Is Taraweeh salah sunnah or nafl?
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim; Today we want to discuss the rules of Tarabi’s prayers. Is Taraweeh salah sunnah or nafl? That is, whether Taraweeh prayer is obligatory or not. The rules of Islam are basically of two types. One is fard and the other is nafl.
1. Obligation: It is obligatory to follow the strict instructions given in the Qur’an and Hadith and the punishment for not following them.
2. Nafl: Nafl is what the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, did, and encouraged. No one is sinful if he does not perform supererogatory worship, but there are many rewards for performing it.
The importance of every obligatory worship is not the same as the importance of every supererogatory worship. The importance of one supererogatory worship is one and the same. To know the importance of an act of worship, one must first look at what has been said about it in the Qur’an. Then we have to see what has been narrated in the hadith. That is, how important the Prophet (peace be upon him) was in that. Scholars use a name characteristic of a supererogatory act of worship considering its importance. Such as Sunnat Muakkadah, Sunnat Zaida, Mustahab etc. Ordinary Muslims are exhausted just knowing this much.
They do not want to know why this was named. What did the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) do or say in this regard? They are not interested in knowing Quran and Hadith. They are happy when they get fatwa. But the matter is not so simple. It is not desirable to neglect in this way. The importance of any act of worship must be understood by looking at what has been narrated in the Qur’an and Hadith without looking at the fatwas prescribed by the scholars. Then there will be more interest in worship. Just as the Companions used to listen to the hadith from the Holy Prophet and act upon it. So today we will see what has been narrated in the Qur’an and Hadith about Tarabi prayers InshaAllah.
Allah the Almighty said,
And stay awake for some part of the night with Quran recitation, it is extra for you. Hopefully, your Rabb will establish you in the acclaimed place.
In Surah Bani Isra’il verse no 79.
In this verse, Allah Ta’ala has declared nafl for the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) who prayed in some part of the night. And so the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to offer nafl prayers in Ramadaan and outside Ramadaan, that is, at night throughout the year. The night prayer in Ramadan is called Tarabeeh and the night prayer outside Ramadan is called Tahajjud.
Now we will see what has been narrated in the hadith about the Taraweeh prayer.
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Whoever stands in Taraaweeh prayer in Ramadaan with faith in the hope of reward, his previous sins will be forgiven. The narrator of the hadith, Ibn Shihab (R) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) passed away and this is how the matter of Tarabi was started. This was the case even during the caliphate of Abu Bakr and the early part of the caliphate of Umar. Narrated from Sahih Bukhari Hadith No. 2009 Aisha (R)
He said that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) went out in the middle of the night and prayed in the mosque, and some men prayed behind him. In the morning people talk about it, so people gather in large numbers. He prays and people pray with him. In the morning they discussed the matter. On the third night, the number of worshipers in the mosque increased.
Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) went out and prayed and the people prayed with him. On the fourth night, the worshiper did not congregate in the mosque, but he did not go out at night and went out for the Fajr prayer. Your (last night’s) position was not unknown to me, But I am afraid that this prayer will become obligatory on you (because I did not go out) because you would not be able to perform it. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) died and the matter remained as it was.
Sahih Bukhari Hadith No. 2012
From these hadiths, it is understood that Tarabi’s prayers have special virtues. And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) himself used to offer Taraaweeh prayers and encourage the Sahaabah. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) prayed Taraweeh with the Sahaabah in the congregation for three days, but he feared that it might be made obligatory and that the ummah would not be able to observe it. And the set was not forced. After the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the Companions started reciting it with the congregation because there was no chance for it to become obligatory. Although Tarabi’s prayers are Nafr Ibadat, it has special virtues and importance. So we should perform Tarabi prayer in Ramadan. May Allah Ta’ala grant us the Tawfiq to understand and act properly. Allahumma Amin.
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