Ramadan 1445 AH — Day 8: Superiority of the Supererogatory Prayers
…My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory acts so that I love him… — Hadith
No doubt, the superiority of the obligatory prayers in the congregation within a masjid is incomparable to anything else. However, the voluntary prayer that you often take for granted may be your saving grace on the day of reckoning. Allah’s Apostle emphasized the importance of having supererogatory prayers in stock.
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “The first action for which a servant of Allah will be held accountable on the Day of Resurrection will be his prayers. If they are in order, he will have prospered and succeeded. If they are lacking, he will have failed and lost. If there is something defective in his obligatory prayers, then the Almighty Lord will say: See if My servant has any voluntary prayers that can complete what is insufficient in his obligatory prayers. The rest of his deeds will be judged the same way.” — Tirmidhi
We have already established that praying at home is a forgotten sunnah of our beloved Prophet ﷺ which we need to revive. Aside from that Allah’s Apostle ﷺ admonished us to pray at home and not turn our houses into graveyards by not praying in them, he also mentioned the greatness of observing the non-obligatory prayers in your house. In a hadith related by Zaid ibn Thabit, Allah’s Apostle ﷺ said:
O people, pray at your homes, for the greatest prayer is the one offered at home except the obligatory prayer. — Bukhari and Muslim
One may ask: what kind of prayers can be observed at home? Solatul Tarawiy which is observed on the nights of Ramadan. The sunnah al-rawaatib is another voluntary prayer you could say at home before heading to the mosque. Your Qiyamul-Layl observed at the last part of the night and witr which closes it out. These are some voluntary prayers you can keep up with at home.
On the importance of praying these supererogatory prayers in your house, Imam An-Nawawi enumerated the benefits we can derive from this action thus:
Doing so is a greater means of protecting one’s self from showing off and from the sins that cause good deeds to collapse, and so that the house is blessed through these prayers, mercy and angels descend into it, and so the devils escape from it. — Sharh Saheeh Muslim
And from the words of Umar as narrated by Ibn Abi Shayba:
The prayer of a person within his house is light, so illuminate your home.
Action Points
- Make the intention to start observing the voluntary prayers in your house
- Focus on at least one of these supererogatory prayers in this blessed month of Ramadan and be consistent with it.
- After you have mastered one nawaafil, you can choose another one and start observing it voluntarily.
That’s it for today, take action on this Daily Revival and if you missed yesterday’s episode, you can find it here. I ask Allah to make it easy for me and you. Amin!
Yaumul Ithnayn 8th Ramadan 1445 AH // Monnday 18th March 2024.
- If you’d like to support a charitable cause this Ramadan, donate to Rafeeqee Foundation
- You may join my WhatsApp Broadcast channel called “Islamic Reminders” where you can find some more beneficial stuff.
- Finally, I made a practical video on how to crush your Ramadan goals using two non-conventional methodologies. You’ll find it on Pure Masculinity Podcast, don’t forget to subscribe.
