The Prayer of Dāwūd

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) also says about Dāwūd: aḥabbu al-ṣiyāmi ilā Allāhi ṣiyāmu Dāwūd, wa aḥabbu al-ṣalāti ilā Allāhi ṣalātu Dāwūd. He used to sleep the first half of the night, and then he would wake up and pray for one third of the night, and then he would sleep for the remaining one sixth of the night. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: the best fasting is the fasting of Dāwūd, and the best prayers are the prayers of Dāwūd. So every night he would pray one third of the night.

He had time for ʿibādah. You have to find time for ʿibādah. You might say: well, he is busy; he is a king; he is busy with running a kingdom. How could he find time for this ʿibādah? We need to understand that we cannot be good in whatever we are doing, and be successful in applying the law of Allah and making daʿwah, if we are not having these moments of deep worship with Allah (swt). The depth of the night, and the dhikr, and the fasting are important for any Muslim who is in the field of daʿwah, or in the field of politics, or in the field of jihad, or whatever. This ʿibādah is what prepares you for the work of the day.

Because one of the worst things that could erode your heart and put permanent scars in it is political work. I mean, working in politics can really wear down the heart and destroy it, and take the taqwā out of the heart like a drainage — just take it out. So anyone working in that field, which is political — whether it is a king like Dāwūd, or a khalīfah like ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, or a military general like Khālid ibn al-Walīd — you need that worship; you need that prayer of qiyām al-layl and dhikr to keep you always on the right track. So that is the energy they use to go ahead.

With the kāfir, Shayṭān is giving them energy to continue, because this is very difficult work. But for the believer, if you do not have this qiyām al-layl and dhikr of Allah and fasting, you could easily be misled and misguided. Because these are very difficult fields to work in; you are dealing with many conflicting ideas and things, and it could take the concentration away from one's mind and heart. So that is why they need this ʿibādah — and Dāwūd (peace be upon him) would pray one third of the night.