8 – Encouragement to perfect the prayer and warning against performing it poorly

Dear reader, you are now in the month of fasting and night worship, the blessed month of Ramadan. You should therefore model the righteous believer—obedient to his Lord and following the Sunnah of His Prophet in everything he brought from his Lord, and especially in establishing this great act of worship, the Tarawih Prayer. Regarding it the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever stands for prayer during Ramadan in faith and in hope of reward will have his past sins forgiven,” reported by the two Shaykhs and others.

From what has preceded in this treatise you have learned something valuable about the Prophet’s ﷺ prayer during the nights of Ramadan—how excellently he performed it and how long he made it. ʿĀʾishah (Allah be pleased with her) said: “He would pray four rakʿahs; do not ask about how beautiful and how long they were. Then he would pray another four; do not ask about how beautiful and how long they were.” She also said, “He would remain in prostration for the span of time it takes one of you to recite fifty verses.” Hudhayfah said: “…Then he recited al-Baqarah (that is, in the first rakʿah); after that he bowed, and his bowing was about as long as his standing,” and he mentioned similar lengths for the standing after bowing and for the prostrations.

You have likewise learned that the earliest Muslims in the time of ʿUmar (Allah be pleased with him) used to lengthen the recitation in the Tarawih Prayer, reciting about three hundred verses in it, so much so that— ⦗113⦘