Prayer helps combat negative thoughts in the wee small hours

I wonder about that and ponder on why.

I know sometimes I get to thinking about all the ills of the day; the world wars, the world poverty, the state of affairs abroad and locally.

Then my mind wonders onto not only the ills, but also the bills!

They keep coming relentlessly! Ugh! I don’t want to think about these things — coming all at me — I feel like I am losing this game called living!  I don’t want to think like that. I don’t want to be a loser.

I decide I might as well get up, so I proceed to the computer and log in to Facebook! Lo and behold there’s my old friend, Calvin quoting away, pushing out those quotes of inspiration, one of which in particular glared at me: “Life is not about winning, it's about not giving up!”  Thanks Cal; I needed to be reminded of that … never to give up.

Then I think, maybe I can’t sleep because I need to pray. I need to call out to my Lord in the small hours of the morning. 

In Islam, Allah promises that whosoever supplicates to Him during the small hours of the night, that their prayers will be answered. The name of the night prayer is called the Tahajjud prayer. 

Allah says in his noble book: “They (the believers) forsake their beds, to invoke their Lord in fear and hope; and they spend out of what we have bestowed on them.” [Soorah as-Sajdah (32): 16]

“They (the pious) used to sleep but little at night.” [Soorah ath-Thariyat (51): 17].

Our dearly beloved Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) spoke on the virtues of the Tahajjud prayer.

He narrated in a hadith that every night when one third of the night remains, our Lord descends to the lowest level of the heavens until the break of dawn and says, “Who will call on me so that I may respond to him? Who is asking something of me so I may give it to him? Who is asking my forgiveness so that I may forgive him?” 

What a merciful God! Every night He gives us a chance with a guarantee that our prayers will be answered — all we have to do is go to him in prayer during the wee hours of the morning, when we are in a semi-comatose state called sleep or like me lay awake worrying about the state of affairs of our everyday living!

However, if we would only realize that every night we have a special opportunity to have our qualms calmed! 

Every night, we have an opportunity to become a winner, not only a winner but to become a champion!

Who will turn down the chance of being bestowed such mercy by the Most Merciful!

Abdullah Bin Salaam reported in a hadith that when the Prophet arrived in Medina, with the people gathered around him, the Prophet advised: “O people, spread the salutations, feed the people, keep the ties of kinship, and pray during the night while the others sleep and you will enter Paradise.”

Al hamdulilah (all praise is due to God) I will no longer consider my sleeplessness a problem, rather I will embrace it as a mercy; a mercy from God to allow me to be among the winners of this life and to be among those destined for Paradise.

I will consider my sleeplessness a mercy — my own private wake-up call from Allah the Sublime! By His mercy, I am awoken so that I am given the opportunity to pray to Him thereby allowing Him to bestow His mercy and blessings upon me and mine.

Surely Allah’s promise is true – Join in me in the Tahajjud prayer! Let’s be winners!