b) Alqamah reported that “Ibn Masūd and the Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would perform the qunūt in Witr before bowing.” Narrated by Ibn Abī Shaybah. (1)
I say: The hadith of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and the report of Alqamah show that the qunūt in Witr is performed after the recitation and before bowing.
As for the evidence that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would sometimes perform the qunūt in Witr after bowing, it is as follows:
Abd al-Rahmān ibn Abd al-Qārī reported: “One night during Ramadan, I went with Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, to the mosque. There we found the people scattered in separate groups: one man praying by himself, and another praying with a small group following him. Umar said, ‘I think it would be better if I gathered them behind a single reciter.’ He then resolved to do so and gathered them behind Ubayy ibn Kaʿb. On another night, I went out with him again while the people were praying behind their reciter. Umar said, ‘What an excellent innovation this is! (2) Yet what they sleep through is better than what they spend standing
(1) A *sahīh* (authentic) report.
Ibn Abī Shaybah narrated it (2/302), saying: “Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us, from Hishām al-Dastawāī, from Hammād, from Ibrāhīm, from Alqamah, that Ibn Masūd…” He then cited the report in full.
Al-Albānī said of this report in *Irwā al-Ghalīl* (2/166): “This is a sound chain of transmission, and it meets Muslim’s criteria.” End quote.
(2) This means an innovation in the linguistic sense. Gathering the people behind a single imam for the Ramadan night prayer in the mosque had not occurred during Abū Bakr’s time or at the beginning of Umar’s caliphate. Umar therefore called it an innovation because it may be described as such linguistically, even though it was not a religious innovation. It is established that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, led the people in congregational Tarāwīh prayer and said to them on the third or fourth night: “Nothing prevented me from coming out to you except my fear that it might be made obligatory upon you” [al-Bukhārī: 2012]. Congregating for Tarāwīh prayer was therefore a righteous practice; the only obstacle was the fear that it might become obligatory. That fear ceased upon his death, peace and blessings be upon him, and thus the countervailing consideration no longer remained. See *Iqtidā al-Sirāt al-Mustaqīm* (pp. 275–277).