May the peace, mercy and blessing of Allah be upon you.

How legitimate is it to perform the night prayer in congregation outside of Ramadan and how legitimate is it to make dhikr in congregation? I hope you would not mind to provide a detailed, comprehensive answer, because some of them say that these acts are bid`ah (prohibited innovations). Please give me the benefit of your advice, and may Allah reward you well.

May the peace, mercy and blessing of Allah be upon you also.

All praise is for Allah, and may peace and blessing be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, companions and whoever follows his guidance. To proceed:

Know—may Allah have mercy on us and you—that acts of worship are tawqifi, which comes from the Arabic word for "stop". It means that they must stop at, or be restricted to, the limits of authentic textual reference (Qur`an and Sunnah), without addition or subtraction, and there is no room for opinion in the matter. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) has said in the agreed upon, authentic hadith, "Whoever invents in this matter of ours [the religion] anything that is not from it, it will be rejected." Goodness, and I mean all goodness, is in following our beloved prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and the Salaf as-Salih (our pious predecessors—may Allah be pleased with them).

Performing qiyam ul-lail, or the night prayer, in congregation in the house has been established as a part of the Sunnah of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). He himself (peace and blessing be upon him) prayed with Ibn `Abbas, Ibn Mas`oud and Hudhaifa ibn al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with them), but this happened incidentally, not on purpose. It is definitely obligatory to take precautionary measures and to prevent anything that would lead to sin; in fact, fleeing from bid`ah is better than performing a Sunnah. On that basis, it is not legitimate in Shari`ah to agree to perform qiyam ul-lail in congregation at the mosque, except during the month of Ramadan, making this a regular practice and an unvarying procedure. One must take into consideration, however, that if there are scholars who say this is a legitimate practice, their opinion can be considered, for this is one of those acceptable differences of opinion for which there is no blame.

As for making dhikr in a group, however, as the Sufis do, most of the ways in which this is done are innovations for which Allah has sent down no authority, whether for what is said therein or for the way in which it is done.

As for getting together to make dhikr (remembrance of Allah), Imam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said, "Gathering to remember Allah, to listen to His Book, and to make du`a (informal prayer or supplication) are good deeds. In fact, they are the best way to attain closeness to Allah and to worship Him…but this must only be done sometimes, at various times and in a variety of places, for nothing should be made a regular practice, performed diligently in congregation, except what the Messenger of Allah prescribed regular performance of, such as the five daily obligatory prayers in congregation, the Friday Jumu`ah prayer, the two Eid prayers, and the like."

Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) also said, "The acts he instructed [us] to perform in congregational form, like the five daily obligatory prayers, were performed. The acts he instructed [us] to be constant in individually, were also performed. This is a great principle to distinguish between acts that are Sunnah (legitimate and highly recommended) and acts that are bid`ah (prohibited innovation); sink your molars into them [protect them zealously]." And Allah Almighty is more exalted and more knowledgeable.