How to Pray Witr If You Don't Know Dua Qunoot?

Hi all readers! Are you looking for an explanation of “how to pray Witr if you don't know dua Qunoot?”? If your answer is “Yes”, congratulations! Now you are reading the right article. Why? Because that is what I will explain in this article. As Muslims, we must understand that. That's why I wrote this article. So, you should read it to the end!

Specifically, there are two important things about “how to pray Witr if you don't know dua Qunoot?” which I will explain in this article. Two important things I mean are as follows:

Is Witr Fard?

The first important thing about “how to pray Witr if you don't know dua Qunoot?” what I will explain now is “is Witr fard?”. I want you to understand that first before you read more explanations in this article because that is one of the important things in this discussion that must be understood well.

Before I explain more about “is Witr fard?”, I want you to understand about fard. Fard is one of the most important Arabic terms in Islamic law. The writing is فَرْضٌ.

Fard (فَرْضٌ) is the legal status of a thing to be done. In Islamic legal literacy, there are two types of fard (فَرْضٌ):

Fard 'ain (فَرْضُ الْعَيْنِ). Fard 'ain is the legal status of something that must be done by all Muslims who have matured (baaligh) and are intelligent (not crazy Muslims, fainted and so on). One example is the obligatory prayers five times every day (Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha).
Fard kifayah (فَرْضُ الْكِفَايَةِ). Fard kifayah is the legal status of something that must be done by some Muslims. If no Muslim does it, then all Muslims are sinful. One example is the Janazah prayer.

If we read some Islamic legal literature on dua Qunoot in Witr prayer and dua Qunoot in Fajr prayer, we will find an explanation that dua Qunoot is not something that should be done. In simple terms, I want to say that we can perform Witr and Fajr prayers without dua Qunoot.

We can find this explanation in the two hadiths below:

عَنْ أَنَسٍ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ كَانَ قَنِتَ شَهْرًا , بَعْدَ رُكُوْعٍ , يَدَعْوُا عَلَى أَحْيَاءٍ مِنَ الْعَرَبِ ثُمَّ تَرَكَهُ . مُتَّفَقٌ عَلَيْهِ

From Anas radliyallahu anhu, "That the Prophet (Muhammad) sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did Qunoot for one month, after bowing. He prayed to defeat a group of Arabs, then he left (did not do Qunoot)." The hadith is narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

وَلِأَحْمَدَ وَالدَّارُقُطْنِيِّ وَنَحْوِهِ مِنْ وَجْهٍ آخَرٍ , وَزَادَ : وَأَمَّا فِيْ الصُّبْحِ فَلَمْ يَزَلْ يَقْنَتُ حَتَّى فَارَقَ الدُّنْيَا

Ahmad and ad-Darquthni have a history of the same hadith but from other transmission lines. There is an additional editorial hadith, "As for Fajr prayer, he always performs Qunoot until he dies."

In the context of Witr prayer, Witr prayer is not an obligation for Muslims. They wouldn't have sinned even if they didn't do that. In Islam, the Witr prayer is one of the recommended types of prayer. In other words, the Witr prayer is a Sunnah prayer. We can find this explanation in the hadith below:

عَنْ عَلِيٍّ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ ؛ قَالَ رَسُوْلُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ؛ أَوْتِرُوْا يَا أَهْلَ الْقُرْآنِ فَإِنَّ اللهَ وِتْرٌ يُحِبُّ الْوِتْرَ . رَوَاهُ الْخَمْسَةٌ

From Ali radliyallahu anhu, he said, "Allah's Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, "Pray Witr, O Ahul Quran! Indeed, Allah is one and likes the Witr prayer." The hadith is narrated by five people (Ahmad, Abu Daud, at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah).

Another reason why Witr prayer is not obligatory in Islam is because Muslims can do it with different rakats. They can do that with one rakat, three rakats, five rakats, and so on. We can find this explanation in the hadith below:

عَنْ أَبِيْ أَيُّوْبَ الْأَنْصَارِيِّ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ أَنَّ رَسُوْلَ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ ؛ الْوِتْرُ حَقٌّ عَلَى كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ ، مَنْ أَحَبَّ أَنْ يُوْتِرَ بِخَمْسٍ فَلْيَفْعَلْ ، وَمَنْ أَحَبَّ أَنْ يُوْتِرَ بِثَلَاثٍ فَلْيَفْعَلْ ، وَمَنْ أَحَبَّ أَنْ يُوْتِرَ بِوَاحِدَةٍ فَلْيَفْعَلْ . رَوَاهُ الْأَرْبَعَةُ إِلَّا التِّرْمِذِيُّ

From Abu Ayyub al-Ansari radliyallahu anhu, that the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, "Witr prayer is the obligation of every Muslim. Whoever likes the five rakats, then he will do it. Whoever likes three rakats, then let him do. Anyone who likes one rakat, then let him do." The hadith is narrated by four people except at-Tirmidhi (Abu Daud, an-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah).

That is a brief explanation of "is Witr fard?". As Muslims, we must understand that.

How to Pray Witr If You Don't Know Dua Qunoot?

The second important thing about “how to pray Witr if you don't know dua Qunoot?” what I'm going to explain now is a specific answer. So, you should read the explanation below carefully.

In the previous few paragraphs, I have explained that the dua Qunoot in the Witr prayer is not an obligation. The meaning is that we should not be confused if we do not know the “dua Qunoot. Our prayers are still valid even though we don't read the dua Qunoot in the prayer.

So, if you ask me, "how to pray Witr if you don't know dua Qunoot?", the answer is that we should perform the Witr prayer as usual. If we want to do the Witr prayer with one rakat, we do it with one rakat. If we want to do the Witr prayer with three rakats, we do it with three rakats, and so on.

So, if we want to pray Witr without dua Qunoot, then after we do I'tidal or standing after bowing, we immediately do prostration. That's what we have to do if we don't know the dua Qunoot.

All readers! That's a brief explanation of "how to pray Witr if you don't know dua Qunoot?" and some important things about it. Do you understand? If you want to ask, please ask!

I think that's enough for this article. Hope it is useful. Amen.

See you again in the next article!