# Praying the “Night Prayer” During the Day | Ramadan Reflections

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Ramadan Reflections (2025)
**Published:** 2025-03-28
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/_mQRrz0vRlk
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/praying-the-night-prayer-during-the-day-ramadan-reflections
**Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia

## Description
Can qiyam, usually understood to be the night prayer, also be performed during the day? Dr. Omar Suleiman explores the many opportunities to do this good deed.

## Transcript
**[0:01]** Can you pray Qiyam al-Layl during the daytime? Can you pray Qiyam during the daytime? That reaction of, huh, was exactly what I was expecting by the way. Can you pray Qiyam during the daytime?

**[0:16]** Are you sure? If you're saying yes, justify it. I need daleel. It's what? It's nothing, but it's Qiyam al-Layl. So how can you do Qiyam al-Layl during the day?

**[0:33]** JazakAllahu khair. Fatiha. If you do it regularly and you miss it. It's actually one of the most beautiful practices of the Prophet (ﷺ) and I want to allow us to use that to fade into another point. We talked about the hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ)

**[0:49]** that whoever goes to sleep intending to pray at night and then they are overcome by tiredness or fatigue. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, كُتِبَ لَهُ مَا نَوَى وَكَانَ نَوْمُهُ صَدَقَةً Allah has written down for him what he intended

**[1:06]** and his sleep was a charity from Allah. That means that if you intended to pray Qiyam al-Layl and you slept through it and you woke up, Allah has already written down for you the night of prayer as if you prayed it at that time.

**[1:21]** However, we are the ummah of the Prophet (ﷺ) who is a man (ﷺ) who epitomizes ihsan in all of its forms, epitomizes excellence in all of its forms. Our mother Aisha (رضي الله عنها) narrates about the Prophet (ﷺ)

**[1:39]** that he used to pray how many rak'ahs at night? What was his habit (ﷺ)? I'm not getting into the 8 versus 20 debate. It's actually very clear. He would pray 11 (ﷺ). Including his witr. By the way, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong

**[1:54]** with praying 20 or beyond even. But she says he would pray (ﷺ) up to 11 rak'ahs, his 8 rak'ahs, but she said don't ask about the length and the beauty of those rak'ahs. So those rak'ahs were much longer than the 8 rak'ahs that are prayed now

**[2:09]** and the witr of the Prophet (ﷺ), you can imagine how beautiful and perfect it was. That was the Prophet (ﷺ) inside and outside of Ramadan. But she says in another narration that if the Prophet (ﷺ) slept through his usual practice,

**[2:26]** which we would assume is a rarity, something extremely rare, but maybe he was sick (ﷺ) or he just came back from a very long journey and exhaustion overtook him, and he didn't pray his usual prayer at night,

**[2:41]** his voluntary prayer, then he would pray how many prayers during the day? How many rak'ahs? 12. Okay? So she mentions that if the Prophet (ﷺ) slept through his usual night prayer,

**[2:58]** then he would pray 12 throughout the day. Now these 12, one reading of this hadith would be that it's talking about the usual established sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ), that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) would basically just continue onwards, meaning it's not like he had a deficiency of 12.

**[3:14]** However, that's not the right reading of this. The right reading is that he would pray another 12 rak'ahs beyond his established practice. And the ulama of hadith, piecing the narrations together and explaining it, they say that typically this is at the time of ad-duha,

**[3:30]** the time of the sunrise, that when the Prophet (ﷺ) would pray his duha or shuruq prayer, that he would add (ﷺ), he would pray 12 rak'ahs at that time or at some time during the day when there wasn't a dislike for prayer

**[3:45]** as a make-up for the night prayer. And subhanAllah, there's something beautiful about adding a rak'ah, right? So he would pray with an even number, as Imam al-Nawawi explains, an even number to make up for the odd number at night. So he didn't pray 11, he would pray 12.

**[4:01]** And we can't read too much into the addition of a rak'ah, but it's just, it's all indicative of the ihsan, the excellence of the Prophet (ﷺ), that this was not a man (ﷺ) who would ever say, oh well, I missed it. But this was a man (ﷺ)

**[4:17]** who constantly was setting standards for himself and then shattering his own standards (ﷺ). And so the excellence of then praying another 12 rak'ahs during the day, what does that mean? That means that you're credited already

**[4:33]** if you slept through what you intended because innama al-a'malu binniyat. But also the scholars say there's another principle that al-a'malu bil-a'mal. But a'mal also have their own ajr, they have their own recorded deeds. Actions are rewarded according to their intentions.

**[4:49]** But when you manifest the action, the action itself has its jaza, it has its reward. So imagine the mercy of Allah that you slept through the night, you intended to pray at night, you got the reward for that, and then you went and you prayed more and you got the reward for that as well

**[5:04]** and potentially end up with double the reward. That's the mercy of your Lord. Now here's the attitude I want to leave you with in conclusion because we are in our last moments of Ramadan. May Allah accept it from us. Allahumma ameen. And may Allah allow us to be amongst those truly

**[5:20]** who are forgiven. Allahumma innaka 'afuwwun tuhibbu al-'afwa fa'fu 'anna. May Allah forgive us all for our shortcomings and our sins and may Allah accept our Ramadan and accept our laylatul qadr despite our shortcomings. Allahumma ameen. But here's what I want you to carry forward as an attitude.

**[5:35]** It may be that you set some goals for yourself in Ramadan. Maybe you wanted to finish a certain number of khatms. Maybe you wanted to read a certain amount of Qur'an. Maybe you wanted to pray a certain amount. Carry that over into Shawwal. Make up what you missed.

**[5:50]** And then on a daily basis, think about the attitude. Remember, if you pray the established sunnah throughout the day but you missed it because let's say you were busy at Dhuhr or you had a meeting to go into. Make it up that same night. Let's say that you have a certain amount of Qur'an that you read every day

**[6:07]** but that day you got busy. Make it up the very next day. We have this principle in our deen of making up our virtues and then seeking the full reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because this is the type of Rabb that we are dealing with. We are dealing with ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim, ash-Shakur, al-Wadud, al-Ghafur, al-'Afuw, al-Karim.

**[6:28]** Two we're dealing with subhanahu wa ta'ala. So always make up what you miss and seek the reward for it. And so is it permissible to pray qiyam during the day? You're still confused. It's okay. Make up the qiyam that you missed during the night

**[6:43]** inside or outside of Ramadan. The last thing I'll say here by the way, one of the most missed moments of qiyam by the way, the sahaba used to consider the time between Maghrib and Isha as a time of qiyam too. A lot of times we think it's just the two rak'ahs you pray after Maghrib. If a person wants to give life to that time as well

**[7:00]** and pray extra salawat, that is also a time to increase your prayers bi-idhnillah ta'ala and increase your rank with Allah azza wa jal. May Allah azza wa jal accept all of our ibadah, the obligatory and the voluntary and forgive us for all of our shortcomings, the public, the private, the small and the large. Allahumma ameen. BarakAllahu fikum.

**[7:15]** Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

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