your Lord with praise, and be among those who prostrate.”

This is unrestricted; He did not confine it to any particular time. All praise belongs to Allah alone. May Allah send blessings and abundant peace upon Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.

He was asked:

“Is it permissible for a man who has not performed witr after ‘Ishā’ to omit it?”

He replied:

All praise belongs to Allah. Witr is a strongly emphasized sunnah by the consensus of the Muslims. Anyone who persistently abandons it has his testimony rejected.

The scholars differed over whether it is obligatory. Abū Hanīfah and a group of Ahmad’s followers considered it obligatory, whereas the majority—including Mālik, al-Shāfi‘ī, and Ahmad—did not, because:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to perform witr on his mount.”

An obligatory prayer is not performed on a mount. Nevertheless, by the consensus of the Muslims, witr is a strongly emphasized sunnah that no one should abandon. It is more emphatically prescribed than the sunnah prayers associated with Dhuhr, Maghrib, and ‘Ishā’, and it is superior to all voluntary daytime prayers, such as the Duhā prayer. Indeed, the best prayer after the obligatory prayers is night prayer. The most emphatically prescribed of these prayers are witr and the two rak‘ahs before Fajr. And Allah knows best.