The legal status of Taraweeh prayers and the number of units to be prayed
- Javed Ahmed Ghamidi
[Farhan Saiyed] On your Dallas visit in 2015 you were asked about Taraweeh
and your first stern response was that Taraweeh is not a prayer.
This was your first sentence.
Now that Ghamidi Center is organizing Taraweeh Prayers in Ramadan,
I am assuming people will definitely be wondering about this;
If Taraweeh is not a prayer in Islam, why are we making these arrangements?
Could you please clarify if Taraweeh is a biddat,
and how do you view this in terms of your original stance?
[Javed Ahmed Ghamidi] At times, such things can happen.
You can miss one word and all hell breaks loose.
My exact words were that Taraweeh is not a separate prayer.
Taraweeh is not a different prayer;
On the contrary, this is Tahajjud prayer
which the Prophet (PBUH) permitted the people to pray after Isha.
I have written about this in depth in my book Meezan.
The actual time for this prayer is Tahajjud (pre-dawn);
that is the time the Prophet (PBUH) used to offer the prayer.
The story of when he came out for three days,
it is at Tahajjud that he came out, after the first half of the night.
It is the Tahajjud prayer that some people found hard to wake up for,
and they asked the Prophet about it.
Allah has mentioned in the Holy Quran; People who work laborious jobs, or have to
travel, or have intense responsibilities, are exempt from waking up for Tahujjud.
These exceptions are listed in Surah Muzammil.
Some of these companions, being eager to attain the reward
of this extraordinary supererogatory prayer, i.e. Tahajjud
asked if they could pray it after Isha and were granted permission by the Prophet.
This permission has been granted by Allah's Messenger (PBUH).
The Prophet (PBUH) himself gathered a congregation for the prayer,
so that shows that it is permissible for 'nafl' prayers as well.
Both forms of offering this prayer remained acceptable during the
time of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), and subsequently for Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq.
While some people would wake up and pray, which is also known as Qiyam ul Layl,
others would start praying in the mosque or at home straight after Isha.
Since every one did not know the Quran by heart,
so Imams would lead the prayers as well, after Isha;
The Imams would recite the Quran, and the congregation would listen.
So all this has been prevalent since the time of the Prophet (PBUH).
The only change Hazrat Omar made was to appoint one Imam to lead this prayer, as
having multiple simultaneous congregations behind many Imams would create chaos.
This was a very sensible suggestion.
So this is in no way a biddat.
This is the Tahajjud prayer; best is to wake up and offer at the correct time.
However, if one finds this difficult, you can read it after Isha,
in solitude or in congregation.
I have never declared this as biddat.
[Saiyed] Often people consider this to be wajib and a condition to complete the fast
[Ghamidi] There is no truth to such claims
This is a nafl prayer; if you offer it you get rewarded greatly,
however there is no issue if you do not offer it.
However, both times are legitimate for offering it.
The actual time is at Tahajjud time, such that you wake up to offer it.
In reality, this is not another independent prayer.
As allowed by the Holy Prophet (PBUH), this can also be prayed right after Isha.
[Saiyed] How many Rakaat (units) are ideal for this prayer?
Obviously, this is administrative question but when it is being conducted,
are 8 plus 3 sufficient or do they have to be 20 or 23?
[Ghamidi] 3 being the minimum, one may pray as many as they like.
Imaam Maalik reports that people would even read up to forty, forty two in Madina
Therefore, as many as you like with a minimum of 3.
It should not be less than 3.
Most often, the prayer offered by the Holy Prophet (PBUH)
is used as the yardstick.
Since we often hear that the Prophet (PBUH) used to pray 11 Rakaat,
which would be understood as being 8 plus 3 = 11 rakaat
In the era of Omar (r.a.) since there was no upper limit, and people wanted
to hear and learn as much of the Quran as possible,
it is obvious this led to an increase in rakaat being offered
This led to the common number of Rakat exceeding to 20 to 23.
It is more accurate to say 23 actually; people often take the 3 witr separately,
when it's a part of the prayer. This prayer has to be witr (odd) at all costs.
As narrated by Syeda Ayesha, the Prophet (PBUH) used to pray
a maximum of 11 rakaat.
On certain occasions, he would increase the rakaat to 13.
It is however clear that on these occasions he followed the method
as in Maghrib prayers, where we pray 3 rakaat, turn to salam and then pray 2 Nafl
Similarly the Prophet prayed 11 rakaat and then followed with 2 rakaat nafl prayer.
Because tahajjud was a fard prayer for him (PBUH).
Therefore, his (pbuh) most common practice was 11 rakaat which has now been
endorsed and followed by the Ahle Hadeeth.
However, in the Muslim world, you can say there has been
a kind of a consensus of 23 rakaat since the time of Hazrat Omar.
Since this gained more popularity amongst the people,
the rest of the Imams follow this.
One is free to choose any of these options.
[Saiyed] So in other words, we say 8 rakaat Taraweeh and 3 witr i.e. total 11.
[Ghamidi] The number of rakaat have to be odd, be it 5, 7, 9, 11,13,
or, if you wish to follow the 'consensus', then 23. One can even read 21.
There is no fixed number of rakaat, except the minimum which is 3.
These are the same 3 rakaat, that one prays after Isha normally.
This is the same prayer, Tahajjud, whether you pray it, as is the norm,
right after Isha, or in the middle of the night.
And this same prayer takes the form of Taraweeh prayers in Ramadan.
As I had mentioned earlier, taraweeh is not a separate prayer;
it is the tahajjud prayer which comes in various forms.
One should try and understand these versions,
and with Allah's blessings, one may opt for any of these versions.