Tahniah Salafis - Team A 20 Rakaat Versus Team B 8 Rakaat Has Started

This is the bulan puasa. The night prayers (terawih) have started. And together with it the renewed controversy whether the terawih prayers should be done in 20 rakaat or eight rakaat (for non Muslims, a rakaat can be considered one set of prostrations). So it is either 20 sets of prostrations or 8 sets of prostrations.

Here is a wsapp I received from a Malay professor friend who attended the terawih recently :

Recently, the Sultan S_ _ _ _ _ r decreed out of his ******* that the Terawih should be 20 rakaat.   He doesn’t do it, why decree ?   I recently went to the Section 16 Mosque, Masjid Kolej Islam (UIA ) for terawih.   I just did the Al-Briefo Terawih of 8 rakaat, and walked off.   60% of the congregation walked off leaving the repentful  Die Hard for 20 rakaat.

This is one typical example of the disagreements over the terawih.   

Of course the 20 rakaat terawih can take up to one hour or more to complete. The EIGHT rakaat terawih can be done in about 15 to 20 minutes. Obviously people prefer the shorter version - it saves them time.

There were NO problems over the 20 rakaat terawih until the Salafis / Wahabis appeared on the scene in the late 1980s. The Salafis / Wahabis insisted on the shorter EIGHT rakaat version. So the disagreements and the fights have begun.

Here is not very old news :

I dont know if any other sultan has made any decrees that terawih should be 20 rakaats but here is some old news (from 2016) from Sultan Nazrin of Perak :

To keep the peace in Perak, the Sultan has decreed that terawih shall be 20 rakaats.

BY THE WAY THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS TERAWIH PRAYERS IN THE QURAN. 

THIS IS OBVIOUSLY ANOTHER EXTRA QURANIC BELIEF.

As I have said many times before THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOT ONE THING THAT SUNNIS, SHIAS AND SALAFIS DO IN THEIR SECTARIAN RELIGIONS THAT CAN BE TRACED BACK TO THE QURAN. 

NOT ONE THING. 

TERAWIH IS JUST ANOTHER ONE OF THEM.

There are NO TERAWIH prayers in the Quran. 

Anyway, if 60% of the congregation get up and leave after EIGHT rakaat, it can cause serious problems in the car park especially if the 20 rakaat peoples' cars are blocking the EIGHT rakaat people.

So some mosques have come with a solution. Just this morning I received  the following  from Kota Bharu :

This should solve the 20 versus EIGHT problem in the car park.

Now here are some folks in Indonesia who (I think) have solved the "amount of time for terawih" issue with regards to both the 20 rakaat and EIGHT rakaat.  

This is an old video but it is going viral again in this bulan puasa.   It says that these guys can do the entire terawih in about SEVEN MINUTES.

Posted by Syed Akbar Ali