Chapter on Tarāwīḥ — Tuḥfat al-Mulūk

Ruling225

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It is a stressed sunna: five tarwīḥāt; each tarwīḥa has two salāms; he sits between each two tarwīḥāt for about a tarwīḥa; likewise between the fifth and witr; he does not sit after the fifth salām in the sound view; then he performs witr with them.

From the editors

Footnotes

Tarāwīḥ is a stressed (muʾakkad) sunna because the Rightly Guided caliphs maintained it as a public Ramadan observance after the pattern of the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace; classical compendia cite reports in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muwaṭṭaʾ Mālik on congregational night prayer in Ramadan as part of the basis for treating it as more than an ordinary nafl.

Each tarwīḥa is four rakʿāt prayed two-by-two (two salāms). The imām sits between completed tarwīḥāt for roughly the time a tarwīḥa takes, and likewise between the fifth tarwīḥa and witr. In the sound view he does not sit for a full tarwīḥ-length pause after the fifth taslim of the sequence—that is, after the tenth rakʿāt—whereas some scholars treated a long middle pause as mustaḥsan; the relied-upon position follows the former. He then performs witr with the same congregation. See: al-Hidāyah.

Ruling226

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Its sunna is to finish [recitation] in the month or in each rakʿa ten verses; congregation in it is a communal sunna.

From the editors

Footnotes

“Finishing in the month” means completing a khatm of the Qurʾān across Tarāwīḥ in Ramadan; many manuals additionally encourage generous recitation on the twenty-seventh night in view of traditions identifying it with Laylat al-Qadr, whilst the matn’s pairing with “ten verses in each rakʿa” offers a measured alternative pace when khatm in full would overburden the congregation.

The completion sunna should not be set aside merely because people are reluctant; legitimate difficulty is met by pacing (for example the ten-verse benchmark or shorter passages), not by abandoning khatm altogether when it remains feasible for the community.

Congregation for Tarāwīḥ is a communal sunna (sunna ʿalā al-kifāya): if the people of a mosque who could establish it collectively neglect it, they incur wrongdoing; if some establish it, those who stay away forfeit the virtue without necessarily sharing in the communal fault. Compare the duty-weighting of other kifāya acts.

Ruling227

1 note

The imām omits supplication after the tashahhud if he knows the congregation is weary.

Ruling228

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Its time is after performing ʿIshāʾ until Fajr dawn—before witr and after it.

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