What is the reason for the difference among congregational prayer leaders in the variation of qunut supplications?

We can understand that multiplicity and variety if we know the reality of qunut in the prayer.

Qunut has several forms with regard to the choice of supplication:

The first: that he supplicates with any supplication of his own composition, but within the correct meanings of supplication, including glorification, extolment, and supplicating for oneself and for one's parents for the good of this world and the Hereafter. The jurists have mentioned the permissibility of any supplication whatsoever in qunut, and it suffices.

The second: that he supplicates with any supplication, but such that the supplication is composed by the Ahl al-Bayt (a), that is, drawn from the texts of the supplications narrated from the Ahl al-Bayt (a) in various places and circumstances; he either recites them in full or extracts portions of them to recite in his qunut. By that he has acted on what is permissible and added to it what is better, namely acting on the supplications narrated from the Ahl al-Bayt (a), because they know best how to address Allah the Exalted.

The third: that he supplicates with the supplications transmitted from the Ahl al-Bayt (a) specifically for qunut. By that he has acted on what is better, in that he has chosen one of the supplications reported from the Ahl al-Bayt (a) for qunut.

It is understood from the words of the jurists that the superiority covers both the second and the third forms together, and this accords with the import of the noble narrations; and their superiority does not mean that there is no merit in the first form.

A person may choose, from among what is reported from the Ahl al-Bayt (a), the supplications that suit him in terms of understanding and in terms of need—and they are very many and cover human needs—and he may single out a particular need, mention it specifically and name it within his supplication. The supplications of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) themselves in the qunut supplication were many, and the narrators have narrated what they heard from them in their (a) prayers.

Among the narrations reported about qunut on these matters:

From Ismaʿil ibn al-Fadl, who said: I asked Abu ʿAbdillah (a) what I should say in my witr. He said: Whatever Allah decrees upon your tongue and ordains.

From al-Halabi, from Abu ʿAbdillah (a): he asked him about qunut—is there a set formula for it? He said: Praise your Lord, invoke blessings upon your Prophet, and seek forgiveness for your sin.

From Saʿd ibn Abi Khalaf, from Abu ʿAbdillah (a), who said: It suffices you in qunut [to say]: O Allah, forgive us, have mercy on us, grant us well-being and pardon us in this world and the Hereafter; indeed You have power over all things.

From Zurara, from Abu Jaʿfar (a), in a hadith, he said: You say in the qunut of the obligatory prayer on all days except Friday: O Allah, I ask You, for myself, for my parents, for my children, the people of my household and my believing brothers, certainty in You, pardon, protection, mercy, forgiveness and well-being in this world and the Hereafter.

Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi