All state religious departments need to possess a common approach to tarawih prayers during Ramadhan.

We need to adopt the Meccan approach, where tarawih begins immediately after the isha and sunnat prayers.

What we observe taking place in this country is contrary to the practice of the Prophet (s.a.w.) or the Caliph Sayyidna Umar (r.a.). In our case there are tahlil recitations for the deceased after isha prayers followed by a short talk.

All these are 'inventions' ( bid'ah ). They are time-consuming. People turn up for the tarawih prayers. They have a tight schedule involving working hours, the need to rest, to wake up for sahur , pray at subuh and then rush off to work.

They do not have enough time to rest, so why bog down society with rituals that have no foundation? It a wonder that by the third week, there are only about five rows of the faithful left during the month of Ramadhan.

Another aspect that needs consideration in that in the past, the tarawih prayer did not involve the recitation of Qur'anic sections. It was simple, very short and straightforward.

Today, with a whole string of the Hafiz Qur'an, the normal 20 raka'at takes three times the time it used to do the old way. It may appear to be good and great to do the whole Qur'an in Ramadhan - that is if you understand Arabic - otherwise it an exercise staying awake.

So I can't understand the wisdom or what they hope to achieve when the situation generally remains the same year in and year out, with half the congregation leaving after eight raka'at.