O'seeker of knowledge!-How do you spend your night?!

! يَا طَالِب الْعِلْمِ، كَيْفَ تَقْضِى لَيْلَكَ؟

(O'seeker of knowledge!

How do you spend your night?!)

 

كَانَ الِإمَامُ الشَّافِعِى يُقَسِّمُ اللَّيْلَ أّثلاثًا:

"ثُلْثًا لِطَلَبِ الْعِلْمِ،

وَثُلُثًا لِلصَّلاةِ والتَّهّجُدِ،

وَثُلُثًا لِلنَّوْمِ."

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قَالَ زَكَرِيَّا السَّاجِي: حَدَّثَنَا مُحَمَّدٌ بْنُ إِسْمَاعِيلَ، حَدَّثَنِي حُسَيْنُ الْكَرَابِيسِيُّ:

بِتُّ مَعَ الشَّافِعِيُّ لَيْلَةً ، فَكَانَ يُصَلِّي نَحْوَ ثُلُثَ اللَّيْلِ،

فَمَا رَأَيْتُهُ يَزِيدُ عَلَى خَمْسِينَ آيَةً، فِإِذَا أَكْثَرَ، فَمِائَةَ آيَةً،

وَكَانَ لا يَمُرُّ بِآيَةِ رَحْمَةٍ إِلَّا سَأَلَ الله،

وَلا بِآيَةِ عَذَابٍ إِلا تَعَوَّذ،

وَكَأَنمَا جُمِعَ لَهُ الرَّجَاءَ والرَّهْبَةَ جَمِيعًا.

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Al-Rabī’b. Sulaymān reports:

“Al-Shāfi’ī used to divide the night into three part:

he would write (knowledge) for the first third,

pray during the second third,

and sleep during the last third.”

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It is reported from Husayn Al-Karābīsī that he said:

I spent the night with Al-Shāfi’ī.

He would pray for about a third of the night.

I hardly ever saw him recite more than

fifty verses (in the prayer), one hundred at most.

Whenever he came to a verse about mercy,

he would ask Allāh for His Mercy, for himself and for the believers;

and whenever he came to a verse about punishment,

he would seek Allāh’s refuge from it,

and ask salvation for himself and for all the believers.

So it is as if both hope and fear were brought together for him.

Al-Bayhaqī, Ma’rifatu Al-Sunan articles 362, 365.

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