I never came upon the people without hearing them cursing the infidels during Ramadan. The reader recited sura al-Baqara (Al-Qur’an; 2) in the course of eight rak'as, and when he made it serve for twelve rak'as the people thought he had shortened the prayer.
'Umar ordered Ubayy b. Ka'b and Tamim ad-Dari to lead the people in eleven rak'as during the night in Ramadan. The reader was reciting a hundred verses in each rak'a so that we leaned on our sticks because of standing so long, and we did not depart till the dawn was beginning to break.
بن أبي بكر قَالَ: سَمِعت أبي يَقُولُ: كُنَّا نَنْصَرِفُ فِي رَمَضَانَ مِنَ الْقِيَامِ فَنَسْتَعْجِلُ الْخَدَمَ بِالطَّعَامِ مَخَافَةَ فَوْتِ السَّحُورِ. وَفِي أُخْرَى مَخَافَة الْفجْر. رَوَاهُ مَالك
Narrated ‘Abdallah b. Abu Bakr said:
I'heard Ubayy say, “We used to finish night prayers in Ramadan and ask the servants to hurry up with the food, for fear we would miss the meal before dawn.” In another version he said, “for fear the dawn would come.”
I went out one night to the mosque with ‘Umar b. al-Khattab and we saw the people in sections separate from one another, one man praying by himself, and another followed by a group; so ‘Umar said, “If I collected these people behind one reciter it would be better." He then made up his mind and collected them with Ubayy b. Ka‘b as imam. Afterwards I went out with him another night when the people were following the prayer of their reciter, and ‘Umar said, “This is a good innovation, but what you miss through sleeping is more excellent than what you are getting up for, meaning at the end of the night, for the people were getting up during the early part of the night.
