He said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught me some words to say in the qunut of witr: ‘Allahumma, guide me among those You have guided …’ ” The chain of transmission is authentic, as will be shown, and the wording is entirely unrestricted, containing no qualifying conditions. These unrestricted texts are supported by the practice of the Companions: Ibn Nasr (no. 131) reports that ʿUmar, ʿAli, and Ibn Masʿud used to recite the qunut in witr throughout the whole year. Al-Tirmidhi comments, “This is the position of the scholars, and it is held by Sufyan al-Thawri, Ibn al-Mubarak, Ishaq, and the scholars of Kufa.” We have said only that the Prophet ﷺ performed the qunut “from time to time” because, after surveying the many hadiths describing his witr, we found that most of them—such as the reports of ʿAʾishah, Ibn ʿAbbas, and others—do not mention qunut at all. Reconciling those narrations with the hadith of Ubayy and similar reports leads one to conclude that he sometimes performed the qunut and sometimes omitted it. Had he done so consistently, this fact would not have escaped the numerous Companions who transmitted descriptions of his witr. This shows that qunut is not mandatory but a sunnah. That is the view of the majority of scholars among the Companions, the Successors, and those who came after them, and it is the school of Abu Yusuf and Muhammad, contrary to their teacher Abu Hanifah, who deemed it obligatory. The critical jurist Ibn al-Humam acknowledged in Fath al-Qadir (1/306, 359–360) that the claim of obligation is weak and lacks supporting evidence—an admission that reflects his fairness and freedom from partisanship. His discussion is valuable and worth consulting; such candor is seldom found in our legal literature. Finally, reciting the qunut of witr before bowing is the Hanafi position, and it is the correct view beyond doubt, for no authentic report from the Prophet ﷺ establishes otherwise. The same practice is related from ʿUmar b. al-Khattab and Ibn Masʿud in Qiyam al-Layl (no. 133).