then finish it in seven, and do not exceed that. He later permitted him to complete it in five, and then allowed him to finish it in three, but he forbade him to do so in less than that. He explained: “Whoever recites the Qur’an in fewer than three nights will not grasp its meaning.” In another wording: “He who reads the Qur’an in less than three will not understand it.” He also told him: “Every worshipper has a burst of zeal, and every burst is followed by a lull. If the lull leads back to the sunnah he is guided; but if it leads elsewhere he is ruined.”
He used to say, “Whoever prays at night reciting two hundred verses will be recorded among the devout and sincere.” Every night he would recite Sūrah al-Isrāʾ (17:111) and Sūrah al-Zumar (39:75). He also said, “Whoever prays at night reciting one hundred verses will not be written among the heedless.” Sometimes he would recite about fifty verses—or even more—in each rakʿah, and at other times he would recite roughly the length of Sūrah al-Muzzammil (73:20).
He ﷺ rarely spent the entire night in prayer. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khabbāb ibn al-Aratt—who had fought at Badr—once kept watch over the Messenger of Allah ﷺ throughout a whole night until dawn. When the Prophet finished, Khabbāb said, “Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransomed for you; tonight you prayed a prayer the like of which I have never seen from you.” He replied, “Yes; it was a prayer of yearning and awe. I asked my Lord for three things: He granted me two and withheld one. I asked my Lord not to destroy us with what He used to destroy the nations before us (in another wording: not to destroy my ummah by a general famine), and He granted it. I asked my Lord not to give an enemy from outside power over us, and He granted it. And I asked my Lord not to make us factions, but He withheld it.”
On another night he stood repeating a single verse until daybreak: “If You punish them, they are Your servants; but if You forgive them, You alone are the Almighty, the All-Wise” (5:118), bowing, prostrating, and supplicating with it. When morning came Abū Dharr said, “Messenger of Allah, you kept reciting this verse until dawn, bowing and prostrating with it and praying with it, though Allah has taught you the whole Qur’an; had one of us done that, we might have thought him blameworthy.” He replied, “I asked my Lord to grant intercession for my ummah, and He granted it. It will, Allah willing, reach everyone who does not associate anything with Allah.”
A man once said to him, “Messenger of Allah, I have a neighbour who rises at night and recites nothing but ‘Say: He is Allah, One’ (112:4), repeating it without adding anything”—as though belittling it. The Prophet ﷺ answered, “By Him in whose hand is my soul, it is equal to one third of the Qur’an.” ⦗490–538⦘