Neglecting Tarawih (FATWA)

The Question

Janāb Fayḍ Intisāb (honorific titles), your excellency, honorable scholar (may your virtue increase)! After paying respects, the request is presented:

Is there any admonition for the one who is constant in fasting and ṣalāh but is deliberately neglectful of tarāwīḥ?

Also, mention why Sayyidunā Abū Bakr I did not pray it? Is there any admonition for him or not?

The Answer

The Messenger of Allāh G has stated:

عليكم بسنتي وسنة الخلفاء الراشدين عضوا عليها بالنواجذ

The following of my method and the method of the rightly guided caliphs is necessary for you. Hold it tight by the molars!

He also stated:

اقتدوا بالذين من بعدي أبي بكر وعمر

Follow Abū Bakr and ‘Umar L who will be the caliphs following me.

The master of the universe G led tarāwīḥ for three nights and discontinued doing so fearing that it would become farḍ. Up until this point, it had not become a sunnah mu’akkadah. When the leader of believers, Fārūq A’ẓam I, commenced it and the general noble Ṣaḥābah M came to a consensus regarding it, from that time, it became a sunnah mu’akkadah. Not just due to the action of the leader of believers, but by the statements of the master of all messengers G. The one who neglects them (the tarāwīḥ prayers) is surely neglecting a sunnah mu’akkadah and the one who neglects it habitually is a sinner and is disobedient.

Allāh E knows best.

Answered by:

Imām Aḥmad Raḍā Khān V