The virtue of supplication

Sayyiduna al-Nu'man bin Bashir (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Supplication is worship." Then he recited the verse of the Qur'an: "And your Lord says: Call upon Me; I will respond to you."

Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever among you has the reality of supplication opened to him, the doors of acceptance are opened for him."

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever does not ask of Allah, Allah Almighty is angry with him."

Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whenever a Muslim makes a supplication in which there is nothing of sin or of severing family ties, Allah Almighty grants him one of three things: either He soon fulfils his supplication for him, or He stores his supplication for him in the Hereafter, or He removes from him an evil equal to it." The Companions said: "O Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), then we will supplicate abundantly." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah too will grant abundantly."

Ibrahim al-Taymi said: It used to be said: "When a man praises Allah before his supplication, his supplication is surely accepted; and when he begins with supplication before praising Allah, his supplication has hope of acceptance."

Hilal bin Yasaf said: It has reached me that when a Muslim supplicates and that supplication is not accepted, one good deed is recorded in his favour.

Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "A time will certainly come upon the people in which only those will be saved who supplicate like the supplication of one who is drowning."

Through this chain too, a statement like the preceding one is reported from Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him), except that, in place of the word for supplication, it has the words "alladhi yad'u" (the one who supplicates).

Al-Hasan said: Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda (may Allah be pleased with him) used to say: "Strive hard in supplication, for whoever knocks at the door often is close to having the door opened for him."