in al-Taqrīb: “They declared him weak because he frequently practiced tadlīs.”

I comment: In this report he has explicitly said, “He narrated to us,” so any suspicion of tadlīs is removed.

Understanding the hadith:

It demonstrates the Prophet’s ﷺ excellence, his profound awe and fear of his Lord, and the abundance of his worship—even though Allah had forgiven him all that had passed and all that would follow. He therefore stands at the pinnacle of human perfection and is, without doubt, the leader of mankind ﷺ.

The narration, however, does not indicate that he ﷺ spent the whole night in prayer, for it never states that he began praying right after ‘Ishāʾ or near that time. Rather, the phrase, “He rose one night and said…,” plainly means “He rose from his sleep”—that is, he slept during the first part of the night and then got up. This is the same sense as her other report: “He would sleep at the beginning of the night and enliven its latter part…,” recorded by Muslim (2/167).

Once this is understood, the hadith cannot be used to prove the legitimacy of keeping vigil for the entire night, as Shaykh ʿAbd al-Hayy al-Lakhnawī has done in Iqāmat al-Ḥujjah ʿalā anna al-Ikṯār min al-Taʿabbud Laysa Bidʿah. He writes (p.13): “This shows that ʿĀʾishah’s denial that he ﷺ spent the whole night in prayer must be applied to the majority of his nights.”

I reply: By “ʿĀʾishah’s denial” he means her other report:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ never spent an entire night standing in prayer until dawn, nor did he ever recite the Qur’an in a single night.”

Muslim narrated it (2/169–170) and Abū Dāwūd (1342) as well, the latter giving this wording.

I say: This is an explicit negation that does not admit reinterpretation. Restricting it to “most nights” would only be tenable if the present hadith clearly stated that he ﷺ rose in prayer that night