The Prophet (SAW) has taught us the best of deeds are those that done consistently, even if they are small.Ĭlick here to support MuslimMatters with a monthly donation of $2 per month. All it takes is a small gift from a reader like you to keep us going, for just $2 / month. Help us get to 900 supporters this month. Keep supporting MuslimMatters for the sake of AllahĪlhamdulillah, we're at over 850 supporters. Where the supplication is found in the sunnah I have accompanied it with a footnote, otherwise it is of my own concoction or something that I have heard on the tongues of imams that I have not found in the traditions. So here is my initial attempt at a witr du’a that is palatable for the English ear. The prayers are beautiful and melodious, many Imams use supplications that come directly from the Quran and from the sunnah, though most do not restrict their supplications exclusively to what is found in the early traditions since they as well attempt to address the needs of their community.
Since then it’s been planted in my heart to translate some of the prayers that are commonly used in witr throughout the month of Ramadan. What was amazing was that my friend was not Arabic speaking, but that did not stop him at all from raising his hands to the sky and crying along with the imam passionately invoking Allah to respond to the prayers that he was understanding little of.
We wept and implored along with him, and wept some more, and implored some more! Finally we fell into sujood, at the conclusion of the prayer my friend looks at his watch, sure enough- 55 minutes in that one rakah prayer. The shaykh was a master reciter and for an entire hour he tugged on our heartstrings with his melodious voice beseeching Allah’s forgiveness, begging Him for support, for health, for our families, for our ummah. He told me that the past few years that he went the witr rakah alone lasts almost an entire hour! And so one year we went, taking the journey to Brooklyn, and as the Quran was completed during the taraweeh the people shuffled together one more time to stand up for the witr prayer, my friend looked at me and showed me the time on his watch…it was go time. I’ll never forget that for years my friend would tell me that we HAD to go attend the 27 th night at a particular masjid because the imam ‘goes hard’ with his du’a every year. Taraweeh is of the most beautiful experiences in Ramadan, and of the most emotional moments every night is when the imam recites the du’a in the witr prayer.