Clarification that what is prescribed for one who wishes to stand in prayer on the night of the twenty-seventh is to follow the imam in prayer, and that if his imam performs the witr, he should pray with him and make his witr an even number

The Shaykh : Then, what is prescribed for one who wishes to stand in prayer at night is to follow his imam and not to lag behind him, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And on this basis, if you are with the first imam in this mosque and the first imam performs the witr, make his witr an even number, because you will stand in prayer with the second imam, and there are not two witr in one night, and the night has only one witr. So, in that case, you must either make the last one an even number or the first one. If you make the last one an even number, you contradict the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): because you have placed the witr in the middle of the night prayer, not at its end. But if you make the first one an even number, you agree with the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) But it was said to me that some people, when the first imam stands for the witr, sit down on the pretext that there is no qunut in the middle of the witr, or no qunut in the middle of the prayer. In his opinion, if he joins the imam in his witr and the imam performs the qunut while he has made it an even number, this means that he performed the qunut in the first rak'ah of the two-rak'ah prayer. But we say, in answer to this misconception, that he did not perform the qunut independently, but rather he performed it following his imam. And what is excused in the follower is not excused in the one being followed, in principle. Have you seen if a person comes and the imam is praying the Zuhr and he catches the second rak'ah, would he say: I will not join them in the second rak'ah, because if I join them in the second rak'ah, I would have to recite the first tashahhud? When? In the first rak'ah, because for this latecomer it is the first rak'ah. Would anyone say: I will not join the imam in the second rak'ah, because if I join them in the second rak'ah, I would have to recite the first tashahhud in the first rak'ah, and there is no first tashahhud in the first rak'ah? No. If that is the case, then it is known that a person's qunut is a follower of his imam, not like his qunut if he performed it independently. It is true that the qunut is in the last rak'ah, but this is for one who performs the qunut independently, like the imam or one praying alone. As for one who performs the qunut only following, and if not for following the imam he would not have performed it, it is not said that he performed the qunut in the first rak'ah of the two-rak'ah prayer.