Resurrection, or asking Him to free one from the necessities of human life, such as the need for food and drink; to disclose His unseen knowledge to one; to grant one infallibility; or to bestow a child upon one without a wife or a bondwoman, and other such requests that constitute transgression. Every request that contradicts Allah’s wisdom, entails opposition to His law and command, or conflicts with what He has declared is a transgression that neither Allah nor His Messengers love.
Transgression has also been interpreted as raising one’s voice in supplication. Ibn Jurayj said, “Transgression includes raising one’s voice in supplication, calling out loudly in it, and shouting.” Yet the verse is broader than all of this. Even if transgression in supplication is intended, it is only part of the intended meaning. Allah does not love transgressors in anything, whether supplication or otherwise, as He says: 2: 190 “And do not transgress. Indeed, Allah does not love those who transgress.”
On this understanding, He has commanded people to supplicate to Him and worship Him, and has declared that He does not love transgressors—those who call upon others alongside Him. These are the worst of all transgressors, for the greatest transgression is associating partners with Allah, which directs worship where it does not belong. This transgression must therefore be included in His words: “Indeed, He does not love those who transgress.”
Another form of transgression is to call upon Him without humble entreaty, but rather with a sense of entitlement, like someone who feels self-sufficient because of what he possesses and presumes upon his Lord on that account. This is among the gravest forms of transgression, contrary to the supplication of one who is humble, lowly, needy, and destitute in every respect and in all his circumstances. Whoever does not ask as one who is destitute, humbly pleading, and fearful is a transgressor.
Another form of transgression is to worship Him in ways He has not prescribed, and to praise Him in terms with which He has neither praised Himself nor permitted others to praise Him. This is transgression in the supplication of praise and worship, just as there is transgression in the supplication of asking and seeking.
On this understanding, the verse indicates two things.
The first is something beloved and pleasing to the Lord—blessed and exalted is He—namely, supplication offered humbly and in secret.