applies only to the worshipper who lacks a prevailing assumption on which he can act, whereas the ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd pertains to one who does possess such a dominant assumption. On that basis he ruled out the legal force of the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah, saying: “The reports of Abū Saʿīd and Ibn Masʿūd include an additional ruling, and any addition must be received and followed.” In reality this, too, amounts to a kind of reconciliation.
As for the scholars who preferred some of the reports and set aside the rulings of the others, they are those who held that only the prostration (of forgetfulness) is required. They favored the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah and disregarded the reports of Abū Saʿīd and Ibn Masʿūd, and for that reason their opinion is the weakest of all.
This is what we judged sufficient to record in the first part of the Book of Prayer, namely the discussion of the obligatory prayers. We now pass to the second part, which treats the prescribed prayers that are not individually obligatory.
Book of Prayer, Part Two
Chapter One • On the Witr Prayer
Because the prayers that are not required of every individual fall into three categories—Sunnah, supererogatory (nafl), and communal obligations (farḍ kifāyah)—and because their rulings are sometimes agreed upon and sometimes disputed, we have deemed it appropriate to discuss each of them separately. They are, in all, ten:
- the two Sunnah rakʿahs of Fajr,
- Witr,
- voluntary (nafl) prayers,
- the two rakʿahs performed on entering the mosque,
- the night prayer of Ramadan,
- the eclipse prayer,
- the rain-seeking prayer,
- the two ʿEid prayers,
- the prostration of Qur’an recitation, for it too is a prayer.
Accordingly, this book comprises ten chapters. The funeral prayer will be treated separately, under the rulings concerning the deceased, following juristic custom in what they call the Book of Funerals.
Chapter One • The Witr Prayer
The jurists differed about Witr in five respects: its ruling, its form, its time, the qunūt recited in it, and whether it may be performed while riding.
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Its ruling: this was discussed earlier when we set out the number of obligatory prayers.
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Its form: Mālik (may Allah have mercy on him) considered it preferable to perform three rakʿahs, separating them with a salām. Abū Ḥanīfah held that Witr is three consecutive rakʿahs with no salām in between. Al-Shāfiʿī maintained that Witr is a single rakʿah. Each of these views has precedent among the Companions and the Successors.
The reason for their disagreement is the divergence of the transmitted reports on this issue. It is authentically established from him—peace and blessings be upon him—in the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah that “he would pray eleven rakʿahs at night, ending them with a single rakʿah of Witr.”