Abū al-Abbās Ahmad ibn Idrīs al-Qarāfī, after stating that supplication is, as a rule, a matter in which one must exercise restraint, and mentioning various kinds of unbelieving supplications that expel a person from Islam: “Once this has been established, one who supplicates must be exceedingly wary of these supplications and anything akin to them, because they lead to the wrath of the Judge, eternal abiding in the Fire, the nullification of deeds, the dissolution of marriages, and the loss of the inviolability of life and property. All these forms of corruption can result from a single one of these supplications. The person does not return to Islam—and most of these consequences are not lifted—except by renewing his Islam and pronouncing the two testimonies of faith. If he dies in that state, his fate is as we have described. We ask Allah Most High to protect us from the causes of His punishment.”1

Every Muslim must be exceedingly wary of such supplications, which some misguided shaykhs and leaders of falsehood have introduced. Through them, they have turned people away from the guidance of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and diverted them from his Sunnah. Thus, they went astray, led many others astray, and strayed from the straight path. The discerning Muslim cannot but wonder what drove those people to devise such supplications and invent such litanies despite the misguidance and falsehood they contain. He can find no answer other than that they seek to consume people’s wealth wrongfully and amass followers and disciples. We have already encountered the words of Muʿādh ibn Jabal—may Allah be pleased with him: “Ahead of you lie tribulations in which wealth will abound and the Quran will become widely accessible, until it is taken up by the believer and the hypocrite, the man and the woman, the young and the old, the slave and the free. Soon someone will say, ‘Why do people not