No one should offer any prayer in the mosque besides the imam’s own prayer—save for the obligatory prayer that someone failed to perform behind the imam—for the mosque is more deserving of obligatory worship.

Whoever misses one rakʿah of the even-numbered pairs with the imam should stand, once the imam has given the salām, and pray an additional rakʿah. If the imam does not himself perform those even rakʿahs, the latecomer should pray the missed rakʿah while the imam is in bowing, doing so on his own. But if the imam is among those who do pray the even rakʿahs, the follower should rise with him, keep the recitation, bowing, and prostration of that rakʿah light, give the salām, and then start the prayer afresh with the imam in the proper manner.

No one is to perform more than four supererogatory rakʿahs at a time, and the preferred course is that all voluntary prayers—these even-numbered pairs included—be performed two by two.

Whoever has missed the obligatory ʿIshāʾ prayer in Ramadan and arrives while the congregation is engaged in the even-numbered pairs should begin with ʿIshāʾ, praying it alone.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to pray eleven rakʿahs at night, ending them with a single rakʿah of witr.

There ought likewise to be prayer before witr, the least of which is two rakʿahs; all supererogatory prayers, night or day, are to be offered two by two. A number of scholars considered it disliked to perform witr as a lone rakʿah with nothing before it, calling such a prayer al-batraʾ (the truncated witr), whereas others allowed it. Among those who performed a single-rakʿah witr is