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Does a Shafii who became Hanafi have to make up missed witr? And what about witr prayed as one

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Situation A:  A person is Shafi and does 1 rakat witrs for X number of years.  This person becomes Hanafi and wants to make up missed prayers he has in the past.  Do these witr prayers have to made up?
Situation B:  A person is Shafi and doesn’t do any witr because its not wajib on them for X number of years.  The person becomes Hanafi and wants to make up missed prayers he has in the past.  Does he have to make up the witrs?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Walaikum assalam,

There is a legal principle that, “An ijtihad is not invalidated by another.” [Kasani, Bada’i` al-Sana’i` 7.6; Abd al-Aziz al-Bukhari, Kashf al-Asrar, 3.74; and almost every major Hanafi fiqh work, with similar wordings]

From this principle, a derived ancillary principle is that, “Following a valid ijtihad in the past does not need to be rectified by one’s following different ijtihad later on.”

As such, if the person prayed 1-rakat witr as a Shafi`i, or even omitted praying it, no makeup would be necessary if one later became a Hanafi.

Of course, if one chooses to make it up, out of caution or taqwa, one is rewarded. It is a sunna to makeup missed witrs in the Shafi`i and Hanbali schools. [cf: Ibn Hajar, Tuhfa al-Muhtaj; Buhuti, Kashshaf al-Qina`]

And Allah alone gives success.

Walaikum assalam,
Faraz Rabbani.

BTW: Ahlan wa Sahlan

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