What is the prayer of al-Shaf' and al-Witr? And how many rak'ahs does it have?

Question:
A question from the sister in Allah, Umm Kulthum, from Iraq, the second one, she says: What is the prayer of al-Shaf' and the prayer of al-Witr? And how many rak'ahs of al-Witr did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) pray?

Answer:
Al-Shaf' means: two rak'ahs, this is al-Shaf', two rak'ahs are called al-Shaf', and al-Witr is one.
And the Sunnah is to make it odd with one, or three, or five, or seven, or nine, or eleven, or thirteen, or more than that, but the best is eleven, this is the best; because this is generally the Witr of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he generally persisted in eleven rak'ahs -may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him-, and sometimes he would make it odd with thirteen, and sometimes he would make it odd with nine or seven or less than that, but the majority of his making it odd (peace and blessings be upon him) was with eleven, he would say the taslim from every two, then make it odd with one -may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him-, this is the best.
And if a person makes it odd with three or five or seven or nine, all of it is good, and al-Witr is a nafilah, it is not obligatory on the correct view, which is the view of the majority of the scholars of knowledge that it is a Sunnah, and it is not obligatory, al-Witr is the Tahajjud at night, and its minimum is one rak'ah, one rak'ah after 'Isha', after the rawatib of 'Isha', this is its minimum, and if he makes it odd with three it is better, and with five it is better, and with seven it is better, and so on, but if he reaches eleven it is better, and if he increases and makes it odd with thirteen, or fifteen, or seventeen, or more than this, there is no harm, the matter is broad; due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he was asked about the night prayer, he said: and he did not specify a number, then he said: this indicates to us that al-Witr is one rak'ah at the end of the prayer, whether it is in the beginning of the night, or in the middle of the night, or in the end of the night, he makes it odd with one, and it has no limited limit, so if he makes it odd with twenty rak'ahs with al-Witr as in the tarawih narrated from 'Umar -may Allah be pleased with him and grant him satisfaction- or if he makes it odd with thirteen or eleven, as came from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in his making it odd in the night prayer, or if he makes it odd with seven or nine or five or three, all of this is not a problem, and its minimum is one in the beginning of the night or its end, yes.

The presenter: She is asking about the number of rak'ahs of al-Witr that the Messenger used to pray, and have we not known it from the answer?

The Shaykh: Eleven, this is the majority, perhaps he would make it odd with less, perhaps he would make it odd with more, thirteen, may Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), yes.