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Witr Prayer
The Witr prayer is wâjib
(compulsory). To neglect it is a major sin and if it is missed for some reason,
it should be made up. The Witr is to be performed during the night, after ‘Ishâ
and Tahajjud. For those who are not sure that they can wake up in the
middle of the night, they can pray it right after the ‘Ishâ, and that is
common nowadays. “Witr” means “odd”, and the number of rak’ât
in the prayer is three. During the third rak’ah also the qunût
and du’â is to be performed. Following the Witr one may offer two rak’ât
of nafl but otherwise the Witr should be the last prayer of the night
until the Fajr. [See RS-1133-1138]
Hadrat ‘Ali (Allâh be pleased with him) reported
that Allâh’s Messenger (
)
said:
“Truly Allâh is an odd number (ie. One) and He
loves what is odd in number, so perform the Witr, O believers of the Qur’ân.”
[M-1266, from Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud and Nasâ’i]
During the month of Ramadân, the Witr prayer is offered in
congregation after the Tarâwîh, but other than that it is not permissible to
perform it in congregation.
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