Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

من سره أن يكتال بالمكيال الوفى إذا صلى علينا أهل البيت فيليقل:‏ اللهم صل على محمد النبي وأزواجه
أمهات المؤمنين وذريته وأهل بيته كما صليت على آل أبراهيم إنك حميد مجيد.‏
Whoever desires that his deeds be weighed with a complete scale when
he sends salutations upon us the Ahl al-Bayt should say: O Allah send
salutations upon Muḥammad the Nabī, his wives the mothers of the
believers, his children and his Ahl al-Bayt, just as you sent salutations upon
the family of Ibrāhīm. You are praiseworthy and glorious. 1
As you have noticed, in this narration he mentioned the Ahl al-Bayt after
mentioning the wives and the children. This is proof that the term Āl is not
specific to them.
The variance in the wordings of various narrations, i.e. some of them are mentioned
in some whereas others are not can probably be attributed to remembrance of
some narrators and the forgetting of others. 2
However, a stronger explanation thereof would be to say that the injunction of
sending salutations upon Nabī H has come in different ways:
Hence at times the injunction is to send salutations upon Nabī H merely
without including anyone else, like in the ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī wherein
he says:
قلنا يا رسول الله،‏ هذا التسليم،‏ فكيف نصلي عليك؟ قال:‏ قولوا اللهم صلى على محمد عبدك ورسولك
كما صلت على آل إبراهيم.‏
We asked, “O Rasūl Allāh, this is Taslīm (the manner of sending peace upon
you) so how should we send Ṣalāh (salutations) upon you?” He said, “Say: O
Allah send salutations upon Muḥammad, your servant and messenger, just
as you sent salutations upon the household of Ibrāhīm.” 3
1 Sunan Abī Dāwūd: chapter of Ṣalāh; sub-chapter regarding salutations upon Nabī H after
Tashahhud: ḥadīth no. 982. The ḥadīth is graded as weak by al-Albānī in Ḍaʿīf Sunan Abī Dāwūd.
2 Al-Qawl al-Badīʿ p. 192.
3 Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: chapter of Tafsīr: sub-chapter regarding the verse: اهللَ‏ وَ‏ مَ‏ الَ‏ ئِكَ‏ تَهُ‏ يُصَ‏ لُّ‏ ونَ‏ عَ‏ لَ‏ الناَّبِيِّ‏ ‏:إِناَّ‏ ḥadīth
no. 4520.
59