another beauty of Salatul-Layn, is that when you stand in the Qur'an and you recite Qur'an, because Salah is all about Qur'an, you recite al-Fatiha and then chapters of the Qur'an.