(1) This is no grounds for objection. The transmitter was declared reliable by Ahmad, Ibn Maʿin, al-ʿAjli and others; al-Tirmidhi judged this very report sound (no. 402), as did Ibn Hibban (no. 511). Muslim even included two of his narrations from his father in his Sahih (nos. 23, 2697). Whenever a trustworthy narrator is the sole source of a report, one is obliged to accept it provided it does not contradict what other reliable transmitters relate—and in the present hadith no such contradiction exists. The two Sahih collections themselves contain many reports that rest on a single reliable narrator. The wording of the hadith is: “Abu Malik al-Ashjaʿi said: I asked my father, ‘Father, you prayed behind the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and behind Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthman and ʿAli b. Abi Talib here in Kufa for something like sixty-five times—did they perform qunut (i.e., in the dawn prayer)?’ He replied, ‘My son, that is a newly-introduced practice.’” Recorded by Ahmad (6/394), al-Tirmidhi (402), al-Nasaʾi (2/204) and Ibn Majah (1241) with a sound chain; also graded sahih by Ibn Hibban (511) and al-Tahawi (no. 146). There is, however, an authentic report from Anas b. Malik that the Prophet performed qunut in the fajr prayer for one month, supplicating against certain Arab clans and cursing them, after which he abandoned it. Muslim (676/304), Abu Dawud (1445), al-Nasaʾi (2/203) and Ibn Majah (1243) all narrate it. Ahmad (no. 2746) and Abu Dawud (1443) transmit from Ibn ʿAbbas that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, made qunut for a whole month in the prayers of zuhr, ʿasr, maghrib, ʿishaʾ and subh, immediately after saying “Samiʿa-Llahu liman hamidah” in the final rakʿa, invoking against the tribes of Sulaym—namely Riʿl, Dhakwan and ʿUsayya—while the people behind him said “Amin.” Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar states in al-Diraya, p. 117, that the reports indicate the Prophet would only perform qunut in times of calamity (nawazil). This is explicit in Ibn Hibban’s narration from Abu Hurayra: “The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, would not perform qunut in the dawn prayer unless he was praying for—or against—a people.” Ibn Khuzayma narrates the same from Anas, and both chains are sound. In the two Sahihs the wording from Abu Hurayra is: whenever the Prophet wished to invoke for or against someone, he would perform qunut after the rukuʿ until God revealed, “laysa laka min al-amr shayʾ” (Qurʾan 3:128). Ibn al-Qayyim remarks in Zad al-Maʿad that the Prophet’s practice was to perform qunut only during calamities, abandoning it when the calamity ceased, and he did not confine it to the fajr prayer. As for the hadith of Anas recorded by Ahmad (3/162), al-Dar Qutni (2/39), al-Tahawi, p. 143, al-Hakim in his Arbaʿin, and through him al-Bayhaqi (2/201)—stating that “the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, continued performing qunut in the dawn prayer until he left this world”—it is weak and cannot serve as evidence, for its chain contains Abu…