And prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions: He said -may Allah have mercy on him-

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions:
He said -may Allah have mercy on him-: "Chapter on the exhortation to the witr prayer, and the clarification that it is a confirmed recommended practice, and the clarification of its time:
It was narrated from Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said:

The witr is not obligatory like the prescribed prayer, but it is a sunnah established by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: Indeed, Allah is One and He loves the odd number, so perform the witr, O people of the Qur'an

الوتر ليس بحتم كصلاة المكتوبة، ولكنه سُنة سنه رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ، قال : إن الله وتر يحب الوتر، فأوتروا يا أهل القرآن

Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi narrated it, and he said: It is a good hadith.
And it was narrated from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that she said:

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) observed Witr prayer in every part of night at the beginning, middle and at the last part. He (ﷺ), however, would finish his Witr prayer before dawn.

مِن كل الليل قد أوتر رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، من أول الليل، ومن أوسطه، ومن آخره. وانتهى وتره إلى السَحَر

Riyad as-Salihin 1133

It is agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
And it was narrated from Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that he said:

Make Witr the end of your night prayer.

اجعلوا آخر صلاتكم بالليل وترا

Sahih Muslim 751b

It is agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim.".

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:
The author said -may Allah have mercy on him- in clarifying the virtue of the witr, the exhortation to it, its time, and also its number:
Know that it is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that he said: , : meaning there is no second god with Him, and He (Glorified and Exalted is He) loves the odd number, and the effects of this love have appeared in His creations and in His legislations:
In His legislations, we find that most of them are odd. The five prayers end with an odd number; their number is seventeen rak'ahs, which is an odd number.
The night prayer is eleven rak'ahs, which is an odd number.
Likewise, the greatest of the creations we know are: the Throne, which is one, then the heavens, which are seven, then the earths, which are seven. So you find that the oddness has appeared in the legislations of Allah and in the creations of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), because He (Blessed and Exalted is He) is One and He loves the odd number. Know also that the witr is of two types: an obligatory witr and a recommended witr. As for the obligatory witr, it is the Maghrib prayer, as established by the authentic hadith: : meaning it concludes the prayer of the day, and it is an odd number, even though it is at the beginning of the night.
As for the recommended witr, it is the witr that concludes the prayer of the night. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: .
The scholars -may Allah have mercy on them- differed regarding the witr of the night prayer:
Some of them said: It is obligatory, and the one who leaves the witr is sinful, but it is not like the obligatory prayer, a pillar of the pillars of Islam, but it is obligatory, and a person sins by leaving it.
And some of them said: It is a sunnah, and a person does not sin by leaving it. Each of them has an argument, but the argument of the one who says: It is not obligatory is stronger, because a man asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) about what was obligatory upon him of prayers, so he counted for him the five prayers and then said: .
Some of the scholars detailed the matter and said: Whoever has a regular practice of prayer in the last part of the night, it is obligatory for him to perform the witr, and whoever is not like that, meaning he prays Isha and then sleeps, the witr is not obligatory for him. So he distinguished between the one who has a regular practice in the last part of the night, saying: It is obligatory for him to perform the witr, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): : and this is specific to them, a specific command for them, because the general command includes them and others, but this is a specific command.
In any case, leaving the witr is something that should not be done. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal -may Allah have mercy on him-, the Imam of the people of the Sunnah and the suppressor of innovation, said -may Allah have mercy on him-: "Whoever leaves the witr is a bad man, and his testimony should not be accepted": Look at this limit; he described him as a bad man, and that his testimony should not be accepted, because the witr is at its minimum one rak'ah, a rak'ah that does not confuse anyone, does not burden anyone, and does not take much time. So the one who leaves it, despite its confirmation, its virtue, and the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) for it, the one who leaves it is a bad man with no good in him. He said: "And his testimony should not be accepted": So if he comes to the judge and testifies, and we know that he does not perform the witr, we reject his testimony. This is the saying of Imam Ahmad -may Allah have mercy on him-, and this indicates the confirmation of this witr, so a person should not leave it.
As for its time, it is: from the Isha prayer and its sunnah until the dawn breaks, from the Isha prayer, even if it is combined with Maghrib by advancing it: meaning if a person is traveling, or it is raining, or something similar, and the Isha prayer is combined with Maghrib by advancing it, then the time for the witr enters. He prays Isha, then the rawatib of Isha, then the witr, whether in the beginning of the night, the middle of it, or the end of it, as Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said: : This is its time. As for its number, the author -may Allah have mercy on him- will mention it, or we will address it in the next lesson -if Allah wills- and success is from Allah.