al-Ashja‘ī: “I said to my father, ‘Father, you prayed behind the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthmān, and ‘Alī, here and in Kufa, for about five years. Did they offer supplication in the dawn prayer?’ He replied, ‘My son, that is a newly introduced practice.’” This was reported by the compilers of the Sunan collections and Ahmad (1). Al-Tirmidhī said: “It is a good and authentic hadith.”
Al-Dāraqutnī (2) reported that Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr said: “I testify that I heard Ibn ‘Abbās say, ‘Offering supplication in the dawn prayer is an innovation.’”
Al-Bayhaqī (3) reported that Abū Mijlaz said: “I prayed the dawn prayer with Ibn ‘Umar, and he did not offer supplication. I said to Ibn ‘Umar, ‘I do not see you (4) offering supplication.’ He replied, ‘I do not recall this from any of our companions.’”
It is beyond question that if the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had offered supplication every morning, using this supplication while the Companions said ‘Amen,’ the Muslim community would have transmitted this just as they transmitted his reciting aloud
(1) Al-Tirmidhī (404, 405), al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (1080) and al-Sunan al-Kubrā (671), Ibn Mājah (1241), and Ahmad (15879). Al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Hibbān (1989) graded it authentic.
(2) No. 1704. Al-Bayhaqī (2:213) also reported it through him and said: “It is not authentic. Abū Laylā al-Kūfī is an abandoned narrator, and we have transmitted from Ibn ‘Abbās that he performed qunūt (supplication during prayer) in the dawn prayer.” Ibn Abī Shayba reported this account from Ibn ‘Abbās (7086, 7087); see also nos. 7043 and 7068 in his collection.
(3) In al-Sunan al-Kubrā (2:213). Also reported by al-Tabarī in Tahdhīb al-Āthār (679, Musnad Ibn ‘Abbās) and al-Tabarānī (13:229). Al-Bayhaqī said: “Some Companions’ forgetting or overlooking certain sunnahs does not undermine the report of someone who remembered and confirmed them.” Al-Turkumānī challenged this, considering it unlikely that they had forgotten or overlooked them. How could that be, when Ibn ‘Umar himself reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) performed qunūt? Thus, Ibn ‘Umar’s and others’ omission of it indicates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not practise it continually … Al-Jawhar al-Naqī.
(4) Kāf, ‘ayn: “Indeed, I do not see you.”