Ahmad said: “If he rises for a third unit in the night prayer, it is as though he had risen for a third unit in the dawn prayer.” It is well known that if someone deliberately rises for a third unit in the dawn prayer, his prayer is invalid by consensus. Likewise, if he deliberately rises for a third unit in a voluntary night prayer, his prayer is invalid. If he does so forgetfully, however, he must return as soon as he remembers and perform the prostration of forgetfulness after the closing salutation because of the addition.
This shows the ignorance of those who, during the Tarawih prayers in Ramadan, deliberately continue after rising for a third unit and then remembering it. They issue rulings for themselves, saying: “If one has fully stood upright, returning is disliked,” and, “If one has begun the recitation, returning is forbidden.” Such a person is afflicted with compound ignorance, for this ruling applies to one who rises after the first tashahhud, whereas one who rises for an extra unit must return in all circumstances.
Compound ignorance is greatly harmful, for the person afflicted by it believes himself to be upon the truth and therefore overreaches himself. He may even imagine that he is more knowledgeable than Imam Ahmad and Ibn Taymiyyah. He is like the donkey of Tuma, who said:
“The donkey of the sage Tuma said:
If time were fair, I would be the rider.”
Tuma was a man who claimed wisdom and rode a donkey. The donkey said, “If time were fair, I would be the rider,” and explained this by saying:
“For I am merely ignorant,
While my master’s ignorance is compounded.”
The one whose ignorance is simple is in a better state than the one whose ignorance is compounded.
I have been told that some people extend this rule to the case of one who rises for a fifth unit in the noon prayer, saying: “If he has begun the recitation, returning is forbidden.” All of this is mistaken. Rather, whoever rises for an extra unit must return as soon as he remembers, even if he has begun the recitation. If he rises for a third unit in the daytime, then the implication of the hadith is