The Intention for Witr for the Imam and the Congregation, and the Mistakes of Some Imams in the Tarawih Prayer

The questioner : Questions regarding the intention in the Witr prayer, whether it is three or two rak'ahs, have been repeated. These questions revolve around the imam and the one praying behind him, especially if the one praying behind him is among those who make their intention aloud before their prayer.

The Shaykh : Making it aloud is merely a nuisance. Witr is a specific, defined prayer, so it is the Witr prayer.
And since it is specific, the intention is required from the beginning, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) . Accordingly, if it is the imam's habit to pray four taslims and then perform Witr, then if the one praying behind him prays four taslims and then the imam stands up, what does he intend?
He intends Witr, he intends Witr. And if he intends Witr, he is upon his intention, whether the imam recites all three rak'ahs continuously or says taslim after two rak'ahs and then comes with the third. This is because the two rak'ahs that precede the one are part of the Witr, but it is a separated Witr. And if he recites all three with one tashahhud, it is a connected Witr, and both are permissible. However, we have heard that some imams pray four taslims and stand up for the fifth taslim as the Witr, but he recites from the Tarawih recitation in it. All of this is out of his eagerness to complete the Qur'an, and this is a mistake.
From two aspects. The first aspect is that we do not know that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ever completed the Qur'an in Tarawih; in fact, he did not reach three nights. Likewise, we do not know that the Companions used to intentionally do that. It is true that some scholars, both earlier and later, said that one should recite the entire Qur'an with the congregation and complete it. As for the second aspect of his mistake, he left the prescribed recitation for an un-prescribed recitation. What is the prescribed recitation in Witr? That he recites Surah al-Kafirun in the first rak'ah, Surah al-Ikhlas in the second, and Surah al-Ikhlas in the third. This is the balance, but he brought an un-prescribed recitation in Witr. Thirdly, he confused the worshippers.
Because the worshipper, even if he joined the imam from the beginning of the prayer, if the imam recites from the Tarawih recitation, he will have doubt. He will say, "Perhaps I cut off the number of previous rak'ahs, perhaps this is the remainder of Tarawih." Then he remains hesitant and may intend Tarawih. If he intends Tarawih and it becomes Witr, and then he intends it during the prayer, it is not valid; it was not Witr. But what does he do? We say: if it is not valid to be Witr, then when your imam says taslim, stand up and perform one rak'ah to make it an even number, then pray Witr after that. And if you wish, pray it at the end of the night. This is why confusion occurs for the congregation if the imam does such a thing. What the imam should know is that he does not pray for himself alone until he does what he wishes, but he prays for others. For this reason, the Companions sometimes express it by saying, "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed for us." So he prays for others. There are also some imams who recite nine rak'ahs continuously with the congregation from the beginning to the end, nine rak'ahs, based on what? Based on the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) performed Witr with nine, so he recited them continuously and did not do tashahhud except in the eighth, and did not say taslim, then he prayed the ninth and said taslim. This is also a mistake. He says, "I want to revive the Sunnah." We say, yes, revive it by saying so.
Did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), who is more eager than you to spread the Sunnah, pray nine rak'ahs with his Companions? No, he never prayed except two rak'ahs, two rak'ahs. And in this is hardship for the people that is apparent. A person may be constrained during the prayer; if he breaks off from his prayer, he is ashamed, and if he continues in his prayer, he is tired. This is unlike when he prays two rak'ahs, two rak'ahs; when he says taslim, he goes. Then, it is sufficient for the people to be told in the hadith that Witr is of multiple types, such and such, and such and such, and they know. For this reason, we have not seen our sheikhs, who are older than us and more eager than us to spread the Sunnah, doing this. They do not pray with the people nine rak'ahs, nor seven, nor five. Therefore, the imam should have wisdom.
How does he treat the people? Did not the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) say But for the people, he considers the people, he considers them so that confusion and fatigue do not befall them. Yes, if we suppose that a group of people, for example, were in gardens, confined, with no one else, and they agreed among themselves to perform Witr with nine, there is no harm, because these people chose it for themselves. But a public mosque where everyone enters and the people do not know what the imam intends, this is problematic. Even if we suppose that this man performed Witr with nine, then when the people first say takbir, what do they intend?
Do they intend Witr or do they not intend the night prayer? For the night prayer, they intend two, and they do not intend Witr. It means that all nine rak'ahs are gone for them; they do not suffice them for Witr because they did not intend it. So the important thing is that we encourage our brother imams to consider the people behind them. The Sunnah can be spread, it can be done in their homes, as the Messenger did in his home. So the Messenger did not perform Witr with the people with nine, nor seven, nor five. They do it in their homes and explain the Sunnah to the people by recitation and hadith. Yes.