Salat al Tarawih, Prayer of Al Tarawih

Salat al Tarawih.— This is a special set of twenty rak'ats recited every night during the month of Ramadan. They must be said after the farz and sunnat, and before the witr rak'ats at the time of the Salat-ul-'Ishá. The Salat-ut-Taráwíh is considered of sunnat obligation. The practice dates from the time of the Khalíf Omar. Abd-ur-Rahmán, a Traditionist, states that one night in Ramadan he went with Omar to the Mosque. They saw some persons saying the Namáz alone and some reciting it in groups. Omar said: "If I gather them all together, so that they may recite it after one Imám it will be good." He did so, and the next night the people of their own accord came in great numbers and united together. Then said Omar: "this bid'at is good." This is good authority for the institution, for the Prophet said: "Follow my Sunnat and that of the Khulafá-i-Rashídín." There is also a Hadís-i-Sahíh to the effect that "God has made the fast of Ramazán farz, and its qíám sunnat." (Kutiba 'alaikum síámu Ramazána wa sunna qíámuhu). The Prophet was anxious lest the Tiráwíh Namáz should become farz and, therefore, after going to the Mosque on two successive nights in Ramazán, he stayed away on the third, giving as his reason for so doing that he feared that, if he went every night, it might be considered a farz and not a sunnat duty. The number of rak'ats is fixed at twenty, as that was the number recited by Muhammad and by the Khalíf Omar. The Shía'hs do not say these prayers or even enter the Mosque on such occasions, as after every four rak'ats an eulogium is repeated on the four Khalífs—the first three of whom they hate.