Question 25: Assalam alykum ya shaykhana :)

I have a couple of questions re Taraweeh prayers.

Q1: If someone missed the taraweeh with the imaam at the masjid and wanted to pray at home, does he have to pray at least 11 Rakah at home in order to get the reward of the hadith of having all his previous sins forgiven?

Q2: If someone wants to pray more taraweeh at home after finishing taraweeh at the masjid and thus his intention was not to do tasleem with the imaam at the witr Rakaah and instead continue another Rakah and do more prayers at home before finishing with witr. Then, when the imaam did tasleem, that person forgot and did tasleem with the imaam. What should he do? Should he stand up and just pray another rakaah and do sujuud AsSahw and continue as planned (i.e. pray more at home then do witr before to go to sleep) or should he just stop with the imam and pray at home the rest of the prayers in twos and consider that he just prayed witr with the imaam at the masjid?

I hope my questions are clear especially writing them late at night :)

Answer: Assalamualaikum Br Hamdy Hamed

Regarding the 1st question, the Prophet ﷺ said whoever prayed qiyamul layl will have sins forgiven. And when a person asked him how to pray qiyamul layl, he ﷺ said to pray in 2s till it seems Fajr is near, then to pray witr. Given the two hadith are general, we understand that any qiyamul layl after Isha and taraweeh qualifies for the reward of having sins forgiven if Allah wills.

Regarding your 2nd question, If you did the tasleem with the Imaam, then your witr for the night is finished. The Prophet ﷺ forbade us from praying two witr in one night. So if you pray later on in the night in units of 2s, then do not pray another witr.