The two sheikhs mentioned 1 that Abu Hurayra had said: "We travelled in the night with the Prophet (s) and slept at a late time.
1. This quoted from muslim's Sahih, vol. 1, p.p. 254.
We didn't wake up until the sun rose. The Prophet (s) said: "Let every one lead his sumpter and move from here. It is a place attended by the Satan." We did. Then he asked for some water to do wudu'. 1 He did two prostrations then he offered the prayer in the morning."
The guidance of the prophet Muhammad (s) was far above such a tradition. Allah said: (O you, who have wrapped up in your garments! Rise to pray in the night except a little, half of it or lessen it a little or add to it and recite the Qur'an as it ought to be recited) 73:1-4 (Quran) until He said: (Surely your Lord knows that you pass in prayer nearly two?thirds of the night, and (sometimes) half of it) 73:20 (Quran). Allah addressed the Prophet in another saying: (Keep up prayer from the declining of the sun till the darkness of the night and the morning recitation; surely the morning recitation is witnessed. And during a part of the night, pray Tahajjud beyond what is incumbent on you; maybe your Lord will raise you to a position of great glory) 17:78-79 (Quran). Allah asked the Prophet to pray in the night moreover than the five prayers, which were obligatory for all of the Muslims, while the night prayer (nafila) was obligatory for the Prophet alone. Allah said: (And rely on the Mighty, the Merciful, who sees you when you stand up and your turning over and over among those who prostrate themselves before Allah) 26:17-19 (Quran). It did mean that Allah saw you when you stood up to worship Him in the night when there was no one seeing you except Him and saw your doings among the believers when you led them in offering the prayers. Also Allah said addressing him: (andsing the praise of your Lord before the rising of the sun and before the setting and glorify Him in the night and after the prayers) 50:39-40 (Quran).
1. Ritual ablution as prerequisite to offer the prayer.2. Allah made this verse to show the time of the prayers.Zuhr(noon)and Asr (afternoon) prayers participated in the time from the noon untill the sunset but the Zuhr prayer was to be before the Asr prayer. The Maghrib (sunset) and Isha' (night)prayers participated in the time from the sunset untill the darkness of the night but the Maghrib prayer was to be before the Isha' prayer. Allah also mentioned the Fajr (dawn) prayer in the verse to declare that these prayers were obligatory and to declare the time of offering them.
He offered prayers all the night and he hanged his chest with a rope in order not to feel sleepy . He kept on standing up, sitting and prostrating until his feet swelled . Then Gabriel said to him (from Allah): "Take care of yourself. It has to be cared by you." Then he revealed to him: (Ta Ha. We have not revealed the Qur'an to you that you may be unhappy. Nay, it is a reminder to him who fears) 20:1-3 (Quran). The verse meant that: We didn't reveal to you the holy Qur'an in order to tire yourself with worshipping, but we revealed it to be a reminder to him, who fears Allah. So take care of yourself and don't burden yourself with more than you can bear.
Al-Bukhari assigned particular chapters in his Sahih for the Prophet's night prayer, his long prostration in the night prayer and his standing until his legs swelled and his feet chapped.
Thus he accustomed himself to do in the night. How about the five obligatory prayers, which were one of the bases, upon which Islam was based? Would he sleep and miss the prayer? Allah forbid! And it was far away from the Prophet, who recited to the people: (Attend constantly to prayers and to the middle prayer and stand up truly obedient to Allah) 2:238 (Quran) and he incited people: (Successful indeed are the believers, who are humble in their prayers) 23:1-2 and described the believers: (And those who keep a guard on their prayers; these are they who are the heirs, who shall inherit the Paradise; they shall abide therein) 23:9-11 (Quran) and called out to people: (keep up prayer; surely prayer is a timed ordinance for the believers) 4:103 (Quran) and made all people hear: (He indeed shall be successful who purifies himself and magnifies the name of his Lord and prays) 87:14-15 (Quran).
The holy Qur'an is full of verses like these that the Prophet taught people their maxims and good sermons. How many times the Prophet did prick the inattentive by: (Woe to the praying ones, who are unmindful of their prayers, who do (good) to be seen) 107:4-6 (Quran) and exposed the hypocrites when Allah revealed to him about their characters: (and they do not come to prayer but while they are sluggish, and they do not spend but while they are unwilling) 9:54 (Quran) and he criticised someone, who slept and didn't offer the night prayer until the morning came, by saying: "The Satan made water in his ear." 1
What a metaphor it was about those, who accustomed themselves to sleep without offering the night prayer and what a rhetoric it was from (an honored messenger, The processor of strength, having an honorable place with the Lord of the Dominion, one (to be) obeyed, and faithful in trust).
What a hard word it was, which would make the believers worry and never sleep without offering the night prayer if they thought right of themselves. The pious and the obscene, the believer and unbeliever knew and witnessed that the prophet Muhammad (s) was the first who carried out his principles and was the best worshipper, who kept on his principles sincerely. He educated his umma by his deeds more than his sayings. He wouldn't criticise that, who slept without offering the night prayer so hardly, if he himself slept in front of his companions and missed the Fajr prayer. Glory be to Allah! What a great slander it was!
Abu Hurayra himself narrated 2 that the Prophet (s) had said: "The Satan ties three knots upon the nape of every one of you when he sleeps. If he wakes up and mentions Allah, one knot will open. If he makes wudu', the second knot will open and if he offers the prayer the third knot will open. Then he will be active and in good spirits, otherwise he will be lazy and in bad spirits."
This tradition had a rhetorical metaphor like the previous one. The Prophet (s) wanted to warn his umma from the Satan and to incite them to obey Allah. If Abu Hurayra was true in this tradition, he must be a liar when he told that tradition of the Prophet's sleeping and missing the Fajr prayer.
1. Refer to al-Bukhari's Sahih, vol 1, p.p. 136.2. Refer to al-Bukhari's Sahih, vol. 1, p.p. 136. What a strange of al-Bukhari it was that he mentioned this tradition in his book as well as the tradition in his book as well as the tradition talking about the sleeping of the Prophet and missing the prayer!Also refer to Ahmed's Musnad, vol. 2. p.p. 153.
Abu Hurayra narrated that the Prophet had said: "No prayer is heavier for the hypocrites than the prayers of Fajr and Isha'. If they know what these two prayers have, they will come to offer them even creepingly. I was about to order the caller of azan to say the iqama 1 and then to order a man to lead people in prayer and I would take a torch to threaten with fire whoever didn't come to offer the prayer yet."
The Prophet (s) urged people to offer the prayers, paid much attention to the Fajr prayer and threatened those, who didn't come to offer the prayer, by burning them with fire. After all that, was it believable that he himself slept and didn't offer the prayer? Certainly not!
Allah might have mercy upon Abdullah bin Rawaha, the martyred companion, when he said: 2
"Among us was the Prophet, Reciting the holy book when the dawn began to send its rays.
He made us see the guidance after our blindness, so our hearts faithed in him that whatever he said would happen.
He spent the night away from his bed, while the others were in a deep sleep."
Let us go back to the tradition to state what remained to refute it.
Firstly: they (the jurisprudents and the authors of books of Hadith) said that the Prophet's heart (senses) didn't sleep even when his eyes were sleeping. Their Sahihs declared that clearly. 3
This was one of the signs of the prophecy and Islam; therefore it was not probable for him to sleep and missed the Fajr prayer, because if his eyes slept, his heart would be attentive, especially to his god. Nothing of sleeping would make him inattentive to his duties. Once
1. Specified wordings to be said after the azan as a forepart for the prayer.
2. Refer to al-Bukhari's Sahjih, vol. 1, p.p. 138.
3. Refer to al-Bukhari's Sahih, vol. 1, p.p. 179.
he offered the night prayer and went to sleep before he offered the witr 1 prayer. One of his wives said to him: "O messenger of Allah, do you sleep before you offer the witr prayer?" He said: "My eyes sleep but my heart doesn't sleep." 2 He meant that he was certain he would not miss the witr prayer because he was fond of it and his heart was attentive to it even his eyes were sleeping. If he was so with the witr prayer, how about him when he slept before the Fajr prayer?
Secondly: Abu Hurayra declared, as mentioned by Muslim in his Sahih, 3 that this event happened to the Prophet during his return from the battle of Khaybar. How did Abu Hurayra pretend that he was with the Prophet then? Abu Hurayra became a Muslim after this battle as the historians mentioned unanimously. 4
Thirdly: Abu Hurayra said in the tradition: (The Prophet said: "Let every one of you lead his sumpter. This is a place attended by the Satan." We did so).
It was well-known that the Satan didn't near to the Prophet (s) and all people knew well, too, that Abu Hurayra was very poor and didn't have anything to satiate his hungry stomach with, so wherefrom did he get a sumpter to lead away as he said: we did so?
1. One of night prayers.
2. Refer to al-Bukhari's Sahih, vol. 2, p.p. 179 and Ahmed's Musnad, vol. 2, p.p. 251.
3.Sahih Muslim
4 vol. 1, p.p. 254.
5. Abu Hurayra said in the last days of his life:"I and a few of my tribe came to Medina toconfess our Islam where the Prophet had left to khaybar and appointed Siba' bin Arafat al-Ghifari as his successor in Medina.We offered fajr prayer with him.He supplied us with some food and money.We set out untill we came to the Prophet where he conquered Khaybar. The Prophet talked to muslims to perticipate us with their shares."This tradition was not narrated by any true one except Abu Hurayra but the public (the sunnis) depended upon it, as they always did with Abu Hurayra's traditions,anmd confirmed Abu Hurayra's attendance at Khaybar with the Prophet without any true evidence.According to our infallible imams,Abu Hurayra came and became a Muslim after the return of the Prophet from khaybar.
Fourthly: Abu Hurayra said: ".. .then the Prophet asked for some water to do wudu'. He prostrated twice and then offered the Morning Prayer."
The Prophet offered Morning Prayer to compensate the Fajr prayer, which was missed (according to Abu Hurayra), but we didn't know the two prostrations the Prophet did what fore and what they were! An-Nawawi skipped them when he explained this tradition.
Fifthly: It was normal for the armies and leaders to have guards to ward them when they wanted to sleep, especially if there was a king or some one important among them. As for the Prophet, he had many enemies. There were many hypocrites within his army, who were awaiting to wreak themselves upon the Prophet. The Prophet (s) would not differ from the leaders to safekeep himself and his army. He wouldn't sleep, with his companions, in that desert surrounded by his enemies of the polytheists and the recusant Jews, unless there were guards to ward them. Would he pay no attention to this important matter, where he was the master of the wise men before being the master of the prophets? So were the guards sleeping, too as the callers for azan were? Certainly not! But it was the liars, whom the Prophet (s) had warned against!
Sixthly: At that night, the Prophet was with an army of one thousand and six hundred men; among them were two hundred knights. It was not possible that all of them were sleeping and no one of them woke up at all. Let suppose that they didn't wake up by themselves, weren't they woken up by the neighing and noise of beating the ground by hoofs of two hundred horses wanting their fodder at time in the morning? What torpor the all were in, men and horses! It might be one of Abu Hurayra's miracles.
