harm will come to Him from His creatures. This and similar notions reflect ignorance of Allah and transgression in supplication, even if some shaykhs have fallen into them.

Another example is saying, “O Allah, forgive me if You wish,” imagining that Allah, like kings, may sometimes act under compulsion and sometimes by choice. Thus, one says, “Forgive me if You wish.” Yet the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade this, saying:

“Let none of you say, ‘O Allah, forgive me if You wish; O Allah, have mercy on me if You wish.’ Rather, let him ask with resolve, for no one can compel Allah.”

Other examples include deliberately seeking rhymed prose in supplication, gasping, speaking with affected eloquence, and similar practices. Such supplications and others like them are forbidden. Some supplications are permissible, such as asking for nonessential things that involve no sin.

And (the point is that contentment which belongs to the path to Allah does not entail abandoning anything obligatory or recommended. Abandoning an obligatory or recommended supplication cannot therefore be an expression of contentment, just as abandoning other obligations cannot be an expression of prescribed contentment, nor is committing forbidden acts prescribed.

Their error has thus become clear on two counts: they assume that contentment is prescribed with regard to everything that is decreed, and they fail to distinguish between supplication that is prescribed, whether obligatory or recommended, and supplication that is not prescribed. It is a self-evident teaching of Islam that asking Allah for Paradise and seeking refuge in Him from the Fire are among the greatest supplications prescribed for all the messengers