Evidence from the Sunnah for the Merit of Supplication and a Criterion for Determining Preference between Remembrance and Supplication
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57 — Evidence from the Sunnah for the Merit of Supplication and a Criterion for Determining Preference between Remembrance and Supplication
We have already discussed the merit of supplication by presenting a number of Quranic texts demonstrating its immense virtue and exalted status. What follows are several texts from the Sunnah demonstrating the merit of supplication and its many beneficial outcomes, fruits, and advantages. The Sunnah abounds with texts encouraging supplication and explaining its merit and the immense reward and recompense it carries with Allah.
Among them is the report authentically established in the Sunan collections from al-Numān ibn Bashīr—may Allah be pleased with him—that Allah’s Messenger said: “Supplication is worship. Then he recited: ‘Your Lord says: Call upon Me; I will answer you. Indeed, those who are too proud to worship Me will enter Hell in humiliation.’ 1”2 This demonstrates the great importance of supplication and that it is the loftiest and best form of worship.
Al-Hākim also narrated with a sound chain from Ibn Abbās—may Allah be pleased with them both—as a report traced back to the Prophet: “The best act of worship is supplication. He then recited: ‘Your Lord says: Call upon Me; I will answer you.’”3.