The Meaning of 'Umar's Statement: "What a Good Innovation"
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
I do not know why we find it difficult to accept the statement of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him): "What a good innovation this is."
The Shaykh:
'Umar was referring to the tarawih prayers, and tarawih is not a bid'ah (religious innovation), because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) led his Companions in it for several nights, and then he stopped doing so with them for fear that it would become obligatory upon them. So when 'Umar said, "What a good innovation this is," he did not mean an invented innovation; rather, he meant the tarawih prayer, which is a sunnah (recommended practice) from the sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Yes.
I do not know why we find it difficult to accept the statement of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him): "What a good innovation this is."
The Shaykh:
'Umar was referring to the tarawih prayers, and tarawih is not a bid'ah (religious innovation), because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) led his Companions in it for several nights, and then he stopped doing so with them for fear that it would become obligatory upon them. So when 'Umar said, "What a good innovation this is," he did not mean an invented innovation; rather, he meant the tarawih prayer, which is a sunnah (recommended practice) from the sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 8 من 15|السنة ومكانتها|مواعظ وكلمات في الحرم المكي|صالح الفوزان|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (52:12)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.