100 — Seeking Forgiveness for the Muslims

The importance of a Muslim praying for his fellow Muslims to be granted forgiveness, success, guidance, right judgment, and the like has already been explained. It has also been noted that everyone shares the same need for such prayers: just as a Muslim needs the prayers of his fellow Muslims, they likewise need his prayers.

The eminent scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

“Everyone shares the need—indeed, the dire necessity—for Allah’s forgiveness, pardon, and mercy. Just as he [that is, the Muslim] wishes his fellow Muslim to seek forgiveness for him, he should likewise seek forgiveness for his fellow Muslim. His constant refrain should therefore be: ‘My Lord, forgive me, my parents, the Muslim men and women, and the believing men and women.’ Some of the early generations regarded it as commendable for everyone to recite this supplication seventy times each day, making it a regular litany that they never neglected.

“I heard our shaykh—namely, Ibn Taymiyyah—mention it and speak of an immense reward associated with it, though I do not remember precisely what he said. Perhaps it was among the regular litanies that he never neglected. I also heard him say that it is permissible to recite it between the two prostrations. When a servant realizes that his fellow Muslims suffer from the same condition as he does and need the same thing that he needs, nothing can prevent him from helping them except his profound ignorance of Allah’s forgiveness and bounty. Such a person deserves not to be helped, for recompense is of the same kind as the deed.”1.

Among the rewards reported for this great supplication is what is authentically established in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabīr