Question:
Assalamualaikum Mufti Saab,
1. Is it permissible to pray Taraweeh Salaah with Jamaat on 29th Sha’baan before the moon for Ramadan has been confirmed?
2. Is it permissible to pray Taraweeh Salaah with Jamaat on 29th Ramadan before the moon for Shawwal has been confirmed? How long should one wait in order to confirm? In my community, the moon was not confirmed till 11 PM (it was decided that next day is Eid), so the community did pray Taraweeh anyway.
The reason I ask you this question is because my community argues and says that we need to pray the Salaah at its fixed time. Since Taraweeh is prayed at 8:00 PM in my community, everyone wants to pray it right away even before the moon has been confirmed or not in order to not delay the prayer any further (since a possibility exists that prayer Taraweeh might be necessary).
Thank you and Jazakallah Khair
Wassalaam
Answer:
1: It is not permissible to perform Taraweeh Salaah with or without Jamaat on the 29th Sha’baan before the moon of Ramadan has been confirmed.
2: It is permissible to perform Taraweeh Salaah on the 29th Ramadaan at its time and it is not necessary to delay the Taraweeh Salaah until the announcement with regards to the sighting of the moon.
And Allah Ta’ala knows best
Mufti Muhammad Ashraf
Darul Iftaa
Jameah Mahmoodiyah
Springs
15 March 2007
24 Safar 1428