Do those years of prayer have no credit?
Salam dear brothers and sisters in Islam. I can't sleep till 5am after praying fajr. It has already been my body clock for several years which I can't change. For 6 years already it has been my habit of offering tahajjud prayer every 3am. I just discovered lately that you can't pray tahajjud unless you wake up from sleep. Thus, I changed my tahajjud into salatul hajjat instead since I really wanted to pray during midnyt. My question is: Are those tahajjud prayer i have offered for the past six years have no credit? Am i doing the right thing of praying hajat instead since i am not allowed to do tahajjud? I am in need of enlightenment. Please answer me as soon as possible.
zeldalia
Wa 'alaykum assalaam warahmatullah wabarakaatuh,
First of all, I've never heard of any scholar saying that you must wake up from sleep to be able to pray tahajjud--it seems you got the wrong information. It doesn't matter whether you slept or not. What is required is that you prayed the tahajjud during its best time--which is the last third of the night.
If you can't sleep at nights for some reasons, then you may either begin your tahajjud prayers before the last third of the night, or engage yourself in doing dhikr or reciting the Holy Quran.
Hope this helps in shaa Allah, and Allah Ta'ala knows best.
As far as I know the OP is correct in saying tahajjud only counts after waking from sleep
Al-Hajjaaj ibn ‘Amr al-Ansaari (may Allah be pleased with him) said: One of you thinks that if he gets up at night and prays until morning comes that he has done tahajjud. But in fact tahajjud means praying after sleeping, then praying after sleeping. That is how the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah upon him) prayed.
For more info: http://islamqa.info/en/143240
Wa alaykum al salam,
As far as my understanding goes your prayers will still count as you were unaware of the rules of praying tahajjud prayer. You are able to pray qiyaam al layl if you aren't sleeping - salatul hajah's isnaad is very weak and so I think to be safe it would inshaAllah be best to stick to praying qiyaam and making dua for whatever it is you want.
Assalaamu 'alykum
Please be aware that it's not a condition nor a rule that one must wake up from sleep to be able to pray any of the forms of Qiyaam alyl or Tahajjud. Here it's very important that we separate between what is a Rule or Condition, and what is a Sunnah or Mustahab (desirable). Even though, striving to follow the Sunnah or Mustahab is best, however, in special cases it's not necessary to do so.
The OP says they can't sleep till 5am after praying fajr. Are you implying that from now on, they must pray tahajjud only after sleeping? And that anything beyond that will not be counted as Tahajjud, thus they lose the rewards of Tahajjud?
Qiyaam al-layl is a general term. When it's performed during the nights of Ramdan, it's referred to as Taraweeh/Tahajjud, and when performed during other nights, it's referred to as Tahajjud.
Bro ,
Please provide reference along with you answer .Jazak Allah
Ok Bro, Assalaamu 'alaykum and Ramadan Mubarak!
Please see the below response, regarding the same topic, by http://fatwa.islamweb.net/fatwa/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=13746
Also please see the earlier link provided by Ess:
Hope this helps in shaa Allah, and Allah Ta'ala knows best.
Walaikum assalam and Ramadan Mubarak Brother ,
Thanks for the reference .Jazak Allah .
Allah hafiz
Thank you so much for your responses. I really aprreciated it. I asked an Imam and he said I should take advantage of not sleeping by praying tahajjud. I only sleep at 5am and wake up at 11am and I should be thankful of that body clock. I can still offer tahajjud despite the fact thatI didn't arise from sleep. I am much eager now to offer tahajjud prayer with many rakats from 2am-3am. Ramadhan Kareem to all of you.