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When the Prophet Sent People Home from the Masajid for Taraweeh | Daily Reminders
On the fourth night of Ramadan, the Prophet ﷺ did not show up to lead taraweeh. Sh. Omar Suleiman reflects on this incident and the meaning behind praying taraweeh at home.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Once again everyone, A'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wa ala adwani illa a'la al-dhalimeen. Wa ala aqibatu lil mutaqeem. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barak ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathiran. So just a few reminders inshaAllah ta'ala. This Wednesday night inshaAllah we're going to have a very special Ramadan prep webinar where we're going to be looking at 10 tips inshaAllah ta'ala on how to have an effective Ramadan, a spiritually productive Ramadan bismillah ta'ala that carries you across the month and makes this the most fruitful Ramadan ever for you bismillah ta'ala. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to live to see the month of Ramadan and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to have an accepted Ramadan and for it to bring us closer to Him and to attain His pleasure. Allahumma ameen. So that's going to be again 8.15 Central, 9.15 Eastern inshaAllah ta'ala on Wednesday bi'ithnillahi ta'ala. On Thursday night we'll start Quran 30 for 30 inshaAllah where Sheikh Abdullah Aduro and myself and a group of scholars every night will be looking at every juz of the Quran over 30 days bi'ithnillahi ta'ala. So please do tune in. On the note that you know we want to start Ramadan strong inshaAllah ta'ala you'll notice that tonight the donation button is different and we wanted to set it up to where you could get a head start inshaAllah ta'ala and what you do now if you go and you click that link if you donate today if you put in the donation amount inshaAllah ta'ala today to support Yaqeen everything we do alhamdulillah is free and accessible to the community and I hope you've been benefiting from it. What you put today in the donation link inshaAllah ta'ala will be processed on the first day of Ramadan inshaAllah ta'ala. So it gives you a chance to get a head start bi'ithnillahi ta'ala. So I want to ask each and every single one of you who I hope you were planning bi'ithnillahi ta'ala to give to Yaqeen inshaAllah ta'ala this Ramadan.
Please go to the link and click on it put in your donation information inshaAllah ta'ala and it will charge you inshaAllah ta'ala on the first day of Ramadan just to welcome Ramadan bi'ithnillahi ta'ala with a sadaqa. So may Allah bless you all for your support throughout and accept it. Alright. Bismillah wa'lhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam wa rasool Allah wa ala anhihi wa sahbihi wa man wala So the title definitely speaks to something that a lot of people don't know about which is that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam had sent the people home for tarawih in a very interesting hadith and two narrations in fact that we look at. One of them is the hadith of Zaid ibn Thabit radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu where Zaid radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu says that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam took a room made of date palm tree, date palm leaves mats in the masjid and then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam he prayed for a few nights in the masjid in Ramadan until the people started to gather behind him in the masjid. So this is basically tarawih. And so on the fourth night the people did not hear the voice of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam leading the prayer and they thought that he had slept. So to give you some context the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was praying in the masjid in the night of Ramadan, tarawih prayer. Tarawih is a later name to describe qiyam in Ramadan, the night prayer in Ramadan. And as the companions were finding out they were quickly gathering behind him on a nightly basis to a point that another narration says the doors of the masjid were bursting open and that the masjid was completely full. So this isn't just the 21st century phenomenon that the masjids become fuller in Ramadan even with the sahaba of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And as they were gathering behind the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam the first night, then the second night, then the third night and word was quickly spreading that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was leading qiyam in the masjid in Ramadan. On the fourth night the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam did not come out and the people did not hear his voice and recitation. So some of them went by his door,
they waited by the door of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam for some time and then they started to make a humming sound or to make some sort of sound hoping that it would cause the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam to come out. Then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said that you continued doing what I saw you doing until I was afraid that this prayer might become enjoined upon you, it might become mandatory for you. And if it were enjoined upon you, you would not be able to continue performing it. Therefore, O people, perform your prayers at your homes for the best prayer of a person is what is performed at his home except for the maktuba, except for the mandatory prayers. So this hadith, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is telling the people to pray their taraweeh prayers at home and it was in his lifetime. And in fact, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam only led the companions in prayer for three nights. Now, why is it still a sunnah for us? Because the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam established it as a sunnah to pray in the masjid. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said tamassaku bi sunnati, to hold on to my sunnah and the sunnah of the khulafa al-rashideen al-mahdiyeen of the rightly guided caliphs. And Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu gathered the people as they were praying in smaller congregations in the Ramadan nights. He gathered the people once again behind a single imam to revive what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam had started because the fear that it would become fard was no longer there. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's fear was that it would become obligatory on the people to perform it as such if they continue to do it on a regular basis and they were no longer able to distinguish it. So that was the wisdom of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and obviously divinely guided to ensure that it was still looked at as a sunnah. It was looked at as a voluntary prayer and not a mandatory prayer. Now there are all sorts of discussions to come out of this from fiqh perspective. One of them from the sense of jurisprudence is it then better to pray at home even when taraweeh has taken place in the masjid?
Is it better to pray at home or is it better to pray with the congregation in taraweeh? So that's a difference of opinion that the scholars maintained about whether it was better to pray in taraweeh in the masjid, the qiyam in the masjid in Ramadan or to pray qiyam at home. But I want to speak to how important this is to us right now. Understanding this particular hadith for us right now and these narrations for us right now. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam feared that people would turn taraweeh in the masjid into an obligatory act if it continued as such. Now for us obviously that fear is not there. We know it's a sunnah, it's a beautiful sunnah and it's established by the sahaba so it should be revived, it should always be in the masjid. And while the ikhtilaf on the individual of whether they should go join those prayers in the masjid, it's our practice and the practice of the salaf and forever that taraweeh remains in the masjid and the people can join in the masjid or are alive in the nights of Ramadan. But how do we actually take some benefit from this for ourselves? Number one, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was concerned about people making it a fa'ul but there's also something else that we should not, we should not make our ibadat, our acts of worship dependent upon those institutions as they exist. Now when I say those institutions, the masajid are there and we need the masajid but our salah should not only be in the masajid. So when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said keep a share of your salah for your homes, a share of your prayers for your homes, don't turn them into graveyards, prayer in the masjid still has to be done, the honor of the masjid is still there but you have to be able to carry that prayer outside of the masjid. You've got to be able to bring some of it home, you've got to be able to pray qiyam at home, you've got to be able to have some sort of established practice at home
and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam insisted upon that. Though he loved alayhi salatu wassalam, his prayer in the masjid in the night and in the day but the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam wanted to set an example and wanted people to understand that they needed to learn how to pray at home, they needed to assign a prayer for themselves at home. This Ramadan in particular, while there are some fatawa that are coming out about praying taraweeh behind a screen, which by the way, I mean I personally, my scholars and my teachers and I'm ashamed to even say myself when I say my scholars and my teachers and the masha'ikh and the established fiqh councils that we have, you know, the vast majority and when I say the vast majority, I mean the vast majority would not approve of such a thing and I would caution in particular to say that when we're in a temporary time of need, we should not do things that could alter our trajectory permanently. Okay, so this is a temporary pandemic bint Allah ta'ala. We pray that we never have to have a Ramadan again where we can't have our taraweeh and our masajid and things of that sort and it would be a problem for us to do something now where people start praying taraweeh behind screens going forward. So even if it's a nafila, if it's a voluntary prayer and obviously there is some flexibility that's afforded to voluntary prayers that's not afforded to jum'ah prayers and mandatory prayers, still we should not alter the trajectory permanently because of how we're feeling right now temporarily. That's number one. Number two, we can still take the wisdom and the benefit and say, Ya Allah, if we are able to establish qiyam at home consistently for 30 days, how amazing would it be if that qiyam after Ramadan continues in our homes even if it's just two rak'ahs a night. How amazing of a transformation in our own lives, in our spiritual lives
if we're able to take that taraweeh which is just qiyam in Ramadan and let it transfer over and be qiyam for the rest of the year bi'ithnillahi ta'ala where we always pray just two rak'ahs, two rak'ahs even every single night bi'ithnillahi ta'ala and we maintain that connection. So this is a gift from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and if the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam saw that there was wisdom and benefit in sending the people home for a different reason than at that time that there was a risk that it would become a fard for the people then certainly for us, we can see the wisdom of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala redirecting us so that we can pray taraweeh at our homes and we can learn the beautiful practice of praying in the night at home and bi'ithnillahi ta'ala Allah azawajal will not just gift us the reward of this special Ramadan but the reward of the deeds that continue and insha'Allah ta'ala taraweeh in Ramadan in 2021 bi'ithnillahi ta'ala next year should Allah give us life would be so much more fulfilling, so much better it would have such a deep connection for us insha'Allah ta'ala we're going to be longing for that next Ramadan you know when you talk about the sahaba that missed Ramadan for six months after long for it for six months before we're going to be longing for that next Ramadan bi'ithnillahi ta'ala maybe like the sahaba six months in advance bi'ithnillahi ta'ala though certainly the condition of our hearts will never be like the condition of their hearts so the essential message is that we need to learn to be independent of place and time with our ibadah to the extent that we continue to perform them even when we don't have that time and that place okay and that's why every year when the scholars say that the sign of a successful Ramadan is the continuation of deeds after it what then of qiyam al-layl what then of the night prayer bi'ithnillahi ta'ala if we're able to continue it after and certainly if the companions were able to maintain that
deep connection with Allah azawajal and continue you just know subhanAllah do you really think that when Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali were no longer able to pray taraweeh in the masjid with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam do you really think that they weren't praying taraweeh at home that Ramadan of course they were right of course they were so while we miss our taraweeh in our masajid and we look forward to that and it's established as a sunnah in the masajid in the communal sense at an individual level there is so much wisdom so much benefit to us gaining the love and the pleasure of praying qiyam al-layl at home bi'ithnillahi ta'ala these nights of Ramadan so may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala enable us to pray our prayers at home with the same quality and with the same love and with the same longing for him that we would had we had our those masajid and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala connect us to him and just as we feel connected to the houses of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala may Allah make us a people that connect to Allah in our own houses as well may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to taste the sweetness of qiyam this Ramadan taraweeh this Ramadan in our homes and gain the habit of qiyam that will outlive this Ramadan and let it be a habit that we stick with bi'ithnillahi ta'ala until the moment of our death and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala raise us as people of qiyam raise us as people of prayer Allahuma ameen so inshallah ta'ala just to remind you all again the link we have we're going to be just talking about this for the next few nights we count on your support as a community obviously first Allah azawajal and then the community's generosity to continue to be able to offer this free resource as Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research and you have the opportunity if you click on the link to make a donation now that will process when Ramadan starts inshallah so you'll get the reward of sadaqa in Ramadan and you can make that intention from now and you can put that donation in from now so I'll encourage each and every single one of you
no matter what amount it is inshallah ta'ala to please consider us as well as the many Muslim institutions and non-profits that are out there that could use our sadaqa this Ramadan and of course we are in need of the acceptance of that sadaqa more than anything else in our own individual lives so jazakumullahu khayran I'll see you all tomorrow inshallah at the same time wasalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
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