The Distinguished Jurists Primer by Ibn Rushd

They (the jurists) agreed that the Ramadan night prayer is more desirable than the night prayer during any of the other months, because of the words of the Prophet (God’s peace and blessings be upon him), “He who celebrates the Ramadan nights praying and worshipping because of his faith and only for Allah’s sake will be forgiven all prior sins that have issued forth from him”. The (jurists agreed that the) tarawih prayers, the congregation in the mosque for which was started by TJmar, are desirable. They differed, however, on whether these (night prayers during Ramadan known as tarawih) have greater merit or the prayers during the later part of the night, that is, the prayer preferred by the Messenger of Allah (God’s peace and blessings be upon him). The majority held that the prayers of the later part of the night have greater merit because of the words of the Prophet (God’s peace and blessings be upon him), “The best prayer is the prayer in your houses, except .the obligatory prayers”. There is also TJmar’s saying that “those for which you give up sleep have greater merit”.

They disagreed about the preferred number of rak'as that are to be undertaken by the people during the nights of Ramadan. Malik, in one of his opinions, Abu HanTfa, akShaficT, Ahmad, and Dawud preferred twenty rak^as excluding witr. Ibn al-Qasim has recorded from Malik that he used to prefer offering thirty-six raFa?58 plus three of witr.

The reason for their disagreement comes from the conflict of transmission over this, as Malik has related from YazTd ibn Ruman that he said, “The people, in the time of TJmar, used to pray twenty-three rak'as. Ibn Abu Shayba has reported from Dawud ibn Qays, who said, ‘I prayed with the people during the time of ffJrnar ibn cAbd al-SAziz and Abban ibn TJthman and they used to pray thirty-six rak'as and offered (another) three as witr'”. Ibn al-Qasim has reported from Malik that this was the earlier directive, that is, praying thirty-six fakfas.