Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Dear Brother Burhan,

This is with reference to your answer regarding keeping of beard. While responding to the question you said that there was no sin if a ''wajib'' is not perfoemed and you gave the example of ''witr''. Whereas I have heard that the witr prayer if not performed in time, need to be repaeted like fard prayer. Kindly elabotrate? 

Regards.

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Witr missed

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Hadrat Ali ibn Abi Taalib (r.a.) said: "The witr prayer is not required like your obligatory prayers, but the Prophet (saws) would perform the witr prayer and say: 'O you people [followers] of the Qur'an, perform the witr prayer, for Allah is one and He loves the witr.'"

This is related by Ahmad, an-Nasa'i, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, at-Tirmidhi, and al-Hakim.

Fiqh-us-Sunnah Fiqh 2.18

According to al-Baihaqi and al-Hakim, the majority of the scholars maintain that it is correct to make qada' for a missed witr prayer.

Abu Hurairah reported that the Prophet (saws) said: "If the morning approaches, and you have yet to pray witr, you should pray the witr prayer."

Abu Dawud records from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri that the Prophet (saws) said: "If one of you sleeps [past the time of] the witr prayer or he forgets it, he should pray it when he remembers it."

Although the ‘witr’ prayer are ‘waajib’ and an extremely preferred Sunnah, it cannot be termed as obligatory or fard, whereby missing it would be considered a sin. The Messenger of Allah (saws) regularly prayed it himself, and exhorted the believer to offer the ‘witr’ prayers. Although it is regarded as voluntary prayers, the reward for the ‘witr’ prayers are so enormous, that the companions of the Messenger of Allah (saws) would pray these as ‘qada’ if they missed it, as they did not want to lose the opportunity to earn such a huge reward from the Lord Most Merciful even for one day.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your Brother in Islam,

Burhan