The Impact of Abandoning the Witr Prayer on Integrity and the Acceptance of Testimony
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The questioner:
The Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, says regarding the author’s (may Allah have mercy on him) statement on the conditions of the witness’s integrity, one of which is righteousness in religion, which is performing the obligatory acts with their regular recommended practices.
The Shaykh:
I mean, we are returning to the explanation a second time.
The questioner:
The question asks: Is the one who habitually abandons the witr prayer to be measured by this, such that his testimony is not accepted, given that I heard the Hanbalis hold this opinion?
The Shaykh:
It is narrated from Ahmad that he said: The one who persists in abandoning the witr prayer is a man of evil, and his testimony is not accepted. This is narrated from Ahmad, because the witr prayer is obligatory according to Abu Hanifah, and whoever abandons an obligatory act and persists in abandoning it loses his integrity. According to the majority, it is a confirmed recommended practice. So it is not far-fetched, meaning the soundness of what Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) said. However, I heard from Shaykh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz (may Allah have mercy on him) that he does not hold this view, and he says that abandoning the witr prayer is abandoning a recommended practice, so it does not harm integrity. And Allah knows best. Yes.
The Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, says regarding the author’s (may Allah have mercy on him) statement on the conditions of the witness’s integrity, one of which is righteousness in religion, which is performing the obligatory acts with their regular recommended practices.
The Shaykh:
I mean, we are returning to the explanation a second time.
The questioner:
The question asks: Is the one who habitually abandons the witr prayer to be measured by this, such that his testimony is not accepted, given that I heard the Hanbalis hold this opinion?
The Shaykh:
It is narrated from Ahmad that he said: The one who persists in abandoning the witr prayer is a man of evil, and his testimony is not accepted. This is narrated from Ahmad, because the witr prayer is obligatory according to Abu Hanifah, and whoever abandons an obligatory act and persists in abandoning it loses his integrity. According to the majority, it is a confirmed recommended practice. So it is not far-fetched, meaning the soundness of what Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) said. However, I heard from Shaykh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz (may Allah have mercy on him) that he does not hold this view, and he says that abandoning the witr prayer is abandoning a recommended practice, so it does not harm integrity. And Allah knows best. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 141/139 شرح زاد المستقنع/ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (52:03)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.