Chapter on the Witr Prayer and its Rulings

Let us now turn to the witr prayer, given its great significance. It is reported to be the most strongly emphasized of the voluntary prayers, and some jurists even held it to be obligatory. Whenever scholars disagree over whether an act is obligatory, it is deemed more emphatic than those acts whose non-obligation is unanimously acknowledged.

All Muslims agree that the witr prayer is legislated and should not be neglected. Whoever persists in abandoning it has his testimony rejected. Imam Ahmad said, “Whoever deliberately leaves the witr prayer is an evil man; his testimony is not to be accepted.” Ahmad and Abu Dawud also transmitted, in a marfūʿ report, the statement: “Whoever does not perform witr is not one of us.”

The term witr may refer to a single rakʿah performed separately from what precedes it, or to three, five, seven, nine, or eleven rakʿahs—provided they are concluded with one salutation. If two or more salutations are used, then the name witr applies only to the final, separate rakʿah.