Akthar min 1000 sana fi al-yawm wa al-layla
- Author died
- 1434 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn al-Jawzī
Akthar min 1,000 sana fi al-yawm wa al-layla (More Than 1,000 Sunnahs in the Day and Night) is a single-volume devotional treatise authored by Abu Abd al-Malik Khalid ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Husayanan (d. 1434 AH / 2012 CE) on reviving and applying recurring voluntary prophetic practices throughout daily life.
Purpose and Scope
The treatise aims to encourage Muslims to structure their daily routines according to the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad from morning until evening. Al-Husayanan defines the sunan covered in the book as recommended acts whose performance is rewarded while their neglect is not penalized, specifically focusing on those that recur throughout a single day and night and are feasible for any individual to perform.
The author argues that an attentive practitioner can easily fulfill no fewer than one thousand such non-obligatory acts within a single day and night, amounting to thirty thousand every month. He highlights four core virtues of adhering to these practices: attaining Allah's love, compensating for deficiencies in obligatory acts (fara'id), safeguarding oneself against religious innovation (bid'ah), and venerating the sacred symbols of Allah.
Content and Structure
The work is organized thematically around everyday occasions and religious acts, enumerating the specific prophetic traditions, supplications, and physical etiquettes associated with each, alongside their recorded rewards:
- Waking and Sleep: Covers the morning routines of wiping the remnants of sleep from one's face, supplicating with الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَحْيَانَا بَعْدَ مَا أَمَاتَنَا وَإِلَيْهِ النُّشُورُ ("Praise be to Allah Who gave us life after causing us to die, and unto Him is the resurrection"), using the tooth-stick (siwak), as well as nighttime practices including reciting the three protective surahs into the hands and wiping the body, reciting Ayat al-Kursi, and specific bedtime remembrances.
- Personal Habits and Etiquettes: Details practices for entering and leaving the washroom (entering with the left foot, leaving with the right, and reciting the designated supplications), wearing and taking off footwear and garments (beginning with the right side), and entering or exiting the home. It also tallies repeated uses of the siwak, noting that an adherent performs it at least twenty times a day across prayers, recitations, and home arrivals.
- Ablution (Wudu'): Outlines nineteen recommended acts, including the basmala, washing the hands thrice, combining the rinsing of the mouth and sniffing of water from a single handful, running fingers through thick beards and between toes, moderating water consumption, reciting the declaration of faith afterwards, and praying two rak'ahs following purification.
- Mosque and Prayer: Discusses walking to the mosque with serenity and dignity (sakina wa waqar), praying the mosque greeting (tahiyyat al-masjid), repeating the phrases of the call to prayer (adhan) and the commencement call (iqamah), sending blessings upon the Prophet using the Abrahamic formula, praying towards a prayer barrier (sutrah), and the post-prayer litanies.
- Voluntary Prayers: Specifies the twelve regular sunnahs (al-sunan al-rawatib), the Duha mid-morning prayer, voluntary units before 'Asr, Maghrib, and 'Isha, and the etiquettes of the night vigil (qiyam al-layl) and the Witr prayer.
- Social and Everyday Conduct: Emphasizes greeting others with the full Islamic salutation to maximize spiritual reward, and lists etiquettes of food and drink, such as invoking Allah's name, consuming food with the right hand and from what is directly before oneself, sitting properly, and drinking while seated in three pauses.
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