Tarawih
The long night prayers of Ramadan, in which the Qur'an is recited at length.
Voluntary night prayers particular to Ramadan, performed after the evening prayer, at home or in the mosque. Congregations often aim to recite one thirtieth of the Quran each night, finishing the whole book by the month's end, so Ramadan nights at a mosque are long, full, and strongly communal.
Tarawih is prayed at night through Ramadan, after the last obligatory prayer of the day. It is voluntary rather than required, and it is long: the defining feature is extended Qur'an recitation, and many mosques work through the whole Qur'an across the month.
The number of units differs by school and community, with eight and twenty both widely practised and the disagreement between them old and well worn.
It is prayed in congregation in most places, and in Ramadan it is often the fullest a mosque gets, drawing people who do not attend at other times of the year.
Does it have a text?
The prayer's own structure is the fixed salah. What is recited inside it is the Qur'an itself, at length, so what would be published here is not a prayer text but scripture, of which this site holds five short texts in Arabic.
When it comes up
Other forms of prayer in Muslim
- Salah — The five daily Islamic prayers, fixed in wording, posture and time.
- Dua — Personal supplication in Islam, said in any words and any language.
- Jumu'ah — The Friday congregational prayer, with a sermon in place of part of the usual prayer.
- Dhikr — The remembrance of God through short repeated formulas.
- Salat al-Janazah — The Islamic funeral prayer, prayed standing over the body with no bowing or prostration.
This page describes a practice. It does not tell you how to perform it, or whether you should. Practice varies by region, community and household far more than a page like this can carry, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed anything here. The full dossier names its sources.