and thus comes to love Allah and to love praising, extolling, and remembering Him. These are dearer to his heart than the provision and victory sought by supplicants. As for someone more concerned with such requests, he benefits more from supplication, even though praise as a category is superior—just as reciting the Quran is superior to remembrance and supplication. Because of shortcomings in his spiritual state, a person may benefit more fully from remembrance and supplication. They are therefore better for him given his circumstances, though not superior in themselves.

The purpose here is to explain what Allah has prescribed for His servants generally and without qualification. Thus, most scholars do not consider those utterances of remembrance in prayer that constitute supplication to be obligatory. As for praise, such as the opening supplication and other utterances, they differed over whether it is obligatory. A group of Ahmad’s followers held that utterances of remembrance consisting of praise, such as the opening supplication, are obligatory. This was the view chosen by Ibn Battah and others, and it has also been reported as a position held by Ahmad. Likewise, according to the well-known position reported from him, it is obligatory to glorify Allah when bowing and prostrating, to declare that Allah hears those who praise Him, to praise Him, and to say “Allah is greatest” when moving between postures. These, then, are two categories, the superiority of one over the other having become clear.

As for the category intermediate between them, it consists of a person declaring his worship of Allah Most High, as in the words:

“I have turned my face towards Him who created the heavens and the earth,”

and:

“Indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death are for Allah, Lord of all worlds,”

and:

“To You I have prostrated, You I have worshipped, in You I have believed, and through You I have submitted,”

and similar expressions. This is