What prevented 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) from performing the tarawih prayer during the first period of his caliphate?
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The questioner: ... (may Allah be pleased with him) when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) passed away ... the establishment of the tarawih prayer in the mosque of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), then 'Umar remained for approximately ten years, or more, or less; what prevented him from not establishing the tarawih prayer ... (peace and blessings be upon him), and there is ... a confirmed sunnah or it was a sunnah - for example - absolutely ... the night prayer?
The Shaykh: I tell you: First: the raising of this question has no relation to the subject in terms of understanding it; is it correct or incorrect? And the answer to it is likewise; it has no relation to the subject; why? Because if I tell you: I do not know, for example, the important thing is that you and every Muslim should know whether what 'Umar did was a religious innovation or the reviving of a sunnah from the sunnahs of the Messenger (peace be upon him)? So if we know by the previous evidence and others that he did not innovate in the religion - and may he be far from that - but rather he revived a sunnah from the sunnahs of the Messenger (peace be upon him), then what concerns us is knowing the reason for which Abu Bakr al-Siddiq did not revive this sunnah, and the reason for which 'Umar did not revive this sunnah in the first part of his caliphate; what harms us? Much of knowledge, ignorance of it is like knowledge of it; meaning it is from the superfluous speech, and yet the people of knowledge answer that what prevented them was Abu Bakr's preoccupation with the wars of apostasy, and that he had in his mind a great and very serious worry, fearing that Islam would be destroyed by these apostates, so this was a serious and very serious matter that took all his thought and all his importance, so it diverted him to repelling this great misguidance that occurred, and he no longer had room to think about reviving this sunnah; unlike 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, in whose caliphate things began to calm down, so he revived this sunnah, and from here it becomes clear to you that it is not important for us to know the reason, although this reason may be so, the important thing is for us to know whether what he did is prescribed or not prescribed?
The Shaykh: I tell you: First: the raising of this question has no relation to the subject in terms of understanding it; is it correct or incorrect? And the answer to it is likewise; it has no relation to the subject; why? Because if I tell you: I do not know, for example, the important thing is that you and every Muslim should know whether what 'Umar did was a religious innovation or the reviving of a sunnah from the sunnahs of the Messenger (peace be upon him)? So if we know by the previous evidence and others that he did not innovate in the religion - and may he be far from that - but rather he revived a sunnah from the sunnahs of the Messenger (peace be upon him), then what concerns us is knowing the reason for which Abu Bakr al-Siddiq did not revive this sunnah, and the reason for which 'Umar did not revive this sunnah in the first part of his caliphate; what harms us? Much of knowledge, ignorance of it is like knowledge of it; meaning it is from the superfluous speech, and yet the people of knowledge answer that what prevented them was Abu Bakr's preoccupation with the wars of apostasy, and that he had in his mind a great and very serious worry, fearing that Islam would be destroyed by these apostates, so this was a serious and very serious matter that took all his thought and all his importance, so it diverted him to repelling this great misguidance that occurred, and he no longer had room to think about reviving this sunnah; unlike 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, in whose caliphate things began to calm down, so he revived this sunnah, and from here it becomes clear to you that it is not important for us to know the reason, although this reason may be so, the important thing is for us to know whether what he did is prescribed or not prescribed?
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.