The Taraweeh of the Salaf-us-Saliheen

Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) stated:

The

Most Superior of my Ummah is my generation (i.e. the

Sahabah), then those who follow them (the Tabieen), then

those who follow them (the Tab-e-Tabieen).
(Bukhari, Muslim)
Indeed,

those who will still be alive after me will see many

differences; so hold fast to my Sunnah, and the Sunnah of

the Khulafa Rashideen (i.e. Hadhrat Abu Bakr, Hadhrat
Umar, Hadhrat Ali, and Hadhrat Uthman radhiyallahu
anhum) after me. Adhere to and cling tightly to it and beware
of newly-invented matters, for every newly-invented matter
is an innovation and every innovation is deviation.
(Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud)
PART ONE
A SUMMARY OF THE VIEW OF THE SALAF-US-SALIHEEN

The issue of Taraweeh exposes thoroughly the falsity and

hollowness of the claims of the Salafi sect of being faithful
representatives of the Salaf-us-Saliheen the first three
generations of this Ummah regarding whom Rasulullah

(sallallahu alayhi wasallam) testified to their superiority. Any

Deen, such as that expounded by the Salafis, modernists
and other deviant sects, which is at variance with the Deen
of the Salaf-us-Saliheen is a deviated imposter of a Deen
which has no relation to the blessed Sunnah of Rasulullah
(sallallahu alayhi wasallam).
Even a perfunctory perusal of the rulings of the Salaf-usSaliheen as transmitted by all the early Fuqaha reveals the
fact that there was complete Ijma (consensus) of the Salafus-Saliheen, including the Sahabah (radhiyallahu anhum),
that Taraweeh consists of 20 rakats of congregational
prayers. This was the position of ALL the Aimmah
Mujtahideen, the authoritative scholars of the Salaf-usSaliheen, who based their ruling on the Ijma (consensus) of
the Sahabah (radhiyallahu anhum).
While the Salafi and modernist sects of today continue to
conjure up various different opinions, ranging from 20
rakats being branded a Bidah (al-Albani, Ahlul Hadeeth, &
co.) to the overwhelmingly liberal trend today of 8 rakats, 2
rakats, half a rakat, and anything and everything being
valid ikhtilaaf, the ONLY ikhtilaaf transmitted from the Salaf-

us-Saliheen is in regards to the extra four rakats of Nafl

prayed in the period of rest that would occur after every four
rakats during the 20 rakats of congregational prayer.
As shall be demonstrated, while the Salaf-us-Saliheen of
Makkah Mukarramah would perform Tawaaf during these 4
periods of rest, the Salaf-us-Saliheen of Madinah
Munawarrah would pray an extra 4 rakats, thus bringing
their total to 20 + 4 x 4 = 36 rakats. Another 3 rakats or 5
rakats or Witr would bring the total number in Madinah to 39
or 41 respectively. However, in terms of the minimum base
of 20 rakats of congregational prayers, there was absolutely
no difference amongst the Salaf-us-Saliheen.
Allamah Ibn Qudamahs Summary of Position of the Salafus-Saliheen
Before providing a brief background on the basis of the
ruling of the Salaf-us-Saliheen, and casting a cursory look
into the blessed environment in which the Four Imams and
other Imams of the most superior of generations of this
Ummah had begun the codification, systemization, and
compilation of the Deen of the Salaf-us-Saliheen, we shall
first quote the early authority of the Hanbali Madh-hab,

Allamah Ibn Qudamah (rahmatullahi alayh), whom even the

Salafis accept to be amongst the most authoritative
transmitters of the rulings of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, to
serve as a useful summary of the view of the Salaf-usSaliheen with regards to the Taraweeh prayers.
Allamah Ibn Qudamah (rahmatullahi alayh) states in his
famous, authoritative work known as al-Mughni:
The

Mukhtaar (i.e. the adopted and chosen) position

according to Abu Abdullah (i.e. Imam Ahmad) is 20 Rakats

and this is the position of ath-Thawri, Abu Hanifa and Shafii.
Malik said that it is 36 Rakahs while asserting that it is the
age-old practice connected with the Amal (practice) of the
people of Madinah, for Saalih, the Mawla of Taw-amah, said,
I have found the people standing up for 41 rakats, 5 of
which was the Witr salaat.
[The proof] for us is that when Umar (radhiyallahu anhu)
gathered the people behind Ubayy ibn Kab (radhiyallahu
anhu), he lead them for 20 rakats. And it has been narrated
by al-Hasan that Umar gathered the people behind Ubayy
bin Kab who lead them for 20 rakatsthis was also
narrated by Abu Dawud, and narrated by Saa-ib bin Yazeed

(radhiyallahu anhu) through a number of routes. Malik

narrated on the authority of Yazeed bin Roomaan, that he
said, The people would stand up for prayer for 23 rakats in
Ramadhan, during the era of Umar (radhiyallahu anhu),
and also on the authority of Ali (radhiyallahu anhu) that he
ordered a man to lead them (the people) for 20 rakats in
Ramadhan. And this is like Ijma (consensus).
Elsewhere, Allamah Ibn Qudamah mentions that the 20
rakats is based on the Ijma of the Sahabah the highest
form of Ijma possible:
The

Sahabah (radhiyallahu anhum) made Ijma upon this in

the era of Sayyiduna Umar (radhiyallahu anhu).

Allamah Ibn Qudamah mentions that Taraweeh is a Sunnah
Muakkadah an emphasized Sunnah omission of which is
blameworthy without a valid excuse:
The

prayer of the month of Ramadn is twenty rakats i.e.

Salaat-ut-Taraweeh, and it is Sunnah Muakkadah.

Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) was the first to make
it a SunnahTaraweeh was only ascribed to Umar ibn alKhattab because he gathered the people behind Ubayy ibn
Kab, so he would lead them in Salaat-ut-Taraweeh.

Allamah Ibn Qudamah states regarding the only Ikhtilaaf

reported from the Salaf-us-Saliheen, that of 39 rakats or 41
rakats, which was the practice of the people of Madinah:
Some

of the Ahlul Ilm (i.e. the Ulama of the Salaf-us-

Saliheen) said: This practice of the people of Madinah was

due to the fact that they desired to equal the people of
Makkah who would perform 7 Tawaafs between each
Tarweehah (i.e. in the rest period after every 4 rakats),
hence the people of Madinah would pray 4 rakats as a
substitute for the 7 (Tawaafs). And that which the Sahabah
(radhiyallahu anhum) were upon is the most favoured and
most deserving of being followed.
Allamah Ibn Qudamah makes it explicitly clear in al-Muqni, another authoritative
book written for the purpose of recording the rulings of the Madh-hab of Imam
Ahmad ibn Hanbal, that the Taraweeh and Tahajjud prayers are two separate
and distinct prayers:
And Taraweeh is 20 rakats to be prayed in Ramadhan in congregation, and

Witr is to be performed after it in congregation. However, if he prays Tahajjud

then he prays Witr after it.

Here ends the excerpts from Allamah Ibn Qudamah which is

merely a re-iteration of what innumerable early Fuqaha have
transmitted from the best of generations. A glimpse into this

mass-transmission of the ruling of the Salaf-us-Saliheen will

be given in this article insha-Allah.
Before proceeding, it must be noted that the early Fuqaha
did not pull the rulings they had written down out of their
back pocket. They were not reliant on a few copies of
Bukhari Sharif, Muslim Sharif, Al-bani Sharif etc. they
happened to stumble across in their living room, nor were
they reliant on Hazrat Google Sharif, or a smattering of
Arabic they happened to learn on the side during a life-time
of indulgence in Haraam and Mushtabah (doubtful) matters.
These Ulama were Paragons of piety, immersed in Zikrullah,
who understood that the Noor of Ilm (Knowledge of the
Deen), and its correct understanding, was purely wahbi i.e.
divinely bestowed by Allah (azza wa jal) and thus completely
dependent on Taqwa, Wara (abstinence from even
permissible matters), and firm adherence to every minute
Sunnah of Habeebullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). Such
Ulama-e-Haqq acquired all their knowledge directly from
numerous other Ulama-e-Haqq, often numbering in the
hundreds, who themselves acquired their Deen from their
numerous teachers, and so on, through continuous,

unbroken chains that would stretch just a few generations

back to the Imams of the Salaf-us-Saliheen.
Thus, when Allamah Ibn Qudamah or Imam Nawawi affirms
that Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal or Imam Shafii, who were the
leading scholars of the third and final tier of the Salaf-usSaliheen, held the position that Taraweeh is 20 rakats, then
such attributions are based on a firm conviction stemming
from a direct acquisition of knowledge from a multitude of
Ulama-e-Haqq who in term had acquired their knowledge
from another multitude of Ulama-e-Haqq, and so on,
through multiple Sanads (chains) consisting of only a few
names between them and the Imams of the Salaf-usSaliheen.
In any case, statements from the Imams of the Salaf-usSaliheen themselves, and their direct students, will be
produced to confirm the unanimous ruling of 20 rakats
based on the Ijma of the Sahabah (radhiyallahu anhum),
and recorded by all the early Fuqaha of this Ummah.
PART TWO
A SNAPSHOT OF THE AMAL (PRACTICE) OF THE
SALAF-US-SALIHEEN
We shall now provide a snapshot of the Taraweeh Amal (actual practice) of all

the Salaf-us-Saliheen a practice that was mass-transmitted from

generation to generation before being recorded in detail in the authoritative
books of Fiqh of all Madh-habs. The fact that every report of the Fuqaha-eMutaqaddimeen (the early Fuqaha during and in close proximity to the era of
the Salaf-us-Saliheen) pertaining to the Taraweeh Amal (actual practice) of
the Salaf-us-Saliheen conforms exactly to what Allamah Ibn Qudamah stated,
leaves not the slightest doubt that the minimum base of 20 rakats was the
unanimous practice of the Salaf-us-Saliheen.
While reading the eye-witness accounts, testimonies, and ruling of the Salafus-Saliheen with regards to Taraweeh below, bear in mind that the
specification or special emphasis on a particular number that is not explicitly
found in the Sunnah causes a practice to become a reprehensible Bidah
according to Ijma (consensus). To illustrate this concept of Bidah, if a Salafi
mutation today were to introduce a fast-track or instant Taraweeh of 4
rakats in mosques around the world, or another deviant sect were to extend
the 20 rakats Taraweeh practice of Ramadhan to other sacred months of the
year, believing that Taraweeh is just another name for Tahajjud and thus
permissible throughout the whole year, then such innovations would be
classed as reprehensible Bidahs according to the Shariah.
According to this principle of Bidah which the Salafis accept wholeheartedly,
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Imam Shafii, and the Salaf-us-Saliheen who all
condoned and adopted the widespread specification of 20 rakats for
Taraweeh, as shall be demonstrated below, were all completely complicit in
the perpetration of wholesale Bidah.
Bear in mind that there existed literally hundreds of thousands of Ulama-eHaqq besides the Four Imams during that blessed era, each one the

staunchest upholder of the Haqq who would never have hesitated for a
second in condemning most vociferously the slightest of deviations. Such
Ulama bore not the slightest resemblance to the so-called Ulama-e-Haqq of
today whose salient feature is cowardice and Kitmaanul Haqq (being silent
regarding the truth).
Yet not one authority who witnessed and transmitted the practice and ruling of
Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Imam Shafii, Imam Malik, Imam Abu Hanifah, etc.
have reported anything different to what Allamah Ibn Qudamah has stated
with regards to the Amal (practice) of the Salaf-us-Saliheen. And not one
record exists of a single objection from the droves of Ulama-e-Haqq of the
Salaf-us-Saliheen and of subsequent generations regarding the Bidah
specification of a number not found in the Sunnah.
Perhaps the Salafis believe that Imam Shafii and other Imams of the Salafus-Saliheen were hallucinating when they explicitly testified to having
witnessed the Salaf-us-Saliheen of Makkah, Madinah, Iraq, etc. to be praying
20 rakats? Or perhaps all the Salaf-us-Saliheen at some point in time
conspired together in all the lands to displace the Ijma practice of the
Sahabah (radhiyallahu anhum) and secretly institute a Bidah, while
simultaneously managing to silence the hundreds of thousands of Ulama-eHaqq who would have existed during that era and in subsequent eras?
Or perhaps Taraweeh was an intensely dark, obscure and private matter that
was surreptitiously enacted in all the mosques of the Ummah, including the
Haramain (Makkah and Madinah), thus making it an extremely complex task
for the Four Imams and other Fuqaha to surgically extract the number of
rakats from the crowds of masses, including themselves, who all would have
been participating fervently in this mysterious practice for hours on end, every

evening during Ramadhan?

Perhaps when Hazrat Umar (radhiyallahu anhum) re-enacted the Taraweeh
prayers in congregation, based on the Sunnah of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi
wasallam), and accepted by the Ijma of the Sahabah (radhiyallahu anhum),
the subsequent generations of Salaf-us-Saliheen somehow lost count of the
number of rakats they had witnessed first-hand and been taught to pray, and
8 rakats transformed instantly into 20 rakats?
Or perhaps this issue serves as yet another example that exposes vividly the
massive disparity that exists between the Maslak (way) of the Salaf-usSaliheen and the Maslak of the Salafis, whose satanic success in this age in
displacing so widely the exact Taraweeh practice of the Salaf-us-Saliheen
demonstrates the lethal potential of the Salafi methodology to transform and
mutate the Deen of the Ummah within a matter of a few years.
THE AMAL (PRACTICE) OF THE SALAF-US-SALIHEEN OF MAKKAH,
MADINAH, IRAQ AND THE WHOLE UMMAH
Imam Shafii describes unambiguously in his famous Kitaab, al-Umm, the
specified number of rakats prayed by the Salaf-us-Saliheen of Makkah and
Madinah:
I saw [them] in Madinah standing up for prayer for 36 rakats. However, 20

rakats is more beloved to me since it was related on the authority of Umar,

and in the same manner [i.e. for 20 rakats] they [i.e. the Salaf-us-Saliheen of
his era] would stand up for prayer at Makkah and pray 3 rakats Witr.
Imam Abu Yusuf (d. 182), in his Kitab al-Athar, narrates via Imam Abu
Hanifah and Hammad (ibn Abu Sulayman) from Hazrat Ibrahim al-Nakhai (d.
96 AH), the great Tabii of Iraq the other major centre of learning to which
thousands of Sahabah (radhiyallahu anhum) had migrated and which had

become the political capital of the Muslim empire during the era of the
Khulafa-e-Rashideen:
The people [i.e. the Sahabah and Tabieen] would pray 5 Tarweehaat [sets of 4

rakats] in Ramadhan.

In al-Mudawwanah, Ibn al-Qasim (d. 191 AH), the major student and primary
source of the rulings of Imam Malik, relates Imam Maliks statement in
defence of the practice of 36 rakats (20 + 16) in Madinah:
This is what I found the people to be upon, and it is the age-old practice which

the people (i.e. the Salaf-us-Saliheen) have not ceased to be upon.

Imam Tirmidhi (d. 279 AH), the student of Imam Bukhari, makes it clear
explicitly in his Sunan that the minimum base of 20 rakats was the practice of
the Salaf-us-Saliheen. The only ikhtilaaf he reports is the practice of the
people of Madinah who would pray an extra 4 rakats in each period of rest:
The Ahlul Ilm (the Ulama of the Salaf-us-Saliheen) differed over the night prayer

of Ramadan. Some were of the view that one is to pray 41 rakats [i.e. 20 rakats
+ 16 rakats Nafl + 5 witr] including Witr. This is the view of the people of
Madinah, and this is what the Amal (practice) is upon according to them in
Madinah. However, the majority of the Ahlul Ilm are upon what was reported
from Ali, Umar, and others from the Sahabah (radhiyallahu anhum) of Nabi
(sallallahu alayhi wasallam), that it is twenty Rakah. This is the view of Sufyan
Ath-Thawri, Ibn Al-Mubrak and Ash-Shafii. Ash-Shafii said: And like this I
found them [i.e. the Salaf-us-Saliheen of his era] in our land in Makkah praying
twenty Rakats. Ahmad said: There are various reports concerning this. He did
not judge according to any of them. Ishaq [ibn Rahawayh) said: Rather, we
prefer forty-one Rakah according to what has been reported from Ubayy bin
Kab. Ibn Al-Mubarak, Ahmad and Ishaq preferred that one perform the Salat
with the Imam during the month of Ramadan, while Ash-Shafii preferred that

one pray alone if he is a Qari.

Imam al-Tahawi (d. 321 AH) stated in his book, Ikhtilaf al-Ulama:
Our companions (i.e. the Imams of the Hanafi madh-hab) and Imam al-Shafii

would pray 20 rakats other than witr. Malik said [that it is] 39 rakats including
Witr 36 rakats plus Witr and he said that this was the age-old practice which
the people have not ceased to be upon, [based] on the authority of Saaib ibn
Yazeed (radhiyallahu anhu) that they would stand in Ramadan for 20 rakats,
and that they would support themselves on staffs during the time of Umar ibn alKhattab. Al-Hasan bin Hayy from Amr ibn Qays from Abul Husnaa [reported] that
Ali ibn Talib (radhiyallahu anhu) ordered a man to lead them in Salaat for 20
rakats in the month of Ramadhan
Abul Qasim al-Khiraqi (d. 334 AH), the long-serving student of the eldest son of
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, states in his Mukhtasar, the earliest Hanbali Fiqh
manual which was written solely for the purpose of recording the positions of
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal:
The standing (of prayer) in the month of Ramadhan is 20 rakats