Sunan Abi Dawud: Prayer (Kitab Al-Salat): Detailed Injunctions about Ramadan

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to commend prayer at night during Ramadan, but did not command it as duty. He would say: If anyone prays during the night in Ramadan because of faith and seeking his reward from Allah, his previous sins will be forgiven for him. When the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) died, this was the practice, and it continued thus during Abu Bakr's caliphate and early part of 'Umar's.

Abu Dawud said: This tradition has been transmitted by 'Uqail, Yunus, and Abu Uwais in like manner. The version of 'Uqail goes: He who fasts during Ramadan and prays during the night.

The Prophet (ﷺ) as saying: If anyone fasts during Ramadan because of faith and in order to seek his reward from Allah, his previous sins will be forgiven to him. If anyone prays in the night of the power (lailat al-qadr) because of faith and in order to seek his reward from Allah his previous sins will be forgiven for him.

Abu Dawud said: This tradition has been transmitted in a similar manner by Yahya b. Abi Kathir and Muhammad b. 'Amr from Abu Salamah.

That the Prophet (ﷺ) once offered (tarawih) prayer in the mosque and the people also prayed along with him. He then prayed on the following night, and the people gathered in large numbers. They gathered on the third night too, but the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) did not come out to them. When the morning came, he said: I witnessed what you did, and nothing prevented me from coming out to you except that I feared that this (prayer) might be prescribed to you. That was in Ramadan.

The people used to pray (tarawih prayer) in the mosque during Ramadan severally. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) commanded me (to spread a mat). I spread a mat for him and he prayed upon it. The narrator then transmitted the same story. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: O People, praise be to Allah, I did not pass my night carelessly, nor did your position remain hidden from me.

We fasted with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) during Ramadan, but he did not make us get up at night for prayer at any time during the month till seven nights remained; then he made us get up for prayer till a third of the night had passed. When the sixth remaining night came, he did not make us get up for prayer. When the fifth remaining night came, he made us stand in prayer till a half of the night had gone.

So I said: Messenger of Allah, I wish you had led us in supererogatory prayers during the whole of tonight.

He said: When a man prays with an imam till he goes he is reckoned as having spent a whole night in prayer. On the fourth remaining night he did not make us get up. When the third remaining night came, he gathered his family, his wives, and the people and prayed with us till we were afraid we should miss the falah (success).

I said: What is falah? He said: The meal before daybreak. Then he did not make us get up for prayer during the remainder of the month.

When the last ten days of Ramadan came, the Prophet (ﷺ) kept vigil and prayed during the whole night, and tied the wrapper tightly, and awakened his family (to pray during the night).

Abu Dawud said: The name of Abu Ya'fur is 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Ubaid b. Nistas.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) came out and saw that the people were praying during (the night of) Ramadan in the corner of the mosque. He asked: Who are these people ? It was said to him that those were people who had not learnt Quran. But Ubayy b. Ka'b is praying and they would pray behind him. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: They did right and it is good what they did.

Abu Dawud said: This tradition is not strong, the narrator Muslim b. Khalid is weak.

I said to Ubayy b. Ka'b: Tell me about lailat al-qadr, O Abu al-Mundhir, for our companion (Ibn Mas'ud) was questioned about it, and he said: Anyone who gets up for prayer every night all the year round will hit upon it (i.e. lailat al-qadr). He replied: May Allah have mercy on Abu 'Abd al-Rahman. By Allah, he knew that it was in Ramadan, (Musaddad's version goes) but he disliked that the people should content themselves (with that night alone); or he liked that the people should not content themselves (with the night alone). According to the agreed version: By Allah, it is the twenty-seventh night of Ramadan, without any reservation. I said: How did you know that, Abu al-Mundhir? He replied: By the indication (or sign) of which the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) informed us. I asked Zirr: What is the sign ? He replied: The sun rises like a vessel of water in the morning following that night; it has no rays until it rises high up.

I was present at the gathering of Banu Salamah, and I was the youngest of them.

They (the people) said: Who will ask the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) for us about Laylat al-Qadr? That was the twenty-first of Ramadan. I went out and said the sunset prayer along with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I then stood at the door of his house.

He passed by me and said: Come in. I entered (the house) and dinner was brought for him. I was prevented from taking food as it was scanty.

When he finished his dinner, he said to me: Give me my shoes. He then stood up and I also stood up with him. He said: Perhaps you have some business with me.

I said: Yes. Some people of Banu Salamah have sent me to you to ask you about Laylat al-Qadr. He asked: Which night: Is it tonight?

I said: Twenty-second. He said: This is the very night. He then withdrew and said: Or the following night, referring to the twenty-third night.

I said to the Messenger of Allah: I have a place in the desert where I live and in which I pray, with the praise of Allah; but give me command about a night when I come to this mosque.

He replied: Come on the twenty third night.

I (a sub-narrator, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim) said to his (Abdullah ibn Unays's) son: How would your father act?

He replied: He used to enter the mosque when he had offered the afternoon prayer, and did not leave it for any purpose till he prayed the morning prayer. Then when he had prayed the morning prayer, he found his riding beast at the door of the mosque, mounted it and got back to his desert.

The Prophet (ﷺ) as saying: Seek laitat al-Qadr in the last ten night of Ramadan. When nine (nights) remain (i.e. on the twenty first) , when seven (night) remain (i.e. on the twenty third), and when five (nights) remain (i.e. on the twenty fifth).

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to spend the middle ten days of Ramadan in retirement and devotion (i'tikaf) in the mosque. One year he had retirement and devotion in the mosque (as usual); when the twenty-first night came, and this night when he used to come out his devotion in the mosque, he said: He who has engaged himself in devotion along with me should do so during the last ten days; I saw that night, that was caused to forget it, but I have seen myself prostrating in water and mud on the morning following (that night), so seek it in the last ten days and seek it every night with an odd number. Abu sa'id said: Rain fell that night, the mosque that was thatched building dripped, and my eyes saw the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) with the traces of water and mud, on his forehead on the morning following the twenty-first night.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Seek it (laylat al-Qadr) in the last ten days of Ramadan. Seek it on the ninth, seventh and fifth night. I (AbuNadrah) said: You know counting better than us, AbuSa'id. He said: Yes. I asked: What do you mean by the ninth, seventh and fifth night? He said: When the twenty-first night passes, the night which follows it is the night; when the twenty-third night passes, the night which follows it is the seventh; when the twenty-fifth passes, the night which follows it is the fifth.

Abu Dawud said: I do not know whether anything remained hidden from me or not.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to us: Seek it (laylat al-Qadr) on the seventeenth night of Ramadan, and on the twenty first night, and on the twenty-third night. He then kept silence.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: Seek lailat al-qadr in the last seven days.

The Prophet (ﷺ) as saying: Lailat al-qadr is the twenty-seventh night (of Ramadan)

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was asked about lailat al-qadr and I was hearing: He said: It is during the whole of Ramadan.

Abu Dawud said: Sufyan and Shu'bah narrated this tradition from Abu Ishaq as a statement of Ibn 'Umar himself, they did not transmit it as a saying of the Prophet (ﷺ)

The Prophet (ﷺ) as saying to him: Complete the recitation of the Qu'ran in one month. He said: I have more strength. He (the Prophet) said: Complete the recitation in twenty days. He again said: I have more energy. He said : Recite in fifteen days. He again said: I have more energy. He said: Recite in ten days. He again said: I have more energy. He said: Recite in seven days, do not add to it.

Abu Dawud said: The tradition narrated by Muslim is more perfect.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to me: Keep fast for three days of month, and finish the recitation of the Qur'an in one month. I and he differed among ourselves on period of time. He said: Fast one day and give it up other day. The narrator 'Ata said: The people differed from my father (in narrating the period of time). Some narrated seven days and others five.

Yazid ibn Abdullah said that Abdullah ibn Amr asked the Prophet (ﷺ): In how many days should I complete the recitation of the whole Qur'an, Messenger of Allah?

He replied: In one month.

He said: I am more energetic to complete it in a period less than this. He kept on repeating these words and lessening the period until he said: Complete its recitation in seven days.

He again said: I am more energetic to complete it in a period less than this.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who finishes the recitation of the Qur'an in less than three days does not understand it.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to me: Recite the Qur'an in one month. I said: I have (more) energy. He said: Recite it in three days

Abu 'Ali said: I heard Abu Dawud say: I heard Ahmad b. Hanbal say: The narrator 'Isa b. Shadhan is a sane person.

Nafi' b. Jubair asked me: In how many days do you recite the Qur'an ? I said: I have not fixed any part from it for daily round. Nafi' said to me: Do not say: I do not fix any part of it for daily round, for the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: I recited a part of the Qur'an.

The narrator Ibn al-Had said: I think I have transmitted this tradition from al-Mughirah b. Shu'bah.

We came upon the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) in a deputation of Thaqif. The signatories of the pact came to al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah as his guests. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) made Banu-Malik stay in a tent of his.

Musaddad's version says: He was in the deputation of Thaqif which came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). He used to visit and have a talk with us every day after the night prayer.

The version of AbuSa'id says: He remained standing for such a long time (talking to us) that he put his weight sometimes on one leg and sometimes on the other due to his long stay. He mostly told us how his people, the Quraysh, behaved with him.

He would say: We were not equal; we were weak and degraded at Mecca (according to Musaddad's version). When we came over to Medina the fighting began between us; sometimes we overcome them and at other times they overcome us. One night he came late and did not come at the time he used to come.

We asked him: You came late tonight? He said: I could not recite the fixed part of the Qur'an that I used to recite every day. I disliked to come till I had completed it.

Aws said: I asked the companions of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ): How do you divide the Qur'an for daily recitation? They said: Three surahs, five surahs, eleven surahs, thirteen surahs' mufassal surahs.

Abu Dawud said: The version of Abu Sa'id is complete.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who recites the Qur'an in a period less than three days does not understand it.

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: Abdullah ibn Amr asked the Prophet (ﷺ); In how many days should one complete the recitation of the Qur'an? He said: In forty days. He then said: In one month. He again said: In twenty days. He then said: In fifteen days. He then said: In ten days. Finally he said: In seven days.

Alqamah and al-Aswad said: A man came to Ibn Mas'ud. He said: I recite the mufassal surahs in one rak'ah. You might recite it quickly as one recites verse (poetry) quickly, or as the dried dates fall down (from the tree).

But the Prophet (ﷺ) used to recite two equal surahs in one rak'ah; he would recite (for instance) surahs an-Najm (53) and ar-Rahman (55) in one rak'ah, surahs Iqtarabat (54) and al-Haqqah (69) in one rak'ah, surahs at-Tur (52) and adh-Dhariyat (51) in one rak'ah, surahs al-Waqi'ah (56) and Nun (68) in one rak'ah, surahs al-Ma'arij (70) and an-Nazi'at (79) in one rak'ah, surahs al-Mutaffifin (83) and Abasa (80) in one rak'ah, surahs al-Muddaththir (74) and al-Muzzammil (73) in one rak'ah, surahs al-Insan (76) and al-Qiyamah (75) in one rak'ah, surahs an-Naba' (78) and al-Mursalat (77) in one rak'ah, and surahs ad-Dukhan (44) and at-Takwir (81) in one rak'ah.

Abu Dawud said: This is the arrangement of Ibn Mas'ud himself

I asked Abu Mas'ud while he was making circumambulation of the Ka'bah (about the recitation of some verses from the Qur'an). He said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: If anyone recited two verses from the last of Surah al-Baqarah at night, they will be sufficient for him.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If anyone prays at night reciting regularly ten verses, he will not be recorded among the negligent; if anyone prays at night and recites a hundred verses, he will be recorded among those who are obedient to Allah; and if anyone prays at night reciting one thousand verses, he will be recorded among those who receive huge rewards.

Abu Dawud said: The name of Ibn Hujairah al-Asghar is 'Abd Allah b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Hujairah.

A man came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and said: Teach me to read the Qur'an, Messenger of Allah.

He said: Read three surahs which begin with A.L.R. He said: My age is advanced, my mind has become dull (i.e. memory has grown weak), and my tongue has grown heavy). So he said: Then read three surahs which begin with H.M. He repeated the same words. So he said: Read three surahs which begin with the "Glorification of Allah". But he repeated the same excuse. The man then said: Teach me a comprehensive surah, Messenger of Allah. The Prophet (ﷺ) taught him Surah (99). "When the Earth is shaken with her earthquake". When he finished it, the man said: By Him Who sent you with truth, I shall never add anything to it. Then man then went away.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said twice: The man received salvation.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: A surah of the Qur'an containing thirty verses will intercede its reader till he will be forgiven. That is: "Blessed is He in Whose Hand is the sovereignty" (Surah 67).