2 – The Messenger ﷺ guided his community to the proper etiquette of supplication, saying: “When any of you performs the prayer, let him begin by praising his Lord and extolling Him, then send blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ, and only then supplicate for whatever he wishes of the good of this world and the Hereafter.” He placed no restriction on what may be asked, though it is best to employ the wording transmitted from the Prophet.

3 – The hadith proves that one should place the means before the objectives. Sūrah al-Fātiḥah offers a noble illustration of this principle: it opens with praise and glorification of Allah, affirms His oneness and our worship of Him, acknowledges His lordship by seeking His help—thereby implicitly affirming the messengership of Muhammad ﷺ—before moving on to the actual request. All of this functions as an introduction that precedes the supplication itself.

4 – Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) says in al-Jawāb al-Kāfī: “Supplication is among the strongest causes for averting harm and attaining what is sought. When it coincides with humility of heart, brokenness before the Lord, submissiveness, full attention, and tenderness; when the person faces the qiblah while in a state of purity, raises his hands to Allah, begins with praising and lauding Him, follows that with sending blessings upon Muhammad ﷺ, precedes his request with repentance and seeking forgiveness, then approaches Allah and persists in earnest entreaty—calling upon Him in hope and fear, seeking a means by His names, attributes, and His oneness, and accompanies his supplication with charity—such a supplication is hardly ever rejected, especially when it matches the invocations the Prophet ﷺ identified as likely to be answered. Among the pitfalls that block the effect of duʿāʾ is that a servant grows impatient, thinks the response is slow in coming, and therefore abandons the supplication.”