Allah has ordained to be guarded.” He also says:

“And whoever among you devoutly obeys Allah and His Messenger…”

And He says:

“To Him belongs whoever is in the heavens and the earth; all are devoutly obedient to Him.”

Since this is so, His words, “And stand before Allah in devout obedience,” may be a command to establish prayer generally, as in His words, “Be steadfast in upholding justice.” In that case, the command encompasses all the acts of prayer and requires sustained observance of them. Alternatively, it may mean standing as opposed to sitting. In that case, it encompasses standing both before and after bowing and requires that standing to be prolonged. This is the qunūt that includes supplication, such as qunūt in times of calamity and qunūt in the dawn prayer according to those who consider its regular observance recommended. Once the obligation of this is established, the obligation of remaining still in all the other acts follows all the more strongly.

The first interpretation is supported by the hadith of Zayd ibn Arqam, related from him in the two Sahīh collections. He said:

“One of us used to speak to the man beside him during prayer. Then the verse, ‘And stand before Allah in devout obedience,’ was revealed.” He said: “We were then commanded to remain silent and forbidden to speak.”

He thus stated that they used to speak during prayer. It is well known that refraining from addressing other people is obligatory throughout the prayer. This therefore entails a command to observe qunūt throughout the prayer. The command to observe qunūt indicates that one must refrain from addressing people because qunūt means constant obedience. Thus, someone occupied with addressing other people ceases to occupy himself