He who revived one of my forgotten Sunnat will earn the thawab (reward) of a thousand martyrs.

Hereunder, we shall examine some Qur’anic verses and Hadith ash-Sharifs on supplication and prayers are examined below follow by short explanations of al-Imam Abu Hanifa and Shaykh Yaqub bin Ali y. We are writing summarily please read carefully.

The Qur’an says:

Pray to Me, I accept your prayers. Those who refuse to pray to me out of arrogance will be thrown to Hell in humiliation. (Al-Ghafir 40: 60)

When My servants ask you concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them). I listen to the prayer of every supplicant when he calls on Me. Let them also listen to My call, and believe in Me. That they may be led aright. (Al-Baqara 2: 186)

Call on your Lord with humility and in private … call on Him in fear and hope; for the mercy of Allah U is always near to those who do good. (Al-A’raf 7: 55 – 56)

The Prophet e said: ‘Prayer is worship’. He then recited the verse quoted above.

Other Hadith ash-Sharifs are:

‘There is nothing more magnificient than supplication’.

‘There is nothing that alters destiny (qada) except supplication and there is nothing that enhances the age except goodness’.

‘Whoever does not supplicate to Allah U, Allah U is displeased with Him’.

Every Muslims should know that it is a primary ingredient of his faith to know Allah U as the only maker of things and the Absolute Power over all things. Yet as He has given effectiveness to herbs and tablets to heal wound and cure diseases. He has given tassaruf (effectiveness) to some souls and objects when use as wasila (means). Our Prophet e utilized these two means to attain his exalted and noble wishes. The Salaf as-Salihin and all their inheritors followed the same honourable path. But modern super mujahidds have taken a different course accusing those who attach to means of kufr. The 35^th ayat of Suratul Ma’ida says:

Fear Allah U and look for a wasila (means) to attain to Him.

The Salaf as-Salihin said our pious, our love for the beloved of Allah, the Prophets, the Awliya, the pious Muslims and other sha’aira of Allah U can be wasila (means). In fact the Prophet e taught the companions y a prayer to be said after the call to Salat and promise whoever say it of intercession. The prayer was called a wasila.

The famous event of Hajar aswad between Hadrat ‘Umar and ‘Ali y, and the event of two men that regained their sights one after a prayer of wasila of the Prophet and the second the wasila of his blessed cloth are enough as examples.

The Qur’an says Safar and Marwa are of the signs of Allah U, and the Prophet e said first the Prophet e, then the Awliya and the pious men of his Ummah would intercede on the Day of Judgement. The Qabr Sa’adat has been a spot of prayers to Allah using the Prophet as a wasila since the time of the companions y. In fact the prayer Allahumma inni as’aluka bijjahi nabiyyika Mustafa (O Allah U I asked for the love you have for your Prophet) has become a common feature of Muslims prayer over the ages, al-Imam al-Birghwi t quoted the Hadith:

‘Supplication of three is ever granted: 1) parents for the children, 2) the Muslim traveller, and 3) the one being oppressed.’

Numerous Hadith ash-Sharifs talk of acceptance of supplication of a Prophet for his Ummah, the ones said before dawn and that the supplication said after Salat is not rejected.

The exalted al-Imam Azam Abu Hanifa t said after Salat our Prophet e would say the Istighfar and the ayatul Kursiyy (or the Kursiyy only as reported by Imam Malik t, he would say the tasbih (33 times), the tahmid (33 times), the takbir (33 times) and the tahlil once. He would then sit on his blessed needs stretch his blessed arms forward, palms open to the sky, palm not widely separated but with a gap to take only a finger, palms not bent up nor raised to the chest or face. He would supplicate in humility and at the end rub his blessed palm gently all over the face.

The Salaf as-Salihin encouraged the Muslims praying this way too. They y reported that the Prophet e also pray constantly on other occasion outside Salat too. On most of these occasions he would neither stress hand nor rub the face with the palm. It is always reprehensible to supplicate louder than what the Jama’at would hear and for the Jama’at to say the ‘amin’ loud. It means to be like the disbelievers. ‘Amin’ means ‘accept’, it must be said softly. May Allah U give salvation to the adherents of the right way, amin.

Conclusion

Shaykh Yaqub bin Ali t in his explanation of the book, Sihrat-ul Islam, refers to the Hadith ash-Sharif “Praying is worshipping”. Even if prayers are not accepted, they will yield thawab (reward). Various conditions exist for any prayer to be accepted. Halal food must be eaten. The prayer of the person who eats haram food will not be accepted for forty days. Prayer is the key to satisfying one’s needs and providing happiness. The cogs of this key is the halal food. Secondly, the clothing should be tib. If something is not questionable it is called tib. Property which is not questionable nor forbidden is termed halal.

The request should be made by kneeling towards the Ka’aba, by taking ablution and opening the palms to the sky. One should show one’s humility and lowness by using the mediation of a Prophet or any of the inheritors of the last Prophet e, and the last word should be ‘Amin’. The prayer includes tahmid and Istighfar and cleansing. The very valuable prayer which comprises all of these elements is Allahumma rabbana atina fidduniya hassanatan wa fil-akhirati hasanatan wa qina ‘adhabannar.

Other prayers include:

Rabbana amana faghfirilana warhamna wa anta khairun rahim.

Rabbanaghfirili walwaldayya walil muhminina yaoman yaqumu l-hisab

May Allah U keep us on the path of the inheritors of His exalted Prophet Muhammad Mustafa