Question: Last year Ramadaan, I went to a mosque and performed salaat. They only performed 8 rakaats instead of 20 and for the witr they did 2 rakaats, gave salaams and then did 1 rakaat. Could you explain this for me?

Answer: It seems that they simply performed eight rakaats as taraweeh instead of twenty. This obviously, is against the Ijma of the sahabahs (companions of the Prophet (s.a.s), and the act of performing only eight rakaats as taraweeh salaah was never an established practice in the teachings of Islam.

With respect to the witr, this manner of separating between the two rakaats and the last one is in accordance to the opinion of a few scholars. However, this was not the established practice of the Prophet (s.a.s). I have given a full explanation of the witr salaah on the website of the Darul Uloom. You can check it there. The address is www.darululoomtt.org


And Allah knows best.
Mufti Waseem Khan