Many of the imams of the mosques perform qunut in the Fajr prayer and supplicate with the qunut of witr (O Allah, guide us among those You have guided), and they add other supplications to it.

The questioner : Many of the imams of the mosques perform qunut in the Fajr prayer in the second rak'ah and supplicate with the supplication: and they add to it various other supplications, and they make this supplication specific to the Fajr prayer and not the other prayers, and they do so continuously, not as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to supplicate in the supplication for calamities for a specific period. Some of them, if they forget this supplication, perform the prostration for forgetfulness. What is the ruling on this qunut? And what does the follower do if the imam performs qunut? Does he raise his hands with the followers and say: Ameen? Or does he keep his hands at his sides and remain silent and not join them in this qunut? We ask for guidance, may you be rewarded.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and his Companions, and those who follow them in excellence until the Day of Judgment. Performing qunut in the Fajr prayer continuously without a legitimate Shari'ah reason requiring it is contrary to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Indeed, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not perform qunut in the Fajr prayer continuously without a legitimate Shari'ah reason. What is established from him regarding qunut in the obligatory prayers is that he used to perform qunut in the obligatory prayers when its cause was present, such as the oppression of the polytheists over the weak among the Muslims, and the like of that.
The scholars of knowledge (may Allah have mercy on them) have mentioned that qunut is performed in the obligatory prayers when a calamity befalls the Muslims that necessitates it, and this is not specific to the Fajr prayer, but in all the prayers. Then they differed: Does the imam alone perform qunut, where by "imam" is meant the one with the highest authority in the state? Or does every imam of a congregation in a mosque perform qunut? Or does every worshipper, even if alone, perform qunut? Some of the scholars said: The qunut for calamities is specific to the imam, meaning the one with the highest authority in the state, because it was the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) who used to perform qunut in his mosque, and it is not reported that anyone else performed qunut at the time the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was performing qunut, among those who were praying in their mosques.
Some of them said: Every imam of a congregation performs qunut, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to perform qunut because he was the imam of the mosque, and he said (peace and blessings be upon him): .
Some of them said: Every worshipper performs qunut, because this is a matter that has befallen the Muslims, and the believer to the believer is like a building, its parts supporting one another.
In any case, the stronger position, without doubt, is that qunut is not performed in the Fajr prayer permanently without a legitimate Shari'ah reason, and that this is contrary to the guidance of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
As for when there is a reason, then qunut is performed in all five prayers, according to the disagreement I mentioned earlier. However, the qunut, as the questioner said, is not the qunut of witr: But the qunut is supplicating with what is appropriate to the situation for which qunut was legislated, as was the guidance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
Then the questioner said: If a person is a ma'mum, does he follow this imam by raising his hands and saying Ameen with him, or does he let his hands hang at his sides?
The answer to that is that we say: Rather, he says Ameen on the imam's supplication and raises his hands following the imam, out of fear of disagreement. Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) explicitly stated that if a man follows an imam who performs qunut in the Fajr prayer, he follows him and says Ameen on his supplication, even though Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) does not consider the qunut in the Fajr prayer to be prescribed in the well-known view attributed to him. But he (may Allah have mercy on him) granted a dispensation in that, meaning in following the imam who performs qunut in the Fajr prayer, out of fear of the disagreement that may lead to a difference of hearts. This is what came from the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). Indeed, the Commander of the Faithful, Uthman ibn Affan, at the end of his caliphate, used to complete the prayer in Mina during Hajj, and some of the Companions who objected to him did so, and yet they followed him and completed the prayer. It is reported from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that he was asked: O Abu Abd al-Rahman, how do you pray with the Commander of the Faithful Uthman four rak'ahs, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), nor Abu Bakr, nor Umar did that? He said (may Allah be pleased with him): "Disagreement is evil".
And it remains in the statementThe questioner :"Or he lets his hands hang on his thighs". The apparent meaning of his statement is that he thinks the prescribed action after rising from ruku' is to place the hands on the thighs. And although some of the scholars of knowledge said this, it is a weaker position. The correct position, which the Sunnah indicates, is that when the worshipper rises from ruku', he does with his hands what he did with them before ruku', meaning he places his right hand over his left hand above the chest. The evidence for that is the hadith of Sahl ibn Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: This is established in "Sahih al-Bukhari". And his saying: covers all the states of prayer, but the state of prostration is excluded because the hands are on the ground, and the state of sitting is excluded because the hands are on the thighs, and the state of ruku' is excluded because the hands are on the knees. So in all other states, the right hand is on the forearm of the left hand, as this generality requires.
This is the stronger position in this issue. Some of the scholars said: The Sunnah is to let the hands hang after ruku'. And Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "He is given the choice between placing his right hand over his left or letting them hang". But following what the hadith of Sahl ibn Sa'd indicates is more preferable, which is to do with the hands after ruku' what he did with them before ruku'.
The issue is not that this is prescribed or that, but the issue is what some of the striving brothers have taken regarding this issue and similar issues of disagreement, where they thought the disagreement in them was great, and they based loyalty and disavowal on that, so they would severely disapprove of those who differed with them in this matter. And there is no doubt that this is a path contrary to what the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) were upon, and to what the scholars of knowledge said, that in issues of independent legal reasoning where independent legal reasoning is permissible, one does not disapprove of a person, because the statement of each person is not a proof against the others, except the Infallible Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
Therefore, on this occasion, I advise my brothers whom Allah has guided to righteousness and the correct direction and who are eager to follow the Sunnah, not to make this disagreement a cause for a difference of hearts, and for oppressing others with their tongues, and for eating the flesh of people, and for striking the opinions of the scholars against one another. For in that there is great evil and corruption. We ask Allah to unite our word upon the truth in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).

The questioner : May Allah bless you. Honorable Shaykh.