not sufficient time, one may stop after any two rak‘ahs (Bu. 19:10). The Holy Prophet laid special stress on Tahajjud in the month of Ramadzān, and it was the Tahajjud prayer that ultimately took the form of Tarāwīḥ in that month. He is reported to have said that whoever keeps awake at night to offer prayer in the month of Ramadzān, having faith and seeking only the Divine pleasure, his faults are covered (Bu. 2:27); and there are ḥadīth showing that he used to awaken his wives to say prayers (Bu. 14:3). He is also said to have gone to the house of his daughter Fāṭima at night to awaken her and her husband ‘Alī for Tahajjud prayers (Bu. 19:5). Owing to the emphasis laid by the Holy Prophet on this prayer and the injunctions of the Holy Qur’ān quoted above, the Companions of the Holy Prophet were very particular about Tahajjud prayer, though they knew that it was not obligatory, and some of them used to come to the mosque during the latter part of the night to say their Tahajjud prayers. It is reported that the Holy Prophet had a small closet made for himself in the mosque and furnished with a mat as a place of seclusion wherein to say his Tahajjud prayers during the month of Ramadzān, and on a certain night, when he rose up to say his Tahajjud prayers, some people who were in the mosque saw him and followed him in prayer, thus making a congregation. On the following night, this congregation increased, and swelled to still larger numbers on the third. On the fourth night, the Holy Prophet did not come out, saying he feared lest it be made obligatory, and that it was preferable to say the Tahajjud prayers in one’s own house (Bu. 10:80, 81). Tahajjud, except for these three days, thus remained an individual prayer during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet, the caliphate of Abū Bakr, and the early part of the caliphate of ‘Umar (Bu. 31:1). But later on, ‘Umar introduced a change whereby this prayer became a congregational prayer during the early part of the night, and was said after the ‘Ishā’ prayer. He himself is reported to have said that it was an innovation, though the latter part of night during which people kept on sleeping was preferable to the early part in which they said this prayer (Bu. 31:1). Doubtless he had had this suggestion from the example of the Holy Prophet himself, who had said the Tahajjud prayer in congregation for three nights, and allowed the witr, which was also a