Ibn Hibban

Aswad reports: I asked Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) about the (voluntary) night prayer of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): She replied: The Prophet (peace be upon him) would sleep in the early part of the night, then he would continue to perform voluntary prayers until when the time of suhoor approached, he would perform witr. Then he would return to his bed, and if he had the desire that a man has for his wife, he would fulfill it. When he heard the call to prayer, he would get up quickly; if he was in a state of major impurity, he would perform ghusl, otherwise he would perform wudu and proceed for the prayer. (Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, says:): There is no contradiction in these narrations, even though apparent and meaningful differences may be perceived. The reason is that the Prophet (peace be upon him) performed different numbers of voluntary prayers at night; on one night he would perform them in one manner, and on another night in a different manner. So, whichever way a companion saw the Prophet (peace be upon him) performing the prayer, he narrated it, and reported what he observed. Allah Almighty sent His beloved as a teacher for his ummah both verbally and practically, so the variation in the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) actions regarding the night prayers guides us to the fact that a person has the choice in this matter: whichever method the Prophet (peace be upon him) adopted for his night prayers, a person may perform voluntary prayers according to any one of those methods. It is not the case that he is obliged to follow only one of those methods and cannot follow all of them.