Question: When I pray Witr, I sometimes perform two rakʿahs with one salām, then follow them with a single rakʿah for Witr with its own salām; at other times I pray three rakʿahs with one salām only. Is this permissible?

Answer: Performing the three rakʿahs with two salāms is preferable and more complete. As for praying them with a single salām—reciting the three rakʿahs consecutively, then sitting at the end and saying salām—this is also permissible, but the first manner is more complete and better.

Question: What if one inserts a first tashahhud, the way it is done in Maghrib? Is that allowed?

Answer: That should not be done, because it has been forbidden to make Witr resemble Maghrib; therefore one ought to avoid it.

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The Funeral, Eclipse, and Rain-Seeking Prayers

Question: What should be said in the funeral prayer, the eclipse prayer, and the rain-seeking (istisqāʾ) prayer? We would also appreciate guidance to a book from which we can learn these matters.

Answer: As for books from which you may learn them, the works of fiqh compiled according to the four madhhabs are—praise be to Allah—readily available in both detailed and abridged form; you may consult any of them. There is also a work that gathers the supplications to be recited in the funeral, eclipse, and rain-seeking prayers: al-Adhkār by al-Nawawī, which you may likewise refer to.

With regard to what is said in the funeral prayer: after the opening takbīrat al-iḥrām (the inaugural declaration of “Allāhu akbar”), you recite Sūrat al-Fātiḥah. Then you make another takbīr and invoke blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ as you do in the final tashahhud of the regular prayer: “Allāhumma ṣalli ʿalā Muḥammad wa ʿalā Āli Muḥammad kamā ṣallayta ʿalā Ibrāhīm wa ʿalā Āli Ibrāhīm, innaka…”