'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.
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.
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.
Zaid b. Thabit reported God s Messenger as saying, “A man’s prayer in his house is more excellent than his prayer in this mosque of mine, except for the prescribed prayer."
