Recordings › Q: Is Taraweeh 8 or 20 Raka'at? Mufti Abu Layth · 17 May 2017 › Segment 1 of 1
Should I pray 8 or 20 rak'ahs of tarawih?
salah salat salaah namaz salaat namaaz as-salah al-salah salawat fiqah jurisprudence fikh hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith madhhab madhab mazhab school of law mazahib madhaahib malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas 'isha esha ishaa salat al-isha isha prayer rak'ah rakat rakaah prayer unit imaam imams prayer leader tahajud tahajjud prayer night vigil nafal nawafil nafil nafilah nafila voluntary worship taraweeh tarawih prayer taraweeh prayer maaliki malikite malikiyyah maliki school muftis al-muwatta muwatta malik muwatta imam malik muwata sahabah sahaba sahabi sahabiyyah sahabiyat madina al-madinah madeenah yathrib niyyah niyah niyat niyya niyyat deen ad-deen ad-din religionIs tarawih eight or twenty rak'ahs? No set number, with eight as the base
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This segment0:20 to 4:56 · 4 min 36 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenTarawih has no fixed number: eight, the least the Prophet prayed, is the base and anything above it is valid. Twenty was the common practice and the schools' broad view, but neither eight nor twenty is wrong.
In more detail
Asked whether tarawih is eight or twenty rak'ahs according to the madhhabs, Mufti Abu Layth says the broad understanding of all four schools is twenty, but that other numbers are transmitted: thirty-six from Imam Malik, who also reports it of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz in Madinah, forty from Imam Ahmad, and eight within the schools, argued for by Taqi al-Din al-Subki among the Shafi'is, favoured to some degree by al-Suyuti, and among the Malikis by Ibn Habib, he believes, and clearly by al-Lakhmi. He notes that Imam Malik transmits both reports of Umar ibn al-Khattab gathering people, with twenty and with eight, in the Muwatta. The understanding he likes is that of Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, and in a similar vein al-Shawkani: tarawih came without a set number, as the night prayer the Prophet established, which many argue is the same as tahajjud; the least nafl the Prophet prayed was eight, so that is the base and anything beyond it is fine. He says the companions often prayed twenty but the number was more coincidental than mandatory, cites Ibn Abd al-Barr listing different numbers in al-Kafi [?], and says neither eight nor twenty is wrong, adding that he personally feels this view makes a lot of sense.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedTarawih: is it eight or twenty rak'ahs according to the madhahib?
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Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says he would go with and promote the understanding that tarawih has no set number, with eight, the least the Prophet prayed, as the base and anything above it valid.
“I would actually go with that understanding and promote it that we know that the least amount the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam prayed was eight. So, you have that base kind of number. And anything above that is is valid,”
Category: ruling
Kind: general teachingTranscript
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Oh, no. So, Tarawih Is it eight or 20 rak'ahs according to the madhahib? People still pray Tarawih. Generally, according to the madhhabs, according to the four schools of of fiqh, generally speaking, that's not There's differences of opinion, but the broad understanding of all the four schools is
that the rak'ahs of Tarawih is 20. Okay. Now, that said, there's some differences that are transmitted as well. Some people say Imam Malik You know, there's a transmission from him saying 36. And he also transmits that from Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz in Medina. There's some There's a transmission from Imam Ahmad of 40.
And there's a transmission people have of within the madhhabs as well of eight. So, you will have some of the Shafi'iyyah I believe you will have Taqiuddin al-Subki who said who argued for eight. And I believe Jalaluddin al-Suyuti also kind of favoring some of that position from the Malikiya ibn Habib al-Maliki I believe and Imam al-Lakhmi is very clear on the eight.
Takes that understanding as well in line with the Hadith that Imam Malik transmits in the Muwatta of Umar ibn al-Khattab uh gathering people. In fact, he transmits both of them in the Muwatta. Um the one with the 20 and the eight. Now, what I would say and and the understanding that I like is what is the way Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, the Andalusi don and legend, uh and also in a in a similar vein, Imam al-Shawkani has a a very kind of a symmetrical
um outlook towards this mas'alah. And that is that Tarawih has has come to us without a set number. The Tarawih, they believe that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam just established it as the night prayer. Okay, it's a prayer done during the night, argued by many to be just the same as the Tahajjud.
Whether it is Tahajjud or not is another debate, but the point is that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam prayed this night prayer. We know that the least amount of nafl that he prayed was eight. So, you take that as the base. And anything you want to go beyond that is absolutely fine. Um that it's ghair mahdud, it's not actually specified.
Uh although the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam quite often, what is transmitted in the companions prayed 20, but the numbers were more kind of coincidental what they just settled with. Uh it's not mandatory. So, if a person, according to that understanding, if a person prayed eight or 12, it would still be okay. And that also falls in line with what Ibn Abd al-Barr transmits in his curfew, where he says, "Is it eight, 12?" And he mentions different numbers.
So, the point is So, what I would I would actually go with that understanding and promote it that we know that the least amount the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam prayed was eight. So, you have that base kind of number. And anything above that is is valid, too. Although, the common practice was 20. But, that doesn't mean eight are wrong.
It doesn't mean 20 are wrong. These are all transmissions that have come, and these and the raka'at of Tarawih did not come with the intention of being limited to a specific number. That's what Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi and Imam Shawkani and some others have have kind of have have taken that spin on this. And And I personally feel that that makes a lot of sense. Allahu A'lam. Okay?
Right, next question.
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2017-05-17c-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bu0xxok5oiu/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, May 17). Should I pray 8 or 20 rak'ahs of tarawih? [Video, segment 2017-05-17c-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bu0xxok5oiu/s/1/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "Should I pray 8 or 20 rak'ahs of tarawih?" Video, segment 2017-05-17c-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded May 17, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bu0xxok5oiu/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-05-17c-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Should I pray 8 or 20 rak'ahs of tarawih?}}, year = {2017}, month = {5}, date = {2017-05-17}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bu0xxok5oiu/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bu0xxok5oiu/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-05-17c-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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