The Imam Praying Witr as One Rak'ah in the Mosque
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: “May Allah reward you, Shaykh. I am the imam of a mosque, and sometimes I want to pray witr in the mosque as a single rak'ah, but I am shy of the ma'mum (those praying behind the imam), especially since I am their role model. So I do not pray it, and I miss it, and I miss the witr. Am I being a show-off (riya') by doing this?”
Answer:
Witr does not have a specific place. You can pray witr at home, or at work if you work at night, or in any place. It is not restricted to the mosque. Limiting it to a single rak'ah is sufficient. But why are you stingy with yourself and not offering something of the voluntary prayers before the witr, at least the shaf' (the even-numbered prayer before witr)? Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
The questioner says: “May Allah reward you, Shaykh. I am the imam of a mosque, and sometimes I want to pray witr in the mosque as a single rak'ah, but I am shy of the ma'mum (those praying behind the imam), especially since I am their role model. So I do not pray it, and I miss it, and I miss the witr. Am I being a show-off (riya') by doing this?”
Answer:
Witr does not have a specific place. You can pray witr at home, or at work if you work at night, or in any place. It is not restricted to the mosque. Limiting it to a single rak'ah is sufficient. But why are you stingy with yourself and not offering something of the voluntary prayers before the witr, at least the shaf' (the even-numbered prayer before witr)? Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/231 — archive.org (12:08)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.