of the ruler: if he commands qunut, we perform qunut; and if he remains silent, we remain silent. And, praise be to Allah, we have another place in the prayer in which to supplicate: namely, prostration and the tashahhud. This carries goodness and blessing, for the servant is nearest to his Lord while he is prostrating. Yet if a person praying alone performs qunut for this reason on his own, we do not object to it, because he has not gone against the congregation.

His statement, “the imam performs qunut in the obligatory prayers,” does not mean that he should recite the qunut supplication which the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, taught al-Hasan (1). Rather, he performs qunut with a supplication appropriate to the calamity that has occurred. This is why the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, would make in this qunut whatever supplication suited the calamity; he would not say, “O Allah, guide me among those whom You have guided,” as some ordinary people do. It has never been reported from the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him—whether in an authentic or weak hadith—that he said, “O Allah, guide me among those whom You have guided,” in the obligatory prayers. Rather, he would offer the supplication appropriate to that particular calamity. Thus, on one occasion, he supplicated for a group of oppressed people, asking Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to save them, until they arrived (2).

It has also been narrated that he performed qunut from the middle of Ramadan until the morning of Eid, when they arrived on the morning of Eid. Thus, the duration of his qunut for them was fifteen days.

And he performed qunut against certain people, supplicating against Ri‘l, Dhakwan, and ‘Usayyah for a month