Gifts of Knowledge

Shaikh Abdur-Razzaaq al-Badr, may Allaah protect him, said, “If a person squanders the first part of the day which is the time of blessing, of being early, of excellence and the time when sustenance is sent down, then his day will be wasted, and whatever he does at its beginning will be true of and applicable to the rest of it, that is why it is imperative that a Muslim not waste the first part of the day by being sluggish, lazy or indifferent [to it].

The Salaf never knew sleep after Fajr, such that Ibn al-Qayyim said that if they were on a journey all night, in difficulty and hardship they would [still] not sleep after Fajr but would wait until the sun had risen and then sleep, doing all that in order to protect this excellent time which is after Fajr until just before the sun rises, this is a blessed time, an excellent time, and a time for the remembrance of Allaah تبارك وتعالى. The Salaf, may Allaah have mercy on them, would not spend it sleeping or being lazy or being half-hearted and such, but would persist in their adhkaar, in remembering Allaah, especially the tasbeeh [i.e., saying, ‘Subhaanallaah’] and other words of remembrance which have been reported in the Legislation.

And it has been reported in Sahih Muslim from Abu Waa’il Shaqeeq ibn Salamah that he said, ‘We went to Abdullaah ibn Mas’ood one morning after we had prayed Al-Ghadaah [i.e., Fajr] and we greeted him at the door, and he granted us permission (to enter). We stayed at the door for a while, then the slave girl came out and said, ‘Will you not enter?’ So we entered and found him sitting, reciting Tasbih. He said, ‘What kept you from entering when permission had been given to you?’ We said, ‘Nothing, except that we thought that some of the people of the household might be sleeping.’ He said, ‘Do you think there is idleness among the family of Ibn Umm Abd? [i.e., do you think Abdullah ibn Mas’ood’s family are heedless at that time and not remembering Allaah?]’ Then he went back to reciting Tasbih until he thought that the sun had risen and he said, ‘O girl, look and see whether it has risen.’ She looked and saw that it had not risen. Then he went back to reciting Tasbih until he thought the sun had risen and he said, ‘O girl, look and see whether it has risen.’ She looked and saw that it had risen. He said, ‘Praise be to Allaah Who has caused this day of ours to come when we are still in a state of soundness, and didn’t destroy us due to our sins.’”

Pay attention to this sentence, ‘Praise be to Allaah Who has caused this day of ours to come when we are still in a state of soundness, and didn’t destroy us due to our sins,’ when Ibn Mas’ood, may Allaah be pleased with him, said it, had the day finished or was it still at its very beginning?

Notice that as soon as the sun rose and while he was saying tasbeeh, saying Subhaanallaah, he then praised Allaah by saying, ‘Praise be to Allaah Who has caused this day of ours …’ most of the day still remains to come, he’s only at its beginning, so why did Ibn Mas’ood, may Allaah be pleased with him, say, ‘Praise be to Allaah Who has caused this day of ours …?’ Why did he make that statement?

I think the answer is clear to us all: he did so because whoever guards the start of the day then the rest of the day will be guarded for him, and that is why he said … even though he had only guarded the first part of the day with dhikr and tasbeeh until the sun rose and then he praised Allaah with this wording, saying, ‘Praise be to Allaah Who has caused this day of ours …’ even though the day is still ongoing, there is still a long time remaining, Duhaa time is still to come, Dhuhr time, Asr, a very long time still remains, only a very short time has passed, and yet he says, ‘Praise be to Allaah Who has caused this day of ours to come when we are still in a state of soundness, and didn’t destroy us due to our sins.’

From this we can derive a significant and important point of benefit: that whoever guards the first part of the day, the rest of the day will be guarded for him, whoever preserves the first part of the day the rest of it will be preserved for him. This is the reason the Salaf, may Allaah have mercy on them, would protect it and not waste it, the Salaf, may Allaah have mercy on them, knew the value of that part of the day and so they would attach great importance to it.

People in recent times don’t know the value of this time and so they are in a different state concerning it—in this day and age maybe the best time for most people to sleep is after Fajr, such that a person cannot miss it at all even if just for half an hour, even if he has to work, he must sleep for half an hour even though it does nothing to benefit him, makes his body slack, weakens it, doesn’t make him active, has no benefit attached to it, but [as we said] results in slackness, laziness, sluggishness, and yet along with that you will find that he never misses it, even though it is this time that the dhikr of Allaah تبارك وتعالى should be maintained.

So the point is that the Salaf, may Allaah have mercy on them, recognised the value of this excellent time and knew its standing, they knew its rank and so would guard it by remembering Allaah تبارك وتعالى.

Based upon that I say that all of us should learn the legislated adhkaar which have been reported and are established from our Prophet ﷺ and which it is recommended for us to say during the early morning and we should accustom ourselves to saying them everyday until it becomes something normal and habitual and which a person then feels he can’t break away from or leave, he should get himself used to that and stick to it always and by doing so he will be from those people who protect their remembrance of Allaah تبارك وتعالى at the start of the day.”

Source, and here.