has only asked someone else to supplicate and perform ruqyah for him. His heart’s reliance on Allah alone and his trust in Him make his faith more complete and benefit him more.

As for the hadith of Umm Habībah, it shows that supplication is prescribed and beneficial in some matters but not others. This is indeed the case, and this is why Allah does not love those who transgress in supplication. Supplicating for a change in decreed lifespans is not prescribed, unlike supplicating for deliverance from punishment in the Hereafter, which is both prescribed and beneficial. I have discussed elsewhere the question of lifespan being increased through maintaining ties of kinship. The fact that maintaining ties of kinship and similar acts have an effect does not necessarily mean that they increase one’s lifespan, as might be claimed concerning an increase in lifespan through supplication. For this reason, Ahmad disliked people praying that he be granted a long life, saying: “This has already been settled.”

He then mentioned the reports concerning the vision of Allah. Abū al-Qāsim said that he heard Shaykh Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Sulamī—may Allah have mercy on him—say that he heard Mansūr ibn ‘Abd Allāh say that he heard Abū al-Hasan al-‘Anbarī say that he heard Sahl