The Qāḍī said:
The elders have told me that this remained the accepted practice in his mosque here in Córdoba, and that it endured until our own time, or very nearly so.
Muslim relates from Abū Hurayrah that “the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—recited the qunūt in the Dawn Prayer, and that we later learned he abandoned it after the revelation of the verse: ‘You have no part in the matter—whether He turns toward them in mercy or punishes them’ (Āl ʿImrān 3:128).” He also transmits from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet recited the qunūt in the Ẓuhr, the last Night Prayer (ʿIshāʾ), and the Dawn Prayer. Muslim further reports that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—“recited the qunūt for an entire month in the Dawn Prayer, invoking against Banū ʿUṣayyah.”
They differed over the words to be recited in the qunūt. Mālik recommended the following:
“O Allah, we seek Your help, ask Your forgiveness, and seek Your guidance. We believe in You and submit to You; we humble ourselves before You, and we renounce and abandon whoever disbelieves in You. O Allah, You alone do we worship; to You we pray and prostrate; for Your sake we strive and hasten. We hope for Your mercy and fear Your punishment—indeed, Your punishment will overtake the unbelievers.”
The people of Iraq call this formula ‘the two sūrahs,’ and it is reported that it was included in the codex of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb.
Al-Shāfiʿī and Isḥāq, however, held that one should say:
“O Allah, guide us among those You have guided, grant us well-being among those You have granted well-being, and protect us from the evil of what You decree. Surely You decree and none can decree over You. Blessed and Exalted are You, our Lord.”
Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī transmitted this supplication through sound chains, affirming that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—taught him this prayer for the qunūt.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwūd declared, “Whoever does not recite the qunūt with ‘the two sūrahs’ is not to be prayed behind,” while others maintained that no specific wording is fixed for the qunūt.
SECTION TWO
Acts that are pillars of the prayer
This section contains eight foundational issues.
Issue One: The scholars disagreed about raising the hands in prayer in three respects:
- Its legal status;
- The points within the prayer at which the hands are raised; and
- How high the hands are to be lifted.
As for the ruling, the majority hold that it is a Sunnah; Dāwūd and a group of his followers consider it obligatory. Among these, some require it only for the opening takbīrah, while others require it in the opening supplication and at the bowing—that is, on descending into it and on rising from it.