I asked Anas b. Malik whether the humble supplication1 during the prayer was before or after bowing and he replied, “Before it; God’s Messenger observed it after bowing only for a month. He had sent out some people called Qur’an readers, to the number of seventy, on an expedition and they were smitten,2 so for a month God’s Messenger stood in humble supplication after bowing, invoking a curse on their murderers.” 1. The Arabic is qunut, which means 'being obedient’, or 'the act of standing’. It is used of certain supplications in the witr or at other times, but there is some disagreement about when these supplications may be made. The traditions in this chapter deal with the appropriate times. 2. The reference is to an incident at Bi’r Ma'una in 4 A.H. (Bukhari and Muslim.)