their supplications, fulfills their hopes, and grants them what they ask. Allah Most High says: “When My servants ask you about Me, indeed I am near. I answer the supplication of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me and believe in Me, that they may be rightly guided.” 1 He also says: “Who responds to the distressed when he calls upon Him, removes affliction, and makes you successors upon the earth?” 2

Thus, the deeper a servant’s knowledge of Allah and the stronger his bond with Him, the more earnest his supplication to Him and the more profound his brokenness before Him. For this reason, Allah’s prophets and messengers were, of all people, the most perfect in their devotion to supplication and the most constant in it throughout all their circumstances and affairs. Allah praised them for this in the Noble Quran and mentioned a number of their supplications in various circumstances and on diverse occasions. Allah Most High says in describing them: “Indeed, they used to hasten to good deeds and call upon Us with hope and fear, and they were humbly submissive to Us.” 3

Among the prophets’ supplications is that which Allah relates of His Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him, who said: “All praise belongs to Allah, who has granted me Ishmael and Isaac in my old age. Indeed, my Lord hears supplication. My Lord, make me one who establishes prayer, and likewise some of my descendants. Our Lord, accept my supplication. Our Lord, forgive me, my parents, and the believers on the Day the Reckoning is established.” 4

He, Glorified is He, also mentioned the supplication of His Prophet Noah, peace be upon him, when he asked his Lord to grant him victory over his people, who had denied and opposed him. He, Glorified is He, said: “Before them, the people of