Practices
Witr
Devotional Practices
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Origin 610 to 632 CE
A short prayer of an odd number of units, most often one or three, performed after Isha and, in the usual arrangement, last of the night's prayers. The name means odd, and the reports insist on the oddness: the last prayer of the night is to be odd-numbered. It commonly includes a supplication called the qunut, recited standing, whose placement before or after the bowing differs between the schools.
Its legal weight is one of the sharpest examples of how much the Hanafi school can differ from the rest. The Hanafis classify witr as wajib, obligatory in their own second tier of obligation, so that omitting it is a fault requiring it to be made up. The Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali schools classify it as a strongly emphasised sunna, so that omitting it is a loss but not a sin. Twelver Shia practice has its own night prayer sequence ending in a single unit, arranged differently.
Facts
Status
Status Within the TraditionSourced to the subject's own accountWitr's legal weight is one of the sharpest examples of how far the Hanafi school can differ from the rest: the Hanafis classify it as wajib, obligatory in their own second tier, so that omitting it is a fault requiring it to be made up, while the Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali schools classify it only as a strongly emphasised sunna, whose omission is a loss but not a sin. 3 Current StatusSourced to the subject's own accountPrayed at night after Isha or before dawn (fajr); a worshipper who fears sleeping through the remaining night is guided to perform it before going to sleep rather than risk missing it before dawn. 4 Status TodaySourced to the subject's own accountLiving tradition, practised today 4 Practice
Who Performs ItAll adherents of the tradition 1 Solitary or CommunalPerformed alone or together 1 Observance
Observance NoteSourced to the subject's own accountA widely used Qunut supplication recited within witr begins, "O Allah, guide me among those You have guided, pardon me among those You have pardoned, befriend me among those You have befriended"; a second version used by Hanafi followers differs in wording, opening instead with phrases seeking Allah's help and affirming belief in Him. 4 Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginMecca and Medina, Arabia 2 Performed as the closing prayer of the night within the five daily prayers fixed in the Prophet's own lifetime. Meaning
Literal MeaningSourced to the subject's own accountThe name means odd, and the reports insist on the oddness: the last prayer of the night is to be odd numbered. 4 Attributions
TraditionIslam, a widely observed prayer performed as the last prayer of the night, its number of rakats and legal status, obligatory, necessary or strongly recommended, debated across the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence and in Shia practice. 5 Learn More
The Prayer That Makes the Night Odd
Witr is the odd-numbered prayer that closes the day's worship in Islam, prayed after the night prayer of Isha and before the dawn. Its name means odd, and it is defined by ending on an uneven count, most commonly one or three rak'ah, though larger odd numbers are prayed, so that the total of the night's voluntary units is left odd. A well-known saying gives the reason in devotional terms: God is one and loves the odd number, and so the servant seals the night with an uneven prayer.
Witr is the most emphasised of the non-obligatory prayers. The Prophet Muhammad is reported never to have omitted it, whether at home or travelling, and to have urged the community to make it the last of their night prayer. Because of this insistence it occupies a distinctive middle ground between the strictly obligatory and the freely voluntary, and the schools differ over exactly where to place it on that scale.
Obligatory, Necessary, or Strongly Recommended
The Hanafi school regards witr as wajib, necessary, a binding duty just short of the obligation of the five daily prayers, such that deliberately omitting it is a serious fault and a missed witr must be made up. The other Sunni schools classify it as a confirmed sunnah, strongly recommended but not binding in the same degree. The practical effect is that a Hanafi worshipper treats witr with much the same seriousness as an obligatory prayer, while a Shafii or Maliki worshipper values it highly but not identically.
Witr often includes a supplication of humility and dependence recited in the final standing, and the practice of raising the hands for it. In Ramadan the witr is commonly prayed in congregation as the seal of the tarawih. In Twelver Shia practice a single-rak'ah witr concludes the night prayer with its own recommended supplications.
The prayer's odd-numbered structure is itself textually grounded: a hadith has the Prophet declare that God is witr, one, and loves what is odd-numbered, tying the prayer's very shape to a name and attribute of God. Schools further differ over the placement of the qunut supplication recited within it, the Hanafi school reciting it before bowing in every witr prayer year-round, while other schools generally reserve a comparable supplication to particular occasions or place it after rising from bowing, a difference in detail that nonetheless reflects genuinely separate lines of transmitted practice rather than mere local custom.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Held Differently
Abu Hanifa's school ranks the Witr as wajib, a binding obligation one degree below fard, where the other schools hold it a strongly recommended sunna that may be left without sin.
The Witr in Twelver practice is the closing unit of the night prayer rather than a separate prayer of near obligatory rank after Isha.
Element Of
Sources
1. Prayer in Islamic Thought and Practice
2. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition
P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.), Brill, 2005View the Source 3. Al-Hidaya fi Sharh Bidayat al-Mubtadi
Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani, 1197Book of prayer, on witr as wajib in the Hanafi grading
4. Witr (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, 2026on the timing guidance around sleep and the Qunut supplication textView the Source 5. The Qur'an
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source Al-Mughni
Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi, 1223Book of prayer, on witr as an emphasised sunna in the other Sunni schools
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