Title: Regarding Taraweeh & Tahajjud Prayers Question: My questions are about Taraweeh and Tahajjud prayers. During Ramadan , Taraweeh prayers are held in the mosques with the Imam [1] . In some mosques 8 rak'ahs are prayed whereas in others 20 rak'ahs . Which is correct, 8 or 20? After the Taraweeh prayer in the mosques, is it permissible to pray additional rak'ahs as Tahajjud prayers at home, before the Fajr prayer. Most of the ahadith say that prophet (SAW ) never prayed more than 11 rak'ahs of night prayer. If so who started 20 rak'ahs of Taraweeh prayer. I understand that in Haraam [2] at Makka, the taraweeh prayers is 20 rak'ahs . Is it correct? In the last 10 days of Ramadan , in the mosques both Taraweeh and Kiyamul-Lail prayers are held with the Imam . Is it permissible to pray Kiyamul-lail prayers after praying Taraweeh prayer. Would appreciate your answers to above queries, quoting Sahih Hadith . Answer: Before reading my response to your specific questions, I request you to kindly take a look at a couple of my earlier responses to related questions titled: " Some Questions Regarding Missed Fasts and Taraweeh Prayer " and " Reading From the Qur'an While In Taraweeh Prayer ". The answers to your specific questions follow: The number of the rak'ats of the Tahajjud and/or the Taraweeh prayer were not fixed by the Prophet (pbuh). Therefore, the number of rak'at s offered in these prayers may not be found to be uniform. Because this is a naf'l (supererogatory) prayer, therefore fixing the number of rak'at s offered was against its nature and spirit. However, when these prayers are sought to be offered in a congregation due to any reason, the very nature of organizing the congregation would require to fix a number of rak'at s. In my opinion, it was actually due to this reason that fixing the number of rak'at s of this prayer became an issue during the time of the second caliph, when Omar (ra) organized the prayer in a congregation. If a person wants to and can offer Tahajjud prayer at home, it is better for him to skip Taraweeh prayer and offer his Tahajjud prayer at home in seclusion. Taraweeh is a substitute of the Tahjjud prayer for those who cannot offer the Tahajjud prayer at its stipulated time. However, offering both the prayers ( Taraweeh as well as Tahajjud ) cannot be prohibited. There is quite a bit of difference among Muslim scholars regarding the recommended number of rak'at s in the Taraweeh prayer. The reason for this difference, as I have stated earlier, is that the Prophet (pbuh) did not fix the number of recommended rak'ahs for the prayer. Some scholars feel that the recommended number of rak'ahs should not exceed eleven - including witr - while others are of the opinion that twenty-three rak'ahs should be offered, another group makes the recommended rak'ah s at thirty-six and yet another group takes the recommended number to over forty. This difference is due to the difference of interpretation of the information about this prayer given in the various narratives. Besides this, we also get the information that the Prophet (pbuh) never exceeded eleven rak'ah s in his Tahajjud prayer, the Mu'atta [3] of Imam Maalik gives some good and organized information about the origination and development of the Taraweeh prayer in its congregational form. The information provided in the Mu'atta is summarized below: The Prophet (pbuh) never offered the Taraweeh prayer. However, one night the Prophet came out of his room (at the time of the Tahajjud prayer) and offered his prayers in the mosque. People gathered behind and joined him in his prayer. The same thing happened on the night that followed, with a greater number of people joining the Prophet (pbuh). On the third or the fourth night, people gathered in anticipation of joining the Prophet (pbuh) in his prayer again, but the Prophet did not come out. In the morning, the Prophet (pbuh) told the Muslims that he had not come out of his chamber to offer his Tahajjud with the Muslims due to the fear that the Muslims may consider this to be an obligatory prayer. The first time that the night prayer was organized at a mass congregational level, was during the days of the caliphate of Omar (ra). One night, when Omar (ra) came into the mosque after the `Ishaa prayers, he saw that people had gathered in a number of various groups and were offering their prayers behind various imams (leaders of prayers). This situation was creating a chaotic scene. The recitation of one imam could not be clearly distinguished from that of another. After observing this scene, Omar (ra) suggested that those who want to offer their night prayer in congregation should all join behind one imam , so that the Qur'an is clearly audible. He also appointed Ubayee ibn Ka`b as the leader of this prayer, because of his good style of recitation. The next day, when Omar (ra) came to the mosque, he was satisfied with the development in the situation. However, Omar himself never joined this congregational prayer and is reported to have commented that the prayer being substituted is far superior to its substitute. Omar (ra) directed Ubayee ibn Ka`b to offer the prayer in eleven rak'at s. The qiyaam (standing posture during the prayer) of these rak'at s was so long that some people had to recline on their staffs to keep themselves standing. It seems that this was the reason that later on the rak'ats were increased to twenty-three (including witr prayers) as is reported in some other narratives of the Mua'tta .