Muwatta 301

Malik opens the chapter "on the night prayer in Ramadan" with this report from Umar ibn al-Khattab. He transmits it from Ibn Shihab, from Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, from Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd al-Qari. It is the origin of what is reported about gathering people behind one imam for the tarawih prayer ¹.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd al-Qari went out with Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) in Ramadan to the mosque. The people were scattered in groups: a man prayed by himself, and a man prayed and a small band prayed behind his prayer. Umar said that he thought it better to gather these people behind one reciter, and he gathered them behind Ubayy ibn Ka'b. Then he went out with them another night while the people were praying behind their reciter, and Umar said: "What a fine innovation this is. And the part of the night you sleep through is better than the part in which you stand," meaning the end of the night, since the people used to stand at its beginning ¹.

The editor notes that the report was transmitted from Malik by Abu Mus'ab al-Zuhri, and by Abdallah ibn Yusuf al-Tinnisi in al-Bukhari (2010), and by Yahya ibn Bukayr in al-Bayhaqi (2/493); Abd al-Razzaq (7723) also transmits it from Ma'mar from al-Zuhri. In the Muwatta it is followed by the report of al-Sa'ib ibn Yazid on Umar's instruction to Ubayy ibn Ka'b and Tamim al-Dari (may God be pleased with him) to lead the people in eleven rak'as, and the report of Yazid ibn Ruman on their standing in twenty-three rak'as ^{1 2}.

The report is cited among Sunnis for the linguistic meaning of innovation, and in the history of the tarawih prayer in congregation during Ramadan. See Prayer. ¹