is that its time ends at the break of dawn. This was decisively affirmed in al-Mughnī and adopted by the later Hanbalī scholars. Al-Mughnī further states that if it is performed after dawn it counts as a make-up prayer (qaḍāʾ). This was also the view of Abū Ḥanīfah’s two leading companions as well as al-Thawrī. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “Whoever oversleeps his Witr should perform it between the appearance of dawn and the Fajr prayer,” just as Ibn ʿUmar, ʿĀʾishah, and others did. Abū Dāwūd transmitted, through his chain, from Abū Saʿīd that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever sleeps through his Witr or forgets it should pray it when he awakens or remembers.”

The Second Ḥadīth
ʿĀʾishah narrated: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to pray thirteen rakʿahs at night. He would conclude with five rakʿahs of Witr, sitting only in the last of them.”

Overall meaning:
ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, relates that the Prophet ﷺ sometimes performed thirteen rakʿahs in his night prayer: he would begin with eight rakʿahs, offered two at a time, and then pray five consecutively with a single salām, sitting only in the final rakʿah, thereby making those five his Witr.

Benefit:
The reports from ʿĀʾishah regarding the manner of the Prophet’s night prayer vary: seven, nine, eleven, thirteen rakʿahs, and other counts. In the two Ṣaḥīḥs she relates that “he never went beyond eleven rakʿahs.” The soundest reconciliation is that eleven rakʿahs was his most frequent practice, yet on occasion he would add or subtract according to his energy, to teach, or to show permissibility.

Legal rulings inferred from the ḥadīth:
1- The Prophet ﷺ sometimes made his night prayer thirteen rakʿahs, not counting the two sunnah rakʿahs of Fajr.
2- On occasion he performed his Witr as five continuous rakʿahs, sitting only in the final one before concluding with salām.