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Day and Night Schedule of the Believer

For each time there is an assigned work

The shift from the schedule of worldly habits to the schedule of worship

The Prophet’s Night Prayer and its Manners

The Reward of Hajj and ‹Umra

he Prayer of al-Awwābīn

A House in Paradise

The Successful Trade

Meritorious Chapters and Verses of the Qur’an

That by which Faith is renewed

How to win proximity with the Messenger (God bless him and give him peace)

Manners of Sleep

Duties of the Student

Sessions of Faith

No Action without Knowledge

The Value of Time in the Life of the Muslim

Du’a ar-Rabita

The Position of Invocation in Islam

The Throne Bearers’ Invocation for the Believers

With what shall we pray? To whom shall we pray?

Du’a ar-Rabita and as-Sohba wa’l Jama’a

Fruit of Du’a ar-Rabita

Invoking God for your brothers is a sign of noble manners

Prayers for the Believer in his absence are answered

On what foundation should invocation be based?

Some Manners of Invocation

“… and to our bothers who embraced Faith before us”

Invocation is a remembrance of the Hereafter

Presence and Humility

For each time there is an assigned work

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. God’s Blessing and Peace be upon His Prophet Muhammad, His Āl al-Bayt[i], Companions, Brothers[ii] and

Party[iii]Dear Brothers and Sisters in faith, God—Exalted be He—says in Sūrat al-Mulk (Qur’an 67:2): “He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which

of you is best in deed.”

Notes

The shift from the schedule of worldly habits to the schedule of worship

Then, how can you perform your mission in such limited lifespan and attain the bliss of this life and the Hereafter? In Surat an-Nahl (Qur’an 16:97), God—Magnified be He—said: “Whoever works righteousness, man or

woman, and has Faith, verily, to him will We give a life that is good and pure, and We will bestow on such their reward according to the

best of their actions.”

Notes

The Prophet’s Night Prayer and its Manners

The Believer should begin his day by waking up one hour before the Dawn Prayer or less than an hour if he is idle—and he should not be—in order to perform the Prophet’s Night Prayer made of five two-unit prayers and completed by a one-unit prayer. He should display humility, misery and

helplessness before God, for the Prayer is a total devotion to Him. The best prayer after the Ritual Prayer is the Night Prayer according to a Ḥadīth[i]

of the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace.)

Notes

The Reward of Hajj and ‹Umra

Notes

The Prayer of al-Awwābīn

The Forenoon Prayer aḍ-Ḍuḥā is the prayer of those who turn constantly to God (from one to four two-unit prayers according to your time and

availability). God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) reported that His Lord said[i]: “O son of Adam, perform a pair of two-unit prayers for My Sake in the beginning of the day and I shall protect you until the

end thereof.”

Notes

A House in Paradise

The accompanying supererogatory prostrations ar-Rawātib (that is,

those performed regularly before or after the five Ritual Prayers) are the following: one two-unit prayer before the Dawn Prayer al-Fajr, one two-unit prayer after ablution al-Wudū’, which is the tradition of the noble

Companion, Bilāl; a pair of two-unit prayers before the Noon Prayer aẓ-Ẓuhr (for which the Gates of Heaven open) and one two-unit prayer after;

one two-unit prayer before the Afternoon Prayer al-’Aṣr, one two-unit prayer before the Sunset Prayer al-Maghrib and three two-unit prayers

after; one two-unit prayer before the Evening Prayer al-’Ishā’ and a pair of two-unit prayers after.

Each day, a House in Paradise is built for the one who regularly performs ar-Rawātib, as Imām Muslim and others reported from God’s Messenger

(God bless him and give him peace). Let him perform the Night Prayer al-Witr before sleeping he who cannot wake up before the Dawn Prayer or

fears to wake up late. Still, the Night Prayer before the Dawn Prayer is the best.

The Successful Trade

Notes

Meritorious Chapters and Verses of the Qur’an

Because certain chapters and verses of the Qur’an have certain merits

and benefits acquired sooner or later, like protection from woes and evils, dispelling of worries, forgiving [of sins], earning of higher grades and

others, several noble Sayings of the Prophet reported the merit of reading them. Therefore, the Believer should regularly read them and make them a daily wird. The meritorious chapters and verses of the Qur’an are the

following:After al-Isti’ādha (that is, saying “I seek refuge with God from the Evil

One”) and al-Basmala (that is, saying “In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful”), you recite the following:

Qur’an 1: al-Fātiḥa ♦ Qur’an 2:1-5 ♦ Qur’an 2:255-7 ♦ Qur’an 2:284-6 ♦

Qur’an 3:1-9, 18, 19, 26, 27, and 190-200 ♦ Qur’an 18:107-110 ♦ Qur’an 32 ♦ Qur’an 36 ♦ Qur’an 40:1-3 ♦ Qur’an 44 ♦ Qur’an 48:29 ♦ Qur’an 56.Then you recite al-Musabbiḥāt (the chapters that begin with glorifying

God): Qur’an 57, 59, 61, 62, and 64.Then you recite the ending chapters of the Qur’an: 67, 87, 93, 94, 96,

97, 99 (four times), 102, 103 (twice), 107, 108 (three times), 109 (four times), 110 (four times), 112 (three times), 113, and 114.

Then you end the reading by reciting al-Fātiḥa and Chapter 2:1-5.

That by which Faith is renewed

At least three sessions of 15 minutes each to utter the Blessed Statement

[al-Kalima at-Ṭayyiba], there is no god but God [lā ilāha illallāh], the highest branch of faith. By uttering it Faith is renewed when the heart

is present with God—Exaltedbe He. Imām Aḥmad reported that the Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) said: “Do renew your

Faith.” They said, O Messenger of God! How shall we renew our Faith? He said, “Say there is no god but God [lā ilāha illallāh] as often as you can.”

How to win proximity with the Messenger (God bless him and give him peace)

You should perform aṣ-Ṣalāt ‘alā Rassūlillāh that is, ask God to shed His

Blessings and Salutations upon the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) at least 300 times per day; you should also devote the eve

and daytime of Friday to this prayer. By it God saves us from the depths of darkness into light and illuminates our hearts. At-Tirmidhī and Ibn

Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ reported on the authority of Ibn Mas’ūd (God be pleased with him) that God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) said: “Those who will most deserve my company on the Day of Resurrection are those who most often ask God (in this life) to shed His

blessings upon me.

Manners of Sleep

Before going to sleep, turn yourself towards God—Exalted be He—and call yourself to account with regard to how you have spent your day.

Indeed the pious, as the noble Tābi’ī (disciple of the Companions) Maymūn bnu Mahrān said, is the one who calls himself to account in a way that is stricter than that of a tyrant ruler or a niggardly business partner calling people to account. Renew your turning in repentance to God and sleep in a state of Ritual Purity [Ṭahāra], of remembrance of God [Dhikr] and with

the best of intentions.Let the last moments of your wakefulness be moments wherein you

invoke your Lord to open to you the avenues of Jihad and of reaching His Presence. For whoever has not partaken or intended to partake in a campaign (military Jihad) will die as a pagan, as the beloved Messenger

(God bless him and give him peace) said. You had better not sit up late at night so that you may not waste the rights of the following day, for he is a

loser he whose following day is not better than his present day.

Duties of the Student

If you are a student, do your best and spend the requisite time in studying.

The first of your duties after the Ritual Prayer, recitation of the Qur’an and God’s Ritual Remembrance is to acquire the minimal share of Islamic

knowledge. Then you should strive hard to succeed in your academic studies, for the latter are the Jihad of your age. You had better choose

books that will benefit you in this world and in the Hereafter. A wise man said: tell me which books you read, I will tell you who you are.

Sessions of Faith

Devote one hour for a session of faith with your brothers[i] so that you may be of those who rejoice in the Gardens of Paradise, as the beloved

Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) informed us. Such sessions of God’s remembrance are occasions for the servants to seek God’s favor and to rejoice in God’s HeavenlyGardens. The session of faith should also include a visit, for the purposes of Da’wa[invitation to worship God] and academic learning. God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) said: “That God may guide one man to Him through your person is better

for you than (all) the things upon which the sun rises.”

Note

No Action without Knowledge

Devote one hour of your day to learn Islamic rituals through studying

simplified related books for the purpose of mastering the requirements of Ritual Purity, Ritual Prayer and other acts of worship. For God—Exalted

be He—does not accept the sincere acts until they are correct, that is, in conformity with the Prophet’s Tradition.

The Value of Time in the Life of the Muslim

Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (God have mercy upon him) said: “O son of Adam, you are none but a number of days; each time a day passes, a part of you

departs.” Therefore, let your time be like a budget from which you spend. Be like a niggard and avoid wasting time in heedlessness and trivialities. Know that the time over which you will feel sorrow—sorrow will be then

too late—is the time wherein you did not remember God—Exalted be He—with your tongue, your heart and the ceaseless effort to serve His Cause and support His Faith. Save your time and avoid wasting the time of your

brothers with long visits and lack of punctuality.

Du’a ar-Rabita

The Position of Invocation in Islam

Invocation is the core of worship; it comprises invoking God for particular

matters and needs, and for the sake of worship. The latter encompasses all acts of worship that bring closer to God, inward and outward. Thus, all acts of worship may come under the scope of invocation. Then, O brother, were

invocation to have only the merit of bringing you closer to your Lord—Glorified be He—that would have been far enough. Then what if invocation had countless benefits and blessings? God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) said[i]: “There is nothing that God holds more in esteem

than His (servant’s) invocation.”

Note

The Throne Bearers’ Invocation for the Believers

So long as man is incapable of knowing his own interests, God—Exalted be He—showed him invocations in the Qur’an and others in the Prophet’s Tradition. Among the Qur’anic invocations is the invocation of the angels (peace be upon them) for the righteous Believers. It is a teaching from God—Magnified be He—that came to us through the Throne Bearers so

that we may pray for the Believers. In Sūrat Ghāfir(Qur’an 40:7-9), God—Glorified be He—said:

“Those who sustain the Throne (of God) and those around it sing Glory and Praise to their Lord, believe in Him, and implore

Forgiveness for those who believe: Our Lord! Your Reach is over all things in Mercy and Knowledge. Forgive, then, those who turn in

repentance (to You), and follow Your Path; and preserve them from the Penalty of the Blazing Fire! And grant them, our Lord, that they enter the Gardens of Eternity, which You have promised to them, and to the righteous among their fathers, their wives, and their posterity! For You are the Exalted in Might, Full of Wisdom. And

preservethem from (all) ills; and any whom You do preserve from ills that day—on them will You have bestowed Mercy indeed. And

that will be truly (for them) the highest achievement.”

With what shall we pray? To whom shall we pray?

Among the signs of God’s Mercy upon His creatures is that He taught them how to invoke Him just as He taught them how to worship Him. The best of invocations are the ones formulated by His Words; they are the best

invocations by which we turn toward God, for they are from Him to Him.Among the teachings that the Holy Qur’an showed us is that we should pray for those who embraced Faith before us as of our father Adam and

mother Eve (God grant them peace), then to those who transmitted to us this true Faith since we have learned Islam from them and have

taken them as models. They were honest in their transmission, honest in their practical work, distinguished and guiding paragons in sincere work for God’s Cause. That is why God—Exalted be He—teaches us how to

pray for them. In Sūrat al-Ḥashr (Qur’an 59:10), He—Glorified be He—says: “Our Lord! Forgive us, and our brothers who came before us

into the Faith, and leave not in our hearts rancor against those who believed. Our Lord! You are indeed Full of Kindness, Most Merciful.”

Du’a ar-Rabita and as-Sohba wa’l Jama’a

What Imām al-Bannā (God have mercy upon him) called Wird ar-Rābiṭa

is none but a practical expression of the Pact of Brotherhood between the Believers. I deem ad-Du’ā’ ar-Rābiṭ [that is, Du’ā’ ar-Rābiṭa] necessary to join the Believers in a community. When the feeling of association spreads

[among the Believers] through repeated meetings, repeated standing before God in the Ritual Prayer, working together and ad-Du’ā’ ar-Rābiṭ, Companionship and Community[i] meet together in such a way that the community [of the Believers] does not remain a body without a soul and

the companionship [of a spiritual guide] does not remain an individual and isolated relationship.

Note

[i] TN: Companionship and Community [aṣ-Ṣoḥba wa’l Jamā’a] is the first of the Ten Virtues arranged by Imām Abdessalam Yassine within a context of progress and ascension (moral, spiritual and intellectual.) Companionship and Community means to have a spiritual guide—who is also your temporal guide unlike Sufi orders—who shows you the way towards God through opening to you all the avenues of Jihad without

exception. The inward Jihad of the self in the company of your brothers and sisters in faith comes in the first place; then follow the Jihad in all spheres of life, not in the sense of military war exclusively but rather

in the sense of acquiring all the means (scientific, economic, industrial, technological, moral and spiritual) susceptible to qualify our Umma to transmit the message of mercy to mankind in peaceful ways. Thus,

Companionship and Community are two sides of the same coin. In other words, a Believer cannot attain spiritual excellence in its most perfect form, that of the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace), without

being engaged in a communitarian project similar to that in which the Companions (God be pleased with them) were involved.

Fruit of Du’a ar-Rabita

Note

Invoking God for your brothers is a sign of noble manners

The Companions (God be pleased with them) followed the pattern of the

Glorious Qur’an and the Prophet’s Noble Tradition. They used to pray for each other in their absence, namely in the midst of the night. They

considered such act as a token of good manners, for it is a sign that their hearts were free from rancor against their brothers and full of their love.

In his Shu’ab al-Īmān (Affluents of Faith), al-Bayhaqīreported that Um ad-Dardā’ said:

“Abū ad-Dardā’ spent a night in prayer; throughout the night he shed tears and kept saying: ‘O Lord! Refine my manners even as You have created

me in the best of fashions’ until dawn came. I said, O Abū ad-Dardā’! Your invocation throughout this night was exclusively about good manners. He said, ‘O Um ad-Dardā’! The Muslim servant may refine his manners until the latter enable him to be admitted toParadise. He may, on the other

hand, spoil his manners until the latter make him enter Hell. Furthermore, the Muslim servant may have his sins forgiven while he is asleep.’ I said, How is that, O Abū ad-Dardā’? He said, ‘His brother stands up at night for prayer, prays to God—Exalted be He—Who answers his prayers and prays

for his brother and God answers his prayers too.’”

Prayers for the Believer in his absence are answered

When any of the Companions met with his brother, he would ask him to pray for him, especially if he were traveling to the holiest place on earth: the blessed city ofMecca. Muslim and Abū Dāwūd reported that Safwān bnu ‘Abdillāh bnu Safwān bnuUmayya bnu Khalaf, the husband of ad-

Dardā’, said:

“When I came to ash-Shām (present-day Palestine, Lebanon , Jordan and Syria), I went to Abū ad-Dardā’s house. I did not find him but found his wife, Um ad-Dardā’. She said, ‘Do you intend to perform Pilgrimage this year?’ I said, Yes. She said, ‘Then pray for me, for God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) used to say, ‘The Muslim’s prayers for his brother in his absence are answered. Standing by him is a commissioned angel who tells him whenever he prays for his brother: Amen! And your reward—the prayers you asked for him—shall be the same.’ I went to

the market and met Abū ad-Dardā’. He told me the same Ḥadīth, which

he reported on the authority of the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace).”

Notes

On what foundation should invocation be based?

Our prayers, however, will not be answered until they are substantiated by righteous deeds, as evidenced by God’s Saying in Sūrat Āl ‘Imrān (Qur’an

3:195):“And their Lord has accepted of them, and answered them. Never

will I suffer to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female. You are members of one another, those who have left their homes,

were driven out therefrom, and suffered harm in My Cause. Those who fought and were slain: verily, I will blot out their iniquities

and admit them into Gardens with rivers flowing beneath, a reward from the Presence of God; for from His Presence flows the best of

rewards.”

Some Manners of Invocation

Invocation has its proper manners. Ibn ‘Āṭṭā’ Allah as-Sakandarī said:

“Invocation has pillars, wings, means and appointed times. When it agrees with its pillars, it becomes strong. When it suits its wings, it flies in the sky.

When it concurs with its prescribed times, it wins. When it corresponds to its means, it earns success. Its pillars are the presence of the heart,

compassion, submission and humility. Its wings are sincerity. Its prescribed times are the early hours of dawn. Its means are aṣ-Ṣalāt ‘alā Rassūlillāh, that is, asking God to shed His blessings upon Muhammad (God bless him

and give him peace).”

“… and to our bothers who embraced Faith before us”

The Believer should perform Du’ā’ ar-Rābiṭa preferably in the early hours

of dawn when our Lord—Exalted be He—descends to the First Heaven and asks us if there is anyone who wants to repent, to have his prayers answered and to have his sins forgiven, or whenever it is possible. He

should begin his invocation with reading Chapter 1 and asking God to shed His blessings upon the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace).

Then he should ask God to forgive his sins and to grant him as well as to his parents, wife, children and relatives all the good things of this world

and of the Hereafter.Then he should ask God to shed his grace and peace upon God’s Prophets

and Messengers from Adam (peace be upon him) to Muhammad (God bless him and give him peace) by mentioning the names of those stated in the Qur’an and praying for those whose names we do not know while bearing in mind the Ḥadīth of the Master of the Messengers (God bless him and

give him peace) wherein he says: “When you salute me, do also salute the (other) Messengers, for I am but one of them.”

Notes

Invocation is a remembrance of the Hereafter

How transcendent is the condition of the heart that turns entirely

towards God in those moments of intimate invocations! How close is the remembrance of the Hereafter through the daily mentioning and saluting

of those pure souls! Indeed, the remembrance of the Hereafter during such intimate invocations is an act of transcendence from worldly concerns that God loves the best. By the way, among the acts that God loves the best

are those that you perform regularly. God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) said[i]: “The acts that God loves the best are those that

one performs regularly.”

Note

Presence and Humility

Among the lessons of the Prophet that may be drawn from day and night

ritual invocations as well as those related to special occasions is that they do not include one invocation for one matter. Rather, we would

find more than one invocation so that we may not recite the invocation without contemplation and with a heedless heart. At-Tirmidhī and al-

Ḥākim reported that God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him peace) said: “And do know that God does not answer the prayers emanating from

a heedless heart.”