The ruling on adding to the eleven rak'ahs in the Tarawih prayer, pointing out some errors, and warning against division and disagreement

The Shaykh : This is a matter that some of our brothers, who are eager to follow the Sunnah, do. If the imam prays twenty-three rak'ahs of Tarawih, some of our brothers who are eager to apply the Sunnah, when the imam prays ten rak'ahs—how many taslims is that? Five—they stop and do not pray with him. And when the Witr comes, they stand up and pray Witr with him. Why? They say: Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not exceed eleven rak'ahs or thirteen rak'ahs in Ramadan or otherwise. So we say to them: But did the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibit adding to them? Did a single hadith come saying, "O people, do not exceed eleven rak'ahs or thirteen rak'ahs"? Never. And if someone brings us this hadith, we are open to it. But the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did it and did not prohibit the extra. As for his saying: , he is addressing the delegations that come to pray the obligatory prayer with him, wanting them to pray in the manner in which he prays. So we say to these brothers: If you do that, you have forbidden yourselves the standing of the night. Why? Because they did not stand with the imam until he finished; they left ten rak'ahs with the imam. And some of them leave until the Witr comes, then they return and pray Witr. My advice to these brothers is to be with their brothers, united and harmonious, because disagreement, even in such matters, is evil, and it is the division and tearing apart of the Ummah. And as long as there is no prohibition from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), we are with our brothers. And in *the two Sahihs*, from the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar, a man said: "O Messenger of Allah, what do you think of the night prayer?" He said: He specified the number but did not limit the quantity. He said: And I say to these brothers: What do you think the Muslims feel about you if you do not follow them? People will feel that you are a deviant group, or people will feel that the religion is divided, or something like that. So unity on a matter that does not contradict the Shari'ah is the Shari'ah. And this is indicated, first, by the hadith of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) where the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal and Abu Musa al-Ash'ari to Yemen. He sent one of them to Sana'a and the other to Aden, and he said to them: Listen to the advices . Where is the point? His saying: , meaning let some of you obey others and do not differ. Disagreement is evil and obedience is better. Meaning, if you and your brother differ in a matter, do not differ; obey him except in disobedience to Allah. And I give an example for this: Two men went out into the desert, and one of them held that this journey permitted shortening the prayer, while the other held that it did not permit shortening. They differed. Do we say to this one, "Pray two rak'ahs alone," and to the other, "Pray four alone"? No, we say: Be cooperative, be cooperative, and that is better. If the imam is the one who holds that shortening is permitted, he prays two rak'ahs, and you, the ma'mum, stand and complete the four. And if the imam holds that four are required, then you, who hold that shortening is permitted, pray four with him, because completing the prayer while traveling is not forbidden. The important thing is that we unite, that we unite on the matter. And when it was at the end of the caliphate of Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), he used to pray the four-rak'ah prayer in Mina as four, and the Sunnah is what? To pray two rak'ahs. So the Companions criticized him for that; they disapproved of this. Until when it reached Ibn Mas'ud that Uthman had prayed four, he said: But Ibn Mas'ud himself prayed four with Uthman; he prayed four. So it was said to him: "O Abu Abd al-Rahman, how do you pray four?" Meaning, while you disapprove of it. He said: Disagreement is evil. For this reason, I say, O brothers, it is not befitting for a person who holds that the Sunnah in night prayer is not to exceed thirteen or eleven rak'ahs to leave the imam in Tarawih. Rather, he prays with him, and he is in a good state, if Allah wills. And this is among the good things in this blessed month, which I mean the month of Ramadan.