The ruling on praying a single rak'ah with the intention of witr
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: After performing the regular voluntary prayer (sunnah) following the night prayer ('Isha'), some people pray one rak'ah with the intention of witr. Is this practice valid? And if he prays three rak'ahs with one taslim with the intention of witr, is that also valid?
Answer:
The minimum for witr is one rak'ah. So if he prays one rak'ah and completes the witr with it, this is valid; this is the minimum for witr. The lower limit of perfection is three rak'ahs, and the upper limit of perfection is eleven or thirteen rak'ahs, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do. It is permissible to pray one rak'ah and not pray anything else, meaning it is allowed, but it is less than ideal. However, the better thing is that he prays two rak'ahs before it, making it seven rak'ahs in total; this is the most beautiful thing.
He says: After performing the regular voluntary prayer (sunnah) following the night prayer ('Isha'), some people pray one rak'ah with the intention of witr. Is this practice valid? And if he prays three rak'ahs with one taslim with the intention of witr, is that also valid?
Answer:
The minimum for witr is one rak'ah. So if he prays one rak'ah and completes the witr with it, this is valid; this is the minimum for witr. The lower limit of perfection is three rak'ahs, and the upper limit of perfection is eleven or thirteen rak'ahs, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do. It is permissible to pray one rak'ah and not pray anything else, meaning it is allowed, but it is less than ideal. However, the better thing is that he prays two rak'ahs before it, making it seven rak'ahs in total; this is the most beautiful thing.
Source
صلاة الوتر بعد راتبة العشاء — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.