to the eleven rakʿahs—much less to pronounce the person who follows this Sunnah outside the fold of the congregation. Binding oneself to a given practice is something over and above merely performing it in a case such as ours. ʿUmar’s prescription of twenty rakʿahs only shows that the practice is permissible; it proves nothing further, for it is counterbalanced by the Prophet’s ﷺ own action, which differs in number. Under such circumstances it is impermissible to disregard the Prophet’s ﷺ practice and turn away from it by committing ourselves exclusively to what ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, did. All that can legitimately be drawn from ʿUmar’s deed is the permissibility of following him in that matter, while being certain that imitating the Prophet ﷺ is superior—a truth no rational person should ever doubt.

All of this is said even if we were to suppose that ʿUmar increased the legally prescribed number on the grounds that there is absolutely nothing wrong with adding to it—as some claim, and as has already been refuted. In reality, however, ʿUmar did not introduce the twenty from that standpoint; he did so out of consideration for the people’s inability to endure the lengthy standing with which the Prophet ﷺ used to lead them in the Ramadan night prayer, as the reader has seen in the hadiths cited in the first section. More than one scholar has noted that doubling the number served as a substitute for the extended standing. Thus, this multiplication of rakʿahs together with shortening the recitation during the standing—if ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, actually practiced it—would have had ample justification… ⦗70⦘