Regarding the Tarawih prayer, for the one who prays eight rak'ahs with the imam and then leaves with the first imam, saying that the standing of the night has been recorded for him, and the text of the hadith is: "Whoever prays with the imam until he leaves, the standing of the night is recorded for him"

The questioner : The questioner says: Regarding the Tarawih prayer, for the one who prays eight rak'ahs with the imam and then leaves with the first imam, saying that the standing of the night has been recorded for him, and the text of the hadith is: because he started with the imam and left with him?

The Shaykh : As for his saying: this is authentic and established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when the Companions asked him to grant them the rest of the night as voluntary prayer, and he had cut off the prayer at the middle of the night, so they said: O Messenger of Allah, But are the two imams in one mosque considered each independent, or is each one a deputy for the other? The apparent view is the second possibility, that each one is a deputy for the other, completing for him. And on this basis, if there are two imams praying in a mosque, then these two imams are considered in the position of one imam, so the person remains until the second imam leaves. And if you want the matter to be clarified for you, consider the issue in a mosque other than this one, i.e., other than the Sacred Mosque. Consider the issue in a neighborhood mosque with two imams, where one prays six rak'ahs and the other prays five rak'ahs. Do you say that if you leave from the first one, you have obtained the standing of the night? No, because we know that the second one completes the prayer of the first one. And on this basis, what I advise my brothers is to follow the imams here in the Haram until they finally leave. And if some of the brothers insist on leaving after praying eleven rak'ahs, saying that this is the number the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used, we agree with him that the number the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did and limited himself to is the best, and no one doubts that. But I see that there is no harm in increasing, no harm in increasing, not on the basis of desiring to deviate from the number chosen by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but on the basis that this is from the good in which the Shari'ah has been expansive. When he (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about the night prayer, he said: And if this matter is one in which increasing is permissible, then it is better for the person not to leave the congregation but to follow it. The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), for example, did not approve of what 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) did in completing the prayer in Mina, until some of them said "Hasbi Allah" (Allah is sufficient for me) when they heard of it. And with this, they would pray four rak'ahs behind him, adding two rak'ahs to a prayer that does not exceed two rak'ahs, in order to conform to the congregation. And conformity, my brothers, is a great matter, a very great matter. No one of you should follow a path that isolates him from the congregation and divides the Ummah, saying "You are with me and not with so-and-so." This is a mistake. This is the state of children. In reality, we do not know that anyone says "You are with me and not with so-and-so" except children in the markets. So on this basis, as long as the matter is permissible and there is no religious concern, then conforming to the congregation is the best, and it is the Sunnah, and it is what unites the Ummah, and it is what does not bring in grudges or hatreds. As long as the matter is broad, and the righteous Salaf are reported to have had various practices in this, as Imam Ahmad said and Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said: "Let what was broad for the Salaf be broad for us" And let us say, as long as our imams are praying twenty-three or praying more, we are now praying in the last ten days how many? Twenty-three and thirteen, thirty-six. There is no harm in the one who sees that Tarawih is thirty-nine, thirty-seven, or thirty-nine. As long as the matter is broad, and praise be to Allah, and those of the Salaf who preceded us have preceded us, it is not befitting for us to be exceptional. And I repeat the call to unity and not to differ in what allows for ijtihad.