this issue, together with the answers to them, so that the reader may be fully informed. I say:

First Objection: “The scholars’ divergence shows that there is no text specifying the exact number.”

It is common knowledge that the scholars have differed over the number of rakʿahs in the tarāwīḥ prayer, holding a variety of opinions that will be detailed later. Someone might therefore contend: “This disagreement proves that no text exists fixing the number; for had it been established, there would have been no debate about it. And if the practice had been authentically traced to the Prophet ﷺ, the scholars would not have differed about it—just as they do not differ about the number of rakʿahs in witr or in the regular sunnahs.”

Reply: We grant that some differences of opinion do arise from the absence of a textual proof. Yet it is remarkable that al-Suyūṭī should advance this argument, for… ⦗30⦘