The word qunut carries senses of obedience, devotion and standing long in prayer, and in liturgical use it names the supplication a worshipper offers while standing upright in the ritual prayer, usually after rising from the final bowing. Where the rest of salat is fixed recitation, the qunut is petition, and its most famous wording is a small masterpiece of compressed asking.
In the narration preserved by al-Tirmidhi and others, the Prophet's young grandson al-Hasan ibn Ali reports being taught words to say in the witr prayer, O God, guide me among those You have guided, grant me health among those You have granted health, take me into Your care among those You have taken into care, bless me in what You have given, and protect me from the evil of what You have decreed, for You decree and none decrees against You. The prayer closes by declaring that whoever God befriends is not humbled, and ends in praise. Jurists count this among the most authentic of the transmitted supplications, and it remains the standard qunut of the witr, the odd numbered night prayer, across much of the Muslim world, recited nightly in Ramadan congregations where the whole mosque holds the long standing together, hands raised, answering each petition with amin.