Tahajjud Prayer: Time, Rakats, How to Pray It and Its Rewards

What tahajjud prayer is

Tahajjud (تهجد) comes from a root meaning to give up sleep. It is the voluntary prayer offered at night after sleeping for some part of it, and it is the specific form of qiyam al-layl (night prayer) that the Quran commands the Prophet (peace be upon him) to keep:

"And from part of the night, pray tahajjud with it as additional worship for you; it is expected that your Lord will raise you to a praised station." (Quran 17:79)

It is not obligatory for anyone else, but it is the most emphasised voluntary prayer in Islam. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "The best prayer after the obligatory prayers is the night prayer." (Muslim). Allah describes the people of Paradise as those who "used to sleep but little of the night, and in the hours before dawn they would ask forgiveness" (Quran 51:17 to 18), and those "whose sides forsake their beds, calling upon their Lord in fear and hope" (32:16).

Three terms overlap and it helps to separate them:

• Qiyam al-layl is any voluntary prayer at night, before or after sleeping.
• Tahajjud is qiyam al-layl prayed after having slept, in the strict definition used by most scholars. Some scholars use the two words interchangeably.
• Taraweeh is the qiyam al-layl of Ramadan, prayed after Isha in congregation.

So if you pray four rakats right after Isha and go to bed, that is qiyam al-layl and it is rewarded, but the fullest form of tahajjud is to sleep first and rise for it.

Tahajjud prayer time: when exactly

Tahajjud can be prayed any time after Isha and before Fajr, provided you have slept first. But the Sunnah singles out one window as the best.

The last third of the night

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Our Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains, and He says: Who is calling upon Me, that I may answer him? Who is asking of Me, that I may give him? Who is seeking My forgiveness, that I may forgive him?" (Bukhari and Muslim)

He was also asked which prayer is best after the obligatory ones and which fast is best after Ramadan, and he answered: the prayer in the middle of the night, and the fast of Muharram (Muslim).

How to calculate the last third

Night, for this purpose, runs from Maghrib (sunset) to Fajr (true dawn). Take the total, divide by three, and subtract that from the Fajr time.

Example: Maghrib at 6:00 pm, Fajr at 5:00 am. That is eleven hours of night. A third is three hours and forty minutes. The last third begins at 5:00 am minus 3:40, which is 1:20 am. So tahajjud in its best window is between about 1:20 am and Fajr.

A quick table for a night of a given length:

Niyyara shows Maghrib and Fajr for your location, so the arithmetic takes ten seconds.

If you cannot make the last third

Any tahajjud is better than none. The Prophet (peace be upon him) told Abu Hurairah to pray Witr before sleeping if he feared he would not wake, and told those confident of waking to pray at the end of the night, "for the prayer at the end of the night is witnessed, and that is better" (Muslim). If your realistic option is two rakats at 11 pm after a short nap, take it. Allah rewards the effort within your capacity.

The cut-off

Tahajjud ends when Fajr begins. Once the adhan for Fajr has been given (true dawn), the night prayer is over and only the two sunnah rakats of Fajr remain before the fard.

How many rakats in tahajjud

There is no fixed number. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "The night prayer is two by two, and when one of you fears the dawn, let him pray one rakat to make what he has prayed odd." (Bukhari and Muslim)

So the structure is: sets of two rakats, as many as you wish, then Witr to close.

What the Prophet did

Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "The Messenger of Allah did not pray more than eleven rakats in Ramadan or outside it. He would pray four, and do not ask about their beauty and length, then four, and do not ask about their beauty and length, then three." (Bukhari and Muslim). Other narrations describe him praying thirteen including two light rakats at the start, and praying in twos followed by one.

So the ceiling most people take from the Sunnah is eleven, including Witr. The floor is two rakats plus a single-rakat Witr, or even Witr alone.

A realistic ladder

Start at the bottom of the ladder and stay there until it is easy. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said the most beloved deeds to Allah are the most consistent, even if small (Bukhari and Muslim), and specifically warned against taking on more night prayer than you can sustain.

How to pray tahajjud step by step

1. Sleep first. Even a short sleep after Isha makes the prayer tahajjud in the fullest sense. Set your alarm for the window you calculated.
2. Wake with the Sunnah. Say the waking dua, "Alhamdulillahil ladhi ahyana ba'da ma amatana wa ilayhin nushur", wipe your face, use the siwak or brush your teeth, and recite the last verses of Al Imran if you know them, as the Prophet did.
3. Make wudu. Sleep breaks wudu. Make it properly; the Prophet made a thorough wudu at this point, not a hurried one.
4. Make the intention. In your heart: two rakats of tahajjud (or qiyam al-layl). No spoken formula is required.
5. Open with two light rakats. Aisha reported that when the Prophet rose at night he began with two short rakats (Muslim). This warms up the body and settles the mind.
6. Pray in sets of two. Each set is a normal two-rakat prayer: takbir, al-Fatihah, a surah or passage, ruku, two sujud, tashahhud and salam. Recite as much as you can; the Prophet's night prayer was long, and he sometimes recited al-Baqarah, an-Nisa and Al Imran in a single rakat. You do not have to. Al-Fatihah and three verses is valid.
7. Recite aloud or quietly, as you prefer. Both are reported. Aloud helps concentration and wakes the heart; quietly is better if others are sleeping.
8. Make long sujud and dua. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said the closest a servant is to his Lord is in prostration, "so make much dua" (Muslim). This is the moment tahajjud exists for.
9. Close with Witr. One, three, five or more odd rakats. Three is most common: two rakats with salam then one, or three with one salam and Qunut in the last. If you already prayed Witr after Isha, do not repeat it; the Prophet said, "There are no two Witrs in one night." (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi)
10. Sit for dhikr and dua until you are ready to sleep again or Fajr comes in. Istighfar in the pre-dawn hours is specifically praised in the Quran (3:17, 51:18).

What to recite in tahajjud

Any part of the Quran is valid. If you want to follow the Sunnah closely:

The opening dua

The Prophet (peace be upon him) would open his night prayer with a long dua of praise beginning "Allahumma lakal hamdu anta nurus samawati wal ard" (Bukhari and Muslim), or with this one:

اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّ جِبْرَائِيلَ وَمِيكَائِيلَ وَإِسْرَافِيلَ، فَاطِرَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ، عَالِمَ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ، أَنْتَ تَحْكُمُ بَيْنَ عِبَادِكَ فِيمَا كَانُوا فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ، اهْدِنِي لِمَا اخْتُلِفَ فِيهِ مِنَ الْحَقِّ بِإِذْنِكَ، إِنَّكَ تَهْدِي مَنْ تَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ

Allahumma Rabba Jibra'ila wa Mika'ila wa Israfil, fatiras samawati wal ard, alimal ghaybi wash shahadah, anta tahkumu bayna ibadika fima kanu fihi yakhtalifun, ihdini limakhtulifa fihi minal haqqi bi idhnik, innaka tahdi man tasha'u ila siratim mustaqim

"O Allah, Lord of Jibril, Mika'il and Israfil, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the seen, You judge between Your servants in what they differed over. Guide me, by Your leave, to the truth in what has been differed over. You guide whom You will to a straight path." (Muslim)

The surahs

There is no fixed set. Many people use long surahs they know well in the first sets and shorter ones later. Surah al-Mulk and Surah as-Sajdah, which the Prophet recited before sleeping, are fitting. Ayatul Kursi and the last two verses of al-Baqarah are beloved night recitations. The point is not the count of pages but recitation with reflection; the Quran describes the night prayer as the time when "the word is most firm" (73:6).

Duas in sujud and after

• Any dua for forgiveness: Rabbi ighfir li, or Sayyidul Istighfar, or the dua of Yunus.
• The dua of the last third: since Allah is asking "Who is calling upon Me?", answer with the things you need by name.
• The dua of Dawud, which the Prophet praised: "Allahumma inni as'aluka hubbaka wa hubba man yuhibbuka..." (O Allah, I ask You for Your love, and the love of those who love You, and the deeds that bring me to Your love) (Tirmidhi; graded hasan).
• The comprehensive dua: "Rabbana atina fid dunya hasanatan wa fil akhirati hasanatan wa qina adhaban nar" (2:201).

The rewards of tahajjud in the Quran and Sunnah

• The praised station. Allah ties tahajjud to al-maqam al-mahmud for the Prophet (17:79); for the believer, the night prayer is the path to a high rank and nearness.
• Forgiveness at the time of descent. The hadith of the last third promises that Allah Himself invites the request and grants it (Bukhari and Muslim).
• The best prayer after the fard. Direct from the Prophet's words (Muslim).
• The habit of the righteous. "Hold to the night prayer, for it was the practice of the righteous before you, it draws you near to your Lord, expiates sins and prevents wrongdoing." (Tirmidhi, al-Hakim; graded hasan by some, weak by others in its chain, though its meaning is confirmed by the Quran.)
• A special gate of Paradise. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "In Paradise there are chambers whose outside can be seen from inside and whose inside can be seen from outside. Allah has prepared them for those who speak gently, feed others, fast regularly, and pray at night while people sleep." (Tirmidhi, Ahmad; graded hasan)
• Light on the face and provision. The early Muslims observed that the people of the night prayer have a brightness about them by day, and the Quran's description of the righteous seeking forgiveness before dawn is followed immediately by the mention of their charity (51:18 to 19).
• A witnessed prayer. "The prayer at the end of the night is witnessed" (Muslim), meaning attended by the angels.
• Answered dua. The Prophet said there is an hour in the night in which no Muslim asks Allah for good in this world or the next except that He gives it, and that this is every night (Muslim).

How to actually wake up for tahajjud

Everyone who prays tahajjud regularly had a period of failing at it. These are the things that worked for them.

1. Fix Isha and go to bed after it. The Prophet disliked idle talk after Isha (Bukhari and Muslim). The single biggest predictor of waking at 4 am is being asleep by 11 pm.
2. Sleep on wudu with the bedtime adhkar. Ayatul Kursi, the three Quls, "Bismika Allahumma amutu wa ahya". Sleeping in purity makes the prayer feel closer when you wake.
3. Make the intention out loud before you sleep. "Whoever goes to bed intending to get up and pray at night, and sleep overcomes him until morning, what he intended is written for him, and his sleep is a charity to him from his Lord." (an-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah; graded sahih). You cannot lose.
4. Start with a time you will actually keep. Twenty minutes before Fajr, not 2 am. Two rakats, not eight. The habit comes first; the length comes later.
5. Put the alarm across the room and the wudu water nearby. Physical friction decides more than spiritual intention at 4 am.
6. Use a Fajr-based alarm. Niyyara's prayer times let you set an alert a fixed number of minutes before Fajr, which moves with the seasons so your tahajjud window does not drift.
7. Do not compensate with a long nap the next day. A short qaylulah (midday nap) is Sunnah and helps; sleeping until noon undoes the habit.
8. Expect to miss days. The Prophet (peace be upon him) missed the night prayer when he was ill or overslept, and made up eleven or twelve rakats in the day (Muslim). Missing a night is not failure; not returning is.
9. Wake your spouse, gently. The Prophet praised the couple who wake each other for the night prayer (Abu Dawud; graded hasan). Shared habits survive.

Tahajjud and Witr: how they fit together

Witr is the closing prayer of the night. The Sunnah gives two workable arrangements:

If you are confident of waking: pray Isha and its sunnah, sleep, wake for tahajjud, pray in twos, then Witr last. This is the fullest form, and the Prophet said the end-of-night prayer is better.

If you are not confident: pray Isha, its sunnah, and Witr before sleeping, as the Prophet advised Abu Hurairah. If you then happen to wake, pray tahajjud in twos and do not repeat Witr. Some scholars mention praying a single rakat to "cancel" the earlier Witr and then praying Witr again, but the majority consider this unnecessary; the earlier Witr stands.

Either way, the night ends odd, and you have not missed anything.

Tahajjud in Ramadan

In Ramadan, Taraweeh after Isha is the night prayer of the month, and many people pray it in the masjid. Praying tahajjud in addition, in the last third, is what the Prophet did in the last ten nights: Aisha said that when the last ten nights came, he would tighten his belt, stay awake at night, and wake his family (Bukhari and Muslim). Some masjids hold a second congregational qiyam after 2 am for exactly this. If you prayed Witr with Taraweeh, pray your extra tahajjud in twos without another Witr, or, if you pray with an imam who leads Witr late, follow him.

The dua of these nights, taught to Aisha for Laylatul Qadr: "Allahumma innaka afuwwun tuhibbul afwa fa'fu anni." (Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah; graded sahih)

Common mistakes with tahajjud

• Thinking it must be long to count. Two rakats at the end of the night are tahajjud. The Prophet forbade Abdullah ibn Amr from praying all night every night.
• Praying Witr twice. One Witr per night.
• Praying it after Fajr has come in. Once true dawn begins, the night prayer is over.
• Skipping sleep to make it "count". Sleeping first is the definition of tahajjud, not an obstacle to it. Staying up all night and praying at 3 am is qiyam, and it is fine, but it is not more virtuous than sleeping and rising.
• Rushing the recitation. The night prayer is where the Quran is meant to be recited slowly (73:4). Fewer verses, more attention.
• Making it a burden on others. Reciting loudly enough to wake the house, or being irritable the next day, undoes the point.
• Giving up after missing a week. Restart with two rakats. Nobody keeps this prayer perfectly.