The Method of Dawud’s (peace be upon him) Night Prayer

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Question:
May Allah reward you. Honorable Shaykh, this questioner says: I hope you will clarify for us how Dawud (peace be upon him) prayed, and how we can apply this in nights like these. I hope you will explain it in terms of hours so that we can act upon it?

Answer:
By Allah, regarding the prayer of Dawud (peace be upon him), I have not attended it and I do not know how he prayed, but the time was... as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, the best prayer is

Narrated `Abdullah bin `Amr bin Al-`As: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) told me, "The most beloved prayer to Allah is that of David and the most beloved fasts to Allah are those of David. He used to sleep for half of the night and then pray for one third of the night and again sleep for its sixth part and used to fast on alternate days."

صلاة داوود وكان ينام نصف الليل ويقوم ثلثه وينام سدسه

Sahih al-Bukhari 1131

He would stand for one-third of the night. He would stand in the first sixth of the last third, in the first sixth of the last third. And he would add to it the second sixth. So one sixth remains to complete the half. He would sleep the last sixth. Yes. His prayer would be in the middle of the night. Yes. May Allah reward you. Honorable Shaykh, this questioner says: Some of the brothers misunderstand. He stands for the two middle sixths and takes the last sixth that completes the half. Yes.

Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 301- كيفية قيام داود عليه السلام|الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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