Should an announcement be made for the SajdahTilaawah or not?

Q: Salaah-144: What is the ruling concerning making an announcement before the Taraweeh salaah that a Sajdah will be taking place in a particular Rakaah?

Answer: Even though there were many ignorant and new Muslims during the time of our pious predecessors, still they did not adopt this practice. This was despite the fact that they were very keen on propagating and educating people in all aspects Deen. In fact, even the Fuqahaa did not encourage this practice. Had it been necessary , they would have certainly encouraged it, just as they encouraged the Musaafir Imaam to announce that he is a Musaafir. However, since there is no real need for it here, they do not encourage it because of the danger of people regarding it to be Sunnah. This is what had happened in certain piaces where announcements were made before the Jumu'ah salaah saying, "There are Sunnah salaahs to be performed before Jumu'ah" and the announcement saying," Be silent May Allaah have mercy on you!"
Shah Wali'ullaah Muhaddith Dehlawi RAH. has cautioned, "Amongst the harms of regarding permissible (non- compulsory) acts as being necessary is the possibility of a Mubaah act being regarded as being Masnoon and to regard a non-Masnoon act as Masnoon is tantamount to altering the Deen.

Of course, if the Jamaa'ah is very large and there are people on an upper storey floor as well, it would be permissible to make such an announcement when there is fear that people would be greatly confused. This will then be a case of a need qualifying, making permissible something that would otherwise not be permissible. The permissibility will therefore not apply when the need is not present. Our years of experience have however shown that there really is no need for this in our areas and the practice should therefore be left out.

Fatawa Rahimiyyah vol.2