Clarification of the Sunnah regarding the number of rak'ahs in the Tarawih prayer in Ramadan?

The Shaykh : ... And it is perhaps useful, and in the vein of killing two birds with one stone, and we have two hunters, to say that the prayer of standing in the night, and especially the prayer of standing in Ramadan, falls entirely within this topic, since you hear a great deal of prolonged disagreement on this matter. Some people say the Sunnah is eleven rak'ahs, and some people say no, it is twenty-three rak'ahs, and people in other lands may even exceed thirty, especially in the Sacred Precinct of Makkah, where they pray two prayers. So you see, is the prayer of standing in the night, on all days and especially on the nights of Ramadan, an absolute voluntary prayer, or a restricted voluntary prayer, as we gave as an example just now with the pre-dawn Sunnah? The answer is the same answer we gave regarding the pre-dawn Sunnah, and the same evidence. Just as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) continued throughout his life to pray the pre-dawn Sunnah of two rak'ahs, so he continued throughout his life—I do not say that he prayed eleven rak'ahs, because something will come that distinguishes the Sunnah of standing from the Sunnah of Witr—but I say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) continued throughout his blessed life not to exceed eleven rak'ahs. The evidence we relied upon and held to in the illegitimacy or impermissibility of increasing beyond the two rak'ahs of the pre-dawn Sunnah is the same evidence that applies to the impermissibility of increasing beyond eleven rak'ahs in the standing prayer every night, and especially in Ramadan. I said I did not say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) continued to pray eleven rak'ahs throughout his life, because if I had said that, it would not be permissible for us to pray Witr except eleven rak'ahs, just as we said regarding the two rak'ahs of the dawn: is it permissible for us to pray two rak'ahs as one rak'ah? The answer is no. So if we had said that the Messenger (peace be upon him) continued to pray Witr eleven rak'ahs, we would have created a problem for ourselves before we created one for others. I did not say this because I remember that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) reached the point of praying Witr first as seven rak'ahs, and in some narrations three as well, but it appears that these three were after the four. So it is permissible for us to decrease from eleven to less, even to less than the seven that the Messenger (peace be upon him) prayed. And he said in the hadith: And he said in the other hadith: . In addition to this, it is established from some of the Salaf that he prayed Witr as one rak'ah. One of them witnessed Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him) praying Witr as one rak'ah. And it was said to Ibn 'Abbas: So-and-so did not pray Witr except one rak'ah. He said: He has not deviated from the Sunnah. That is, the minimum of Witr is one rak'ah, and then you increase until you reach the maximum number the Messenger (peace be upon him) prayed, which is eleven rak'ahs. This is the discussion regarding what is obligatory or voluntary among the restricted acts of worship that the Messenger (peace be upon him) restricted by his action, as we mentioned, and by his speech, a fortiori.