Why is the Witr prayer offered?

“Witr” means odd. God is One and loves what is odd, and just as the sunset prayer makes the obligatory prayers of a day odd in number, the Witr makes the voluntary prayers of the night odd.

The Arabic word “Witr” simply means odd, like one, three or five. God is One, and one is the first odd number. The first hadith above says that God is Single and loves what is odd. This love of oneness is reflected in the order of the prayers.

One can see this already in the obligatory prayers. There are five a day, which is an odd number. Almost every one of them has an even number of units. Only the sunset prayer has an odd number, and this makes the total of all the obligatory units of the day odd.

The voluntary prayers follow a similar order. They are usually offered in pairs, two units at a time. At the end a single unit is added, and so the whole becomes odd. This closing unit is called Witr. It completes the prayers of the night, as the second hadith above describes.

The best time for it is Tahajjud, the voluntary prayer in the late night before dawn. But rising at night is not obligatory, and not everyone can do it, such as children, the weak or the sick. For them there is an easier way. They offer the Witr straight after the Isha prayer in the evening and its voluntary units. It is then their last prayer until the morning.

In this way the Witr reminds us of the Oneness of God every night. The day does not end with a pair, but with the One.