Question:

In our masjid, during taraweeh the Imam recites the Qur'an very fast. He reads the first few words correctly then all the ayah's from then on, the listener is able to hear 1 letter per word in a verse; meaning only few words in the verse can be heard. Will we get the complete ajer praying with the Imam ? Did the sahaba pray Qur'an faster to ease it on people or shorten the time spent for taraweeh?

Answer:

An Imam can speed up recitation. There is a name given to that called (alhader) that is reciting the Qur'an fast, yet read in tajweed, and more importantly, in full pronunciation of each and every letter must be done.

An Imam can and should take into consideration to ease up on the people behind him, as the prophet (sallah allahu alieh wasalam) ordered, and as the sahabah did but cannot do so on the account of misreading the Qur'an. The Imam can read less than a juz in a fast but well-pronounced matter.

The description you mentioned is not reciting, but rather an unacceptable mumbling. One should refrain from that. The Imam should be told to slow down or be replaced. I know some Imam who do that in order to avoid being caught in his mistakes. The purpose of recitation is to listen, comprehend, think and have khushoo3. A shorter salah with khushoo3 and listening to Allah's words is better than a longer salah with no khushoo3.

The Salaf at times made long prayers and other times made them shorter. They made them longer by reading more, and shorter by reading less, as you will see in the following examples. They never made them shorter by reading fast to the point those behind them did not comprehend what they were reading:

AlSaeb bin Yazeed said Omar ordered Ubai bin Ka3b and Tameem Aldary to lead the prayer in Ramadan. They used to read in the two hundreds (meaning around 200) to the point they used to lean on canes from the length of the standing, and they did not go back home until it was shortly before fajer.

AlSaeb said the reader used to read in Ramadan during Umar's (radia allahu anh) time with fifty to sixty verses or close to that.

Note that both occurred during Umar's time (radia allahu anh), and in one he made longer and in another made it ¼ of the previous time.

Umar Ibn AlMunther said that during the time of Abdallah Ibn Aluziber we used to read 50 verses in every raka3ah.

Umar bin Abdel Aziz ordered they pray thirty-six raka'at with ten verses recited in every raka'at.

Ahmad bin Hanbal was asked, "May a person read the Qur'an twice in Ramadan as a taraweeh?" He replied, "It depends on what the people can handle, and if they can accommodate that with their jobs." Similar statements were made by the Hanafieh.(lataef al ma3aref p.18.

You can see that it depends on what people can handle and want, but what is most important is that the words be fully pronounced with tajweed. Anything less that full correct pronunciation is inappropriate.

If the matter is not corrected then one is better off praying in his home reciting what little he may know with comprehension and khusoo3.

Sheikh Ahmad Musa Jibreel