307 – Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Let the last of your night-time prayers be a single Witr.” Agreed upon. (1)

Points derived from the ḥadith

1. Witr is the prayer by which the night vigil is concluded, whether it is offered at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the night. Just as the Maghrib prayer is an odd-numbered prayer that seals the daytime prayers, so too Witr is meant to be the final prayer of the night.

2. If, after Witr, a person performs a supererogatory prayer, the Witr is not thereby invalidated—especially those voluntary prayers that have a specific cause, such as the sunnah of entering the mosque, the two units after circumambulating the Kaʿbah, the two units following ablution, and the like. The Witr remains valid as the seal of the night prayers. Muslim narrates (738) from ʿĀʾishah that the Prophet ﷺ “would pray two units after Witr while seated.” Al-Nawawī explained that he ﷺ did this to demonstrate the permissibility of voluntary prayer after Witr.

3. The jurists have stated—as quoted in Sharḥ al-Zād with its marginal notes—that there is no dislike in taʿqīb, meaning to pray after the congregational tarāwīḥ and Witr. Anas said, “Do not return except to something good that you hope for.” Al-Majd and others added: Even if they were to pray supererogatory prayers in congregation, or after sleeping, or late in the night, it is not disliked. This is the established textual position, and a number of scholars have adopted it.