Islam and my thoughts

<3 Tahajjud <3

Assalamualaikum!! Sisters n Bro's!!

OK the first thing I want to start off with is Tahajjud. This is something I came across. I read that if you want to get closer to Allah(swt). After regulating your five daily prayers, you should try to offer "Tahajjud".

Now the first question that comes to the mind is; what does "Tahajjud" mean? I have visited various sites. Here's what I came across in one of the sites.

What does Tahajjud mean?

هجود Hujood means to sleep

Now to put that in context, in the Arabic Language, many of the words that fall under the تَفَعُّل tafa3’ul syntax portray a meaning of refraining and abstention.

For example: إثم Ithm means to sin. When put in the تَفَعُّل pattern, making it تَأَثُّم Ta’aththum, it changes the meaning to: refraining/abstaining from sin.

Thus, تَهَجُّد  Tahajjud means to refrain from sleep.

Now, refraining from sleep could linguistically indicate two things: It could potentially include the meaning of someone who stays awake and then remains a awake, thus ‘refraining from sleep.’

However, in this case, linguistically, tahajjud refers to a person who is sleeping, then rises up and shakes of his/her sleep whilst bearing great difficulty in waking up and the overwhelming desire to sleep.

Another site read as follows:

Tahajjud means waking up after sleeping, and it became a name for prayer, because the individual wakes up for it. So tahajjud means getting up to pray at night. This meaning was given by al-Aswad, ‘Ilqimah, ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn al-Aswad and others.

I hope what "Tahajjud" means is now clear. If not just comment and I will share more In shaa Allah!

Now moving onto the significance of "Tahajjud". How do we Muslims know about the significance of a particualar action or deed? We see if Allah(swt) has commanded about it in the Qur'an or if we have been given some instructions in the reliable Sunnah and Ahadis compilations ,of course!

So yeah that's what I and Hania have looked for. "Tahajjud" is a very well mentioned nafl prayer. We have been able to find quite a lot of ahadis and verses! Ma shaa Allah! The prophet(pbuh) instructed his companions to offer the "Tahajjud" as well.

A few ahadis with regard to the "Tahajjud" prayer:

Abu Hurayra (Ra) reports that the Prophet (pbuh) said, "The best prayer after the obligatory prayers is the night prayer." [Muslim]

Abu Hurayra (Ra) reports that the Prophet (pbuh) was asked, "What prayer is most virtuous, after the obligatory prayers?"

He said, "Prayer in the depths of the night." [Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah]

Abd Allah ibn Salam (Ra) reports that the Prophet (pbuh) said,

"O people! Spread the salams, feed others, maintain family ties, and pray at night when others sleep and you will enter Heaven safely." [Tirmidhi, Hakim]