A Response to Those Who Misunderstood 'Umar's Statement, "What a Good Innovation This Is"

The Shaykh : Likewise, the one who says, "As for 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, he said 'What a good innovation this is'," and then does not look at the hadiths that came in succession condemning religious innovation in general, and does not pay any attention to them at all, but stops at 'Umar's statement "What a good innovation this is"—he does not understand 'Umar's word as 'Umar intended it. This is because 'Umar said this word in a specific context. If the one who uses it as evidence for the permissibility of some of the newly invented matters had studied the context in which 'Umar said this word, he would not have dared to use it as evidence for the permissibility of celebrating the middle of Sha'ban, or the night of the twenty-seventh of Rajab, or celebrating the Prophet's birthday, or anything else. This is because, first of all, 'Umar does not mean by "innovation" here religious innovation, but rather linguistic innovation, meaning this new occurrence. And what does he mean by "occurrence"? It is not like a celebration; he means the prayer of tarawih. So what does the prayer of tarawih have to do with a celebration? The prayer of tarawih, first of all, existed, and the Messenger of Allah clarified its prescribed nature and its status as a recommended practice through his action and his speech. So 'Umar does not mean that the prayer of tarawih is an innovation in the religion, nor does he mean that the prayer of tarawih is an innovation in worldly affairs; he does not mean any of this at all. Rather, he means that it is a good deed that occurred now, meaning in the time of 'Umar, where they enlivened it with the action of what? A recommended act of worship that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) established as a recommended practice through his action and supported it with his speech. You all know that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) went out in the last Ramadan of his life, on some nights, to the mosque and prayed the night prayer. Some of the Companions who were in the mosque saw him and followed him in prayer. During the day, the news spread among the Companions that the Messenger (peace be upon him) had prayed the night prayer in congregation in the mosque the previous night. So the number of worshippers increased on the second night, and the Messenger went out and prayed, and they followed him. And so it was on the third night, and on the second night, the mosque was crowded with worshippers.
The questioner: ... this prayer of tarawih?

The Shaykh : It is the night prayer, the prayer of tarawih. The night prayer, as we all know, is well-known in all the nights of the year, but there is a jurisprudential term: the night prayer in Ramadan is called tarawih. In the books of knowledge, it is called the night prayer or the prayer of Ramadan, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So the prayer of Ramadan is the legal term, and the prayer of tarawih is a jurisprudential term, and there is no harm in it. The point is that on the fourth night, the Companions gathered as they had on the third night and waited for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to come out, but he did not come out. Some of those with narrow hearts were distressed and could not bear it, so they began to throw pebbles at the door, assuming that the Messenger was sleeping, but he was not sleeping. So he came out angry and said: . From that night on, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not pray the night prayer of Ramadan for the rest of that Ramadan, and he did not reach the second Ramadan, as you know, because he passed away in Rabi' al-Awwal. Then Abu Bakr al-Siddiq came after him, and his caliphate was two and a half years, and the people were praying individually, and some were praying in small groups of four or five here and four or five there, and some were praying alone. When Abu Bakr al-Siddiq passed away and the caliphate of 'Umar began, he went out one night, as was his custom, to check on the situation, and he saw this scene, which he did not like: people praying in groups and people praying alone. He said: "If we were to gather them behind one imam". Then it occurred to him to gather them, and he ordered Uthay ibn al-Ka'b to lead the people in prayer. The first night, he went out to check and was pleased with this scene: all the Muslims were praying behind one imam. So he said: "What a good innovation this is, and what is better than it is that they sleep from it". Who understands from 'Umar's statement "What a good innovation this is" that he means a worldly innovation? Or the one you mentioned, calling it a "living" innovation? It is an expression, names . Who understands from 'Umar's statement "What a good innovation this is" that he means inventing something that has no basis at all in the religion, but is not a pure act of worship, like celebrating, for example, the night of the Isra and Mi'raj, or anything else? 'Umar means here by "a good innovation" a good enlivening that they enlivened with the prescribed recommended practice, and that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) stood in prayer for three nights in Ramadan, and he did not leave that except out of fear that they would assume, due to the Messenger's (peace and blessings be upon him) persistence in leading them in prayer, that it was an obligation like fasting in Ramadan. And I mentioned earlier that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prescribed the night prayer with his speech, saying in some of the authentic hadiths that whoever prays 'Isha' in Ramadan and then stands in prayer with the imam, it is recorded for him as the standing of a night. So the prayer of tarawih is a recommended practice by his (peace and blessings be upon him) action and by his speech.