a broken heart, humbled limbs, and a subdued voice.” 1.

Allah, Exalted is He, says: “Call upon your Lord with humility and in secret. Surely He does not love transgressors.” He thus commanded that He be called upon with humble entreaty and in secret, and in this same context warned against transgression. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “One form of transgression is to call upon Him without humble entreaty. Rather, such a person supplicates like one who considers himself self-sufficient and presumes upon his Lord. This is among the gravest forms of transgression, because it is incompatible with the supplication of one who is humbled. Whoever does not ask as a poor man would—humbly imploring and afraid—is a transgressor.” 2.

We have already discussed transgression in supplication and its various forms, and explained that any departure beyond the limits prescribed by Islamic law in this regard is transgression.

Another etiquette of supplication is to persist in calling upon Allah, ask Him often, and never grow weary or bored. “Allah loves those who persist in supplication. This is why many of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) supplications attest to this: they use expansive wording and state each meaning explicitly, rather than merely relying on another expression to convey it. An example is his prayer in the hadith of Alī (may Allah be pleased with him), narrated by Muslim in his Sahīh: ‘O Allah, forgive me my earlier and later sins, what I have concealed and what I have disclosed, and whatever You know better than I do. You are the One who brings forward and the One who puts back. There is no deity except You.’ 3. It is well known that it would have been more concise simply to say, ‘Forgive me for everything I have done.’ Yet in the context of supplication, humble entreaty, and the expression of servitude and need, the hadith’s wording—which calls to mind in detail the various things for which the servant repents—is better and more eloquent than brevity and concision. Likewise, the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) words in