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Is Taraweeh Sunnah?
A brief account on the history and establishment of Taraweeh
Nabi S.AW. never prayed taraweeh. He prayed Qiyam ul Lail late at night (extension of Tahajjud). When he prayed, people joined him at the back for jamaat. This happened consecutively for 3 days and the jamaat behind him grew each time as more and more people joined in. 3rd day he didnt come out for Qiyam ul Lail to lead the jamaat. He came out at Fajr and said “I know all of you had gathered but I feared that Allah would make this namaz farz for you and due its time this namaz would have been the most difficult on you”. After that he never led the jamaat and he himself prayed at home. Some people said that it often becomes difficult to pray this late, can we pray this namaz right after Isha prayer? He said yes you can. This is the namaz that later became witr of everyday and taraweeh of Ramazan.
The taraweeh prayers in one congregation started in Hazrat Umar’s time. This also means that the taraweeh congregations didnt happen in prophet’s time except for those initial 3 days and also didnt happen in Hazrat AbuBakr’s reign.
Another point to note is that when Hazrat Umar started this he appointed one man Ubayy bin Ka’ab as the imam to lead the prayers. After a few days again he was crossing the mosque and looking at all the people gathered behind Ubayy bin Ka’ab he said “This is such a good act I did to collect everyone in one jamaat but the best time to pray this is late at night” And he went away.
We come to know two things from this.
1. When Hazrat Umar collected the people on first day he himself did not join that jamaat.
2. He mentioned the best time to pray this namaz is late night, which shows that he would have prayed this namaz himself late in the night and at home
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