Chapter on the Witr Prayer

Hadith 1

ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with them both—reported: A man once asked the Prophet ﷺ while he was standing on the pulpit, “How do you view the night prayer?” He replied, “Two by two; then, when any one of you fears that dawn is near, let him pray a single rakʿah, and it will make whatever he has already performed an odd number.”

He ﷺ would also say, “Make the last of your night prayers an odd-numbered rakʿah.”

Unfamiliar Terms
• “Two by two” (mithnā mithnā) is a verbal reinforcement, not a call for repetition—the very form of the phrase already conveys that meaning. It equals: “in pairs of two.” Grammatically, the word is indeclinable because of its dual sense combined with its descriptive use. Al-Zamakhsharī notes that repeating the word mithnā intensifies the emphasis.
• Witr (with the final consonant pronounced either with kasrah or fatḥah) means “odd” or “single.”

Overall Meaning
While delivering a sermon from the pulpit, the Prophet ﷺ was asked about the number of rakʿahs for the night prayer and whether they should be separated by salām or joined together. Out of his eagerness to benefit people and spread knowledge, he answered right then and there: “The night prayer is to be performed in pairs; one gives salām after every two rakʿahs. When the worshipper fears that dawn is about to break, he prays a single rakʿah, which renders all the rakʿahs he has prayed that night an odd number.” Because Witr should conclude the night prayer, it is best that a person’s final act of worship before dawn be that single rakʿah of Witr.

Scholarly Discussion
The apparent sense of the hadith indicates that one neither exceeds nor falls short of two rakʿahs at a time in voluntary prayers, for the measures of worship are essentially acts of devotion whose limits are fixed; nothing beyond what the Law has prescribed may be added or omitted. Nonetheless, reports do exist showing that Witr can consist of a lone rakʿah preceded by additional rakʿahs. The four Sunan compilers—except al-Tirmidhī—and also al-Ḥākim and Ibn Ḥibbān (who graded it authentic) relate from the Companion Abū Ayyūb that the Prophet ﷺ said: