The Prophet (peace be upon him) was keen to vary his night worship because he realized that his actions were bound to be reported and people would try to emulate him. He did not wish to give them one pattern because they would come to think that it was the only acceptable one. He was keen that they should realize that when it came to voluntary prayers, people were free to choose what suited them. When they are young, in their prime and comfortable they can spend hours in night worship, if they so desire. But when they are older and weaker, they may choose a more comfortable pattern. We have many reports about the Prophet’s night worship that show wide variations to allow just that.
Abdullah ibn Abbas reports that he once slept over at the Prophet’s home. He saw him waking up, brushing his teeth and performing his ablutions as he recited the last ten verses of Surah 3. He then offered two rak’ahs in which he stood up long and bowed long and also made his prostrations long. He then went back to sleep until his breathing was heard. He then did this three times, praying six rak’ahs in all, each time brushing his teeth, performing ablutions and reading those verses of the Qur’an before offering two rak’ahs. He then offered his witr prayer in three rak’ahs. The person who calls the prayer then came to him, and he went out to the mosque saying: “My Lord! Give me light in my sight, light in my hearing, light in my tongue, and light beneath me. My Lord! Give me light.” (Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim.)
We note in this Hadith the sort of personal hygiene and cleanliness the Prophet maintained. He would brush his teeth even after a short sleep. We also note that he wanted to feel comfortable when he prayed. Therefore, he had a short sleep between sessions of worship. When the day broke and he went out to offer the congregational Fajr prayer, he prayed for light in all his senses and for enlightenment generally. Nothing is better in life than proper enlightenment, and who can give such enlightenment better than God Almighty. Hence, the Prophet’s prayer, which we will do well to emulate.
The Prophet often started his night worship at an easy pace. Abu Hurayrah reports: “When the Prophet woke up at night for worship, he started with two short rak’ahs.” This serves to prepare himself for the harder task of offering long prayers and also suggests that night worship can be made short, if one so prefers.
Another report of the Prophet’s night worship is given by Zayd ibn Khalid Al-Juhani who says: “I thought I would watch the Prophet’s prayer one night. Therefore, I lay at the doorstep of his tent. When he rose, he offered two short rak’ahs. He then offered two very, very long rak’ahs. He followed these with two rak’ahs that were shorter, and then two others shorter than the ones preceding them, and concluded with two more that were still shorter. He followed this with the witr prayer. That made a total of 13 rak’ahs.” (Related by Malik, Muslim, Abu Dawood and Ibn Majah.)
In this report we see an opener with two short rak’ahs that precedes a much longer prayer. As he proceeds from one unit of two rak’ahs to the next, the Prophet decreases the duration of subsequent units in order to allow for tiredness.
Sometimes the Prophet made his night worship very, very long to the extent that few people could keep up with him. But he only did so when he was at home and alone, or with someone willing to keep up with him. This is mentioned by Hudhayfah who says that he went to the Prophet when he was about to start his night worship. “When he began, he said: ‘God is Supreme, the King of all, the Almighty, the Most Powerful.’ He followed by reading Surah 2, Al-Baqarah, in his first rak’ah. He then bowed and his ruku’ was almost as long as his reading. He said in his ruku’: Subhan rabbiy Al-Azeem, which means, ‘Limitless in His glory is my Lord the Supreme.’ He lifted himself and stayed nearly as long as his ruku’, saying: lirabbiy Al-hamd, which means, ‘All praise is due to my Lord.’ He then prostrated himself, staying in his prostration nearly as long as he stayed in the standing position. He said: Rabbi ighfir li, which means, ‘My Lord! Forgive me.’ He continued in this fashion until he completed four rak’ahs, in which he read the first five surahs following the Fatihah.” (Related by Ahmad, Abu Dawood and Al-Tirmidhi.)
This Hadith speaks of very long prayer the Prophet offered. If we take what he read of the Qur’an in the standing position of these four rak’ahs, it constitutes one fourth of the entire Qur’an. To do this and to be able to stay long in each position in the prayer means that the Prophet practically spent the whole night in offering these four rak’ahs. This is practically impossible for anyone to do, but the Prophet was given far greater strength than any of us. From the various Hadiths we have, we can safely say that the Prophet needed little sleep at night, which is not the case with most people.
We also note that in such a long prayer, the Prophet would not only recite long surahs from the Qur’an, which puts him in the closest position to God: Standing up in prayer reading God’s words, but he also praised God and glorified Him for long hours. As man should be fully aware at all times of God’s greatness and His dominion over the entire universe including human life, he needs to repeat to himself what makes this awareness deeply ingrained in his heart and mind. Nothing does this better than night worship in which one is dedicated to prayer and glorifying God. Hence the Prophet’s prayer in which he spent long hours in such glorification.
In contrast with this we have a Hadith in which Aishah reports that “The Prophet spent his worship one night repeating one verse of the Qur’an.” This verse was: “If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are indeed Almighty, Wise.” (5: 118)