(2:186), and the Almighty also says, “And say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge’” (20:114).
It is related in the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd (1488), al-Tirmidhī (3556), and Ibn Mājah (3865) on the authority of Salmān al-Fārisī that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah, Exalted is He, is too shy to let a servant stretch out his two hands to Him asking for some good, and then return them empty and disappointed.”
Muslim transmits (2675) on the authority of Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah the Exalted says: I am as My servant thinks of Me, and I am with him whenever he remembers Me.”
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Supplication (duʿāʾ) is of two kinds: the supplication of worship and the supplication of request. In the Quran, the word sometimes means one of them, sometimes the other, and sometimes both together.
• The supplication of request is to ask for something that benefits the supplicant—either to obtain a blessing or to remove a harm.
• The supplication of worship is to draw near to Allah Most High so that a desired benefit is attained or an evil is averted, by dedicating one’s acts of devotion sincerely to Him alone.
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Shaykh al-Islām said: Supplication is of two kinds—supplication of worship and supplication of request. Every act of worship necessarily contains a request, and every request necessarily entails an act of worship. The Exalted says, “Call upon your Lord with humility and in private” (7:55), and He says, “No—it is Him alone you call upon; then He removes the distress for which you call upon Him, if He wills” (6:41).
Statements of this kind regarding the supplication of request are plentiful in the Quran, and they include within them the supplication of worship, for the petitioner has singled out his plea for Allah, and that is among the finest of acts of worship. Likewise, the one who remembers Allah or recites His Book is, in the meaning of his words, asking of Allah; thus it is counted as the supplication of worship.
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The Shaykh also said: In these times a person who claims to be Muslim may, for several reasons, slip out of Islam—among them, excessive veneration of certain shaykhs, excessive veneration of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, or excessive veneration of the Messiah. Anyone who goes to extremes regarding a prophet or a righteous person and assigns to him some aspect of divinity—such that he says, “O my master so-and-so, give me victory,” or “Rescue me,” or “Provide for me,” or “I am under your protection,” and the like—must be asked to repent; if he repents, all is well, otherwise