Witr prayer: how to pray it, and when

Witr is the prayer that puts a full stop on the day. The name simply means odd, and that is its defining feature: whatever else you pray at night, witr leaves your total for the night on an odd number. A hadith in the Sunan collections describes Allah as Witr, one, who loves what is odd, which is the reason usually given for the shape of it.

It is short, it is flexible, and it is the one voluntary prayer that a large part of the Muslim world treats as close to non negotiable. Many people pray it immediately after Isha and never miss it. Others hold it back until the last third of the night and make it the seal on their tahajjud.

The ruling

This is the best known difference on the subject, and it is worth getting straight before anything else, because it changes what happens when you miss it.

How many rakahs

Any odd number from one to eleven is reported. One, three, five, seven, nine and eleven all appear in the narrations, and the Prophet ﷺ is described as praying different amounts at different times. In practice, three is what most people pray, and one is what most people pray when they are tired or short of time.

The other half of the question is the shape. There are two ways to build an odd numbered prayer, and both are established:

• Separated, called fasl. You pray in pairs, giving salam after each two rakahs, then pray a single rakah on its own at the end. Three rakahs becomes two, salam, then one.
• Joined, called wasl. You pray all of it as one continuous prayer with a single salam at the end, the way Maghrib is prayed.

How to pray it, step by step

The mechanics of each rakah are the mechanics of any other prayer. If those are still new, work through how to pray salah first. What follows is the three rakah form as the Hanafi school prays it, because it is the most detailed version, with the variations noted.

1. Intend witr. Make the intention in your heart for the witr prayer, then say the opening takbir.
2. First rakah. Recite Surah Al-Fatiha and a surah after it, then bow and prostrate as normal. Surah al-A'la is commonly recited here.
3. Second rakah. Al-Fatiha and a surah again, commonly Surah al-Kafirun. Then sit and recite the Tashahhud, and stand for the third. Schools that separate the pairs give salam at this point instead.
4. Third rakah. Al-Fatiha and a surah, commonly Surah al-Ikhlas.
5. Qunut. The supplication described below, placed either before bowing or after rising from it depending on your school.
6. Finish. Complete the rakah, sit for the final Tashahhud, send blessings on the Prophet ﷺ, and give salam to the right and the left.

Those three surahs are what the narrations describe as the usual recitation, not a requirement. Any part of the Qur'an you know is fine, and in the schools that do not require a surah beyond al-Fatiha in every rakah, al-Fatiha alone is enough.

A short dhikr is reported after the salam of witr, said three times, with the voice raised on the third.

سُبْحَانَ الْمَلِكِ الْقُدُّوسِ

Transliteration. Subhanal-Malikil-Quddus.

Meaning. Glory be to the King, the Most Holy.

When its time starts and ends

The window opens once you have prayed Isha and closes at true dawn, the same moment the Fajr prayer becomes due. Everything in between is valid time for witr. For what counts as true dawn, and why it is not the same as sunrise, see what time Fajr ends.

Within that window there is a clear preference. The Prophet ﷺ instructed that the last of your night prayer should be witr, and Aisha described his witr as reaching the last part of the night. So the best time is late, after your night prayer is done. The idea of Islamic midnight is a useful marker here, because the most praised portion of the night sits after it.

That preference is conditional on actually waking up. Abu Hurayrah was advised to pray witr before sleeping, and the guidance scholars draw from this is simple: if you trust yourself to wake, delay it. If you do not, pray it after Isha and go to bed with it done. A witr prayed early is worth far more than a witr you intended to pray at three in the morning and slept through.

Qunut

Qunut is a standing supplication made in the final rakah. The wording most commonly used is the one the Prophet ﷺ taught to his grandson al-Hasan ibn Ali, recorded in the Sunan collections.

اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنِي فِيمَنْ هَدَيْتَ، وَعَافِنِي فِيمَنْ عَافَيْتَ، وَتَوَلَّنِي فِيمَنْ تَوَلَّيْتَ، وَبَارِكْ لِي فِيمَا أَعْطَيْتَ، وَقِنِي شَرَّ مَا قَضَيْتَ، فَإِنَّكَ تَقْضِي وَلَا يُقْضَى عَلَيْكَ، وَإِنَّهُ لَا يَذِلُّ مَنْ وَالَيْتَ، تَبَارَكْتَ رَبَّنَا وَتَعَالَيْتَ

Transliteration. Allahumma-hdini fiman hadayt, wa afini fiman afayt, wa tawallani fiman tawallayt, wa barik li fima atayt, wa qini sharra ma qadayt, fa innaka taqdi wa la yuqda alayk, wa innahu la yadhillu man walayt, tabarakta Rabbana wa ta'alayt.

Meaning. O Allah, guide me among those You have guided, grant me wellbeing among those You have granted wellbeing, take me into Your care among those You have taken into Your care, bless for me what You have given, and protect me from the evil of what You have decreed. For You decree and none decrees against You, and none is humiliated whom You have befriended. Blessed are You, our Lord, and Exalted.

If you are praying alone you may keep the wording singular as above. An imam leading a congregation usually puts it in the plural, saying ihdina, wa afina and so on, because he is supplicating on behalf of everyone behind him.

There is a second well known qunut, beginning Allahumma inna nasta'inuka wa nastaghfiruk, which is the wording the Hanafi school most often uses and which is transmitted from the practice of Umar ibn al-Khattab. Either is used, and some recite both one after the other.

If you sleep through it

This is common and it is provided for. The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever sleeps through his witr or forgets it should pray it when he remembers. There is no shame attached to it and no penalty beyond praying it.

Building the habit

Witr is one of the easiest prayers to keep because it is short and because it has a natural cue attached to it, which is going to bed. The most reliable pattern for most people is to pray it immediately after the Isha sunnah rakahs while the wudu is still valid and the prayer mat is still out, and to treat any night prayer later on as a bonus rather than the plan.

If you want the later time, set the alarm before you commit to it, not after. And if you are still working out what belongs to each prayer, see how many rakahs is each prayer, which lays out the obligatory and sunnah rakahs side by side.