Fiqh and History of Tarāwīḥ

Transcript of Shaykh Yasir Qadhi's YouTube video entitled, "Some History of the Tarawīh Prayer & Its Fiqh" (Incomplete)

Sun May 01 2022

Table of Contents

Introduction

˹Regarding˺ Ramaḍān the following transcript deals with: the reality of Ṣalāt al-Tarāwīḥ or Taraweeh What is the meaning of Tarāwīḥ? What is the origin of Tarāwīḥ? What is the difference between Tarāwīḥ, and Qiyām al-Layl versus Tahajjud versus witr? So all of these different questions that have come in, I'm just going to lump them together generically and give, in shā Allāh an answer to the generic questions about the reality of Ṣalāt al-Tarāwīḥ.

Praying at Night in the Quran

So we begin by pointing out the Quranic terms. The Quranic terms for praying at night are two, and both of them are found in the Quran. The first is Qiyām al-Layl and the second is Tahajjud. These are the Quranic terms for praying the nightly prayer. The term Tarāwīḥ is neither found in the Quran nor is it found in the Sunnah. It was coined, as we will mention in a while, by some early scholars perhaps in the second century of the Hijrah and it did not become popular for at least another two to three hundred years. You will find, with great difficulty, references to the term Tarāwīḥ in the first 300 years of Islam, even though you will find a few. But the common term Tarāwīḥ became what it is starting in the fifth century onwards.

Quranic Usage of Qiyām al-Layl

The Quranic term as we said is Qiyām al-Layl or Tahajjud. Sūrat al-Muzzammil is the second or the third revelation. And Allah ﷻ says in the second or third revelation: "Stand ˹to pray˺ the night, except for a little." (Muzzammil 73:2): qum al-layla: which is where we get Qiyām al-Layl (standing at night ˹in prayer˺) from, i.e., "Stand the night"; niṣfahū: "half of it". The night of course is from the Maghrib Ṣalāh until the Fajr Ṣalāh. So you do the math: Maghrib is around 7:50 AM and Fajr is around 6:40 PM, right? So half of that is going to be around five hours. So Allah ﷻ is saying, the second revelation that comes: “Stand ˹to pray˺ the night, except for a little; half of it or reduce from it a little; or add to it…” i.e. more than one-half.

Early order to the Prophet ﷺ to do qiyām at night

سُورَةُ المُزَّمّـِل ١-٤ — يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُزَّمِّلُ ٧٣:١ ۝ قُمِ اللَّيْلَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا ٢ ۝ نِصْفَهُ أَوِ انْقُصْ مِنْهُ قَلِيلًا ٣ ۝ أَوْ زِدْ عَلَيْهِ وَرَتِّلِ الْقُرْآنَ تَرْتِيلًا ٤ ۝

Muzzammil 73:1-4 — 73:1 O you who wraps himself ˹in clothing˺, 2 Arise ˹ to pray˺ the night, except for a little - 3 Half of it - or subtract from it a little 4 Or add to it, and recite the Qur'an with measured recitation.

And in the last verse of Sūrat al-Muzzammil, Allah ﷻ says, “Your Lord knows that you stand ˹to pray˺ less than thulutayi al-layli (two-thirds of the night); wa-niṣfahū: (and ˹sometimes˺ half of it); wa-thuluthahū (and ˹sometimes˺ one-third of it); and ˹so do˺ a group ˹of believers along˺ with you…” (Muzzammil 73:20). So Allah ﷻ mentions in the earliest revelation the command to pray. And shortly afterward,  Allah ﷻ praised the Prophet ﷺ and the Ṣaḥābah (companions of the Prophet ﷺ) for praying two-thirds, or half, or one-third of the night. This is Qiyām al-Layl.

Allowance for the Prophet ﷺ to reduce the length of time in qiyām

سُورَةُ المُزَّمّـِل ٢٠ — إِنَّ رَبَّكَ يَعْلَمُ أَنَّكَ تَقُومُ أَدْنَىٰ مِنْ ثُلُثَيِ اللَّيْلِ وَنِصْفَهُ وَثُلُثَهُ وَطَائِفَةٌ مِنَ الَّذِينَ مَعَكَ ۚ وَاللَّهُ يُقَدِّرُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ ۚ عَلِمَ أَنْ لَنْ تُحْصُوهُ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ ۖ فَاقْرَءُوا مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ ۚ عَلِمَ أَنْ سَيَكُونُ مِنْكُمْ مَرْضَىٰ ۙ وَآخَرُونَ يَضْرِبُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ يَبْتَغُونَ مِنْ فَضْلِ اللَّهِ ۙ وَآخَرُونَ يُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ۖ فَاقْرَءُوا مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنْهُ ۚ وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَأَقْرِضُوا اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا ۚ وَمَا تُقَدِّمُوا لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ تَجِدُوهُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ هُوَ خَيْرًا وَأَعْظَمَ أَجْرًا ۚ وَاسْتَغْفِرُوا اللَّهَ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ ٧٣:٢٠ ۝

Muzzammil 73:20 — 73:20 Indeed, your Lord knows, ˹Muhammad˺, that you stand ˹in prayer˺ almost two thirds of the night or half of it or a third of it, and ˹so do˺ a group of those with you. And Allah determines ˹the extent of˺ the night and the day. He has known that you ˹Muslims˺ will not be able to do it and has turned to you in forgiveness, so recite what is easy ˹for you˺ of the Qur'an. He has known that there will be among you those who are ill and others traveling throughout the land seeking ˹something˺ of the bounty of Allah and others fighting for the cause of Allah. So recite what is easy from it and establish prayer and give zakah and loan Allah a goodly loan. And whatever good you put forward for yourselves - you will find it with Allah. It is better and greater in reward. And seek forgiveness of Allah. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

Quranic Usage of Tahajjud

As for the term Tahajjud: Sūrat al-Isrāʾ verse 79: “And ˹during˺ the night do tahajjud (keep vigil) in it for a nāfilah (additional reward) for yourself; ˹as a result,˺  perhaps Allah ﷻ will raise you to a maqām maḥmūd (a praiseworthy station).”

Five times daily prayers and an extra night prayer for the Prophet ﷺ

سُورَةُ الإسْرَاء ٧٨-٧٩ — أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِدُلُوكِ الشَّمْسِ إِلَىٰ غَسَقِ اللَّيْلِ وَقُرْآنَ الْفَجْرِ ۖ إِنَّ قُرْآنَ الْفَجْرِ كَانَ مَشْهُودًا ١٧:٧٨ ۝ وَمِنَ اللَّيْلِ فَتَهَجَّدْ بِهِ نَافِلَةً لَكَ عَسَىٰ أَنْ يَبْعَثَكَ رَبُّكَ مَقَامًا مَحْمُودًا ٧٩ ۝

Isrāʾ 17:78-79 — 17:78 Establish prayer at the decline of the sun ˹from its meridian˺ until the darkness of the night and ˹also˺ the Qur'an of dawn. Indeed, the recitation of dawn is ever witnessed. 79 And from ˹part of˺ the night, pray with it as additional ˹worship˺ for you; it is expected that your Lord will resurrect you to a praised station.

And of course, Allah ﷻ praises Qiyām al-Layl and Ṣalāt al-Tahajjud in half a dozen verses in the Quran. And Allah ﷻ describes the righteous as those who pray in the night: “They would sleep except little of the night.” (Dhāriyāt 51:17) These are the people of Jannah. And in the last verses of Sūrat al-Furqān, Allah ﷻ describes ʿibād al-Raḥmān (servants of the Most Merciful), and of those characteristics is yabītūna (they spend the night) sujjadan wa-qiyāman (in prostration and standing up at night in prayer). So we have over here the Quranic praise of Qiyām al-Layl and Ṣalāt al-Tahajjud.

The God-conscious spend the night seeking forgiveness

سُورَةُ الذَّاريَات ١٥-١٨ — إِنَّ الْمُتَّقِينَ فِي جَنَّاتٍ وَعُيُونٍ ٥١:١٥ ۝ آخِذِينَ مَا آتَاهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَبْلَ ذَٰلِكَ مُحْسِنِينَ ١٦ ۝ كَانُوا قَلِيلًا مِنَ اللَّيْلِ مَا يَهْجَعُونَ ١٧ ۝ وَبِالْأَسْحَارِ هُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ ١٨ ۝

Dhāriyāt 51:15-18 — 51:15 Indeed, the righteous will be among gardens and springs, 16 Accepting what their Lord has given them. Indeed, they were before that doers of good. 17 They used to sleep but little of the night, 18 And in the hours before dawn they would ask forgiveness,

The servants of al-Raḥmān spend the night in qiyām

سُورَةُ الفُرْقان ٦٣-٦٤ — وَعِبَادُ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ هَوْنًا وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِلُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا ٢٥:٦٣ ۝ وَالَّذِينَ يَبِيتُونَ لِرَبِّهِمْ سُجَّدًا وَقِيَامًا ٦٤ ۝

Furqān 25:63-64 — 25:63 And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them ˹harshly˺, they say ˹words of˺ peace, 64 And those who spend ˹part of˺ the night to their Lord prostrating and standing ˹in prayer˺

Difference Between Qiyām al-Layl and Tahajjud

Is there a difference between Qiyām al-Layl and Tahajjud? Some of our scholars said that it's a technical difference and that is the following:

Timing of Qiyām al-Layl

Qiyām al-Layl is done at any time of the night from after ʿIshāʾ until before the ādhān of Fajr. If you were to pray Qiyām al-Layl at any time you would be praying the night prayer. Obviously I don't need to define the night prayer, the night prayer is any nafl (extra) prayer after ʿIshāʾ and before Fajr, so this is called night prayer: Qiyām al-Layl. So if you were to pray any night prayer this is Qiyām al-Layl, and this is jāʾiz (allowed) and t is a good prayer; it is the best prayer. The Prophet ﷺ said that: the best prayer after the farḍ (obligatory) is the prayer of the night (Muslim XXXX), and this is the Qiyām al-Layl. So any time you pray some prayers after ʿIshāʾ and before Fajr, you have done Qiyām al-Layl.

Timing of Tahajjud

But higher than this is Tahajjud and it comes from ˹the verb˺ hajada (to sleep and to wake up). So ˹the verb˺ tahajjada would be that he slept and he woke up. So what is the difference between Qiyām al-Layl and Tahajjud? Qiyām al-Layl is broader and Tahajjud is a subset of Qiyām al-Layl. And there's one condition for Tahajjud that's obvious in the term tahajjud, and that is you sleep and you wake up. Okay so when you go to sleep and you wake up then you have done Qiyām al-Layl that is called Tahajjud. Doing this is Tahajjud, which is the higher category of Qiyām al-Layl. And Allah ﷻ praises this category in the Quran in even more explicit wordings in Sūrat al-Sajdah verses 15 to 17 that: their sides are fighting away from their beds; so they have broken away from their beds; they are now waking up and they have sprung up from their beds; and they are praying to Allah ﷻ. So the term therefore Tahajjud is a subset of the term Qiyām al-Layl.

Virtues of Praying at Night

The blessings of Qiyām al-Layl_ and Tahajjud are very many and many lectures have been given. But because we're talking about this topic, very briefly: of course, the Quran characterizes the righteous as praying Qiyām al-Layl and Allah ﷻ mentions the highest maqām (station) given to any human being: and that is Maqām al-Maḥmūd, and Allah ﷻ links Maqām al-Maḥmūd to Tahajjud and that is enough of a faḍīlah (virtue): it is as if the Prophet ﷺ is being told that your Tahajjud will cause you to get to Maqām al-Maḥmūd; it is as if he is being told this one deed of Tahajjud will cause you to be raised to the highest ranks O Rasūlullāh ﷺ. So if even our Rasūlullāh ﷺ is being told that if you want to go higher than you are then you must use Tahajjud and using Tahajjud will get you to the highest ranks. Then how about me and you?

And our Prophet ﷺ said, as we already mentioned, that the best Ṣalāh after the farḍ is the Ṣalāh of the night. And he said as reported in Ḥākim: I command you – command here is not wujub (obligation) the command here means encouragement – I command you to pray the night. Because, listen to this: (1) it is the custom of the pious people before you, (2) it will bring you closer to Allah ﷻ, (3) it will forgive your sins, and (4) it will protect you from falling into evil. Four blessings of Tahajjud are given. Number one: it is the custom of the righteous people before you; if you want to be ṣāliḥ (righteous), then number one has to be done. Number two: it will make you qarīb (close) to Allah ﷻ. Number three: your sins are forgiven. And number four: it is protecting you from falling into other evil deeds.

And in Sunan al-Tirmidhī, our Prophet ﷺ said there are palaces in Jannah that you will see the outside from the inside. And so many blessings are mentioned; and I gave this whole lecture and when I talked about Jannah and the blessings of Jannah. A bedouin said, O Rasūlullāh ﷺ who shall get those ghuraf (lofty palaces) and those palaces? He said whoevers speech is sweet, feeds the hungry, fasts continuously, and prays at night. That is, if your tongue is good, and the other akhlāq (positive character traits) are there, and praying at night. So directly linking Qiyām al-Layl with the highest levels of Jannah.

And in Mustadrak al-Ḥākim, a beautiful hadith: the Prophet ﷺ said: know that the honor of the believer comes by his praying of the night. The sharaf (honor) you want to be sharīf (honored) in the eyes of Allah ﷻ. Simple Hadith: know that the sharaf of the muʾmin (believer) comes, the dignity and the status and the honor of the believer comes by his praying at night.

Minimum Length of Night Prayer

And how much do you have to pray to be of the people who pray at night? A beautiful hadith tells us this. The Prophet ﷺ said: whoever prays with ten āyāt shall be lifted from being amongst the heedless, and whoever prays with one hundred āyāt of the Quran shall be written amongst the qānit, the righteous, and whoever prays with a thousand āyāt shall be written amongst the muqanṭirīn, the VVIPs, the muqanṭir is the one who has a massive fortune. So three categories were given:

  1. Whoever prays reciting ten verses of the Quran shall attain a status such that he shall not be mentioned amongst the ghāfil (heedless), instead he shall be mentioned amongst the dhākirīn Allāha kathīran (those who remember Allah a lot). So if you pray two rakʿah with ten āyāt... How much is ten āyāt? It is a page or a page and a half: an average ten āyah page. Our Prophet is saying that if you pray just ten āyah a page or a page and a half, khalāṣ, you've done the bare minimum such that you are lifted from being amongst the heedless.
  2. If you pray one hundred āyat a night how much is a hundred āyāt a night? Roughly it's a bit less than a juzuʾ, around a juzuʾ or less than a juzuʾ: if you pray one hundred āyāt, yaʿnī, because they didn't have juzuʾ back then. Remember they did not have ajzāʾ, this came later on during the third or fourth century. So we have a rough hundred āyāt. How much is a hundred? Not like hundred of Sūrat al-Raḥman, or Sūrat al-Ṣaffāt. No, no. And not like Sūrat al-Māʾidah. No. Mutawassiṭ (average) one hundred. Average one hundred is around the juzuʾ. If you read around a juzuʾ, you shall be amongst the qānit (obedient), the righteous.
  3. And whoever reads a thousand... How much is a thousand? That's one-sixth of the Quran, because the Quran has around six thousand āyāt. So that's basically five or six ajazāʾ. So this basically finishing the Quran in a week, okay? So with a hundred, roughly, you finish the Quran in a month, let's say, roughly. With a thousand, you finish the Quran in a week. And it was the custom of the righteous of the Ṣaḥābah like Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī ؓ that they would recite the Quran in a week in Tahajjud. So this is the thousand, right? So he shall be amongst the VVIP, the muqanṭir, the one who has the fortune.

So we said the timing is from after ʿIshāʾ up until up until Ṣalāt al-Fajr. Our Prophet ﷺ told us: Whoever thinks that he shall not be able to wake up at the end of the night then let him pray at the beginning of the night; and whoever feels that he can wake up at the end of the night then let him wake up at the end, because praying at the end of the night is mashūdatun (witnessed) by the angels and that is better.

مسلم 755a — حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو بَكْرِ بْنُ أَبِي شَيْبَةَ حَدَّثَنَا حَفْصٌ وَأَبُو مُعَاوِيَةَ عَنِ الأَعْمَشِ عَنْ أَبِي سُفْيَانَ عَنْ جَابِرٍ قَالَ

قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ «مَنْ خَافَ أَنْ لاَ يَقُومَ مِنْ آخِرِ اللَّيْلِ فَلْيُوتِرْ أَوَّلَهُ وَمَنْ طَمِعَ أَنْ يَقُومَ آخِرَهُ فَلْيُوتِرْ آخِرَ اللَّيْلِ فَإِنَّ صَلاَةَ آخِرِ اللَّيْلِ مَشْهُودَةٌ وَذَلِكَ أَفْضَلُ وَقَالَ أَبُو مُعَاوِيَةَ مَحْضُورَةٌ۔»

Muslim 755a — Abū Bakr b. Abū Shaybah > Ḥafṣ And ʾAbū Muʿāwiyah > al-Aʿmash > Abū Sufyān > Jābir

"If anyone is afraid that he may not get up in the latter part of the night, he should observe Witr in the first part of it; and if anyone is eager to get up in the last part of it, he should observe Witr at the end of the night, for prayer at the end of the night is witnessed ˹by the angels˺ and that is preferable."

So here, we have, if you were to pray even two rakʿāt extra from the sunan and nawāfil this is the nafl of your Qiyām al-Layl. So two rakʿah Qiyām al-Layl even if it's done after Ṣalāt al-ʿIshāʾ, even before you go to sleep, you shall be written amongst those who have prayed a portion of Qiyām al-Layl and you will not be amongst the ghāfilīn. This is what a Prophet ﷺ is saying. And that's why, Abū Hurayrah ؓ — when he was younger he did not pray to Tahajjud, at night he would pray Qiyām al-Layl — he said: My khalīl, my friend, commanded me, he told me to do these things: (1) to fast three days of every month, (2) to not go to sleep until I pray my witr ṣalāh, meaning my Qiyām al-Layl, so he commanded me that I make sure I do my regular daily ṣalawāt at night before I go to sleep because in his younger days would sleep until Fajr, so he would stay awake for a little bit later before he went to sleep and he would pray and that would be considered Qiyām al-Layl which is better than nothing. You're doing Qiyām al-Layl and you're getting the faḍīlah (virtue) of doing Qiyām al-Layl.

Meaning of Tarāwīḥ

Tarawīḥ is the term that later scholars coined for doing Qiyām al-Layl during Ramaḍān. In reality Tarāwīḥ is Tahajjud in Ramaḍān, or Qiyām al-Layl in Ramaḍān. And this term Tarāwīḥ, who coined it? The term Tarāwīḥ we do not know who first began it we don't know. There is no name mentioned. But it is not found in the Quran or Sunnah it is not an Islamic term from the Quran and Sunnah. It is a Muslim term from early scholars, which is fine; no problem; it's not a big deal. And it's just a matter of you know demarcating. Why did our scholars make this a special term? Because Qiyām al-Layl in Ramaḍān becomes even more important. We all know this. Qiyām al-Layl in Ramaḍān is the most significant of all Qiyām al-Layl. Why? Because our Prophet ﷺ said whoever prays Qiyām al-Layl, man qāma Ramaḍān (whoever stands in Ramaḍān), this is Ramaḍān. We thank Allah he did not say Tahajjud because it would mean we have to wake up at the end of the night. al-ḥamdu lillāh he said man qāma Ramaḍān, we already explained whenever it says qiyām, this can be done from ʿIshāʾ up until Fajr. So whoever stands the night of Ramaḍān, every single night, īmānan wa ihtisaban, he has īmān in Allah ﷻ and he wants Allah to reward him, all of his previous sins will be forgiven. So praying all of the nights of Ramaḍān is a guarantee to have our sins forgiven.

Our Prophet ﷺ mentioned this hadith and he himself implemented it. He would pray or Tahajjud every single night of his life. Even when he was traveling, he would pray to Tahajjud. And some of our scholars said for him Tahajjud was wājib (mandatory), this is an opinion. And other scholars say, no, it was strongly encouraged but he would never leave it. By unanimous consensus Qiyām al-Layl and Tahajjud is not wājib for anybody else of the people of the ummah, even though there is an opinion of early Islam that it is wājib for the ḥuffāẓ of the Quran. There is an opinion, but it is a minority opinion. So anybody who's a ḥafiẓ you want to research this opinion for your own sake. But the majority position is that it is not wājib for anybody. And this, in shāʾ Allāh, the correct opinion that it's not wājib, it's not obligatory. But the blessings are too many to mention especially in the knights of Ramaḍān

History of Tarāwīḥ

Now what is the history of Tarawīḥ? Where does it, or how does it begin? The hadith is in Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhari. Our Prophet ﷺ would pray his Tahajjud sometimes in the house of where he was sleeping and sometimes in the masjid. We have this authentically, throughout the year, sometimes he would pray in the house of ʿĀʾishah or Umm Salamah, and sometimes, because the houses were connected by the same door, he would just walk in and pray in the masjid. So we have authentic narrations that in the house of ʿĀʾishah sometimes he would pray Tahajjud and ʿĀʾishah was lying there in the house of ʿĀʾishah. Perhaps it was cold and he didn't want to go outside. And sometimes he would walk through the door and pray in the masjid. And ʿĀʾishah would hear him pray, and hear the up and down of the Ṣalāh, and even touch his feet sometimes, just by putting her hand outside the door and his feet were in sajdah in the masjid. So sometimes he would pray Tahajjud in the masjid and sometimes he woud pray Tahajjud in his house.

It so happened, that in Ramaḍān, he was praying Tahajjud / Tarāwīḥ, call it what you will, in the masjid and because it is Ramaḍān, other people were also praying because the Prophet ﷺ encouraged them to pray Qiyām al-Layyl. So for whatever reason, maybe they didn't want to disturb their families, they came to the masjid and they're praying, praying, praying. When the Prophet ﷺ was praying, without any announcement and without any preamble, the other companions, some of them, just joined behind the Ṣalāh of the Prophet ﷺ. When the other Ṣaḥābah saw that, when they finished their Ṣalāh, they simply joined, and joined, until, without an announcement, everybody was praying the Tahajjud / Tarāwīḥ in Ramaḍān behind the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ did not tell them to do. So when they're praying, he's obviously in the front praying anyway, so common sense, you just come behind him, as they say accidentally, without any precognition about this, they started praying together. When the Prophet ﷺ finished the Ṣalāh he saw them all and he didn't say anything. We call this iqrār, silent approval. The Prophet's silence in the face of an action indicates approval.

News spread. So the next day, the masjid became almost packed to capacity and they're waiting for the Prophet. Now the news has spread. So then the Prophet ﷺ led them in Qiyām al-Layl or Tahajjud or Tarāwīḥ, call it what you will, he led them. Okay! He did not announce it but now the news has spread. The third day, the masjid was packed to capacity. No place to sit down. And this time the Prophet ﷺ prayed in the house of ʿĀʾishah. He did not come outside, and they prayed on their own waiting for him. He came right before Ṣalāt al-Fajr and he said to them: I knew you were outside, but the only reason that I did not come was that I was worried that this action might then become farḍ (mandatory) upon you, meaning during the nights of Ramaḍān, and I did not want that to happen. And this occurred in the last Ramaḍān of his life and he passed away a few months later in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, and so there was no Tarāwīḥ after this. So the Prophet ﷺ did not ever announce that there's going to be Tarāwīḥ and come and pray but twice in his life it happened.

Caliphate of Abū Bakr

When, next year, after he passed away, during the time of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, the same thing happened: that everybody was praying independently. There was no there was no concentrated effort to do so.

Caliphate of ʿUmar

And in the first year or two, in the reign of ʿUmar, the same thing happened. Once, in the Ramaḍān, and some say in the second, and some say in the third year of the reign of ʿUmar the third year of um that um visited the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ in the nights of Ramaḍān and he saw people praying helter skelter all over. So he said, what if we were to make one jamāʿah for all of these people? Wouldn't that be good? So he made the announcement, and this is the first time he made the announcement, that from tomorrow there shall be one jamāʿah for all of you. And he appointed Ubay b. Kaʿb who was the most the most aqraʾahum li-kitāb Allāh, the most qāriʾ of all of the Ṣaḥābah was Ubay b. Kaʿb, and that when he saw all of them praying together he said his famous comment, which is a whole different discussion which I've given a longer lecture about, that "niʿm al-bidʿatu hādhihī", what a great innovation this is.

البخاري 2010 — وَعَنِ ابْنِ شِهَابٍ عَنْ عُرْوَةَ بْنِ الزُّبَيْرِ عَنْ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ عَبْدٍ الْقَارِيِّ أَنَّهُ قَالَ

خَرَجْتُ مَعَ عُمَرَ بْنِ الْخَطَّابِ ؓ لَيْلَةً فِي رَمَضَانَ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ فَإِذَا النَّاسُ أَوْزَاعٌ مُتَفَرِّقُونَ، يُصَلِّي الرَّجُلُ لِنَفْسِهِ وَيُصَلِّي الرَّجُلُ فَيُصَلِّي بِصَلاَتِهِ الرَّهْطُ۔ فَقَالَ عُمَرُ: إِنِّي أَرَى لَوْ جَمَعْتُ هَؤُلاَءِ عَلَى قَارِئٍ وَاحِدٍ لَكَانَ أَمْثَلَ۔ ثُمَّ عَزَمَ فَجَمَعَهُمْ عَلَى أُبَىِّ بْنِ كَعْبٍ،

ثُمَّ خَرَجْتُ مَعَهُ لَيْلَةً أُخْرَى وَالنَّاسُ يُصَلُّونَ بِصَلاَةِ قَارِئِهِمْ۔ قَالَ عُمَرُ: نِعْمَ الْبِدْعَةُ هَذِهِ! وَالَّتِي يَنَامُونَ عَنْهَا أَفْضَلُ مِنَ الَّتِي يَقُومُونَ، يُرِيدُ آخِرَ اللَّيْلِ، وَكَانَ النَّاسُ يَقُومُونَ أَوَّلَهُ۔

Bukhārī 2010 — Ibn Shihāb > ʿUrwah b. al-Zubayr > ʿAbd al-Raḥman b. ʿAbd al-Qārī

I went out in the company of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb one night in Ramaḍān to the mosque and found the people praying in different groups. A man praying alone or a man praying with a little group behind him. So, ʿUmar said: In my opinion it would better to collect them under the leadership of one reciter. So, he made up his mind to congregate them behind Ubay b. Kaʿb.

Then on another night, I went again in his company and the people were praying behind their reciter. On that, ʿUmar remarked: What an excellent bidʿah (innovation) this is; but the prayer which they do not perform and sleep at its time is better than the one they are offering. ˹What˺ he meant is the prayer in the last part of the night, (i.e. Tahajjud) ˹In those days˺ people used to pray in the early part of the night.

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Okay this is something new that has happened and I think this is great we've done something great and this is good now of course this has raised the whole discussion what type of vid and whatnot and I have a whole hour and a half lecture the reality and the various positions about um that and then he said something very interesting those who are sleeping now are better than those who are praying those who are sleeping are better than those who are in this jamaa what does he mean by this because this is early in the night and this is everybody praying together and um said this is great I love this and those who are sleeping right now meaning they're going to get up later on they are better than the people that are gathered here so this is the famous statement of Ramaḍān

then the years went by of course he ruled for 10 years and more and more people began to come and the women began to come as well and so this shows us that the women coming for Tarāwih is during the time of it became so large and by the way he also expanded the message in his time the first expansion of the message that processing occurred in the time of um the mystery was needed to get expansion and there are no microphones obviously so he appointed first there was one then he appointed one imam for the men and one for the women then when the muslim became even more he appointed two imams for the men because it was two you know the voice cannot go that far so he appointed two imams for the men and one for the women so there were three jama'ah going on each one in a slightly different if you like place or we don't know Allah ﷻu adam it could be that one jamaat for the men is one time and one jamar for them at another time we don't know the details but it says they appointed two imams for the men and one for the women because again the women are praying behind and so the voice will not reach them so there's a special imam for them and by the way this shows us that yes women are coming to the masjid and the the administration of the masjid is catering to the women listening to the Quran and the recitation

Number of Rakʿāt Set By ʿUmar

so um began Tarāwīḥ in his time officially and he instituted it to be 11 this is authentically narrated and then as time went on towards the end of his khilafah he changed it to 20. why did he change it to 20 there is no known reason it does it just seems to be an arbitrary number that 10 plus 1 was the witr so he just doubled it why did he double it anyway our scholars say that the reason why he doubled it was to make it easier for those who couldn't pray the whole that they pray whatever amount they could because when you make more raka'at that the slims become more frequent so each one becomes smaller so it becomes easier because not everybody can pray all 20. some people have you know there are workers there are tradesmen there are farmers there are people that they're they don't people have different levels and when um towards the end of israel saw that meant you're praying so long so then he basically divided the same amount into four so then from yani ten plus one it basically came you know 20. you get the point here right so it that seems to be the case there does not seem to be any reason per se that he changed the number two uh twenty nonetheless towards the end of his khilafah there were 20 of Tarāwīḥ plus three of witr thus making it 23 and this became the Sunnah for all other cities

Early Umayyad Period: Tarāwīḥ in Makkah

now in the time of the early umayyads the people of mecca began praying 23 raka'at and they would rest after every four rakah they would rest after every four rakat okay so four raka'at and then a rest and then four raka'at and then a rest and then four raka'at and then a rest and some people we don't know exactly when but this is early um time some people said let us do some movement let us get some energy the ka'ba is right here let us do something the people of medina cannot do let us do tawaf so they began to do tawaf between every four how many tawas would that be five tawafs a night five tawafs a night is that possible how long does a tawaf take an hour the sister says she has gone during peak season time and she is right during peak season time I have done tawaf in my life in less than 10 minutes these days are gone for most of you i'm talking about the late 90s when the visas were shut and I was a student and I would go and there was no hajjaj or umrah person and it's just the locals and you're at 2 a.m in the morning and it is literally 10 people I have witnessed this plenty of times but I don't think it's possible well we say that then corona happened and we saw it happen but realistically once visas are open the way they are it's almost impossible when there are no hajjaj whatsoever when there's a hundred people yeah I need something like this to do a tawaf literally around the cab literally and you walk a moderate pace I walk a little bit fast because it's my habit you can do it in less than 10 minutes so the people of makkah began doing this as a competition that we're going to do something better nobody else can do this that became their habit

Early Umayyad Period: Tarāwīḥ in Madīnah

when the people of medina heard this they said we're going to have to beat them so they decided to increase the number of raka'ats during the resting period rather than doing tawaf which they cannot do they added four rakaats hence they started praying 36 araka'at plus three witr 39. and this remained the case in medina for around 200 years in the early umayyad and late umayyad and early abbasid time around 200 years according to my research I could be wrong because this is all very sketchy when it finished roughly in the third century it stopped but for the first 200 years of Islam the people of madinah would pray 40 39 not 40 39. and this is why imam malik and the maliki school the recommended position of the maliki school to this day their books mentioned 39. where do they get this from I explained to you why it's some weird weird quirk of competition between makkah and of course imam malik he he saw the people growing as a child he grew up they were doing 30 39 anyway so he saw the people doing that it became his method because one of the pillars of his medhab for the malikis is you tell me the malikis what is one of the pillars of the maliki school the actions of the people of madina so he found the people in madina doing this so he made it his school so the maliki method actually has 39 for Tarāwīḥ mashallah can you imagine we complained about 20 they had 40 basically 39 right

Meaning of the Term Tarāwīḥ

now where did the term Tarāwih come from so there's two two opinions that are legitimate and one that is not legitimate but people have said it the the first uh legitimate opinion is that the term Tarāwih comes from tarwiha and tarwiha means to rest and they called Tarāwih Tarāwi because they would rest after every four raka'at they would rest after every four raka'at and this is the interpretation of uh imam saraki the famous hanafi scholar and he quotes imam abu hanifah as well that in his book al-mabsoot he quotes imam hanifah as saying that innama summit is it was called from resting because the salaf from the haramein and the people of mecca will do tawaf seven times between every two tarwihas as imam malik mentioned so every four raka'at they would stop and that was called istirah

and another interpretation which is similar to this is that the people of makkah so so this interpretation is saying that because they would sit down and not do anything the other interpretation is that the people of mecca consider tawaf to be istirah and so they called because it was a break from the prayer so that is a break if you get it okay

both of these opinions they basically mean after every four rakat there was a break and that break is called that's where the term comes from that's where the term comes from so the term Tarāwīḥ comes from the break between every four rakat and this break either you sat down or you didn't throw off whichever it is but it is because of that break we call tara

now there is another third opinion which is not very academic but it is found in some modern books not in classical books and that is that comes from break or meaning you enjoy Tarāwīḥ as a break from life's routine they say this but there's no evidence for this that comes from this term as we as we said so um in any case so we have this notion of Tarāwīḥ being 20 versus uh 36 and these are the two opinions within the matahib the hanafi hambali and shafiri school basically say that should be 20 and the maliki school says that it is best to make it 39 36 plus 3 20 plus 3 so I should say 23 okay and the maliki say 36 plus 9 which is 30 36 plus 3 which is 39.

now uh these numbers as I said are quite arbitrary all of the med have said these numbers are mustahab and not mandatory all of the four schools said these are the best numbers but more or less would still be and from the perspective of these schools slash because it is Sunnah there is no number that is mandatory how can something be mandatory when the Ṣalāh itself is nafed you get the point here how can a number be mandatory when the Ṣalāh is nothing by definition nothing is you want to pray you want to pray you don't want to pay don't want to pray so if you pray 2 or 4 or 8 or 12 or 16 or 50 however you want to pray all of it is this is the default of the basically all four schools the only question is what is the best number what is the ideal number and from this we said the three schools said 20 plus three based upon the action of um they said because he did it and all the sahaba followed well then we should follow them and the maliki school they have their interpretation and medina and they said we will go with 39.

Are Eight Rakʿāt Mandatory?

now there's a modern controversy completely modern began literally one generation ago that uh the claim that eight is uh mandatory not that eight is Sunnah that could be an easy argument to make because it's do whatever you want you do eight Sunnah and this is a modern argument and you know alhamdulillah we have gone over these issues back and forth and nobody in the history of the ummah before our great scholar of the last generation said that it is mandatory to make aiken ayton may Allah ﷻ reward that scholar for his ichtihad and for his love of the Sunnah but in reality this is an opinion that has no basis in in the history of Islam it's enough in prayer so to make a controversy that only eight verses 20 is mandatory really this shows and i'm trying to be respectful here anybody who says this hasn't studied the books of

no scholar in Islamic history except for one or two ever said the number of is obligatory pray whatever you want it's a Sunnah or a nafel prayer if you want to pray four or eight you pray according to your level of energy and level of enthusiasm the only in 99.999 of the ummah which number is the better number not which number is the wajib numbers the big difference between the two and as I said the majority position is is 20 is good but what somebody's going to say but didn't the Prophet sasallam himself pray you know eight plus three which is eleven and this is true he did and this is why um began with eight plus three and the hambali madhab says if you're praying at home alone then you should do eight plus three but the jama'a needs to take into account the weak and the elderly and the baby and the woman who has a child the jamaa has to take everybody into account when you have a large congregation you make things easy for the people and so by making things easy then you make that shorter and shorter

so therefore the hambury position which makes a lot of sense to me says the more rewarding when you're all alone you have nobody to worry about yes you should pray long prayers and you pray eight plus three but when you're leading Ṣalāh or in you're in a masjid and you have to take into account somebody has to go to the bathroom somebody has an emergency call somebody has parents is calling him whatever the case might be you can't expect everybody to pray that long Ṣalāh therefore you cut it up into half-half like um and so the number 20 comes and so that is why they say this

Is Praying Tarāwīḥ Better at the Masjid or at Home?

now another minor controversy and we already mentioned this in um statement minor quantities are very trivial things what is better to pray in the masjid or to pray at home and once again you have different schools say different things

imam malik and the maliki school actually says it is better to pray at home you should not pray in the masjid sorry let me take that back not you should not stop for Allah ﷻ pray if you want but it's better to pray at home scrap that I made a mistake of course nobody said you shouldn't pray imam malik and the maliki school says it is better mustab that you pray at home why who can tell me why why is it better to pray at home according to them yes okay that's one good good position the process and prayed at home but there are other things as well you can pray for a long time without interfering with other people what else barakah household for the home very good barack obama what else concentration what else excellent there is an authentic hadith that the Prophet ﷺ said that the best prayer of the person after the father is the prayer of his house and he himself would walk home and pray Sunnah nefer as a default right so that we have imam has evidences for this there's yet another reason and that's showing off where do you have more potential to show off the masjid with everybody so when you're at home right then imam alex position is makes sense in his own way that you're cut off from all of these things you can pray longer more sure you pray the the the Qiyām of your choice the Quran of your choice et cetera et cetera

the shah ferry school said no the muslim is jamaa what do you think their reasons would be you know them just use your common sense what else times the fabila of the what else walking to the all of these reasons so you get the point

so they're all using generic evidences okay using generic evidences which one is the uh default and they're both right in other words you choose if you are masha'allah able to pray two three four hours on your own reading the Quran with khushu then there is no doubt that yes you should pray at home but if you're like most of us and you cannot recite like our hafiz ghadi sajad masha'allah right and you need that motivation to you know uh real Quran and there is no doubt a barakah that comes in the masjid as well and there's a feeling of awe and there's a feeling of and there's a feeling of iman and there's even a buzz that us weak people we need that as well right not all of us are like um who he himself by the way would not here's the interesting point he would not pray in the masjid he appointed obey and he walked back home and he prayed at home okay because that's umar but we are not at the level of um so those who are at that type of level masha'allah masha'allah great for you pray at home and expect Allah ﷻ to reward you however this means you pray isha in the masjid then you go and you pray at home

Is Finishing the Quran During Tarāwīḥ Mandatory?

now another point of history is that where did this notion of finishing the entire Quran during Tarāwīḥ come from actually this is not found in early Islam of course it can't be because the process didn't do it even in the time of the sahaba did not happen and in fact imam malik writing in 150 hijrah or speaking in 150 hijrah he actually was not happy with this practice and he said as reported in the famous book finishing the entire Quran during the Qiyām of Ramaḍān is not Sunnah this is imam malik now interesting point people are already doing it that's why he's commenting on it so in 150 hijrah people are already finishing the whole Quran in Ramaḍān and imam malik and others are like I don't like this it's not the Sunnah we should not do this and abu died 474 hijrah one of the great scholars of the past he writes in the beginning they would recite 30 verses or sometimes 20 and this was the case until the battle of hara the battle of harrah was when yazid attacked madinah I have a whole lecture online you could listen to that and after the battle of harrah the long longevitivity of the Tahajjud became difficult for them so they cut back on the and they increased the number of and they started praying 36 raka'at with with their being 39 i.e this is early umayyad as I said okay so it was the early umayya time they switched from 20 to 36 this is before imam malik so a generation before imam ali so they switched to 36 and in the time of um aziz they would pray in every rakah around 10 āyāts short and sweet you cannot pray 40 rakaats reciting half of jews in every rakah you see my point and this was the maliki madhhab and it still remains the practice in many places in the muslim world that you might pray 20 raka'at and in every rakah yeah any five verses because the point is you need to make it easy for the people right so in the maliki school in the shaffer school these are the defaults and most of the masajid you go to in the muslim world they actually do not finish the entire Quran in the majority of the masajid if you want to do this you do it at home because again we're looking at the jamaa in the later hanafi school they encourage this and it is not the default of the modern hanafi school that they would like to finish the whole Quran during the uh during the time of Qiyām and that's permissible that is fine

but again to be clear obviously the Prophet sasson did not institute Tarāwih in the first place in that manner such that we can say that this is a sunna and in fact in early Islam the uh history tells us that the witr Ṣalāh did not actually have a dua in every single uh night rather they would do dua in the last 10 nights only and then it's dead last 15 and then later on they started doing it every single night so all of this is early Islamic history because again Tarāwih evolved from time to place to different people and all of it is good so if somebody does not want to do any kunuts in that witr that is permissible I don't want to get into the controversy of _Ṣalāh_u within every one of the four madhhabs has a different position about in with it interesting it's all history in the reality to be technical the Quran is not linked to with it to be technical but whoever does it that's fine no problem but in Ramaḍān some of the scholars wanted to do a special dua and this began the last ten nights and then it became something that is the norm during those ten nights

Is Witr Separate from Qiyām al-Layl?

uh some other final tidbits and then , in shā Allāh we are done is witr separate from Qiyāma laid slash so witr is witr a Quranic or hadith yes or no yes or no it's not in the Quran it's in the hadith with it is in the hadith the term witted is in the hadith pray the witr and the process commander suggested us to pray the witr and abu hara said commanded me to pray the witr before I go to sleep

so what is witr witr in the hadith listen to this carefully because a lot of people get confused in the hadith generally is synonymous with Qiyām ul laid why because witr is supposed to be the odd number that you pray at night so the general term winter that's found if you open up sahih bukhari muslim any books of hadith generally when you come across the term witr the meaning of witr generally is that whole prayer but it is also used sometimes to describe the last raka or the last three rakaats of the hence the technical term and definition of witr as used in the books of has become those three the technical so there's a generic term witr which is found in the hadith abu here I said the Prophet saselam told me to pray with before I go to sleep by witr he doesn't mean the tirakawiter he means which concludes with twitr right and we see this in the hadith that sometimes the Prophet sasan prayed five raka'at witr sometimes seven raka'awita sometimes nine raka awaiter by witr here we don't mean what we think of the witr that one raka this is the Tahajjud he's praying in chunks chunks so four plus seven or two plus like so he's doing it in different chunks by the way the Prophet saws sometimes pray two two two two two sometimes four four sometimes in in different chunks and from this the hambane ibn tami and others they say the the Tahajjud can be two or four or what not and of course the other methods hanafi is the one that says it must be too standard which is very trivial whichever you want to do that is fine so witr as I said the technical definition is different than the hadith definition and it doesn't matter which definition we use we just have to clarify so when i'm going to use it now i'm going to i'm going to reference the technical which is the last uh one or the three

Must Witr Be the Last Prayer of the Night?

now our Prophet ﷺ said the man came to him he said ya rasulullah how do I pray to hajjud the Prophet saws said or how is the hajjud how is Ṣalāh the Prophet said pray two two then when you think it's about to be fajr then pray your witr okay so here is now the technical witr here I should translate then make an odd this is what it means for outer he didn't say pray the witr Ṣalāh he said make an odd so an odd is the witr the one or the three so the Prophet saselam told us in bukhari muslim make your last Ṣalāh of the night be Ṣalāh okay this is Sunnah to make witr the last Ṣalāh of the night if we know our schedule for the night then we make our routine such that we will delay our winter until the very end and then nothing until the other fajr so those of us who are praying in our masjid and here we will be doing eight raka'ah and then three raka with her and then there will be a separate jam for those want to do more suppose you do 8 and 3 and then you know that you're going to go home and pray another hour before fajr you should pray the three raka'a with our imam then when the imam says salaam you do not say salaam and you stand up and you add an extra to make his three your four now you have not prayed utter now you are praying eight plus four gives you 12. then if you want to go home and pray an extra eight on your own to follow the Sunnah of um which is totally fine or two even on your own something is better than nothing you're you're Tahajjud now you're going to go to sleep then you wake up for Tahajjud so you've combined and some this is the ideal then for you to do then you should not pray witr with the imam clear you make his witr you're for shafa you don't do with him

okay suppose you said now tonight I have to go to sleep I have work tomorrow I can't do it then you go to sleep then you wake up and you're like oh I have half an hour but I prayed with it what do I do here the correct position Allah ﷻu ta'ala and this is the vast majority ibn hazmat is that praying with it at the end of the night is best and whoever prays with it and then decides to praise Ṣalāh afterwards it is permissible and he should not repeat the witr again and imam and noah in his much more says the famous book of imam inaudible whoever prays the witr then he decides to pray nafilah so he should not pray the witr and know he's praying nafilah right that goes against the hadith whoever prays the wittle then he decides to pray the nafila later on in the night jaza billah it is allowed without any karaha because that was not his knee that what would be makru is you intentionally make the witr in the middle of the night that's not good but if it so happened that you prayed the witr then you woke up later on without intending do not let shaytan come to you and say oh because I prayed witr I shouldn't pray any extra no imam and nawi without any you should pray extra nafil but do not repeat the witr Allah ﷻ knows that you changed your intention it wasn't done intentions not a big deal allah knows when you did that and this should be your default if you ask me if you have the niyyah to sleep until surf you're not going to pray to hajju then pray the witr with us no problem then if it so happens that a particular day you wake up earlier alhamdulillah you pray extra but don't repeat the witr because only one will per only one with a per per night that's what the the vast majority position

there is a dissenting position which I don't agree with at all and it doesn't have any major basis which is they say you wake up you should pray one raka so that you pray two _witr_s so that makes a shaffer then you pray your nafil then you pray another witr and to me that doesn't make any sense plus I just quoted you great scholars that's not the case

Holding of the Musḥaf in the Hand

final point here we always get this discussion should I or may I read with the Quran in my hand may I hold an iphone masha'allah with the Quran app right and hold the mushaf or a physical copy or what not so again I always like to give all of the positions out there so uh inside has reported that she commanded her maula the quan to lead them in qayam in Ramaḍān and the Quran was not a half-filled so he would recite from the muslif this is and zohari was asked is it allowed to recite the Quran in Ramaḍān from the mushaf and he said I found the best of us of the previous generation would recite with the muslif this is imam azuri udaid 124 hijrah and imam malik was asked about carrying the Quran in Ṣalāh during Qiyām and he said there is no haraj there is no harm in the carrying of the muslim for the imam in Ramaḍān for the nephilisa it is permissible and imam ahmad was asked about this and he said there is no problem for the one to be the imam and he is looking in the mushaf he was asked how about in fardh he goes no I didn't hear anything about the father I mean the nafil I mean and imam and nawi also has this there as well that there is no karahi in doing this so we have the maliki's the hambalis the shafiris are very very explicit with explicit statements from their famous famous scholars

obviously which school is left the han of his school and of course the hanafi school they have their position we respect all the schools and it is up to you what to follow uh al-qaeda in the famous uh he mentions that abu hanifa did not allow carrying the mushaf so much so that he said if the imam carries it the Ṣalāh becomes battle we respect all of our scholars and imam malik is saying it's imam shafi's saying no problem ahmed himself was asked imam azul he said we saw people doing this is a contemporary these are all early scholars we respect all of them abu hanifa said the Ṣalāh is battle that is his position his students abu yusuf and uh muhammad ibn hasan shaibani they said that it is makru but it doesn't make the Ṣalāh and it's best to be avoided but it doesn't nullify the Ṣalāh and this is their position uh even though by the way some modern some of my friends who are in the modern hanafi school they say that given the circumstances of the time that it should be allowed for the people praying at home but that's between them and the ani the school i'm not going to interfere

you want to ask me I say that it is very clear from israel it's very clear that many of the tabern many of them this is authentically narrated that they would carry a page or a scroll and they would recite uh ins not in please don't misquote me okay not inferred in explicit quotes about this so if you're going to pray at home and especially these days subhanallah your phone this is all you're doing there's no extra movement because imam muhammad said I think he's going to have to move too much and the muslim abu hanifah's time were huge so perhaps even from his time i'm just saying maybe if he knew how small these things are and just put it in your pocket maybe Allah ﷻ if he saw this reality maybe he would have changed his mind as well but anyway that's that's yani you know not my position to comment on that school that's the their school

Conclusion

so to conclude inshaallah ta'ala uh Ramaḍān is coming up and we strongly encourage I encourage myself and all of you to make it a point to make prayam every single night whoever prays every single night of Ramaḍān all of his sins will be forgiven and whoever prays on laylatul all of his sins will be forgiven so may Allah ﷻ make us of those who catch foreign.