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The Concept of Qiyam Laylat Al-Qadr
Author : Mufti. Zakaria Ali Salman
Date Added : 29-12-2024

Reflecting on the immense reward given to those who observe the Night of Decree (Laylat Al-Qadr), one should strive to seize it. When we know that the reward for observing Laylat al-Qadr is equivalent to a thousand months, as stated in the verse (Which means): "The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months." [Al-Qadr/3], we realize the significance of observing it. We also understand the wisdom behind its concealment from us, encouraging us to strive in seeking and searching for it and to take precaution to ensure we catch it.

Our role model in this is the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), who, when the last ten nights began, would stay awake, awaken his family, and devote himself to worship, tightening his belt." [Agreed upon].

The Prophet (PBUH) used to seclude himself in the mosque (I'tikaf) for ten days every Ramadan. In the year of his passing, he observed I'tikaf for twenty days." [Al-Bukhari].

I'tikaf involves withdrawal, but the Prophet’s withdrawal is unlike any other. He was the commander of the army, head of state, teacher of the nation, its mufti, judge, and imam, as well as a family man with relatives, friends, and acquaintances. Above all, he was divinely guided and free from sin, yet despite all this, he observed I'tikaf.

If the moment of divine acceptance were a fixed hour that one could attain simply by sitting during that time, sinners, oppressors, and transgressors would be the keenest to attend that hour. This is why it is wisely concealed from the lazy, so they must exert effort, and from the diligent, so they do not neglect it.

One should not let any signs distract them from persistent observance and effort, especially since some signs appear after the night has passed. A person in I'tikaf may mistakenly think they have seen its signs and abandon I'tikaf, thus missing the guaranteed reward for something uncertain. This would be a significant loss and ignorance. How could it be otherwise when the Prophet (PBUH) did not end his I'tikaf even when he knew he had observed Laylat Al-Qadr? He continued until the end of the month.

I share this with my beloved brothers and sisters in faith to prevent Satan from deceiving them into abandoning the observance of this great night, which may not recur. Life’s end is unknown, and free time may not be available in another year, not to mention health and other circumstances.

Laylat Al-Qadr has two aspects:

1. The moment of acceptance: This is the supreme happiness when prayers are answered, and a person receives their heart’s desires. Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) asked: "O Messenger of Allah, if I know which night is the Night of Decree, what should I say?" He replied: "Say: O Allah, You are Forgiving and love forgiveness, so forgive me" [At-Tirmidhi]. Material wealth, spouses, and children are important, as are position and status. However, more important than all these is safety on the Day of Judgment, as mentioned in the following verse, stating (What means):  "And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of what you count." [Al-Hajj/47].

2. Attaining the reward: Whoever performs a single unit of prayer on this night receives the reward of praying for a thousand months. Whoever utters a word of glorification (Tasbih) is rewarded as though they had uttered it thirty thousand times, multiplied by the reward of the fighters in the cause of Allah. Such immense reward and abundant blessings!

Here, Satan may employ his traps, either by leading you to sin—God forbid—or by distracting you with permissible amusement. If he fails in both, he may settle for making you perform a lesser good deed to prevent you from attaining the greater reward.

Congratulations to you, those who observe Laylat Al-Qadr! If you perform I'tikaf, your prayer counts as part of its observance, listening to a sermon is part of its observance, reading the Quran is part of its observance, speaking a kind word is part of its observance, and even resting to renew your energy for worship is part of its observance.

For this reason, the noble companions would pray for months to reach Ramadan, hoping to enjoy these great rewards. They wished to encounter this blessed night, to pray to Allah to alleviate distress, illuminate paths, grant victory to the nation of the Messenger of Allah, and make them a mercy to the world by spreading the religion of guidance and avoiding ways of misguidance.                                       

O Allah, endear faith to us and adorn it in our hearts. Make us detest disbelief, defiance, and disobedience, and make us among the rightly guided.

The published article reflects the opinion of its author

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Summarized Fatawaa

What is the ruling on one who vows to fast a specific or non-specific year? Are the two Eids, the days of Tashreeq, Ramadan, and the days of menstruation and postnatal bleeding included in them? And do these days break the consecutiveness if it was intended?

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our Master, the Messenger of Allah.
 
If someone makes a vow (Nadr) to fast a specific, designated year, this vow does not include the days of Eid, the days of Tashreeq (the three days following Eid al-Adha), Ramadan, or the days of menstruation (Hayd) and postnatal bleeding (Nifas). Furthermore, there is no requirement to make up (Qada) these specific days.
 
However, if someone vows to fast a year that is not specifically designated (i.e., any twelve-month period) and stipulates that the fasting must be consecutive, they are bound by that condition. They must not fast on the days of Eid, during Ramadan, or during menstruation, but they are required to make up these days afterward—with the exception of the days of menstruation and postnatal bleeding, which do not need to be made up.
 
It is stated in Hashiyat al-Bajuri ‘ala Sharh Ibn Qasim ({Vol.2/P.606): 'If one vows to fast a specific year, the Eid, Tashreeq, Ramadan, and days of menstruation or postnatal bleeding are not included. This is because Ramadan does not accept any fast other than its own, and the others do not accept fasting at all. Therefore, they do not enter into the vow, and no makeup is required for them because they are legally excluded—contrary to Al-Rafi’i regarding menstruation and postnatal bleeding.
 
If one vows to fast a non-designated year: if they stipulated consecutiveness (Tatuabu’) in their vow, they must fulfill it; otherwise, they are not bound to it. Consecutiveness is not broken by the days that do not enter into the specific year vow (Eid, Tashreeq, Ramadan, menstruation, and postnatal bleeding). However, one must make up the days missed—excluding the time of menstruation and postnatal bleeding—immediately following the end of the year. As for the time of menstruation and postnatal bleeding, it is not made up, contrary to Ibn al-Rif’ah, who argued that it must be made up just like Ramadan.' And Allah the Exalted knows best.

Is it permissible to sleep before the time of the Fajr prayer begins, with the intention of waking up shortly afterward?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
It is permissible for a Muslim to sleep before the time of the Fajr prayer begins, intending to wake up and perform the prayer, by setting an alarm or asking someone to wake him. What is to be avoided is that a person sleeps while he predominantly assumes that he will not wake up for the prayer.
If he does not wake up until the time of the prayer has ended, he must make it up. It is recommended that he hasten to make it up as soon as he wakes, and likewise recommended that he make up its sunnah along with it.
It is stated in al-Majmūʿ by Shaykh al-Islām Imam al-Nawawī (may Allah have mercy on him): “Whoever was obliged to pray and did not pray until the time passed must make it up, because of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): ‘Whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it, let him pray it when he remembers it.’ It is recommended that he make it up immediately, because of the ḥadīth we have mentioned. If he delays it, that is permissible, because it is reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) missed the Fajr prayer and did not pray it until he had left the valley. Had it been required immediately, he would not have delayed it. Abū Is-ḥāq said: If he left it without a valid Sharia excuse, he must make it up immediately, because he was negligent in delaying it.”
It is therefore the duty of every Muslim to keep the prayer in its proper time, seeking help from Allah the Exalted and striving against the self to do so. And Allah Almighty knows best.

A person who has recently embraced Islam is afraid of undergoing circumcision (khitān) — what should he do?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
If this person would be harmed by undergoing circumcision, based on the assessment of a trustworthy physician, then he is not obligated to undergo it. However, if the matter is simply a fear of the procedure itself, then it may be postponed until he feels at ease and settled about it, provided this does not lead him to become averse to Islam — while still taking care to remove any impurity from the concealed area [beneath the foreskin]. And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.

The Jurisprudential Significance of the Ḥadīth: "Whoever says, at the conclusion of the Fajr Prayer, while crossing his legs, before speaking..."
"Whoever says, at the conclusion of the Fajr prayer, while crossing his legs, before speaking: 'Lā ilāha illā Allāh, waḥdahu lā sharīka lah, lahu al-mulku wa lahu al-ḥamdu yuḥyī wa yumītu wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr' ten times — ten good deeds will be recorded for him, ten bad deeds will be erased from him, he will be raised ten levels, he will spend that day in protection from everything disliked and guarded from the devil, and no sin will be able to befall him on that day except associating partners with Allah" — does this noble ḥadīth apply to the imam, and what is meant by "extraneous speech"?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
It is recommended for both the imam and those praying behind him to recite, immediately after the final salām, the specific remembrance reported in the sunnah to be said before turning away from one's place of prayer. The imam then leaves his praying spot, and the act of "turning" is fulfilled when the imam faces the congregation — even without physically leaving his spot — by positioning his right side toward them and his left side toward the qiblah, and this applies even while he is engaged in supplication.
Al-ʿAllāmah Ibn Qāsim al-ʿAbbādī states in his Ḥāshiyah ʿalā al-Tuḥfah (Vol.2/P.105): "It is most virtuous for the imam, once he has given the salām, to rise from his place of prayer immediately afterward." He adds that an exception must be made for the remembrances that are specifically required to be recited before he turns away. He then notes, citing Sharḥ al-ʿUbāb: "Yes, an exception to this rising immediately after the salām applies to the Fajr prayer, due to the authentic report that the Prophet ﷺ, when he prayed Fajr, would remain seated until the sun rose." He further cites, from al-Khādim, the ḥadīth concerning one who recites, at the conclusion of the Fajr prayer while still in the position of crossing his leg to rise: "Lā ilāha illā Allāh, waḥdahu lā sharīka lah..." and the rest of the well-known ḥadīth. He comments that this makes explicit that this particular remembrance is to be recited before the worshipper turns his legs to leave, and the same applies to Maghrib and ʿAṣr, as reported in those contexts as well.
What is meant by "speech" in the relevant ḥadīth is extraneous worldly speech that is not called for after the prayer and for which there is no legitimate excuse. The remembrances reported to be recited upon concluding the prayer, however, do not fall under this category of extraneous speech, since they are themselves required by the sharīʿah.
Al-ʿAllāmah ʿAlī al-Shabrāmalsī states in his Ḥāshiyah ʿalā al-Nihāyah (Vol.1/P.551): "If someone greets a person with salām while he is occupied with reciting this remembrance [i.e., 'Lā ilāha illā Allāh...'], should he return the greeting — without this causing him to forfeit the promised reward, since he is engaged in an obligatory matter — or should he delay returning the greeting until he finishes, this being a legitimate excuse for the delay?" He continues: "I say: the more likely view is the former, and the prohibition on speech is to be understood as applying to extraneous speech for which there is no legitimate excuse. Based on this, should the worshipper give precedence to this remembrance ('Lā ilāha illā Allāh...') or to reciting Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ ('Qul huwa Allāhu aḥad')? This requires consideration, though it is not unlikely that the remembrance takes precedence, given that the Lawgiver urged hastening to it through his words 'while crossing his leg.' This is not considered ordinary speech, since it is not extraneous to what is required after the prayer."
Accordingly, it is recommended for both the imam and those praying behind him to recite this remembrance and to give it precedence over the other remembrances of the prayer, ensuring it is said before they move from their place. And Allah the Almighty knows best.

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