Bismillahi Al-Rahmani Al-Rahim

"Tarawih vs. Tahajjud" (2)

Q
Salaam alaikum,

You state that taraveeh prayers are non-obligatory sunnah,yet do most

scholars not say that according to Hanbali and Shafi madhabs it is

considered an obligatory sunnah?

Here is just one example:

- expired link (before 2023-02-05) http://www.Islamicvoice.com/december.2000/dialogue.htm

Waslaam.

A
wa `alaykum al-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

I assume you mean this passage:

About Jamaā€™at, according to Hanafi Fiqā€™h, it is Sunnat-e-Kafaya i.e. if some people offer it by Jamaā€™at then the Jamaā€™at does not remain compulsory for all. Shafai and Hambali Fiqā€™h declare the Jamaā€™at an obligatory Sunnah for all and Malikis consider the Jamaā€™at as Mustahab i.e. better but not an obligatory Sunnah.

What is written about the Shafi`i and Hanbali madhhabs is simply wrong. Look in any book of fiqh in those two madhhabs and you will find that tarawih is listed in the nawafil or the tatawa`ah. It is also wrong that the Shafi`is and Hanbalis consider praying it in a group to be better than praying alone. Of the more than fifteen books that I consulted, I cannot find a single book that agrees with what they have written above. Since they do not cite any sources it is impossible to know where they got this from and see how such a mistake came to be.

If this is only one example of such a claim, perhaps you can find one where a specific citation is given.

You should take note of what the authors of this page, Islamic Voice, - expired link (before 2023-02-05) Islamicvoice.com say about themselves:

Islamic Voice is representative of Islam, but does not stick to the shibboleths that all Muslims hold dear. Its style is not the one of 'Right or Wrong', It's *My Community*. It has charted for itself an independent course where pragmatism is the key word. It addresses the problems and issues in the given context of socio-economic and political ambience and avoids rhetoric.

What this means is that they do not hesitate -nay: they revel- in rejecting tradition. These people have abandoned the program of Ahl al-Sunnah in favor of Bani Isra'il's program of casting aside things not to their liking.

This is your religion, and you should be very careful in where you take it from.

And Allah knows best.

Wa al-salamu `alaykum,
--Musa