and His words: “If you disagree about anything, refer it back to Allah and the Messenger, if you truly believe in Allah and the Last Day; that is best and fairest in outcome.”

The second misconception: “There is no harm in adding to the reported number so long as there is no explicit prohibition.”

Someone might say: “We concede that a sound text proves the Prophet ﷺ prayed only eleven rak‘ahs for Tarawih, and that the report claiming he prayed twenty is weak. Nevertheless, we see no objection to increasing that number, since the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never forbade it.”

I reply: The basic rule concerning acts of worship is that they are established solely by a specific directive from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The scholars are unanimously agreed on this, and it is inconceivable that any knowledgeable Muslim would dispute it. Were it not for this principle, any Muslim could add to the number of rak‘ahs in the supererogatory prayers—even in the obligatory prayers whose number is definitively fixed by the Prophet’s ﷺ practice and continual observance—claiming that he ﷺ did not explicitly forbid such an addition. The falsehood of that claim is self-evident, so there is no need to dwell on it. Besides, we have already explained in detail (pp. 22–24) that adding to the Tarawih prayer is even more emphatically forbidden than adding to the regular optional prayers and rawātib (daily sunnah prayers); so keep that in mind. ⦗34⦘