First Taraweeh Prayers In Years

Remember how in my previous post I mentioned about wanting to do the Taraweeh prayers in a mosque? Well, last night, I did just that. When Dad knew about the women-area in the same mosque he and my brothers go to, he agreed to drop me by. I entered, made the wu'9oo and joined the ladies lined up for prayers. The women next to me tugged at my arm, asking me to squeeze in so as to make room for the others. Gladly, I made it just in time for Ishaa prayer and we all prayed with the Imam. This brought a rush of memories of my previous years in praying in a mosque as a jama3a, and there are absolutely no words for this heartwarming feeling.

After finishing the 4 ruk3ats of Ishaa, people rose again to pray the sunnah prayer and copying them, I did the same. Immediately after I finished, the Imam started the Taraweeh prayers that consisted of 8 ruk3ats. I couldn't help but remember how I used to get tired of standing for the long prayers back when I was 10. I also recalled the fact that my aunt used to tag my sister and I along in the same period of time to a mosque both at noon and night, and once, I drank water from the tank, thinking it was night and we came for Taraweeh instead of spending few hours of noon in reading quran at this same mosque. Then, my aunt told me, god loves you so much that he allowed you to drink few drops of water and that I'm supposed to continue fasting as it obviously was a silly mistake. I can see the incident so vividly as if it happened last night and not few years back.

The witar prayer followed (I knew this because the mother of the child next to me explained so before we started) and the reason I found the explanation useful is because the Imam prayed two ruk3ats, ended the prayer, prayed another single ruk3a, then ended it once more. I was confused and thought better than to ask Dad as I’d be accused of not paying enough attention, but thankfully, Dad explained it all later on: Some Sunni and Ibhadi people do it this way: Two shafa3 and one witar, each separated. Also, the other minor difference is at the salam part, some do it once, and others like me, twice.

If if ever got the chance to do it all again, then I'm sure there will be no hesitations.