Waking for Tahajjud

[AbulUthman]

Just curious!
How do you people get up for tahajjud?
Yesterday I had a nightmare at about midnight, which woke me, I wanted to offer Tahajjud, but I was horror-strucken, I know that was my laziness. But I could not even move!
Any help would be appreciated, JazakAllah!

[BlackTiger]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

Here are some steps that I do:

-Wudu before sleep.
-Reciting Surah Al-Fatiha at least three times.
-Reciting Surah Al-Ikhlas at least three times.
-Reciting Ayat Al-Kursi.
-Dua to wake up for tahajjud.
-Having low lighting. (I have found out that it's harder to wake up when its completely dark)
-Get to bed earlier with the intention to wake up for it.
-Do not sleep during the day.
-Alarm clock (I have Fajr Adhan as it contains "al-salaatu khayrun min al-nawm" (prayer is better than sleep)"

Whenever you have a nightmare and wake up. Say shahada because you will be protect and receive a deed for it.

Wa iyyak!

[AbulUthman]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

Here are some steps that I do:

-Wudu before sleep.
-Reciting Surah Al-Fatiha at least three times.
-Reciting Surah Al-Ikhlas at least three times.
-Reciting Ayat Al-Kursi.
-Dua to wake up for tahajjud.
-Having low lighting. (I have found out that it's harder to wake up when its completely dark)
-Get to bed earlier with the intention to wake up for it.
-Do not sleep during the day.
-Alarm clock (I have Fajr Adhan as it contains "al-salaatu khayrun min al-nawm" (prayer is better than sleep)"

Whenever you have a nightmare and wake up. Say shahada because you will be protect and receive a deed for it.

Wa iyyak!

JazakAllah brother, but i have read in Hadith that qaloola (sleeping during the day) is a sunnah and it gives you strength for waking up in the night!

[BlackTiger]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

JazakAllah brother, but i have read in Hadith that qaloola (sleeping during the day) is a sunnah and it gives you strength for waking up in the night!

Yes it is brother (mid-day) but it's more likely to "relax", taking a short nap in our terms and not deeply sleeping. This could also get you lazy and give more sleep than needed (i.e a couple of hours which will make it hard for you to fall asleep at night)
So you will have to be alert when timing it.

[Bint_Hajj]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

I tend to be a restless sleeper and wake up several times a night to check the time. lol So one of those times I'll make myself get up.

I also try to drink a TON of water before bed so that I'll have to get up at some point in the night.

If the above fail and I get into a habit of sleeping too deeply I'll just set an alarm on my cell phone separate from my alarm for Fajr.

[Submit To Peace]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

offering two rakah making an intention of salat ul haajah & salaat ut taubah before sleep. Asking for forgiveness before sleep is necessary because sometimes we say or do something during the day that takes away from us the "taufeeq" of tahajjud.

[~TwinklingStar~]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

The secret to Tahajjud

Some said to Ibn Masood (radiyallahu anho), "We are unable to perform the night prayer" He responded simply, "Your sins are prohibiting you (from it)"

Al Hasan Al-Basri was asked "We are unable to perform the night prayer so prescribe us a cure." He said "Do not disobey Him during the day and He will help you stand before Him during the night."

At-Thawri (rh) also said "I was barred from praying Tahajjud for five months on account of a sin I committed."

Oh Allah ! Allow us to worship You as You deserve to be worshipped.

Oh Allah ! Help us to remember You , thank You & better ourselves in our worship.

Oh Allah ! Help us to wake up in Your worship when others are oblivious in slumber and make us consistent in it.

Oh Allah ! Grant us patience in Your worship !

[~TwinklingStar~]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

One of the greatest gifts that Allah can bestow upon any human being is the ability to wake up in the middle of the night and pray to Him. Example, when people are living their fairy-tale lives, one of the greatest things that happens in the fairy-tale is that the king has a ball and he invites all the honourable people to it. When you get an invitation from the king, you prepare your gown , clothing etc and show up to the gathering of the king. Getting an invitation from the king is one of the greatest things that happens in that fairy-tale society.

But Allah is the King of the Universe and every night, he has a gathering where he lowers himself to the lowest heaven and asks "Who is worshipping Me? Who is asking to Me so that I may give to him?" etc etc. The very, very special servants are invited to participate in that gathering and that is called "Tahajjud" - it happens in the last third of the night mostly. This is one of the greatest gifts that Allah can bestow upon the pious people of the community.

Now, there are two ways to approach Tahajjud :

1. One way to approach Tahajjud is that we say "Oh Man ! Tahajjud is awesome ! It sounds incredible. I wanna be there" ... we can all learn the virtues of Tahajjud & agree that Tahajjud can be the greatest wealth given to the believer in this life and make every effort to wake up for Tahajjud. But the vast majority of the people will not be able to do so and even if we did so, our eyes would be dragging on the ground and we'd have difficulty keeping them open & praying the prayer. This is because Allah has not blessed us with Tahajjud.

2. Another avenue is that the person emulates the Sunnah and begins to live according to the Shariah. When they begin to do that, then Allah bestows upon them Tahajjud as a gift. Allah wakes them up basically because Allah wants them to be invited to this gathering. And, that person is always consistent in their Tahajjud. They sleep an hour, they wake up the next hour to pray. There are people, no matter what they do, Allah wakes them up.

It's so strange - some people sleep early with the intention of waking up for Fajr, but they still sleep through Fajr. And there are some people who sleep at 2 in the morning, but they manage to get up at 3 in the morning , fresh and ready to pray Tahajjud because Allah has bestowed that upon them as a gift.

So, our scholars say that's the mechanism for Tahajjud. Although we must all have the desire and intention to pray Tahajjud and do everything in our physical power to attain it, the greatest method to attain it is to bring the Shriah and the Sunnah into our lives.

When the Shariah & Sunnah come into our lives, we become beloved to Allah & when we become beloved to Allah, Allah wants us to be in that gathering. And when Allah wants us to be in that gathering, He wakes us up for Tahajjud & we are fresh.

May Allah bless all of us with the ability to pray Tahajjud.

[Muzdalifah]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

The easiest way is to sleep on the floor on top of a thin sheet. Preferably a hard floor. You want to limit the comfort as much as possible. Dont worry after a few nights youll get used to it.

Then when your alarm goes off no matter what time its set for inshallah you will get up with no effort at all. Its these extra soft mattresses that keep us in a deep sleep and reluctant to get out of bed.

Inshallah this is following the summah of rasulullah salallahi alayhe wa salalm and is a form of zuhd.

[Bint_Hajj]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

I forgot to add: if you miss tahajjud by oversleeping, make it up!

When you are sincere in your efforts, hopefully :insha: He will help you with being consistent.

[sawm]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

one solid way is to:

control your gazes!!!

Eat less!!

Not sin!!

if a person prays tahajjud every night they will become so close to Allah. May Allah give me toufique to practise this, don't get up myself.

[AbulUthman]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

I tend to be a restless sleeper and wake up several times a night to check the time. lol So one of those times I'll make myself get up.

I also try to drink a TON of water before bed so that I'll have to get up at some point in the night.

If the above fail and I get into a habit of sleeping too deeply I'll just set an alarm on my cell phone separate from my alarm for Fajr.

Yeah I tried that trick last night, went quite well Alhamdulillah!
JazakAllah!

[AbulUthman]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

The secret to Tahajjud

Some said to Ibn Masood (radiyallahu anho), "We are unable to perform the night prayer" He responded simply, "Your sins are prohibiting you (from it)"

Al Hasan Al-Basri was asked "We are unable to perform the night prayer so prescribe us a cure." He said "Do not disobey Him during the day and He will help you stand before Him during the night."

At-Thawri (rh) also said "I was barred from praying Tahajjud for five months on account of a sin I committed."

Oh Allah ! Allow us to worship You as You deserve to be worshipped.

Oh Allah ! Help us to remember You , thank You & better ourselves in our worship.

Oh Allah ! Help us to wake up in Your worship when others are oblivious in slumber and make us consistent in it.

Oh Allah ! Grant us patience in Your worship !

That really was a secret sister.
JazakAllah!

[AbulUthman]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

I forgot to add: if you miss tahajjud by oversleeping, make it up!

When you are sincere in your efforts, hopefully :insha: He will help you with being consistent.

How can we make up Tahajjud sis?

[Bint_Hajj]

Re: Waking for Tahajjud

How can we make up Tahajjud sis?

Volume 2, Page 26a: Making qada' for the missed tahajjud
Muslim records that 'Aishah RA said: "If the Prophet sallallahu alehi wasallam missed the late-night prayers due to pain or anything else, he would pray twelve rak'at during the day."

'Umar RA reports that the Prophet sallallahu alehi wasallam said: "Whoever sleeps past his full portion [of the late-night prayers] or part of them, he should pray between the dawn and noon prayers and it would be recorded for him as if he had prayed during the night." This is related by the group except for al-Bukhari.

Taken from here(a full page on tahajjud): http://www.islambasics.com/view.php?bkID=20&chapter=14