(1) The person referred to is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Here the word qunut denotes qunut al-nawazil, the special supplication recited when a calamity befalls the community. Al-Bukhari (11/163) and Muslim (no. 677) report from Anas b. Malik that the Prophet ﷺ dispatched an expedition known as al-qurraʾ; they were killed, and no event ever grieved him more. Consequently, he performed qunut at the dawn (fajr) prayer for a full month, saying: “O Allah, ʿUsayya disobeyed Allah and His Messenger.” Al-Bukhari (2/409-410) and Muslim (no. 675) relate from Abu Hurayra that, after completing the recitation in the fajr prayer, saying the takbir and raising his head—“Samiʿa-Llahu liman ḥamidah, rabbana wa-laka l-ḥamd”—he would remain standing and say: “O Allah, deliver al-Walid b. al-Walid, Salama b. Hisham, ʿAyyash b. Abi Rabiʿa and the oppressed believers. O Allah, tighten Your grip on Mudar, and make it upon them like the years of Joseph. O Allah, curse Lihyan, Riʿl, Dhakwan and ʿUsayya who disobeyed Allah and His Messenger.” Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar, in al-Diraya, p. 117, concludes from the reports that the Prophet ﷺ did not recite qunut except in times of calamity, and this is explicit in the sources: Ibn Hibban transmits from Abu Hurayra that “the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never recited qunut in the dawn prayer unless he was supplicating for—or against—a people”; Ibn Khuzayma records the same from Anas, and both chains are sound. Abu Hurayra’s hadith in the two Sahihs states: “Whenever the Prophet ﷺ wished to supplicate against someone or for someone, he would recite qunut after the rukuʿ until Allah revealed: ‘You have no part in the matter’ (Q 3:128).” Ibn Abi Shayba also narrates that when ʿAli recited qunut in the dawn prayer and people objected, he replied: “We are only seeking help against our enemy.” (*) Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh Dimashq, vol. 3, pp. 209a-209b; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar, vol. 2, p. 225; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab, vol. 2, p. 329; Ibn ʿAsakir, Tahdhib Tarikh Dimashq, vol. 3, p. 285.