Witr Prayer: Time, Number of Rak'ahs and How to Pray It

Witr means "odd". It is the odd-numbered prayer that closes the night's worship, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: make witr the last of your prayer at night (Bukhari 998). Every school counts it among the most emphasised prayers after the five obligatory ones; Hanafis go further and call it wajib.

When to pray witr

From after Isha until Fajr begins. Within that window there are two good options:

• Before sleeping, right after Isha and its sunnah: for anyone who is not sure of waking up. The Prophet advised Abu Hurayrah to pray witr before sleeping (reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim).
• In the last part of the night, after tahajjud: better for those who reliably wake, since the last third of the night is a time of acceptance (Bukhari 1145 / Muslim 758).

Check the prayer times: witr must be finished before Fajr. Someone who prays witr at 22:00 and then wakes at 04:00 to pray tahajjud does not repeat witr; "there are not two witrs in one night" (reported by al-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud). Pray tahajjud in pairs and stop.

How many rak'ahs?

Hanafis treat one rak'ah on its own as invalid for witr; the other schools treat the three-with-a-middle-sitting form as disliked because it resembles Maghrib. Praying two with salam and then one is accepted by everyone as valid, which makes it a safe form when praying in a mixed congregation; the Hanafi three-joined form is what you will see in Hanafi mosques.

Praying the Hanafi three-rak'ah witr

1. Rak'ah 1: takbir, Fatiha, a surah, ruku', sujud.
2. Rak'ah 2: Fatiha, surah, ruku', sujud, sit for tashahhud, then stand without salam.
3. Rak'ah 3: Fatiha, surah, then raise the hands with "Allahu akbar" and fold them, recite the qunut, then ruku', sujud, final sitting, salawat, salam.

Praying the one-rak'ah witr (majority)

Pray two rak'ahs with salam (these count as night prayer or the sunnah after Isha), then one rak'ah: takbir, Fatiha, surah, qunut (if you include it), ruku', sujud, tashahhud, salam.

Qunut, briefly

Qunut is a supplication said standing. In witr:

• Hanafis say it in every witr, before ruku' in the third rak'ah, quietly. The common text begins Allahumma inna nasta'inuka wa nastaghfiruka… ("O Allah, we seek Your help and Your forgiveness…").
• Hanbalis say it after ruku' in the last rak'ah, year-round, commonly with the dua Allahumma ihdini fiman hadayt… ("O Allah, guide me among those You have guided…"), reported in al-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud as taught to al-Hasan ibn Ali.
• Shafi'is say it after ruku' in witr during the second half of Ramadan only, with the same dua.
• Malikis do not say qunut in witr.

Any dua is valid in qunut if the text has not been learned yet; the Arabic wording is recommended rather than required.

Wajib or sunnah?

Hanafis class witr as wajib: obligatory in practice, a degree below fard because its evidence is from hadith rather than the Qur'an. For them, a missed witr is made up like a missed obligatory prayer (qada). The other three schools class it as sunnah mu'akkadah, strongly recommended, with Hanbalis and Malikis using language close to "wajib" in emphasis. The practical difference is small: nobody in any school considers it fine to abandon witr as a habit.

Witr in Ramadan

In Ramadan, mosques pray witr in congregation after tarawih, usually three rak'ahs with qunut, often with a longer dua in the last ten nights. Praying witr with the imam is accepted in all schools and counts as the night's witr. If you plan to pray more at home later in the night, pray only pairs, as above.

Fitting witr into a working week

A realistic pattern for someone who wakes at 06:00:

The timing of the other sunnah prayers is in sunnah prayer times, and the number of rak'ahs for each prayer is in the rak'at table. Isha itself has its own timing questions at high latitudes (Isha and shafaq); witr follows whenever Isha has been prayed.

For your own situation, especially about making up a missed witr, ask a scholar or imam you trust.