The Full Quran Schedule For The Taraweeh Prayers

With Ramadān around the corner, it's that time where Huffādh are starting to prepare and action their plans for the Tarāwīh prayers. With this in mind, I'm sharing some of the common day-by-day schedules for the Tarāwīh prayers.

The full Taraweeh schedule for completing the Qur'ān in 27 days

This is a schedule that, in my experience, is primarily followed by those from the subcontinent. The aim is to complete the entire Qur'ān by the 27th night of Ramadān. Those from the subcontinent don't use the Madani Mus'haf ('Uthmānī), but instead, they use the non-'Uthmānī, South Asian Majeedi script. It's also often referred to as the Indo-Pak Qur'ān.

Using the rukū' system

These copies of the Qur'ān contains a system for divisions that are called the rukū' - the paragragph system. In the Qur'ān, the rukū' are sections of about ten verses or fewer that are marked in the margin with the letter "'Ayn" and numbers. There are a total of 558 of them in the Qur'ān. There would be 540 units of the salāh (if you're doing 20 rakat for the Tarāwīh) till the 27th. This means that 20 rukū' are recited each night during Ramādan with a few days having a few extra so they can finish in 27 days.

These divisions were added by scholars around the 4th century of the Hijri calendar for the purpose of recitation during the Tarāweeh prayer in Ramadān. Each rukū' consists of a group of verses that all relate to the same topic. While it is not required to make a rukū' (bow in salāh) after reciting a rukū' from the Qur'ān during the Tarāweeh prayer, it is a common practice. The rukū' was created to make it easier for the person reciting the Qur'ān during Tarāweeh to keep track of their progress.

Schedule One

Schedule Two

Using a page system

In contrast, those that use the Madani script, take advantage of the 20 pages per Juz' structure of the mus'haf. I have seen many that have memorised using a page by page approach like this tend to lead the Tarāwīh page by page as well. Depending on the mus'haf, the number of pages will vary between 604 to 611 pages. This would mean that you'd be looking at doing between 1.11 and 1.13 pages per rakāt to complete the Qur'ān by the 27th night of Ramadān. Give or take, you would still need to recite more than a page.

The Tarāwīh schedule for those who want to complete more Qur'ān

There are other approaches that people take which means that they can complete more than one Qur'ān during the month.

Some Masājid do the 1 Juz' and a quarter a day, while others to 1 Juz' and a half, but there are others that might do 3 ajzā' a night so that they can complete a Qur'ān in the first 10 days. They may also then complete another in the last 18-19 days. There are some that do even more than 3 ajzā' a night, and at times, completing a Qur'ān in a few days.

These are not recommended practices nor required at all and it usually involves extremely fast recitation which is not permissible.

The Tarāwīh schedule for those completing the Qur'ān by the end of Ramadān

Then there are those that don't look to complete the Qur'ān within a certain timeframe but they will complete the Qur'ān whenever the month of Ramādan is expected to finish. This means they will divide the recitation by the number of rakat they are to offer and the number of days they have. This would normally be a Juz' a night.

Those that offer 8 rak'āt will follow a different system, for example, a schedule may look like this:

Schedule:

The Tarāwīh schedule for those not completing the Qur'ān by the end of Ramadān

Then there are those that don't look to complete the Qur'ān in the Tarāwīh at all. This will vary and is usually due to creating an alternative short form Tarāwīh prayer for those that need to offer it but may not be able to attend a longer Tarāwīh. For example, those observing Ramadān in the summer months with very long nights such that 'Ishā timings become very late.

Those leading these prayers will either recite 10 pages of the Qur'ān per night by doing half a page per rak'ah, or they might recite the last 20 surah from Juz' 'Amma every night. They may also recite a minimum of 3 verses or more per rak'ah or they may recite specific surah or juz'.

In the UK, Ramadān has been passing through the summer months and now through spring where the timings of 'Ishā' have been very late. This actually led me to also lead short form Tarāwīh in recent years. I would do a mixture of random verses and then the last 10 surah from Juz' 'Amma every night, or I would do Surah al-Baqarah. I would pair this with a brief study session on what was being recited every night so that those attending could understand and relate to what was being recited every night.

These are some of the main schedules that are followed for the Tarāwīh prayers. I hope this might prove helpful for someone!

May Allāh grant blessing, allow us to reach Ramadān and benefit from it.