SIFAT SALAAT AN NĀBI ﷺ* *(The Prophet's Prayer Described From The Beginning To The End As Though You See It) Episode 27 Witr prayer

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*SIFAT SALAAT AN NĀBI ﷺ*

*(The Prophet's Prayer Described From The Beginning To The End As Though You See It)*

*Episode 27*

*Witr prayer*

"He (Sallallaahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam) used to recite "Glorify the Name of

Your Lord Most High" (al-A'laa 87:19) in the first rak'ah, "Say: O you who

disbelieve" (Kaafiroon 109:6) in the second, and "Say: He is Allaah the

One and Only" (Ikhlaas 112:4) in the third.349 Sometimes he would add on to the last one "Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of Daybreak" (Falaq

113:5) and "Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of Mankind" (Naas

114:6).350 Once, "he recited a hundred aayaat from soorah an-Nisaa'

(4:176) in the third rak'ah."351

As for the two rak'ahs after witr352, he used to recite "When the earth is

shaken " (Zilzaal 99:8) and "Say: O you who disbelieve" (Kaafiroon

109:6) in them.353

347 Nasaa'i, Ibn Khuzaimah (1/70/1), Ahmad, Ibn Nasr & Haakim, who declared it saheeh and Dhahabi agreed.

348 Ahmad & Bukhaari .

349 Nasaa'i & Haakim, who declared it saheeh.

350 Tirmidhi, Abul `Abbaas al-Asamm in his al-Hadeeth (vol 2 no. 117) & Haakim, who declared it saheeh and Dhahabi agreed.

351 Nasaa'i & Ahmad with a saheeh isnaad.

352 The evidence for these two rak`ahs is found in Saheeh Muslim and others as a practice of the Prophet (Sallallaahu

`Alaihi wa Sallam), but they oppose his saying: Make the last of your prayer at night odd (witr) transmitted by Bukhaari

and Muslim. The scholars have differed in reconciling these two hadeeth, none of them being convincing to me, so the

most cautious thing is to leave the two rak`ahs in compliance with the command of the Prophet (Sallallaahu `Alaihi wa

Sallam). Allaah knows best.

Later I came across an authentic hadeeth which had a command for two rak`ahs after witr, so the order of the Prophet

(Sallallaahu `Alaihi wa Sallam) agrees with his action, and the two rak`ahs are validated for everyone; the first command is

thus one of recommendation, not negating the two rak`ahs. The latter hadeeth is given in Silsilat al-ahaadeeth as-

saheehah (1993) - see Appendix 7.

353 Ahmad & Ibn Nasr and Tahaawi (1/202) and Ibn Khuzaimah & Ibn Hibbaan with a hasan saheeh isnaad.