The second point is that they failed to distinguish between supplications they were commanded to make—whether as an obligation or a recommendation—and supplications that were forbidden, or neither commanded nor forbidden. A servant’s supplications and requests to his Lord are of three kinds.

The first kind comprises those the servant is commanded to make, whether as an obligation or a recommendation, such as:

“Guide us to the straight path.”
Sūrah al-Fātihah, 6

Another example is supplication at the end of the prayer, such as that which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, instructed his Companions to make. He said:

“When any of you sits to recite the testimony of faith, let him seek refuge in Allah from four things: the punishment of Hell, the punishment of the grave, the trials of life and death, and the trial of the False Messiah.”

This, then, is a supplication enjoined by the Prophet