Volume One

Introduction

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Understanding Supplications and Remembrances

By Abd al-Razzāq ibn Abd al-Muhsin al-Badr

In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Introduction

All praise belongs to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help, and ask His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils within ourselves and from our wicked deeds. Whoever Allah guides, none can lead astray; and whoever He leads astray, none can guide. I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah alone, who has no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

“O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.”

“O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul and created from it its mate, and from the two of them spread countless men and women. Fear Allah, in whose name you appeal to one another, and honor the ties of kinship. Indeed, Allah is ever watchful over you.”

“O you who believe, fear Allah and speak rightly. He will rectify your deeds for you and forgive your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed achieved a tremendous triumph.”

To proceed: There can be no doubt that remembering Allah and supplicating Him are the best ways in which one may spend one’s time and expend one’s breath. They are the finest means by which a servant may draw near to his Lord, Glorified and Exalted is He, and they are the key to every good that the servant may attain in this world and the Hereafter. “Whenever (Allah) gives the servant this key, He intends to open the door for him; and whenever He causes him to lose it, the door of goodness remains barred before him.”1 He consequently remains troubled at heart, inwardly unsettled, distracted in thought, beset by anxiety, and weak in resolve and determination. But if he remains diligent