I hope that you could tell me about the opinions of the scholars with
regard to the ruling on dividing Taraweeh prayers in the last ten days
of Ramadan into two parts: at the beginning of the night and at the
end, as is done in many mosques. Please also mention the evidenceif
possible.
Praise be to Allaah.
What is mustahabb during the nights of Ramadan is to spend them in
qiyaam, prayer and worship, and to single out the last ten nights for
extra worship and striving, seeking forgiveness and mercy and seeking
Laylat al-Qadr which is better than a thousand months.
Moreover, Taraaweeh prayer is regarded as a kind of Qiyaam al-layl
andthey call it Taraweeh because people take brief breaks between
rak'ahs. Hence the matter is broadin scope, and it is permissible for
a person to pray whatever he wants of rak'ahs, at whatever time of the
night he wants.
It says in al-Mawsoo'ah al-Fiqhiyyah (34/123):
There is no difference of opinion among the fuqaha' with regard to it
being Sunnah to pray during the nights of Ramadan (Qiyaam
al-layl),because the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him) said: "Whoever spends the nights of Ramadan in prayer, out of
faith and seeking the reward of Allah, his previous sins will be
forgiven."
The fuqaha' said: Taraweeh is the qiyaam (Qiyaam al-layl) of Ramadan.
Hence it is best to spend most of the night in it, because it is
Qiyaam al-layl. End quote.
What many imams do nowadays -- especially in the last ten days of
Ramadan -- leading the people in Taraweeh prayer immediately after
'Isha', then going back to the mosque in the last part of the night to
pray qiyaam, is something thatis prescribed and it is not forbidden.
There is no reason to suggest it is notallowed. What is required is to
strive hard in the lastten days according to one's ability. If a
person breaks up his night between prayer, resting, sleeping, and
reading Qur'aan, then he has donewell.
Shaykh 'Abd-Allaah Abaabateen said, as is narrated in al-Durar
al-Saniyyah (4/364):
In response to what somepeople do of objecting to the one who prays
more during the last ten days ofRamadan than he usually did in the
first twenty days, on the grounds that this is more than is usual and
is ignorance of the Sunnah and the practice of the Sahaabah, Taabi'een
and imams of Islam,
We say: There are hadeeths from the Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) which encourage praying Qiyaam al-layl during
Ramadan, and particularly emphasise it during the last ten days.
Once it becomes clear thatthere is no specific number of rak'ahs for
Taraweeh, and that the time for it according to allscholars is from
after the Sunnah of 'Isha' until the break of dawn, and that spending
the night in worship is a confirmed Sunnah, and that the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) prayed taraweeh for many
nights in congregation, then how can anyone object to the one who
prays more during the last ten nights than he did at the beginning of
the month? So during the last ten days, he prays at the beginning of
the night, as he did at the beginning ofthe month, or a little, or a
lot, without praying Witr, for the sake of those who are weak and want
to limit themselves to that; then after that he does more prayers in
congregation and calls all of it qiyaam or taraweeh.
Perhaps the one who objects to that is confusedby what many of the
fuqaha' say, that it is mustahabb for the imam not to pray more than
one includes than one khatmah (reading of the entire Qur'aan), unless
thepeople behind him prefer to do more than that. The reason they gave
for not doing more than one khatmah is the hardship that may be caused
for the people behind him, not because doing more than that is not
prescribedin sharee'ah. So from theirwording we may conclude that if
people behind him want to do more than one khatmah, that is good, as
was clearly stated in the words of the scholars.
As for what many of the common people say, calling what is done at the
beginning of the nightTaraweeh and the prayersoffered after that
qiyaam, this is what the uneducated people say. Rather all of it is
qiyaam and taraweeh.
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