and sound analogy. These are the four sources on which Muslims have built the rulings of Allah’s law: the Qur’an, the Sunnah, consensus, and sound analogy. All of them, however, revolve around the Noble Qur’an, for it is the foundation. Had not Allah made obedience to His Messenger part of obedience to Himself and ordered us to follow the Messenger, the Sunnah would never have been a proof. Had not Allah decreed that the consensus of this community is upon truth and that it can never unite upon error, consensus would not have been a proof. And had the Qur’an not indicated that consideration, reflection, and linking like to like are among the evidences of the Sacred Law, analogy would not have been a proof either. Yet the Qur’an has established every one of these as valid grounds by which legal rulings are confirmed.

Accordingly, the author—may Allah have mercy on him—first cited verses from the Book of Allah about the merit of supplication and the command to practice it, and then he cited the hadiths, among them the report of al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr in which the Prophet ﷺ said, “Supplication is worship,” meaning that supplication is an act of worship. This is supported by Allah’s words: “Your Lord has said, ‘Call upon Me; I will respond to you. Indeed, those who are too proud to worship Me will enter Hell in humiliation.’” He did not say “too proud to supplicate to Me,” but rather “too proud to worship Me,” which shows that supplication is worship itself.

From a rational perspective, when a person calls upon his Lord, he thereby acknowledges Allah’s perfection, His responsiveness to prayers, His power over all things, and the fact that giving is dearer to Him than withholding. Moreover, he has not turned to anyone else: he has not invoked an angel, a prophet, a saint, someone near, or someone far. That is the very essence of worship. By this you know that when you call upon Allah you affirm