Be aware that later writers have taken ʿUmar’s words, “What a good innovation this is,” as proof for two claims:

1. That gathering the people for the tarawih prayer is itself an innovation that did not exist in the Prophet’s ﷺ lifetime. This is a glaring error that needs no lengthy rebuttal, for its refutation is plain. The earlier reports showing that the Prophet ﷺ led the people in prayer for three nights of Ramadan—and that he abandoned it only for fear it might become obligatory—are sufficient evidence against this view.

2. That there are praiseworthy forms of innovation, and that these carve out an exception to the Prophet’s ﷺ comprehensive statement, “Every innovation is misguidance,” and to similar hadiths. This is also false. The hadith retains its full, unrestricted wording, as will be clarified in the separate treatise on innovation, God willing.

As for ʿUmar’s remark, “What a good innovation this is,” he did not intend innovation (bidʿah) in its legal sense—introducing something into the religion with no prior precedent—for you have learned that he, may Allah be pleased with him, introduced nothing new. Rather, he revived more than one noble prophetic sunnah. His usage was purely linguistic: something recently instituted that was previously unknown. There is no doubt that performing tarawih in congregation behind a single imam was neither known nor practiced throughout the caliphate of Abu Bakr and for part of ʿUmar’s own rule, as stated earlier; in that respect it was new. Yet because it conformed to what the Prophet ﷺ himself had done, it is a sunnah, not an innovation, and ʿUmar described it as “good” for precisely that reason. ⦗50⦘