#1191: Ruling on the Qunut that is being recited during School Examinations
Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu
Question
Ya Shaykh, Is the Qunut being recited by school mosque Imams during the period of school examinations permissible?
ANSWER:
Wa Alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Alhamdulillāh.
As for Qunūtu An-Nawāzil, it is the Qunūt that is recited when a calamity has overwhelmed the Muslims such as a disease, the overpowering of enemies or the pressing needs of repelling an oppression.
Imām An-Nawawī said in his commentary on Sahīh Muslim:
“What is Known and correct about this is that when a situation occurs such as (the incursion of) an enemy or drought or an epidemic or lack of rain or a plain difficulty on the Muslims and it’s like, they observe Qunūt in all of the Maktūbāt Salāh”
And this is why the Rasūl Salallāhu Alayhi Wasallam – as was recorded by the Shaykhān from Anas bn Mālik radiyallāhu ‘anhu – said the Qunūt for an entire month after the incidence of Bi’ir Ma’ūnā where 70 of the Qurrā’ who dedicated themselves to the study of the Qur’ān were killed by treacherous tribes.
As for whether observing Qunūt for Exams would apply as a Nāzilah, it does not occur to me that it would for several reasons:
1. Examinations are not a trial or a tragedy that has befallen the Ummah and about which the Muslims must return to Allāh in desperation. Rather, it is a tool for checking the rate with which Students of Knowledge have grasped and comprehended what they have been taught by their teachers.
2. I consider that applying Qunūt in Salāh for Exams is a belittling of the seriousness of Qunūt An-Nawāzil and a preoccupation with what is less important in the Ummah. This is the same era in which the enemies of Islām are preoccupying themselves with applying different decapacitating techniques to decimate Islam and Muslims by physical aggression in different Lands of the Muslims across the World. Why are these persons not preoccupying themselves in their Salawāt with Qunūt for the Ummah but are quick to do same for Examinations that are clearly individualistic pursuits of the Dunyā and which owe no inclinations to difficulty in the smallest bit?
3. An Examination is a Progress and not a calamity or a distress. Nawāzil Qunūt are made in times of distress and difficulty in the Ummah
This is what I understand by this matter, and Allāh knows best.
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazakumullāhu Khayran
Abū Asīm
14th Rabī’ al-Awwal, 1444AH
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