What is your opinion regarding al-Sabouni’s statement that the tarawih prayer is twenty rak'ahs?

The Shaykh : There is no doubt that the center of intellect and understanding is the heart, this small lump of flesh. Today, doctors know of its secrets only the apparent fact that it is a lump that supplies the body with purified blood; that is all the doctors know. As for the fact that there is a secret in it regarding the well-being of the body, not only from the material aspect—which is what the doctors mentioned earlier have discovered—but also from the spiritual and moral aspect, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the previous hadith: . The research now, given the question, is that the intellect, which doctors today and all people believe is centered only in the brain—and I mean what I say when I say that all people believe the center of the intellect is only the brain; I do not say they claim that the center of the intellect is the brain. It is true that the center of the intellect is the brain, but not only that. I compare the brain, in relation to the heart and the connection of the intellect in the brain to the heart, to the connection of a water tank to its primary source. We in Damascus, I used to give them an example, I don’t know what the example was, you interpret it for yourselves. We have water, may Allah bless its Creator, the water of al-Fayha. In the heat of summer, it comes cold as if it were artificially refrigerated. It comes from its homeland, which is called al-Fayha, so this water was named after the town from which it springs. It was piped to the houses and buildings. Al-Fayha is a distant village, and between us and it are mountains, or the mountain Qasiyun. So we used to see there tanks containing the water of al-Fayha. I used to compare the brain and the heart to them, saying the brain is like these tanks. If one of these tanks bursts, the water is cut off from the town and the people who do not know that the source of this water is the spring of al-Fayha say, "The water is coming from here." This is like the doctors, with no offense to those present; they know that the intellect is here, why? Because experiments led them to that, but their knowledge has not reached knowing this divine secret mentioned in the Noble Qur'an: . So the heart is what comprehends, meaning it is the origin. But this does not negate that the intellect which comes from the heart passes through the brain, and therefore if the brain is struck by a calamity, it disables a person’s thinking, this is true. But this does not mean that the origin of the intellect is from the brain, rather it is from the heart. So we believe in what came in the Book and the Sunnah, even if the scholars have not discovered it. Because they, as Allah the Exalted said addressing all humans, whether Muslim or, a fortiori, disbeliever: . So this material medicine cannot reach the secrets that the divine revelation, which does not err, has informed us of, while this medicine may err and may sometimes lead to the death of people who could have lived had it not been for the medical error. So the word "the intellect is in the heart" is the text of the Noble Qur'an: . But that does not mean that the intellect does not pass through the brain, as it is known today that a person with his intellect in his brain thinks. This is the extent of their knowledge. But the origin comes from the heart. This is the answer.

The questioner : Is its chain of narration, this one, correct, Professor?

The Shaykh : I don’t know, I am not recalling it right now. But our brother Akram says that according to what he read in my writings, its chain of narration is good.
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The questioner : A questioner asks and says: What doesThe Shaykh : Nasser, may Allah reward him with good, say regardingThe Shaykh : al-Sabouni’s statement that the tarawih prayer is twenty rak'ahs?

The Shaykh : We are not done with the soap yet, ...

The questioner : It is still full of foam, the foam.

The Shaykh: There is no power nor strength except with Allah.

The questioner : After the soap, foam and bubbles are necessary.

The Shaykh : What should I say, my brother, after the statement of the Mother of the Believers, Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): , I am amazed at these people who are still writing about determining the number of rak'ahs of tarawih. I am amazed from two aspects. The first aspect is that they know, as we know, this authentic hadith: . Yet they try to justify the increase over this text with all kinds of excuses and rationalizations. But I did not find one of them who stops at this hadith and, as they say today, the fiqh of the hadith. The hadith of Aisha, she says in the complete hadith: , etc. What concerns them is the second part of the hadith. Because when they establish and insist and persist on the permissibility of praying tarawih twenty rak'ahs, but my brothers, the twenty rak'ahs that they innovated in the past, I would say they were excused, I would not raise my hand, I would say they were half excused. Why? They said that the lengthening in eleven rak'ahs is heavy for the people who came after, like us, who take advantage of the opportunity of Ramadan to fill their bellies more than before Ramadan. These people cannot endure the length of standing. So the mind of some people devised, we must lighten it for the people. So if the long prayer in eleven rak'ahs is long, we divide it in half. Instead of eleven, we make it what? Twenty-three, to lighten the long recitation for the people. But I do not see this long recitation today. I find no trace of it at all in those who pray tarawih twenty rak'ahs. So, as Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said, increasing the number was in exchange for what? Decreasing the recitation. But this recitation in the twenty is equal to that recitation in the eleven rak'ahs. Here I see injustice, meaning the recitation was wronged at the expense of increasing the number. I hope this is clear to everyone. Tarawih in the past, they did not finish it except that many of them were leaning on sticks from the length of standing, and they did not leave tarawih except that the signs of the dawn had approached, so they hurried when they left tarawih, whoever catches up to the house to catch what? The suhur. Where are we today? Where are we today in our prayer? I am not saying twenty rak'ahs, eleven rak'ahs. We Salafis, who see our state a lot, what is our prayer today? If it is long, it is an hour, only an hour, eleven rak'ahs. They used to recite what? The long surahs. They would stand in the night until near the dawn, as we mentioned earlier. So Ibn Taymiyyah says some of them saw that we should increase the rak'ahs and lighten what? The recitation of standing, meaning. Because long standing is tiring. But we have eliminated the long standing and we have eliminated the numerical sunnah, which is eleven. So if the tarawih prayer in two mosques is tolerated, taking an hour of time, then it is better if the hour is applied to the sunnah, eleven rak'ahs. It is better than applying the twenty. Why? Because the twenty, they said, was made to lighten the standing. My brother, the standing has been eliminated completely, there is no more long standing. So there is no justification for twenty rak'ahs in general, and consequently in particular, there is no justification for these innovators to insist on praying the twenty, because it has become without taste or pleasure except what? Allah, bowing, prostrating, as if the purpose of it is physical exercise to digest this food with which the bellies are filled. So in summary, we hope that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) will forgive us our shortcoming in not lengthening the recitation of the Qur'an in the sunnah of eleven rak'ahs of tarawih, and we hope in return that He will forgive us this shortcoming for our eagerness to follow the sunnah as much as we can, if Allah wills. Yes.