good has its origin in Allah’s granting the servant divine enablement, while every evil has its origin in His withholding aid from His servant. They also agreed that divine enablement means that Allah does not leave you to yourself, whereas the withholding of aid means that He leaves you to your own devices. Since every good has its origin in divine enablement, which is in Allah’s hand and not the servant’s, its key is supplication, utter neediness before Him, sincere recourse to Him, and turning to Him with hope and fear. Whenever He gives the servant this key, He intends to open the door for him; but whenever He causes him to miss the key, the door to goodness remains firmly shut before him… No one who has come to grief has done so except by neglecting gratitude and failing to show his neediness and supplicate; and no one has attained success—by Allah’s will and aid—except by giving thanks and sincerely showing his neediness and supplicating.” End quote.1

The Muslim’s need for supplication is pressing in all his affairs, and his need for it is urgent in every concern. One scholar offered a beautiful analogy for the Muslim’s relationship with supplication, illustrating how intensely he needs it and how indispensable it is to him. Imām Ahmad narrated in the Book of Asceticism that Qatāda said: Muwarriq—may Allah have mercy on him—said, “I have found no better likeness for the believer than a man at sea upon a plank, crying, ‘My Lord! My Lord!’ in the hope that Allah—Mighty and Majestic—will save him.”2

Whoever turns sincerely to Allah, persistently supplicates Him, and frequently asks of Him, Allah will answer his supplication, fulfill his hope, grant his request, and open for him the gates of goodness and happiness in this world and the Hereafter.