Anyone who says, “What he discontinued was supplicating against those disbelievers,” has either not encountered the wording of the hadith or encountered it without examining it carefully. For the two Sahīh collections report that ‘Āsim al-Ahwal said:
“I asked Anas ibn Mālik about qunūt: ‘Was it before bowing or after it?’ He replied, ‘Before bowing.’ I said, ‘But so-and-so told me that you said it was after bowing.’ He replied, ‘He spoke falsely. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, only offered qunūt before bowing. I believe he sent a group known as the Quran reciters, numbering about seventy men, to some polytheists other than those people. There was a treaty between them and the Messenger of Allah, and he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, offered qunūt for a month, supplicating against them.’”
Likewise, the hadith narrated by Ahmad and al-Hākim from al-Rabī‘ ibn Anas, from Anas, states:
“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, continued to offer qunūt until he departed this world.”
Its wording is clarified in the version stating that “he continued to offer qunūt before bowing.” Here, qunūt means prolonged standing, not supplication. This is how it is explained in the transmitted wording. Further clarification comes from the report in the two Sahīh collections that Muhammad ibn Sīrīn said:
“I asked Anas, ‘Did the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, offer qunūt in the Fajr prayer?’ He replied, ‘Yes, briefly, after bowing.’”
He thus stated that his qunūt was brief and occurred after bowing. Since the word qunūt means sustained obedience, any prolongation of standing, bowing, or prostration is called qunūt. As Allah Most High says:
“Or one who is devoutly obedient during the hours of the night, prostrating and standing.”
For this reason, when Ibn ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, was asked about regular qunūt, he said, “We have neither heard of it nor seen it.”
This is one view. Others say that qunūt is, rather, a regular Sunnah, since it is established that the Prophet