LEAVING THE WITR PRAYER TO PRAY MORE AT HOME:

LEAVING THE WITR PRAYER TO PRAY MORE AT HOME:

When the Imam finishes Taraweeh and before starting Witr many people used to leave the Masjid in order to pray more at home. As the witr should be the last prayer of the day, they don’t want to pray witr with the Imam in Masjid, but they want to pray more at home. They quote the following hadeeth for not praying Witr with the Imam in Masjid:

The Prophet ﷺ said: “Make the last of your prayer at night Witr.” (Narrated by al-Bukhari, 998)

By this practice the people are missing out a great reward of spending the whole night in prayer, as per the hadeeth of Prophet ﷺ who said: “Whoever prays with the imam until he finishes, Allah will record for him as if he spent the whole night in prayer” (narrated by al-Tirmidhi 806).

The reward for having prayed qiyaam all night will not be recorded for them unless they offered all the prayers with the Imam. If they leaves after finishing the Taraweeh (either 8 or 20 Rakah), then the reward of spending the whole night in prayer will not be recorded except what they prayed only. The words of the Prophet ﷺ, “Whoever prays with the imam until he finishes…” is meant as an encouragement not to leave before the prayers are completed. (Majmoo Fataawa Ibn Uthaimeen 14/190).

A person should do both Taraweeh and Witr until the Imam finishes the prayer and grab the reward. He can pray after that as many rakahs he wants to pray, two by two at home, and do not repeat Witr. Why it is without Witr, because the Prophet ﷺ said, “There cannot be two Witrs in one night.”

The evidence for praying after witr is the hadeeth of Aisha who said that the Prophet ﷺ used to pray two rakahs after Witr whilst sitting down. (Muslim 738). The reason for that – and Allah knows best – was to show the people that it is permissible to pray after Witr. (Majmoo Fatawa al-Shaykh Ibn Baz, 11/311)

If anyone wants to delay Witr until the end of the night, he should not say tasleem (salaam) when the imam says salaam at the end of Witr, rather he should stand up and do an extra rak’ah, so that your Witr will then be at the end of the night. Shaykh Bin Baz’s opinion regarding this practice is as follows:

We do not see anything wrong with this, and the ulama stated that there is nothing wrong with doing this, so that his witr will be at the end of the night. He will be considered to have prayed with the imam until he finished, because he stayed with him until he finished, and added another rakah for a shar'i reason, which was so that he could pray witr later in the night. There is nothing wrong with this, and it does not mean that he did not stay with the imaam until he finished, but he did not finish with him – he delayed it a little longer. (From al-Jawab al-Sahih min Ahkam Salat al-Layl wal-Taraaweeh by Shaykh Abd al-Azeez ibn Baaz, p. 41).

We ask Allah to guide us to the Straight Path, the path of those with whom Allah is pleased, the Prophets, the Siddeeqeen, the martyrs and the righteous. May He keep us far away from the path of those with whom He is angry and those who have gone astray. (Aameen)

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