Is the prayer of twenty rak'ahs in the Tarawih prayer mass-transmitted?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : ... Tarawih ... meaning, did they take its mass transmission as the prayer?
The Shaykh : Your question is elastic, Abu Ma'har, elastic! Is the Tarawih prayer our prayer or their prayer?
The questioner : Theirs.
The Shaykh : Yes, there is a difference. They took it as a mass transmission that is disconnected, whereas a connected one back to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has no basis, as you know. This is because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not exceed eleven rak'ahs in Ramadan or in any other time. When 'Umar ibn al-Khattab revived this Sunnah, he ordered Ubayy ibn Ka'b to lead the people in eleven rak'ahs. When did this increase occur? Allah knows best. And praise be to Allah, we are not obligated to date errors; we do not need to know when a specific innovation occurred. It is sufficient for us to know that it is an innovation, and the matter is settled. Because what is the purpose of knowing? It is to avoid it. Whether we know its history or not, that is part of the extra knowledge.
The questioner : Once, we asked one of our brothers from Saudi Arabia, Abu 'Abdullah, about the basis for the number of prayers, and he answered us with the hadith in al-Bukhari, and Allah knows best... he argued with this hadith.
The Shaykh : This is among the previously mentioned matters; arguing with general texts that practice has not followed. Did you understand me?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The Shaykh : Your question is elastic, Abu Ma'har, elastic! Is the Tarawih prayer our prayer or their prayer?
The questioner : Theirs.
The Shaykh : Yes, there is a difference. They took it as a mass transmission that is disconnected, whereas a connected one back to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has no basis, as you know. This is because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not exceed eleven rak'ahs in Ramadan or in any other time. When 'Umar ibn al-Khattab revived this Sunnah, he ordered Ubayy ibn Ka'b to lead the people in eleven rak'ahs. When did this increase occur? Allah knows best. And praise be to Allah, we are not obligated to date errors; we do not need to know when a specific innovation occurred. It is sufficient for us to know that it is an innovation, and the matter is settled. Because what is the purpose of knowing? It is to avoid it. Whether we know its history or not, that is part of the extra knowledge.
The questioner : Once, we asked one of our brothers from Saudi Arabia, Abu 'Abdullah, about the basis for the number of prayers, and he answered us with the hadith in al-Bukhari, and Allah knows best... he argued with this hadith.
The Shaykh : This is among the previously mentioned matters; arguing with general texts that practice has not followed. Did you understand me?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: Yes.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.