English

ETIQUETTES OF PRAYING FOR FULFILLMENT OF NEEDS

In Jamal al-Usbu’, Sayyid Ibn Tawus has mentioned an essay regarding the etiquettes of praying for granting one’s requests, which can be summed up as follows:

While trying to beseech the All-knowing Lord to grant you your request, you must be at the most modest manner. When you intend to present yourself before a human king to ask him for granting you a request, you naturally try to attain his pleasure through all possible means and efforts. Likewise, you must exert all possible efforts to attain the pleasure of the Almighty and All-majestic Lord when you want Him to grant you your request. Thus, do not beseech Him in a way less earnest than appealing from human kings; lest, you will fail to win your request because you have been of the scoffers. How is it then reasonable that you care for the pleasure of the All-majestic Lord less than your care for winning the pleasure of human kings who are no more than slaves of the Master of the Worlds? Such being the case, you will be regarded as belittling, scoffing, disdaining, and deriding the grandeur of the All-majestic Lord, and, as a result, you will never win your request no matter how many prayers you would offer and how many days you would fast.

Moreover, when you fast on a day or offer a prayer for purpose of winning your request from Almighty God, you must not behave as if you are testing Him; rather, you must have full confidence of His response. As a rule, we, human beings, try others only when we are suspicious about their ability to do what they are tried to do. About those who suspect Him, Almighty Allah says, “the entertainers of evil thoughts about Allah. On them is the evil turn. (48/6)”

Significantly, when you beseech the Lord for granting your request, you must have full confidence in His all-encompassing mercy, His all-inclusive magnanimity, and His fulfillment of all of His promises.

When you turn your face towards the most generous of all human beings to ask him for an insignificant thing, you will most certainly be sure that he will grant you that thing after you have asked it from him in the most appropriate way. Similarly, you must be surer that Almighty Allah Who is the All-generous and the most generous of all those who act generously that He will grant you your request, which is, in His sight and as compared to His omnipotence, less insignificant than all insignificant things. Hence, beware that you put confidence in any mortal more than you do with Almighty Allah.

It is also advisable that when you offer a prayer and fast on a day for purpose of winning your request from God, you must arrange your worldly requests according to their importance. In fact, the most important of all your requests, no matter how urgent they be, are the requests of the one under whose shade you are living and whose hospitality you are experiencing; namely, the Patron of the Age, Imam al-Mahdi, may Allah’s blessings be upon him.

Then come your requests with regard to your religious faith. Only then do come your personal requests involved.

To explain, when you intend to beseech Almighty Allah to save you from perdition, you may observe fasting with the intention of praying Him to grant you this very request. In fact, you should have known that winning Almighty Allah’s amnesty, pleasure, acceptance, and approval is more important than being saved from perdition, because you will eventually perish whether you like it or not, but if you miss Almighty Allah’s majesty, pleasure, and acceptance, you will lose this worldly life and the eternal life thus exposing yourself to unbearable and unimaginable misfortunes.

Similarly, as I have advised you to give the requests of the Patron of the Age priority to your personal requests, I only meant to inform you that the survival of this world and the survival of its inhabitants are contingent upon the existence of the Patron in this world. Hence, how is it reasonable to give precedence to your personal requests over the requests of the one without whom you do not live a single moment?

Let it be known to you that the Patron of the Age is in no need for your implorations for him; rather, if you do what I have just advised you to do, you will then have fulfilled your pledge towards him.

Finally, it is highly recommended to commence your supplicatory prayers with invoking Almighty Allah’s blessings upon the Holy Infallibles (a.s.).