Prayers in Islam

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
1

I think that most of the members here would be aware of the fact that all schools of the Islam ask their adherents to offer prayers five times in a day.
But, the fact of the matter is that is not entirely true.

There is a sixth type of prayer also, which is strange because of its timings.

All five preyers are performed from the the dawn to dusk. Means, all those are covered almost in the daytime.
But, the timing of this sixth prayer, which is called Tahajjud is from midnight to very early morning, 12 am to 4 am.
I also want to clarify here that all five prayers do not take the same time because some are long while some are short and this sixth one consumes the maximum time.

Furthermore, it is not supposed to be offered if one is not slept after the last prayer. Means, one has to sleep after the fifth prayer, wake up again, get ready according to custom and then perform the prayer. And also, he would have to sleep once again before waking up for the first prayer of the dawn. This is compulsory otherwise this sixth prayer would not be accepted by the Allah.

One more thing. Unlike all other five prayers, this sixth one is not mendatory but optional only.

I mentioned this particularly because i did not find this sixth prayer mentioned anywhere on the net.

with love,
sanjay

2

I looked and it was all over the internet but in either case, thanks.
I used to live with a Muslim and wondered why he woke up every night around 3am. Now I know. :smiley:

3

Simms,

May i ask your way of searching?
I am not asking this because i am doubing you. The simple reason is that there may be some smart tricks about the searching that may have not known to me. And, it is quite possible becasue i am not a computer savy person.
This may help me in the future regarding other issues.

Secondly, your friend must be a very religious person.
According to my experience and assumption, not more that 5% muslims use to offer this prayer. Even 5% is a streached figure.

with love,
sanjay

4

I looked it up too and found it. I was searching to find out if there was any particular purpose for this last prayer - other than the same purpose as the others or any prayer has - since it is not mandatory and since one has to have slept before.

Is there a distinction between this and the others?

5

Surprisingly, i found it too this time. It looks to me that perhaps i was misspelling it earlier.

Yes, it is.

To understand the distinction, first of all, we have to know what is the meaning of the term Tahajjud is.
In Arabic, it means to keep vigil or becoming vigilant.

It is easy to offer five prayers during the day because of two reasons.
Firstly, as all are awake so one can easily remember that it is time to pray.
Secondly, even if one gets busy anywhere and forgets the timings, there is a practice of Azan to enable all to remember. Azan means the loud calling made by the cleric from the Masjids to invite all to perform prayers.

But, both of these facilities are not available in the case of Tahajjud. One has to wake up during midnight on his own. And, for that, one must have the strong will to do so. It means that one has to be vigilant even during the sleep to pray to the Allah.

That is one difference.

The second difference is that one need not to go to the masjid to offer Tahajjud, while that is necessary for all other five prayers ( if one is within the reasonable distance of any masjid).

The third difference is that Tahajjud is also called as Zinnati Namaz, menas, the Namaz performed by the Zinnat.
Zinnat are considered to be a spiritual community and their status is somewhere between Zinn and the Faristey (Angles).
Like Zinn, they are also made of smokeless blue fire but not mischievous like them. They are more powerful than Zinn.
It is said that a Zinne has the power of 40 men, while a Zinnat has the powers of 40 Zinn.

And, the reason for calling Tahajjud is Zinnati Prayer is they also use to go to the Masjids to offer this prayer because due to the presence of the humans during the day, they cannot come to the masjids as it is forbidden for them by the God to come in the front of the humans openly.

If you ever visit to India or Pakistan, you will find many masjids being called as Zinnati masjids.

with love,
sanjay