Malik said,
"That is the custom among us."
A'isha
continued, "I said, 'Messenger of Allah, are you sleeping before you
do the witr?' He said, A'isha, my eyes sleep but my heart does not
sleep.' "
Ibn Abbas continued, "I stood up and did
the same and then went and stood by his side. The Messenger of Allah,
may Allah bless him and grant him peace, put his right hand on my head
and took my right ear and tweaked it. He prayed two rakas, then two
rakas, then two rakas, then two rakas, then two rakas, then two rakas,
and then prayed an odd raka. Then he lay down until the muadhdhin came
to him, and then prayed two quick rakas, and went out and prayed subh
."
Malik
said, "This is not the situation with us. Rather three is the minimum
for witr."
Malik said, "If someone prays witr at the
beginning of the night, and goes to sleep, and then wakes up and it
seems good to him to pray, let him pray, two rakas at a time. That is
what I like most of what I have heard."
Malik said, "Only a person who oversleeps so that he does not
do the witr prays it after dawn. No one should intentionally make his
witr after dawn."