—by which I mean supplication—through His explicit declaration at the end of the verse, where He referred to supplication as worship, thereby interpreting it, clarifying its meaning, and making clear to His servants that this act which He required of them and directed them to perform is a form of worship that He has reserved exclusively for Himself and for which He created His servants. As He, Exalted is He, says: ‘I did not create jinn and humankind except to worship Me.’1 In addition to all this, the purified Sunnah contains the clearest possible evidence that supplication is among the most perfect forms of worship….”2 He then—may Allah have mercy on him—cited evidence from the Sunnah to that effect.

Every Muslim is duty-bound to recognize the gravity of this matter and to know that this is a right belonging exclusively to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, in which no one else may be associated with Him. How could a weak and helpless created being be made a partner of the mighty King, who holds the reins of all affairs in His hand; who alone answers supplications and relieves anguish; to whom all authority belongs, in whose hand is all good, and to whom every affair returns; whose judgment none can overturn and whose decree none can repel? No weak person turns to Him without being granted strength; no one abased without being granted honor; no poor person without being enriched; no one beset by loneliness without being comforted; no one overcome without being supported and granted victory; no one in dire need without having his affliction removed; and no outcast without being given refuge. He, Glorified is He, answers those in dire need, rescues the anguished, and gives to those who ask. None can withhold what He gives, and none can give what He withholds. There is no deity except Him, the True and Manifest King.