The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—also said:

His words in the hadith concerning distress, narrated by Ahmad on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ūd:

“‘O Allah, I am Your servant, the son of Your servant and Your maidservant. My forelock is in Your hand. I ask You by every name belonging to You, by which You have named Yourself, or which You have revealed in Your Book, or taught to any of Your creation, or kept exclusively within Your knowledge of the unseen, to make the Quran the spring rain of my heart, the light of my breast, the dispeller of my grief, and the remover of my anxiety and sorrow’—except that Allah will remove his anxiety and sorrow and replace them with joy.”

Rabīʿ (spring rain) is the rain that brings forth spring vegetation. Hence his words in the supplication for rain:

“O Allah, send us rain that brings relief, spring rain that makes the land flourish.”

This is the early-season rain that marks the earth with vegetation. Hence his words:

“The Quran is spring rain for the believer.”

Thus, he asked Allah to make it water through which He would revive his heart, just as He revives the earth with spring rain, and a light for his breast.

Life and light together encompass all perfection, as He said:

“Is one who was dead, whom We brought to life and gave a light by which to walk among people”

And in Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s introductory address:

“Through Allah’s Book they bring the dead to life, and through Allah’s light they give sight to the blind”; for