the noon, afternoon, sunset, night, and dawn prayers. Toward the end of each prayer, when he said, ‘Allah hears those who praise Him,’ in the final prayer cycle, he would supplicate against a clan of Banū Sulaym—Ri‘l, Dhakwān, and ‘Usayya—while those behind him said ‘Āmīn.’” Abū Dāwūd also reported it.

Thus (1), his practice (peace and blessings be upon him) was to offer supplication specifically when calamities struck, and to omit it otherwise. He did not reserve it for the dawn prayer, although he offered it most often in that prayer because of its prescribed length, its connection with the night prayer, and its proximity to the time before dawn, the hour when supplications are answered, and the divine descent. Moreover, it is the prayer witnessed by Allah and His angels, or by the angels of the night and the day. Both explanations have been reported in the interpretation of Allah’s words:

“Indeed, the dawn recitation is witnessed.” [Al-Isrā’: 78] (2).

As for the hadith transmitted by Ibn Abī Fudayk, from ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sa‘īd al-Maqburī, from his father, from Abū Hurayra, who related that whenever the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) raised his head from bowing in the second cycle of the dawn prayer, he would raise his hands and offer this supplication:

“O Allah, guide me among those You have guided; grant me well-being among those You have granted well-being; take me into Your care among those You have taken into Your care; bless what You have given me; and protect me from the evil of what You have decreed. You decree, and none decrees over You. Whoever You take into Your care will never be humiliated (3). Blessed and exalted are You, our Lord” (4)—how clear a proof it would be, were it graded authentic or good!