(b) According to the other three schools, this remembrance is recommended.
(c) The Ḥanbalis hold that saying “Rabbi ighfir lī” (Lord, forgive me) once is obligatory; the minimum level of completeness is to repeat it three times, and anything beyond those words is sunnah.
The formula endorsed by the Mālikis, Shāfiʿis, and Ḥanbalis is: “Rabbi ighfir lī wa-rḥamnī, wajburnī, warzuqnī, wahdinī, waʿāfinī” (Lord, forgive me and have mercy on me, mend my state, provide for me, guide me, and grant me well-being).
3 – Ibn al-Qayyim said: “Because a pillar of the prayer separates the two prostrations, legislation prescribed for that pause a supplication that befits it—asking for forgiveness, mercy, guidance, well-being, and provision.”
4 – Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn stated: “The best is to supplicate with what has been transmitted.” Al-Muwaffaq said: “Completeness here is like completeness in the tasbīḥ of bowing and prostration.” Shaykh al-Islām added: “There is no evidence for limiting it to a specific number, and the Prophet ﷺ would prolong it for a length comparable to his prostration.”
5 – In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (2697): “A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what should I say when I ask my Lord?’ He replied, ‘Say: Allāhumma ighfir lī warḥamnī (O Allah, forgive me and have mercy on me), for these two gather for you the good of this world and the Hereafter.’ ”
Meanings of the five words
– ighfir lī (forgive me): that is, conceal my faults while pardoning me from punishment.
– irḥamnī (have mercy on me): that is, grant me from Your presence a mercy that covers the sin, removes accountability, and favors me with the good of this world and the Hereafter.
– ihdinī (guide me): mercy already contains guidance, yet it is mentioned separately by way of specifying after the general. Guidance is of two kinds:
- Enabling success in beneficial knowledge, righteous deeds, and steadfast faith—an inner guidance of the heart that none controls but Allah.
- Indicating and directing to the path of truth and correctness.