ONE THOUSAND UNIT PRAYERS

One of the recommended acts in the month of Ramadan is to offer the one thousand unit prayer. Master scholars have referred to this prayer in their books of jurisprudence and acts of worship. However, the way of offering this prayer has been mentioned by narrations in many forms. According to the report of Ibn Abi-Qurrah from Imam Muhammad al-Jawad(a.s.) that is also adopted by Shaykh al-Mufid in his book of al-Ghariyyah wa’l-Ashraf, this prayer, in its most familiar form, is offered as follows:

As for the first twenty nights of Ramadan, twenty units of this prayer should be offered at each night with an interval between each two units. To explain, eight units should be offered after the obligatory Maghrib Prayer and the others are performed after the obligatory Isha’ Prayer. The total is thus seven hundred units and the remainder is three hundred. These three hundred units should be offered at the Qadr Nights, which are the nineteenth, the twenty-first, and the twenty-third nights of the month. One hundred units should be offered at each of these three Qadr Nights. Thus, one thousand units are completed.

It is worth mentioning that other divisions of these one thousand units have been cited. Yet, these divisions will not be mentioned in this book for fear of lengthiness.

Our virtuous readers are expected to offer this prayer so as not to miss its great rewards and merits.

It has been narrated that it is recommended to say the following supplicatory prayer after the accomplishment of every two units of the supererogatory prayers (nawafil) in Ramadan:

اللّٰهُمَّ اجْعَلْ فِيمَا تَقْضِي وَ تُقَدِّرُ مِنَ الْاَمْرِ الْمَحْتُومِ وَ فِيمَا تَفْرُقُ مِنَ الْاَمْرِ الْحَكِيمِ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ اَنْ تَجْعَلَنِي مِنْ حُجَّاجِ بَيْتِكَ الْحَرَامِ الْمَبْرُورِ حَجُّهُمْ الْمَشْكُورِ سَعْيُهُمْ الْمَغْفُورِ ذُنُوبُهُمْ وَ اَسْاَلُكَ اَنْ تُطِيلَ عُمُرِي فِي طَاعَتِكَ وَ تُوَسِّعَ لِي فِي رِزْقِي يَا اَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِينَ