We always have a prayer to address to God. Life is so hard and difficult, even when we are in the best of situations, that we feel we need God’s help at every juncture. We realize that without God’s help life could become so suffocatingly oppressive that we may not be able to cope with its demands. Addressing our prayers to God is the way to ensure that we receive God’s help. This will certainly add to our strength and make us better able and more firmly resolved to face whatever difficulties we have. Should we feel that our prayers are definitely answered, then the difficulties we are facing begin to dwindle and we experience a gradually increasing resolve to deal with these difficulties trusting that God’s help will see us through even the worst of times and the hardest of problems.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) has provided us with guidance on how to seek God’s help, teaching us what to say in our prayers and how to address our supplication. He left no door unopened to us to seek God’s help. As he acted only on God’s guidance and instructions, this in itself tells us that God’s help is always available, if only we will request it properly and sincerely.
A highly authentic Hadith is particularly significant in this respect. Abu Hurayrah quotes the Prophet as saying: "Our Lord, the Glorious, the Exalted, descends every night to the lowest heaven when one third of the night remains, and He says: Who is praying Me so that I will answer his prayer? Who is requesting me so that I will grant his request? Who is seeking My forgiveness so that I will forgive him?" (Related by all six and others).
There are several points to discuss in this Hadith. The first is the invitation to put any type of request to God at the particular time mentioned. The Prophet has specified three types of prayer. The first is general, which means that it could be a request for good health by a person suffering illness, or for overcoming a particular difficulty one is facing, or for help in achieving a particular goal, or for certain things in one’s life to be set on a better footing. Whatever one may pray God for under this heading is answered. The wording the Prophet has chosen to express his meaning makes the answering of prayer a certainty. This is confirmed in more than one Qur’anic verse, such as the one stating: "Your Lord says, ‘Pray Me, and I will answer you’." (40: 60).
The second is more specific: it concerns requests for God’s favors. Here the door is being opened for any request, whether it relates to this present life or the life to come. So we may ask God to increase our income, to make our life more comfortable, to facilitate our purposes, to give us wisdom, or indeed whatever we may think of. Perhaps it is pertinent to recall here the prayer of the Prophet Solomon who requested God to give him what no one else would ever have, and God granted his request.
There is simply no limit on what God may grant to any one of His servants, man, woman or child. And the Prophet tells us that the opportunity to make such request is available every night.
The third is specifically for God’s forgiveness. This means that whatever sin we may commit, the door for forgiveness is open. All that it needs is a sincere repentance and an honest appeal for God’s forgiveness.
All this reaffirms what every Muslim knows of the fact that there is simply no limit to what God may grant to people. Whatever God may give us does not decrease His kingdom. What is important though is to know how and when to make our requests. In this Hadith the Prophet mentions a particular time, which is the last third of the night. This is a time when most people are asleep. It is not easy to get up, because we would not have had sufficient sleep, even though we may go to be early. Thus, to wrench oneself out of bed, particularly on a cold night, or in summer when the night is very short, requires a good effort which only a person feeling real need for God’s help will make. Therefore, a person who makes such an effort indicates that he or she seriously desires what God may give, and realizes that what God gives cannot be given by anyone else. Moreover, such a person knows that he or she needs to make an honest and sincere appeal to God, free of any element of show off or hypocrisy. Nothing demonstrates this better than forcing oneself out of bed to stand up in prayer, read the Qur’an, glorify God and appeal to him to grant us whatever we need.
If we understand this Hadith as highlighting the importance of night worship, we should also realize that it speaks even more emphatically about purging our minds and thoughts of anything other than pure dedication to God. When we wake up at that time of night, perform our ablutions and start our prayer, we should feel that we are in direct communication with God. Hence, our preoccupation should be that we are really worthy of such direct communication. This is achieved by purity of thought, and a recognition that when we receive God’s help we are in need of no one else. Therefore, our prayers should start with seeking God’s forgiveness for whatever errors we might have committed, and an expression of our total faith before we put our requests to Him, trusting that He will answer them all, or give us what is even better for us than what we think is best.
A word needs to be said about the way this Hadith begins, describing God as descending to the lowest heaven. What is important to know is that the very concept of place and space does not apply to God, which means that it is wrong to say that He is present in one place and not present in another. So, what does this descending mean?
The answer is that we do not know what it actually signifies in real terms. The nature of God and most of His attributes belong to the world that lies beyond the reach of our faculties of perception. Therefore, we will not make any attempt to explain this in terms of our world. What we say is that all description of God and His actions are given in terms that make them easy for us to understand. This cannot be done except in what is familiar to us. What is significant here is that God is so near to us at that time of night that response to our prayers is given immediately. This is not to say that He is far from us at other times, or that He does not answer our prayers. It simply means that prayers are more readily and quickly answered than at other times. Otherwise, the door for repentance is open at any time, and God’s answering of our prayers is easy for Him at any moment. He listens to our prayers and responds to them. The Hadith simply specifies an occasion which makes our prayers more sincere and more serious that God’s answer is immediate and comprehensive.