and they are sound. Among the clearest of them is the famous ḥadīth of the Night Journey:

“When the obligation was reduced to five prayers, Moses said to him, ‘Return to your Lord, for your community will not be able to bear that.’ I went back to Him, and He said, ‘They are five—and they are (rewarded as) fifty. My word is not subject to change with Me.’”

Likewise is the well-known ḥadīth of the Bedouin who asked the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—about Islam. He told him,

“Five prayers in every day and night.”

The man asked, “Is anything else required of me?”

He replied, “No, unless you perform voluntary acts.”

As for the aḥādīth whose apparent meaning is that the Witr prayer is obligatory, they include the report of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“Allah has added for you a prayer—it is Witr—so be diligent in observing it.”

There is also the report of Ḥāritha ibn Ḥudhāfah who said: “The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—came out to us and said:

‘Allah has commanded you with a prayer that is better for you than red camels; it is Witr, and He has fixed it for you between the ʿIshāʾ prayer and the break of dawn.’”

And the ḥadīth of Buraydah al-Aslamī in which the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“Witr is a duty; whoever does not perform Witr is not one of us.”

Whoever regards this “addition” as an abrogation, yet finds these aḥādīth too weak to reach the level required to abrogate those well-established and renowned reports, gives precedence to the latter. Furthermore, the divine statement quoted in the ḥadīth of the Night Journey—

“My word is not subject to change with Me” (Qāf 29)—

apparently indicates that no increase or decrease can be made to them, although the indication against decrease is more explicit; and a transmitted report is not itself subject to abrogation.

Conversely, anyone who deems the strength of these narrations that require an addition beyond the five prayers sufficient to necessitate acting upon them is obliged to adopt that addition—especially if he holds that an addition does not amount to abrogation. This, however, is not the opinion of Abū Ḥanīfah.

Issue Three

Prayer is obligatory upon every Muslim who has reached puberty; there is no disagreement on this point.

Issue Four

As for the one who deliberately abandons prayer, is ordered to perform it, and refuses—without denying its obligatory status—some scholars say he is to be executed, while others say he is to be disciplined and imprisoned. Among those who rule that he is to be put to death are those who do so on the basis that his refusal constitutes disbelief—a view held by Aḥmad, Isḥāq, and Ibn al-Mubārak—while others prescribe his execution as a legal punishment (ḥadd).