– and to invoke against others; he then discontinued it when those for whom he had prayed returned safely from captivity, and those against whom he had supplicated embraced Islam and came repentant. His qunut, therefore, was linked to an exceptional circumstance; once that circumstance ended, he stopped performing qunut.” He continued: “Nor did he restrict it to the fajr prayer, although he practiced it there most often, because this prayer has been legislated to be longer, it follows the night prayer, it occurs near the sahar (pre-dawn) time—the hour when supplications are answered and the divine descent takes place—and because it is the ‘witnessed’ prayer attended by Allah and His angels, or by the angels of the night and day, as both reports are transmitted in the exegesis of the verse: ‘Indeed, the Qur’an of dawn is ever witnessed’ (Q 17:78).” (Note): As for the hadith of Anas, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ continued to perform qunut in fajr until he departed this world,” it is weak and inauthentic, even though it was graded sound by al-Hakim and al-Nawawi. Its weakness lies with Abu Ja‘far al-Razi, the transmitter from al-Rabi‘, from Anas. Ibn al-Qayyim has discussed it at length in Zad (1/99–100), al-Hafiz in al-Talkhis (3/417–418), among others. (Benefit): Shaykh Ahmad Muhammad Shakir wrote in his commentary on al-Tirmidhi (2/252): “People have abandoned qunut during the nawazil (public calamities) that befall the Muslims—and how numerous these calamities are in our times, affecting their religious and worldly affairs! Because of their division and their failure to support one another—even through supplication in the prayers—they have become strangers in their own lands, and authority there now belongs to others. Yet qunut in the nawazil, invoking for the Muslims and against their enemies, is authentically established from the Prophet ﷺ in all the prayers, after the phrase ‘sami‘a Allahu liman hamidah’ (Allah hears the one who praises Him) in the final rak‘a.”