Sheikh Uthman Hadi - 2 Rakah's or 20 Rakah's? | A Journey to the Divine - Ep. 23

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Today, we gather to reflect on an important aspect of our worship during the blessed nights of Ramadan, particularly the last ten nights, which are filled with immense blessings and opportunities for forgiveness.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sheikh-uthman-hadi--6689369/support.https://sheikhuthmanhadi.beam.lyhttps://open.spotify.com/user/315hadqmwxllibu6ubi5us2cbn2y?si=572b4d8898284e9ehttps://open.spotify.com/show/3MQHfrpjj3XXcqoPbN5Dl8?si=v6YQ42kpSx-VONBFhT3CzA

Bismillah, Rahman and Rahimdhulah, Rhabelalameh, Rāsa'u'll Allah, and Salatu'llah, and our Sāhmaelah, and Aishafi, Ajamai, and Abhādha. Myraha, and Braitha. I pray that everyone is doing well, and I ask Allah, Sufana, our total, Tefegroes for our sins or our shortcomings and regrets, especially mercy, not only, in this life,

and I mean, in the next. Hamil Allah, we are on night four of the last 10 nights, for not mistaken, night three, night three, night three, night three or four, inshallah, of our last ten nights, but I do know that we are on episode 23 of our series, al-hambul-de-la. One of the things I want to speak about tonight is a question that I've

gotten asked and a question that I continuously get asked, two or 20 or 20. How many should we pray? And which is better in these last ten nights. Now, the first thing I would like to go over, and the first and most important aspect is the significance of these last tenites. The significance of the last tenets is not to complete a number. It's not to hit a goal, it's not to hit a number, but rather it's actually to hit a point in forgiveness, a point in Allah suhahara's mercy. It's actually a means of us trying to elevate our status, which is something that we also spoke about earlier

in our after Maghreb reflection, right? And it's something that's very beautiful. We talked about in Akhara. I specifically said, and I spoke about the story of a brother who ended up falling asleep on Layas al-Qadr, or at the last 10 nights at the beginning of the last 10 nights. And it's very interesting because even here, the point is not to pray 20 or 40 or 60, you know,

rakad at night, right? Not to exert ourselves that much, but it is to actually have quality. I'm not saying that you shouldn't stay up late. I'm not saying that you should not exert yourself trying to worship Allah, Sufanao'u T'a'u T'a. I'm not saying that you should absolutely try your absolute hardest just to pray a couple of rikas quickly and then go to bed.

But I am saying that you should absolutely try your hardest to worship Allah, Suhpanihu Tāra, but also do remember that the difference between these rqaz also differs, which is why Allah saitha says in the Quran, he says, among these nights lays laylas of Qadr, the knight of power which is described in the Quran is better than a thousand months. So the point of the point of these last nights is to catch the layers of Qatar to actually appreciate it, to actually use it and to utilize it in our lives and to change the decree of many of the things that can happen to ask Allah to find Hamatah for whatever it is. And we ask Allah to grant us to witness it and to accept it from us.

I mean, but one of the other things I want to mention here is our Nia, right, our intention. Our intention behind praying two rukats are our attention behind praying 20. Why do you pray two? And why do you pray 20? Do you pray two just so that you can quickly? get to bed and do you pray 20 so that you can look like you're a superhero at night when people are like wow he pray 20 rikaz your intention should only be to please a loss upon her witsada and if you're praying 20 rikaz those 20 rakas should last throughout the whole night and that might sound like wait what

yes honestly i think a lot of people after probably listening me say that are probably going to be like i don't really feel like praying 20 rakas all night now because the reasoning why you should be praying 20 rcaz at night is actually just to worship Allah it shouldn't be so that you can finish a certain amount of the Quran, it shouldn't be so that you can hit a certain number. And when it comes to praying more rakas, like I said before, it is, you know, it also extends our Ibadah and our supplications, yes, but it also extends to the fact of, are we actually willing to pray these many? Yes, it extends to our more rewards and, you know, Ibada when it comes to that, our supplications are duas, but it also has an effect upon us mentally and it has effect upon us physically. Are we worried about

our physical and our mental and our spirit than our spiritual there's something else that i want to speak about when it comes to the two rakaz which is why the prophet's allah alexa alexa he who makes wudu and does it properly then prays two rakas al-saphaan hathal will grant him whatever he may pray for sooner or later so i don't want you to think that you pray two rachas al-s when i'm going to bring it sooner if you pray 20 rakas he's going to bring it later because the more rikas and the less rikas look at the value of your prayer and something else that i will speak about more at the end here but we always spoke about this as well and that is your quality the quality over quantity balancing between those quality and the quantity so

ultimately the question whether to pray you know the two rakas or 20 rakas should not be viewed in isolation right it shouldn't just be viewed as do i pray 20 or do i pray two what is that it should actually better are better it's actually better to consist of consistently praying right because the prophet Allah a halleha halleh a sultan said the best of these are those that are done consistently be eating if they're small. It doesn't matter about how many rakas we pray. It matters about the intention, the nia, and the sincerity we have behind it. Which is why when it comes to those two rakas, and I want to address this, is it better to pray these two rachas or the 20 rikas during these last the nights? And I specifically would say, pick it in between, whatever works for you,

not to exert yourself too much and not to put no pressure on yourself and not at all, and not to even try, right? Because we pray. two rukas, you can just say, you can go easy like that. You can do the same thing when you pray 20, but it's a higher chance that when you pray those 20 rikas, you're going to make more dua'at than those two rikas. But at the same time,

if you are praying and you're reciting long suras, I only suggest you pray what you are able to pray. I don't want you to push yourself too far, right? And this is exactly why the Prophet of Allah a. A.m. says, whoever prays during the night of Qadr, the night of Lod's of Qadr with faith, hoping for its rewards will have all his previous sins forgiven. So it's not about the amount that you pray.

It's about the quality, right? If you pray out of faith, if you pray out of love, if you pray out of hoping for all its rewards and the rewards from Allah supranahua Tallah, then you will get that reward of Laila to Kader and all of your sins before that will be forgiven. And you'll be granted the mercy upon Allah, Sufana Huayahua Tad.

So if I had to answer this question, which I'm trying to do the best now, if I have to answer it, I can't pick a lot, 20 or two there's no side to it because if i pick 20 now you're over-exerting yourself if i pick two you're not doing anything right you're barely doing work but at the same time you also have to think about your capabilities you also have to think about what you're actually trying to accomplish if you're praying by yourself pray as many as you want if you're praying with family if you have young children in the room if you have people who you know that they are not able to

stand for a long period of time they're not able to worship for long they don't make it over long don't say hey we're going to pray 20 workouts tonight and then say Allah al-a-a-qabbar and if And then start reciting sers of Bahra, right? And that's not how this works. Are you saying, hey, we're going to go ahead and pray for the Qas and they say, al-Aeframim, now you're reciting Surz al-Aa al-Qaib. Now you're reciting Surz al-Iam-Mbron, this is not going to be good enough for them, right? It's not going to be good for them.

It's not good for yourself as well if all you're doing is just to show out, if you're doing it just to pray. The one way I can actually determine this for all of us is what is your previous record of prayer? Amplify that just a little more, right? That's the only way I can determine this. If I said, okay, you only prayed eight or a car last night. Okay, that's good. Pray 10 tonight.

Pray two extra. Just a little extra. I'm not saying that you need to pray 20. I'm not saying you need to pray 40. If the forces, it's a super stretch. But what I meant by earlier and as well as I know a lot of people still have the scrunched up face, like, what you mean? If you're going to pray 20 racaz, pray all throughout the night. I don't want to get too confused over here with you all.

But if you want to pray 20 rikaz, don't make that 20 rikaz. We're saying al-flamin. You're speeding through your recitation because you find that a lot of times, especially if you go to the If they're trying to finish the Quran and the home of Ramadan, they speed through it, like as if they're here is an auction, right? Honestly, I think sometimes they really could be good auctioneers. But nonetheless, if you really look at it, you shouldn't be speeding through the words of Allah. Imagine just reading Sult al-Fatia, al-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a.

You're reading it this fast. You're actually talking to Allah, you know that, right? You're talking to Allah, so imagine you're speaking to Allah that fast. If you try, if I try to speak to you that fast right now, you wouldn't be able to even understand a word that I'm saying. So when it comes to you speaking with Allah, it's a direct conversation, it's about the meaning behind it. It's about the sincerity and the intention. It's about the love that you put forth. You're at that time.

So I don't encourage any of us to pray 20 rikas or just pray two rikas. I encourage us to pray that which fits us best and that which comes to our heart. Whatever came to our heart first, not our mind. Whatever came to our heart first is what we should go with. If we say, you know what I really want to pray 18 tonight, to pray 18 rakas and that one of winter, go ahead. If you say I want to only pray four tonight, but I want to make it the best. best forever. I want to make dua throughout every single raka for, you know, however long, you know, I'm not timing it for any time, but I just want to make dua and just pour my heart

out to Allah to do so. And when it comes to these last ten nights as well, when it comes to our rakaas, to finally finish adjusting the two to over two over 20 rakaz, the best idea I have, my dear brothers and sisters are your duas. The reason why I actually mentioned to pray 20 rakas throughout the whole night is because of your duas. It's because of your prayer. Not to speak through it. If you're going to actually pray, how long does it take you to pray two rakats? How many? About five minutes, maybe, two minutes, maybe, right? It shouldn't be taking two minutes to pray two rakas. It shouldn't be a minute of rakas. It should be more like five minutes each of raka. If you did this and did the math on it, you probably would be praying for about three hours if you did 20 rakas.

And it might seem like, okay, that's kind of long. But is it really? Is it worth it? It really is. for 83 years worth of Ibadah and 83 years worth of Ibadah and prayer. This is exactly why we need to take this night more seriously, my brothers and sisters. So both 20 and 20 or 2 and 20 rakaz are significant. And they hold significance during these last 10 nights of Ramadan. But the key is to engage in our Ibadah with sincerity, humility, and desire to connect with Allah.

That's the best way I can answer this question. Not to actually answer in a way of I'm picking a side of two. or 20 because even I might not pray 20. I might only pray 10. I may only pray 14. I may pray five. You might wonder, why are you praying five? You're praying four in the winter? Yes, I might only pray a short amount, but it's about the sincerity. It's about the meaning behind it. And I'm not also, I'm also saying when I said quality over quantity. I also spoke about this as well, the quality of your abada over the quantity of your time. Think about that as well. The other these last 10 nights is also good as well when the brothers and sisters to exert ourselves as much as we can. But if you do not

the ability to ensure that the quality of your iBada is better than the quantity of your time as well. Do not make your iBada something that is very short. It's not concise. It doesn't take any time to do it. You're not getting anything out of it. Make your ibada elongated. If you're going to pray two rikaz, make that the best and longest and greatest two rikas of your life. If those are the two rikaz for Tarawi or the two rickas for Tahjadjid, make those two rikas

the best and longest for your life, my dear brothers and sisters. and we ask Allah Safarana-Otara to grant us all to-fique. So my brothers and sisters, to answer the question and addressing this question, which is better, two or 20 rakas, I have to say, neither is better. Neither is better. It's only up to you, and it's only up to what your heart desires and what you desire, because you are different than me. I may want to pray 14, and you may only want to pray four.

That's a difference, right? And you might think praying this many is a stretch, but exert yourself in these last and nights. and we ask Allah Sapanar without to accept it all from us. But your brothers and sisters, inshallah, we will be having our episode 25, shawal tomorrow,

which will mark the halfway point of our, sorry, I think it's 24. I think today's 23. I think today's 23. I'm sorry if I set the number off. But nonetheless, we'll be having episode 24 tomorrow, and inshallah,

Saturday will mark the 25th. It will mark the 25th episode for us, inshallah. It will mark the halfway point of us for our series and for the Mata Ramadan, inshallah for the last night. We ask Allah, Sufana, our without our sins, our shircomings,

and ingress his blessed, but for mercy not only in this life, amending the next. And Iha'u an a man, al-hann, al-hannu, and al-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-lis and my brothers and sisters. Yeah,

Ayyuha, who allahman, kut-a-a-lid-a-lid-a-l-l-lid-lid from from comil-com, I'll be able to you, I'll have you,