Many imams are concerned with having a large number of worshippers with them in Ramadan, even if it is at the expense of the obligatory prayer or the worship, and this includes calling the adhan before its time.

The questioner : He says: May the Shaykh be honored, many imams are concerned with having a large number of worshippers with them in Ramadan, even if it is at the expense of the obligatory prayer or the worship. This includes calling the adhan for 'Isha' a quarter of an hour before the designated time so that they leave early. Second: omitting the seeking of refuge from the punishment of the grave and the trial of the Dajjal in the tarawih prayer, the reason being so that they also leave early. Third: hastening through the 'Isha' prayer, even though it is the obligatory prayer and the most beloved deed to Allah, and lengthening the tarawih prayer. Fourth: limiting the dhikr after the prayer, I mean the obligatory prayer, to the bare minimum, and continuing to do so throughout the month. Fifth: not settling in ruku' and sujud, such that even if they recite a surah in a rak'ah, they do not exceed three tasbihat in ruku' and sujud, and so on. So what is your advice to the imams regarding these points in detail?

The Shaykh : And I add to that: omitting the opening supplication at the beginning of every prayer. Let us start point by point. We say: First: The ruler has decided that the adhan for 'Isha' is after two hours have passed from the setting of the sun, like this. So, has he ordered something forbidden? Answer? No, because delaying the 'Isha' prayer is better than advancing it. Moreover, delaying it until two hours after the setting of the sun is more comfortable for people, so that whoever eats dinner after the Maghrib prayer can eat calmly, and whoever drinks coffee and performs wudu can do so likewise. So it is more comfortable for people. Obedience to the ruler in what is not disobedience is obedience to Allah, and disobedience to the ruler in what is not disobedience is disobedience to Allah. Therefore, if the ruler decides that the adhan for 'Isha' is at the second hour, meaning after two hours have passed from sunset, I see that it is obligatory to comply with this. Have we missed anything? Even the virtue, my brothers, we have not missed it, because the best thing regarding the 'Isha' prayer is to delay it. That is, if someone said: If the ruler said, "Delay it by half an hour from the usual time," is this an order to abandon the virtue? We say: That is not correct. You do not understand the virtue. The virtue is that the more you delay it, the better it is. Therefore, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out and most of the night had passed for the 'Isha' prayer, he said: And it is not a hardship for the community to delay the adhan for 'Isha' until the second hour, meaning until two hours after sunset. This is one point. Second: He says that he hastens through the 'Isha' prayer, he hastens, he recites short surahs in it, and he may also shorten the ruku' and sujud. And this is an error. Which is better: the obligatory prayer or the voluntary prayer? The obligatory prayer is better? The voluntary prayer is an addition of good, may Allah guide you. Okay, if I said: Peace be upon you, and the second person said: And upon you peace, which is better: my saying: Peace, or his saying: And upon you peace? I am better than him, I am better than him, even though his reply is obligatory and my greeting is a recommended practice. So now we ask: Is the recommended practice better in the standing prayer of Ramadan or the obligatory prayer? Perhaps you will review this with us, my brothers. The obligatory prayer is better. Okay, do we need evidence? The evidence is transmitted and rational. The transmitted evidence: The saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) about Allah the Exalted that He said: This is the word of the Lord of the Worlds, narrated by the most truthful of creation, upon him be prayers and peace, Muhammad, upon him be prayers and peace. This is the word of Allah the Exalted, narrated by His intimate friend Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). So the obligatory prayer is better, what? Better than the voluntary prayers. Okay, so it is more deserving of a person to be deliberate in it than to be deliberate in the tarawih. By reason: That the obligatory is better than the voluntary, that if it were not more emphatic, Allah would not have made it obligatory. So Allah did not make it obligatory upon His servants except because it is more beloved to Him and because it is more emphatic. So He did not give the person a choice in the obligatory, but made it a necessity upon him. And this indicates that the obligatory is better than the voluntary, and that a person's need for the obligatory is greater than his need for the voluntary. And this... The issue I raised is that starting the greeting is better than replying to it, why? Because the basis of replying to the greeting is built upon starting the greeting. So if I had not started the greeting, he would not have replied to me. Therefore, its beginning became better, because the reply, which is obligatory, follows from it. So the beginning in it is voluntary and obligatory. Voluntary because it is a beginning, and obligatory because it is the means to the reply, which is obligatory. Okay, this is prohibited: that he shortens the 'Isha' prayer and is deliberate in the tarawih. It is an error, an error in the first part. As for being deliberate in the tarawih, we praise him for that. Yes, omitting the opening supplication. Most of those who pray the tarawih open with the opening supplication only in the first taslim, and not in the rest. Glory to Allah! Why do you omit the opening supplication? Is not the second taslim independent of the first? Yes. Indeed, if the second were invalid, the first would not be invalid. It is completely independent of it. So if it is independent of it, then what is prescribed in the first is prescribed in the second. So just as the opening supplication is prescribed in the first taslim, it is prescribed in the second taslim. Also: they omit the seeking of refuge, which is: .
And I add to that that some of them leave out the rest of the Ibrahimi prayer. When they say: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger, O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad, peace be upon you," and stop there, they do not complete even the Ibrahimi prayer. Glory to Allah! We came to worship Allah, we left our families and our beds in order to fear Allah, yet you limit us to: "O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad." And perhaps the imam is quick in his recitation and finishes saying "O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad" before the one behind him has said: "Peace be upon you, O Prophet." This is a mistake, and it is a great mistake. As for leaving out the seeking of refuge from the four: the school of Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him), in one of the two views, holds that seeking refuge from these four is obligatory, just like the first tashahhud. One must seek refuge in Allah from these four. This view has a strong basis in reasoning, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: so he commanded seeking refuge. And because seeking refuge is a great protection for a person if Allah responds to him. Therefore, some scholars from the Tabi'un and others hold that if a person leaves out the seeking of refuge, he must repeat the prayer. For this reason, Tawus, one of the famous Tabi'un, ordered his son to repeat the prayer when he left out seeking refuge from the punishment of the Hellfire, the punishment of the grave, the trial of life and death, and the trial of the Dajjal. He ordered him to repeat it because he had contradicted the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in his saying: And this is a back-breaker, which is the lack of tranquility in the ruku' and sujud, until it is as if he is being pursued, as if a fire has caught up with him, or a valley has caught up with him, or an enemy has caught up with him. He does not find tranquility in his ruku', nor in his sujud, nor in his standing after his ruku', nor in his sitting between the two prostrations. Rather, he is always rushing, as if he is being pursued. Why, my brother? Are you not speaking to Allah the Mighty and Majestic in your prayer? Are you not in the presence of Allah? Why do you flee from Allah? You did not come to the prayer for anything except to draw near to Allah. How can you flee from Allah when you want to draw near to Him? Two rak'ahs that are accepted by Allah are better than a thousand rak'ahs of this type. That is to say, if the imams had limited the tarawih to what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) limited it to, eleven or thirteen rak'ahs, with deliberation and tranquility, it would have been better for them, by Allah, both in terms of their standing before Allah and in terms of their following the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). For the Mother of the Believers, who was among the most intimate people with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and the most knowledgeable about his life, was asked: How was the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in Ramadan? She said: As for his maintaining twenty-three rak'ahs but rushing with this speed, this is a great mistake. Yes.

The questioner : ... the prayer with the least of the minimum and continuing with that?

The Shaykh : Yes. Also, they deprive the obligatory acts of their due in the tasbih after the prayer. And if there is a need, there is no harm in it, because four ways were reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the tasbih after the prayer. Four ways, O Sa'id, four ways. The first: "Subhan Allah, alhamdulillah, la ilaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar," twenty-five times, making a total of one hundred. "Subhan Allah, alhamdulillah, la ilaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar," one hundred times. What is the total? Say it, everyone? One hundred times. Good. Second: "Subhan Allah, alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar," all together like this, thirty-three times, so the total is ninety-nine. And the completion of the hundred is: "La ilaha illa Allah wahdahu la sharika lah, lahul mulku wa lahul hamdu wa huwa 'ala kulli shay'in qadir." Third: "Subhan Allah" thirty-three times in succession, "alhamdulillah" thirty-three times in succession. How much is this? Sixty. Good. "Allahu Akbar" thirty-four times. How much is this? One hundred. The difference between this and the one before it is that the one before it counts "Subhan Allah, alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar" as one number, while this one counts "Subhan Allah" alone, "alhamdulillah" alone, and "Allahu Akbar" alone. The second difference is that the first description ends with: "La ilaha illa Allah wahdahu la sharika lah, lahul mulku wa lahul hamdu wa huwa 'ala kulli shay'in qadir," while the second ends with an addition of thirty-four takbirs. Good. How many of these are descriptions? Three. The fourth description is to say: "Subhan Allah" ten times, "alhamdulillah" ten times, and "Allahu Akbar" ten times. And this is sufficient, because all of this was reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Yes.