20 Rak'ah of Taraaweeh, the Role of the Sahaabah رضي الله عنهم in Establishing Deen, and the Delusions of the Modernists
Answering the objections of your "Salafi" acquaintances and the deceptions of the deviant celebrity "scholars"
There are a number of aspects of the sunnah that the Companions رضي الله عنهم were necessarily charged with establishing after the passing of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم; even some which are fundamental to belief, such as the script of the Qur’aan.
Among these are Salaatut Taraaweeh, which was established from the time of ‘Umar رضي الله عنه- therefore the practices recorded from before that time are not relevant “evidence” for or against it
The sunnah is to pray all twenty rak’ah of Salaatut Taraaweeh
The opinions of modernists are a manifestation of their fundamental ignorance and misplaced arrogance.
The Ruling of Taraaweeh
Salaatut Taraaweeh is a special prayer which is prayed in the nights of Ramadan, between ‘Ishaa and Witr. The twenty rak’ah of Salaatut Taraaweeh are a sunnah muakkadah (emphasized sunnah). Practically, it is the same as waajib.1 Abandoning or neglecting it without a valid reason is sinful. It is therefore necessary to perform twenty rak’ah Taraaweeh regularly, on every night of Ramadaan.
This Salaatut Taraaweeh was established in the time of ‘Umar رضي الله عنه. All of its associated rulings — such as the number of rak’ah; the praying of them in pairs; sitting for some rest after every four rak’ah; praying the witr in congregation afterwards; the istihbaab of completing a recitation of the Qur’aan during the month in this prayer, etc. — date from the time of ‘Umar رضي الله عنه. He was followed in this by the two Khulafaa who came after him, ‘Uthmaan and ‘Ali رضي الله عنهما. The establishment and practice of Taraaweeh occurred publicly, with no objections, in the presence of the general community of companions of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله و سلم عليه وعلى اله واصحابه أجمعين. Afterwards, this sunnah continued to be performed in this manner to this day with no objections. Objections to this Sunnah have only developed very recently.
The important thing to understand in this regard is that it is normal and accepted for some part of the sunnah to be established by the consensus of the companions, and especially by the practice of any of the four righteously-guided khulafaa. There are some matters which for one reason or another could not be established during the Messenger of Allah’s lifetime, صلى الله عليه وسلم. Instead, he left behind and entrusted with his companions the establishment of these matters. For this reason, their practice- especially their consensus and the practice specifically of the righteously-guided Khulafaa- is part and parcel of the sources by which Sunnah is established.
An Example of the Sunnah Established After the Life of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم
The most obvious example of this is the text of the Qur’aan that is written and read by Muslims all over the world. This text has many characteristics which were established by the consensus of the companions in the time of ‘Uthman رضي الله عنه. In that text, there are a few places where something that is pronounced as س in one reading is written as ص. There are some places where a particular grammatical structure is written with the letters joined together and others where they are written separately. Some places a word is written with a ة at the end, whereas, other places, that same word is written with a ت at the end. These are a few examples.
Anyone who writes or prints a copy of the Qur’aan must follow all of these characteristics. If a person writes the Qur’aan using a different manner, even if it is linguistically correct, it will be considered tahreef (haraam alteration) of the Qur’aan and a major sin. In fact, to knowingly do so is kufr! The key point is this is true even though this whole system and these peculiarities were all not known in the time of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم, but were established in the time of ‘Uthman رضي الله عنه.
The Role of the Companions in the Establishment of Deen
Among many other statements regarding this principle is the statement of the Messenger of Allah, صلى الله عليه وسلم:
إِنَّهُ مَنْ يَعِشْ مِنْكُمْ بَعْدِي فَسَيَرَى اخْتِلَافًا كَثِيرًا، فَعَلَيْكُمْ بِسُنَّتِي وَسُنَّةِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ الْمَهْدِيِّينَ، تَمَسَّكُوا بِهَا، وَعَضُّوا عَلَيْهَا بِالنَّوَاجِذِ
Most assuredly, whosoever from amongst you lives on after me, he will definitely see an abundance of disputes and dissension. Therefore, obligatory upon you is my sunnah- the sunnah of the righteously guided khulafaa after me. Hold onto it! Bite down on it with your molar teeth!
The Arabic of this statement uses the same particle بِ for both “my sunnah” and “the sunnah of the righteously guided khulafaa” and the singular pronoun “it” in “Hold onto it,” and “Bite down on it.” In other words, these are not two separate things, “hold onto this one thing, and ALSO this other thing.” Rather, it is “hold onto this ONE thing, which is my sunnah and the sunnah of the righteously guided Khulafaa after me.” In other words, “Hold onto The Sunnah! What is the The Sunnah? It is my sunnah and the sunnah of the righteously guided khulafaa after me.”
A natural question that could arise in the curious mind, is “Why do the companions in general and the khulaafa ur raashideen in particular have this role in establishing the deen? Given they are not Messengers and did not receive revelation, what right or even capability do they have to establish parts of the Sunnah?”
The answer to this is that the sunnah of the Khulafaa, and the consensus of the companions are proofs for something being part of the sunnah, not because anything they invented from themselves would be part of the deen, but rather, because this community of people have this divine certificate stamped on them, that they would never establish something as part of the deen, unless they had knowledge of it from and were entrusted to do so by the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم. In other words, it is known with certainty about them that they would not invent things from themselves; whatever they establish of the deen, we know it is something that they received from the correct teaching and understanding of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم, even if we don’t have a direct report of that teaching and understanding that reached us by other means. In fact, this is the very answer that the great Imam, Imam Abu Hanifah gave when asked about the origins of Salaatut Taraaweeh by his student Imam Abu Yusuf:
التراويح سنة مؤكدة ولم يتخرجه عمر من تلقاء نفسه ولم يكن فيه مبتدعا ولم يأمر به إلا عن أصل لديه وعهد من رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم
The Taraaweeh is an emphasized sunnah and most definitely ‘Umar did not invent it out of his own mind; neither was he an innovator therein; nor would he have ever established it except upon some basis for it that he possessed and on account of his being entrusted with its establishment from the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم.
The “Evidence” of the “Salafi” Modernists
Because the “Salafis” are imbued with the spirit of modernism and its supremacist philosophy, they imagine that they have, in the 20th century, discovered the true understanding of the sunnah and they fantasize themselves to be on the same level or even more intelligent than the “poor,” “pre-modern” scholars of all the previous generations. Therefore, when they came across the narration of our mother, ‘Aaishah رضي الله عنها in which she states:
مَا كَانَ يَزِيدُ فِي رَمَضَانَ وَلاَ فِي غَيْرِهِ عَلَى إِحْدَى عَشْرَةَ رَكْعَة
He [صلى الله عليه وسلم] did not pray more than 11 rak’ah (8 rak’ah and 3 witr) neither in Ramadan nor in other than Ramadan.
then their delusions of grandeur convinced them that they had discovered the “lost truth” that everyone before them had missed, even the companions, even the Khulafaa ur Raashidoon, even ‘Aaishah رضي الله عنها herself! After all, she was also alive and she never objected to the establishment of Taraaweeh and its rulings either. Initially, these modernists preached that more than 8 rakaa’aat was a reprehensible innovation and a sin. Some of them were so bold, in their utter ignorance, as to make the statement, “We follow the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم, we don’t follow ‘Umar.” Refuge is sought with Allah from such a statement!
In recent times, following the continuous refutation of their nonsense, and its falling out of favor with the public, many of them have shifted to preaching that “there is no set number of rak’ah for taraaweeh,” “taraaweeh is not really a separate prayer, it’s just another name for tahajjud,” and other such notions. In the U.S., in a very peculiar twist of fate, they have even innovated another prayer that they pray in congregation, especially in the last ten nights, and that they have popularized among the ignorant public as so-called “Qiyaam.” So they pray only a small portion of the actual sunnah Taraaweeh prayer, then witr, and then late in the night apparently they get together and pray another, innovated, congregational prayer!
In any case, all of their objections and deceptions are easily resolved from the simple explanation given in the second paragraph of this essay. Our mother, Aishah رضي الله عنها, was, of course, absolutely correct in describing the night prayer of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم in the manner that she described it, because, as already mentioned, Salaatut Taraaweeh was not established in his time, nor in the time of Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه nor in the beginning of ‘Umar’s time رضي الله عنه. In fact, we only basically know of the Messenger of Allah ever praying Taraweeh twice in his life, and then too, he was apparently in ‘itikaaf in the masjid, and not at home. So how would his personal, general, life-long practice in his home have any relevance to the Taraaweeh prayer? In like manner, all other “proofs” and explanations and examples they bring against Taraaweeh, against praying more than 8 rak’ah, or against a specified number of rak’ah are bound to be from before its establishment and therefore without any relevance to it at all!
Arguing with this sort of evidence is like a foolish ignoramus arguing against the prohibition of alcohol using as “evidence” narrations of the drinking of alcohol from before its prohibition. Or, to reuse the example we have already given, imagine a person arguing against the permissibility of having the entire Qur’aan, in order, in the mushaf, on the basis that it was not like that in the time of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم! This, unfortunately is the sort of evidence that is convincing to the modernist on account of their deluding themselves with their own visions of grandeur.
Summary
The twenty rak’ah of Salaatut Taraaweeh are Sunnah Muakkadah, as established by the companions of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم in the time of ‘Umar, according to the instruction, teachings, and guidance of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم. The practice of the righteously guided Khulafaa, the consensus of the companions, and the continuous practice of the entire Muslim ummah without objection, are all sufficient evidence for this and no additional evidence is needed. Any “counter-evidence” that is brought from the practice in the time before ‘Umar رضي الله عنه is not evidence at all, since it is already an accepted fact that the Salaatut Taraaweeh was not established before that time.
The widespread harm of the reductive teaching of “fiqh” as just technical definitions and their literal interpretations- devoid of the context of true spiritual reform and effort- is a subject worthy of dedicated articles. Here, it suffices to imagine the people of the blessed Messenger’s era صلى الله عليه وسلم- it is inconceivable that any one of them would be directed even a “casual” command or observe a regular practice of the noble Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم and think it anything less than practically obligatory. Yes, in exceptional situations and on account of necessity they would have used their deeper, holistic, understanding of the relative emphasis associated with different commands to determine the correct course of action. True fiqh captures, preserves, and conveys until the Day of Judgement both the latter understanding and the former spirit and enthusiasm.
It is only the undeserved grace and mercy of Allah that he blessed me with an elder who corrected the wording of this part of the essay to better convey this understanding. May He also make this understanding a reality in my heart and that of the readers.