Saying Ameen in the Qunoot
Compiled & translated
By
Abbas Abu Yahya
In the Hadeeth from Ibn Abbas –RadhiAllaahu anhu- who said that the Messenger of Allaah –sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam– made Qunoot for a month continuously in the Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha and morning prayer and at the end of every prayer after he said ‘Sami Allaahu liman hamida’ in the last Rakat of that prayer, he would make Dua’ against the tribes of Bani Sulaym and those tribes of Dhakwaan and Usayatah who lived with Bani Sulaym, and those behind the Messenger would say Ameen.’
[Collected by Abu Daawood in his ‘Sunnan’ no. 1443 in ‘the chapter of al-Qunoot in the Prayer’ and Shaykh Albani declared the hadeeth to be Hasan and he brings a research for the hadeeth in ‘Irwaa al-Ghaleel’ (2/163)]
Additional evidence
Ibn al-Mundhir said in ‘al-Awsat’ (5/216) that Imam Malik used to say:
The Imam should make Qunoot from the middle of Ramadan and curse the Kuffar and those behind him should say Ameen.’
[‘al-Mudouwanah’ (1/103]
Imam Ahmad said:
‘The Imam makes Dua’ and those behind him say Ameen’
[‘Mas’ail Ahmad li Abee Daawood p.67, Ishaaq also said this, as was mentioned by al-Marwaazi in ‘Qayam al-Layl’ 303]
Shaykh Uthaymeen said:
‘If we say that there is a Qunoot in the five daily prayers, then if the Qunoot is in a prayer that is read aloud, in this case it is known that the Qunoot is read out aloud, and if it is in a silent prayer then it is still read out aloud, as is established in the Sunnah: namely that the Messenger –sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam– used to read the Qunoot and the people used to say Ameen behind him, and it would not have been possible to say Ameen except if he was reading it out aloud.
This establishes the fact that the Sunnah is to read the Qunoot aloud even if it is in the silent prayers.’
[‘Sharh al-Mumtaa’ (4/47)]