Fiqh of the ḥadīth

The plain sense of the Prophet’s command, “so perform it,” indicates that the witr prayer is obligatory. This is the position of the Ḥanafīs, in contrast to the majority of scholars. Were it not for the decisive proofs that restrict the obligatory prayers in every day and night to five, the Ḥanafī view would be nearer to the mark. Consequently, one must conclude that the command here does not denote obligation but serves instead to underscore its strong recommendation.

Many noble commands have been understood as non-obligatory on the basis of evidence far weaker than these categorical proofs. The Ḥanafīs evade this difficulty by stating that they do not consider witr obligatory in the same sense as the five prescribed prayers; rather, it occupies a middle rank between them and the regular sunnah prayers—less firmly established than the former yet more emphatically urged than the latter.

Let it be known that this Ḥanafī position rests on a later, specialist convention unknown to the Companions and the early righteous generations: their distinction between a farḍ (obligation) and a wājib (duty) in terms of both evidentiary basis and legal consequence, as detailed in their works.

Holding to this terminology necessarily implies admitting that whoever neglects the witr will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, albeit with a punishment lighter than that for abandoning a farḍ—according to their own ijtihād. One may then ask: how can this stand alongside the Prophet’s statement to the man who resolved to pray nothing beyond the five daily prayers, “The man has succeeded!”? How can success be reconciled with punishment?

There is no doubt that this single statement of the Prophet ﷺ is sufficient to show that the witr prayer is not obligatory. For this reason the vast majority of scholars have agreed that it is a sunnah rather than an obligation, and that is the truth. We affirm this while at the same time reminding and advising believers to give due attention to the witr and not to neglect it, on account of this ḥadīth and others. And Allah knows best.