The delight of tahajjud

 Dr. Tamara Gray, founder of Rabata, an organization dedicated to promoting positive cultural change through individual empowerment, spiritual upbringing of women by women, and the revival of the female voice in scholarship, shared her personal experience of tahajjud in a video series for Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. She said:

"I remember when I first started praying tahajjud, I was living in Damascus and I was studying Arabic and I was studying Islam. And I was very busy and very tired. And I thought to myself, how can I add another prayer to my day? How can I get up in the middle of the night when I’m already exhausted? But I decided to try it. And I set my alarm for an hour before fajr. And I got up and I made wudu and I prayed two rak’ahs. And then I prayed another two rak’ahs. And then I prayed another two rak’ahs. And then I made du’a. And then I read some Quran. And then I prayed fajr. And then I went back to sleep. And I woke up later feeling more refreshed than I had ever felt before. And I realized that tahajjud was not a burden on me. It was a gift from Allah. It was a source of energy and strength and guidance and peace for me. It was a way for me to connect with my Lord in the most intimate and beautiful way. And it changed my life."

It was narrated from Abu Bishr Ja'far bin Abi Wahshiyyah that: He heard Humaid bin 'Abdur-Rahman say: "The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: 'The best prayer after the obligatory (fard) prayers is prayer at night and the best fasting after the month of Ramadan is Al-Muharram.'" 

 أَفْضَلُ الصَّلاَةِ بَعْدَ الْفَرِيضَةِ قِيَامُ اللَّيْلِ وَأَفْضَلُ الصِّيَامِ بَعْدَ رَمَضَانَ الْمُحَرَّمُ ‏

Sunan an-Nasa'i 1614