Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 3656

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave my father a young she-camel as a gift. My father considered it too young, and he said to me: "Take it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); present yourself before him (peace and blessings be upon him) and say: 'We are people who work; if you have an older she-camel than this, then send it to us.'" I brought that she-camel to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O son of my paternal uncle! Take it to the camels of sadaqah." I took it there. Then I came to him in the mosque and offered the Isha prayer behind him. He said: "Will you not stay the night with your maternal aunt tonight, since evening has already come?" And it happened that that night was her night with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). I came to the house of Sayyidah Maymunah (may Allah be pleased with her); she gave me food and spread out for me a cloak folded in four. I thought: I will observe how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) acts at night. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came into the house, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Maymunah!" She said: "O Messenger of Allah! Here I am." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Has your nephew come to you?" She said: "Yes! He is here." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "If you had something, you should have given it to him to eat." Sayyidah Maymunah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "I have done so." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Have you spread something out for him?" Sayyidah Maymunah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "Yes!" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) turned aside from the bedding and lay down; he did not lie on it, but lay down beside it and placed his head on the bedding. Some time passed, and I heard him begin to breathe heavily in sleep. I thought: He has now fallen asleep and will not offer voluntary prayers tonight. Then, by my estimate, when a quarter or a third of the night had passed, he got up. He came to his tooth-stick and his ablution water and began using the tooth-stick, until I heard the sound of his teeth under the tooth-stick, while he was reciting these verses: "Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth".
Then he put down the tooth-stick, got up, went to the water-skin and opened it. At first I intended to get up and pour the water for his (peace and blessings be upon him) ablution, but then I feared that he (peace and blessings be upon him) might leave off some part of his practice (because of me). When he had performed ablution, he came to his place of prayer and prayed four rak'ahs. In each rak'ah he recited about fifty verses, and he made the bowing and prostration long in them. Then he came back to the place where he had been before, lay down there gently, and began to breathe heavily in his sleep. I thought: He will now not offer voluntary prayers tonight until morning comes. When a third of the night, or half of it, or about that much, had passed, he did the same again: he came to his place of prayer and prayed four rak'ahs in the same way. Then he came to his lying place, reclined there, and began to breathe heavily in his sleep. I thought: Sleep has now overtaken him, and he will not get up until morning. But when a sixth of the night, or a little less, remained, he got up, used the tooth-stick, and performed ablution. Then he recited Surah al-Fatihah, then recited Surah al-A'la, then went into bowing and prostrated. Then he stood up, recited Surah al-Fatihah and recited Surah al-Ikhlas, then he recited the Qunut supplication, then he bowed, and then went into prostration (i.e. he offered the witr). When he had finished, he sat, until, when true dawn broke, he called me. I said: "O Messenger of Allah! Here I am." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Get up! By Allah, you were not asleep." I got up, performed ablution and prayed behind him. He recited Surah al-Fatihah and Surah al-Ikhlas, then he went into bowing and into prostration. Then he stood for the second rak'ah and recited Surah al-Fatihah and Surah al-Kafirun. After this the narrator mentioned the rest of the hadith. Part of it is reported in the "Sahih".
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir. Its chain contains a narrator, Ata' bin Salim al-Khaffaf. Ibn Hibban declared him thiqah (trustworthy), while others said: He is da'if (weak); he was a righteous man, but he buried his books, so his hadith is not firmly established.