‘Āzib said—spend approximately equal amounts of time in bowing, standing upright, prostration, and standing. Thus, his prolonged standing after bowing was more apparent in Fajr than in the other prayers (1). It is known that during this standing he would supplicate to his Lord, praise Him, and glorify Him, as the hadiths cited earlier establish. This was undoubtedly qunūt on his part. We therefore have no doubt whatsoever that he continued to perform qunūt in Fajr until he departed this world.
When, in the usage of jurists and most people, qunūt came to mean (2) the familiar supplication, “O Allah, guide me among those You have guided,” and so forth, and they heard that he continued to perform qunūt in Fajr until he departed this world, as did the Rightly Guided Caliphs and other Companions, they understood the Companions’ use of the word qunūt according to their own technical usage. People grew up knowing no other meaning, and so had no doubt that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and his Companions regularly recited this supplication every morning. This is precisely what the majority of scholars disputed, saying: This was not his regular practice; indeed, it is not established (3) that he ever did it.
The most (4) that has been reported from him concerning this qunūt is that he taught it to al-Hasan ibn ‘Alī, as related in al-Musnad and the four Sunan collections (5) (6), on his authority. He said: “The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—taught me some words
(1) Reported by al-Bukhārī (792) and Muslim (471), and cited several times previously.
(2) Huwa (“it”) is absent from Kāf and ‘Ayn.
(3) Bal (“rather”) is omitted in Kāf and ‘Ayn. Sād, Jīm, and Nūn read thabata (“was established”) instead of yathbutu (“is established”).
(4) Kāf and ‘Ayn read wa-ghāyatuhu (“and its utmost extent”).
(5) The printed editions read al-arba‘ (“the four”); the reading in the manuscripts is entirely sound.
(6) Reported by Abū Dāwūd (1425), al-Tirmidhī (464), al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (1745) and al-Kubrā (1446), Ibn Mājah (1178), and others, through Abū Ishāq al-Sabī‘ī, from Burayd ibn Abī Maryam, from Abū al-Hawrā’ al-Sa‘dī, from al-Hasan ibn ‘Alī, with the additional wording specifying that this supplication was for qunūt (supplication in prayer), or specifically qunūt in Witr. Abū Ishāq’s son Yūnus and others also transmitted it in this form, as recorded by Ahmad (1718), ‘Abd al-Razzāq (4984), Ibn Khuzaymah (1095), al-Bayhaqī in Ma‘rifat al-Sunan (3:130), and al-Tabarānī (3:75).
Shu‘bah transmitted it from Burayd with different, more extensive wording, mentioning that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—taught this supplication, but without mentioning qunūt or Witr. This version was reported by al-Tayālisī (1275), Ahmad (1723), al-Dārimī (1632), al-Bazzār (4:175), Abū Ya‘lā (6759), and al-Tabarānī (3:75), and was authenticated by Ibn Khuzaymah (1096) and Ibn Hibbān (945). Ibn Khuzaymah said: “He mentioned neither qunūt nor Witr. Shu‘bah is more accurate in retaining hadith than several men like Yūnus ibn Abī Ishāq. It is not known whether Abū Ishāq heard this report from Burayd or transmitted it from him through tadlīs (concealment in transmission), unless, of course, the claim of some of our scholars is correct: that everything Yūnus narrated from someone from whom his father Abū Ishāq also narrated was something Yūnus heard alongside his father from that transmitter. Were it established that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—commanded qunūt in Witr or himself performed qunūt in Witr, I would not consider it permissible to contradict the Prophet’s report. But I do not know it to be established.”
Ibn Hibbān made a similar statement in his book Wasf al-Salāh bi-l-Sunnah, as quoted by Ibn al-Mulaqqin in al-Badr al-Munīr (3:634), adding: “This wording—‘The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—taught me words to say during qunūt in Witr’—is not reliably preserved (mahfūz). Al-Hasan ibn ‘Alī was eight years old when the Chosen One died. How, then, could the Chosen One teach an eight-year-old the supplication for qunūt in Witr while leaving aside the Companions of mature judgment and understanding, without instructing them to recite it? … Had this wording been reliably preserved, Shu‘bah would have been quick to include it in his report, since meticulousness is more characteristic of him, and he is more precise in transmitting the chain than Abū Ishāq and his two sons.”
Ahmad also quoted Yahyā al-Qattān in al-‘Ilal, as transmitted by his son ‘Abd Allāh (4682), as saying: “Shu‘bah used to reject qunūt in Witr and in Fajr.”
See also Sāmī al-Khalīl, Dirāsat wa-Tahqīq Kitāb Sifat Salāt al-Nabī li-l-Albānī, pp. 460–464.