The second: the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās. He said:
“I spent a night with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was in the house of Maymūnah. He stood (in prayer) until a third—or half—of the night had elapsed. He then awoke, went to a waterskin that contained some water, performed ablution, and I performed ablution with him. He rose to pray and I stood beside him on his left, so he placed me on his right. He then put his hand on my head, touching my ear as though to rouse me. He prayed two light rakʿahs in each of which he recited Umm al-Qurʾān (Sūrat al-Fātiḥah), then gave salām. After that he prayed until he had completed eleven rakʿahs, ending with witr. He then lay down. Bilāl came and said, ‘The prayer, Messenger of Allah.’ So he rose, prayed two rakʿahs, and then led the people in prayer.”
Narrated by Abū Dāwūd, and by Abū ʿAwānah in his Ṣaḥīḥ; the original wording is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs.
The third: the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah. She said:
“When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood for the night prayer, he would open it with two light rakʿahs, then pray eight rakʿahs, and then perform witr.”
In another wording:
“He would pray ʿIshāʾ, then offer two quick rakʿahs. He would have prepared his siwāk (tooth-stick) and his ablution water. Allah would awaken him whenever He willed; he would then use the siwāk, perform ablution, pray two rakʿahs, rise and pray eight rakʿahs, keeping the recitation equal in all of them; after that he would perform witr with the ninth. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ grew old and gained weight, he reduced those eight to six and made his witr the seventh, after which he would pray two rakʿahs while sitting, reciting in them ‘Say, O disbelievers’ and ‘When the earth is shaken.’” ⦗100⦘
Al-Ṭaḥāwī recorded both versions with authentic chains, and the first part of the first wording was narrated by Muslim and Abū ʿAwānah, and so on.
It is noteworthy that in the second wording ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—mentioned the two light rakʿahs after his ﷺ ʿIshāʾ prayer; this supports what I preferred at the beginning of this treatise, namely that these two light rakʿahs are the sunnah of ʿIshāʾ. Allah knows best. ⦗101⦘
- He would pray thirteen rakʿahs: eight, giving salām after every two, then witr with five in which he neither sat nor gave salām until the fifth. Concerning this there is the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—who said:
“He would sleep, and when he awoke he would use the siwāk, perform ablution, and pray eight rakʿahs, sitting and giving salām after every two; then he would perform witr with five rakʿahs in which he neither sat nor gave salām until the fifth. [When the muʾadhdhin pronounced the adhān he would rise and pray two light rakʿahs.]”
Narrated by Aḥmad with an isnād that is sound according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs. It was also recorded by Muslim, Abū ʿAwānah, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī—who declared it ṣaḥīḥ—al-Dārimī, Ibn Naṣr, al-Bayhaqī, and Ibn Ḥazm, all of them in an abridged form that omits mention of giving salām after every two rakʿahs. Al-Shāfiʿī, al-Ṭiyālisī, and al-Ḥākim transmitted from it only the portion about performing witr with five.
This ḥadīth has a corroborating chain from Ibn ʿAbbās, narrated by Abū Dāwūd (1/214) and al-Bayhaqī (3/29) with a sound chain.
Aḥmad’s wording explicitly states that the total is thirteen rakʿahs, apart from the two rakʿahs of Fajr; in its apparent sense this differs from the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah. ⦗102⦘