289. How To Divide Night Prayers?

By Asma Bint Shameem

The Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam said:

“the dearest of prayer to Allah is the prayer of Dawood (peace be upon him). He used to sleep for half the night, get up and pray for one third of it, and sleep for one sixth of it, and he used to fast one day and not the next.”

 (al-Bukhaari (1131) and Muslim (1159)

Shaykh ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-‘Abbaad said: 

“Sleeping for half of the night means after ‘Isha’ prayer; he should work out the time from after ‘Isha’ prayer until the break of dawn, spend half of it sleeping, then after that wake up for one third of it.”[Sharh Sunan Abi Dawood (13/287)]

And Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said: 

“Praying tahajjud at night is one of the best acts of worship and is the best of prayers after the obligatory prayers. 

Prayer at night is better than prayer during the day, especially in the last third of the night. 

The best way to divide the night is the prayer of Dawood; he used to sleep for half of the night, get up and pray for one third of it, and sleep for one sixth. 

The Prophet also used to do that sometimes; in fact he used to do that most of the time. 

Based on that, we say: 

"the best of night prayers are those that are done after one half of the night has passed, until one sixth of the night is left.”

[Fataawa Noor ‘ala ad-Darb (1/161)]

What this means is that we should count the number of hours in the night from Ishaa to Fajr. 

Then divide that into 6 parts; then sleep for the first half meaning the first three parts. 

Then wake up and pray tahajjud for the next two parts of it (two sixths equal one third) then take a nap for the last sixth part. 

And Allaah knows best