Imam Abu Hanifah’s Description of the Tarawih Prayer

‘Allāmah Qāsim ibn Qutlūbughā (802 – 879 H), the chief Hanafī jurist and muhaddith of his time, mentions in a treatise he wrote on Tarāwīh and Witr:

روى الحسن عن أبي حنيفة أنه قال: القيام في شهر رمضان سنة لا ينبغي تركها، وينبغي لأهل كل مسجد أن يصلوها في مسجدهم كل ليلة خمس ترويحات يؤمهم رجل يقرأ في كل ركعة عشر آيات أو نحوها يسلم من كل ركعتين وكلما يصلي ترويحة انتظر بين الترويحتين قدر الترويحة وينتظر بعد الخامسة قدر الترويحة ثم يوتر بهم فتصير عشرين ركعة سوى الوتر

Al-Hasan [ibn Ziyād] (d. 204 H) narrated from Abū Hanīfah:

The standing [in prayer] of Ramadān is Sunnah [Mu’akkadah] which should not be left out. The people of each masjid should pray it in their masjid, on every night [of Ramadān] in five tarwīhahs [sets of four rak‘ahs]. A man leads them, reciting in every rak‘ah ten verses or so, making salām in every two rak‘ahs. Every time he prays one tarwīhah, he waits between two tarwīhahs the length of one tarwīhah, and he waits after the fifth [tarwīhah] the length of one tarwīhah and then he performs Witr with them, so it amounts to 20 rak‘ahs, besides Witr.

Qāsim ibn Qutlūbghā’ then says:

And this is the madhhab of our [Hanafī] companions, may Allāh have mercy on them.Majmū‘ah Rasā’il Qāsim ibn Qutlubugha

Mawlana Zameelur Rahman

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