Preparing for Ramadan Tip #4
🌳Preparing for Ramadan Tip #4:🌳_Praying sunnah (voluntary) prayers now will prepare you for praying qiyam/night-prayer daily during Ramadan._
“My beloved friend (the Messenger of Allah peace be upon him) advised me to fast three days of every month, to pray two rak’ahs of duha** prayer and to pray the witr**** prayer before going to sleep.” — Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) (Bukhari and Muslim)
The scholar Al Haafith bin Hajar (may Allah be pleased with him) explained in his book Fath Al-Bari that the reason why the Messenger advised Abu Hurayrah to pray the voluntary witr prayer before sleeping is because he was not able to pray in the last part of the night as is recommended.
This is because he would spend the first part of the night reviewing the many hadiths he memorized and would then sleep in the later part of the night. It saddened him to miss out on performing an act as virtuous as the night prayer so the Messenger ď·ş gave him a beautiful alternative, as we see in the hadith. This advice is further explained in the hadith of Jabir, may Allah be pleased with him. He said that our Messenger ď·ş said:
“Whoever among you fears that he will not wake up at the end of the night, let him pray witr at the beginning of the night, then go to sleep. Whoever hopes that he will wake up at the end of the night, let him pray witr at the end of the night, for recitation (of the Qur’an) at the end of the night is attended (by the angels), and that is better.” (Sahih Muslim)
Because many of us only pray qiyaam/the night prayers during Ramadan, it’s good training and preparation for us to start off from now with getting used to the voluntary prayers during the day and pray witr (even if just one rakah!) before we sleep as the Messenger ﷺ advised Abu Hurayrah so that we can prepare and motivate ourselves to pray the qiyaam/night prayers in and outside of Ramadan.
**duha: a voluntary prayer prayed after sunrise until before Duhur time.
****witr: a voluntary odd-numbered prayer prayed after Isha.