--- title: "How to Pray Tahajjud: Rakats, Timing and How to Wake Up" description: "How to pray tahajjud step by step: how many rakats, the best time, ending with witr, what to do if you've already prayed witr, and how to wake up for it." canonical: "https://salahflow.com/blog/how-to-pray-tahajjud" last-updated: "2026-11-03" author: "The Salah Flow team" language: "en-GB" --- # How to Pray Tahajjud: Rakats, Timing and How to Wake Up > How to pray tahajjud step by step: how many rakats, the best time, ending with witr, what to do if you've already prayed witr, and how to wake up for it. _2026-11-03 · 5 min read · The Salah Flow team_ Tahajjud is a voluntary prayer at night, usually prayed in the last third of the night after you've slept. You pray it two rakats at a time, for as long as you wish, and end your night prayers with witr. The lessons this guide draws on are credited at the end. ## What tahajjud is Think of night prayer as an umbrella. Under it are three things: - **Taraweeh:** prayed in congregation in the masjid after Isha - **Tahajjud:** usually prayed in the last third of the night, after a person sleeps and wakes up - **Witr:** prayed to close whatever night prayer you've offered All three are night prayer. If you haven't slept, that's no problem. ## Why it matters The Qur'an tells the Prophet ﷺ to pray at night: > And from [part of] the night, pray with it [i.e., recitation of the Qur'ān] as additional [worship] for you; it is expected that your Lord will resurrect you to a praised station. ([Qur'an 17:79](https://quran.com/17:79), Sahih International) It also [describes the righteous](https://quran.com/51:15) this way: > They used to sleep but little of the night, ([Qur'an 51:17](https://quran.com/51:17), Sahih International) > And in the hours before dawn they would ask forgiveness, ([Qur'an 51:18](https://quran.com/51:18), Sahih International) The Prophet ﷺ placed the night prayer directly after the obligatory ones: > The most excellent fast after Ramadan is God's month. al-Muharram, and the most excellent prayer after what is prescribed is prayer during the night. ([Sahih Muslim 1163a](https://sunnah.com/muslim:1163a)) Part of its worth is that you leave your bed when nobody can see you, which is a sign of sincerity. ## When to pray it Any prayer you pray after Isha and before Fajr is night prayer. So you can pray it after Isha, before you go to bed, or go to bed and wake up in the middle of the night or an hour before Fajr. Any of these is good. The last third of the night has its own weight. The Prophet ﷺ said: > Our Lord, the Blessed, the Superior, comes every night down on the nearest Heaven to us when the last third of the night remains, saying: "Is there anyone to invoke Me, so that I may respond to invocation? Is there anyone to ask Me, so that I may grant him his request? Is there anyone seeking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?" ([Sahih al-Bukhari 1145](https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1145)) That makes it one of the times when a person's dua is accepted. ## How to pray tahajjud, step by step The Prophet ﷺ was asked about the night prayer, and his answer sets out the whole shape of it: > The night prayer is offered as two Rak`at followed by two Rak`at and so on and if anyone is afraid of the approaching dawn (Fajr prayer) he should pray one Rak`ah and this will be a Witr for all the Rak`at which he has prayed before. ([Sahih al-Bukhari 990](https://sunnah.com/bukhari:990)) In practice: 1. Wake up. 2. Pray two rakats and end them with salam. 3. Pray two more and end them with salam. Carry on like this for as long as you wish. 4. End with witr, unless you've already prayed it that night. *Figure: the night prayer as pairs of tiles, two rakats followed by salam, repeated as many times as you wish, and ending with a single rakah of witr.* ## How many rakats? There's no fixed limit. The Prophet ﷺ answered the man who asked him without giving a number, so you can pray as much as you wish, as long as you pray two by two. There are reports of the Prophet ﷺ praying 11 rakats, and others of 13. If you pray 11 and focus on their quality and length, you're highly rewarded, and if you pray more and that gives you more tranquillity, that's highly rewarded too. What to avoid is praying four rakats in one go at night, because the Prophet ﷺ set it out as two, then salam, then two. ## Ending with witr Witr can be prayed in several ways. One way is a single rakah. Another is two rakats with salam, followed by one. **If you've already prayed witr after Isha,** you can still pray when you wake up. Pray as many rakats as you wish, two by two, without a second witr, because the prayer shouldn't be repeated in one night. If you're sure you'll wake up, it's best to leave witr until last. If you aren't sure, pray it after Isha before you go to bed. *Figure: two ways through the night. If you're sure you'll wake, sleep first, pray two by two and make witr the last thing you pray. If you aren't sure, pray witr after Isha, then pray two by two if you wake, with no second witr.* Practice differs on some of these details, so if you follow a school or a local imam, ask them. ## How to wake up for it The help falls into outward things and inward things. The outward ones: - Don't eat or drink too much. Whoever eats a lot sleeps a lot. - Don't wear your body out with things that aren't important. - If you do have a physically tiring day, sleep a little during the day. - Stay away from sins, and ask Allah's forgiveness when you commit one. The inward ones: - Clear your heart of hatred towards other Muslims. - Don't carry the worries of this world. What Allah has written for you will come to you. - Read about the virtues of the night prayer, and how the early Muslims prayed it. - Think about how sweet it is to speak to Allah. ## Start with what's obligatory The five daily prayers are the obligatory ones, and the Prophet ﷺ placed the night prayer after them. Salah Flow tracks those five and shows your consistency over time, so you can see them becoming steady. ## Credits The explanations in this guide are our own retelling of these lessons, which you can hear directly. Assim al-Hakeem: - [The difference between night prayer, taraweeh, tahajjud and witr](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32uKcz2sEM) - [Praying night prayer after Isha or before sleeping](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvHQ726zsrM) - [How many rakats to pray at night](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMFbQ1wDr-o) - [Four rakats at night, and the ways to pray witr](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HVE5iIg45k) - [Night prayer after you've already prayed witr](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsNEFncO6-8) - [The obligatory and sunnah prayers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny73kP0XSSs) Abdul Rahman Hassan: - [The night prayer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC288j70rKU) - [Waking for the night prayer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy04s8ANVEA) ## More from Salah Flow - [Blog](https://salahflow.com/blog.md): Guidance for building a salah habit: starting to pray, the five daily prayers, making up missed prayers and more. - [llms.txt](https://salahflow.com/llms.txt): A guide to this site for AI agents _This is the Markdown version of https://salahflow.com/blog/how-to-pray-tahajjud — send `Accept: text/markdown` to that URL to get this directly._