A Day in The Life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by Abd a-Wahhab b. Nasir al-Turayri

In the Depth qf the Night
Prophet Muhammad continued to spend his night time reading
the Qur'an with devotion, saying a passionate appeal to God and
repeating heart-felt glorifications until only one-sixth of the night
remained. He would have then completed his night prayer and only
the witr prayer remained.45 He would then wake up his wife so that
she would pray witr with him. He prayed the witr in three rak 'ahs,
reading Surah 87 in the first, Surah 109 in the second and Surah 1 12
in the third. He might occasionally add Surahs 113 and 114 in the
third rak 'ah. At the end of his witr prayer, he would say: "My Lord, I
appeal to You to grant me Your pleasure rather than displeasure,
Your pardon rather than punishment. I seek refuge with You
against Your punishment. I cannot reckon Your favours; nor can I
praise You enough; I praise You as You have praised Yourself.
Glorified and Holy is the Lord of the angels and the spirit." When
he finished witr, he would say: "All glory belongs to the King, the
Holy." He repeated it three times, making the third one longer.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon · him) prayed at night in
his room which had nothing of the comforts of easy living. He
might pray on a small straw mat or he prayed with nothing to
prostrate on other than his wife's mattress. He would pray and she
would be sleeping in front of him. There were no lights at home at
the time. When he prayed, he would touch his wife and she would
pull her leg away. When he stood up, she stretched her leg again.
On odd occasions, the Prophet might go out to off er his night
worship in the mosque. Perhaps he did so for something that might
have occurred. I think he might have feared to wake up his wife, if
she was fast asleep. 'A'ishah reports: "I missed the Prophet in bed
one night, and I went out to look for him. My hand fell on the
bottom of his feet as they were raised in the mosque. 4 6 He was
saying: "My Lord, I appeal to You to grant me Your pleasure rather
than displeasure, Your pardon rather than punishment. I seek
45 The witr prayer is a strongly recommended prayer. It should be the last prayer offered at
night. It can be offered immediately after Isha prayer or left till later if one intends to offer
night worship. It consists usually of three rak 'abs, but it could be offered in one rak 'ah
only, especially when a person is travelling. Of all recommended prayers, the Prophet
never omitted the two rak 'abs before Fajr and the witr after Is ha.
"' This means that he was in the position of prostration.
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