Question:
In our town, some Tabligh Jamaat members stay overnight in the mosque every Thursday night for worship. Is this permissible? The Prophetﷺ did not specifically worship on Thursday nights.
Answer:
Two issues here:
- Is staying overnight in the mosque on a specific day allowed?
- Is praying specifically on Thursday night allowed?
There is no prohibition on praying Thursday night. The hadith only says: do not single out Thursday night alone for special prayer unless you regularly pray other nights too. If someone prays Tahajjud regularly, he may pray Thursady night too. But if someone never prays and only prays because “it is Thursday,” that is discouraged.
Regarding staying in mosque: Individually, anyone can stay any day. No problem. But if a group declares Thursday night staying as a fixed Sunnah practice for all, that becomes Bid‘ah (innovation).
Islam specifies which acts are communal worship (like obligatory prayers). If you fix a non-obligatory act to a specific day and make it collective as a rule, then that is innovation.
Individually staying is allowed. Institutionalizing it as religiously prescribed is wrong.