al-I'tida fi al-Dua Suwar wa Dawabit wa Namadhij min al-Dua al-Sahih
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- Dar Kunuz Ishbilya
al-I'tida fi al-Dua: Suwar wa Dawabit wa Namadhij min al-Dua al-Sahih (Transgression in Supplication: Forms, Guidelines, and Models of Authentic Supplication) is a treatise by Saud al-Aqili examining the theological and legal boundaries of Islamic supplication (dua), cataloging prohibited forms of overstepping in prayer, establishing regulatory criteria, and presenting authentic models from the Quran and the Sunnah.
Purpose and Scope
The author identifies a gap in existing literature on supplication, noting that most works focus broadly on its virtues, etiquette, and conditions for acceptance, or limit their discussion of prohibited prayer exclusively to polytheistic invocations. Al-Aqili highlights the widespread circulation of booklets and leaflets containing baseless supplications that divert Muslims from prescribed forms, alongside the emergence of modern manifestations of excess in prayer.
The study aims to define transgression (al-i'tida') in supplication, classify its diverse manifestations and legal rulings, establish governing principles (dawabit) to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate prayer, and compile sound supplications transmitted in primary texts.
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into an introduction, a preparatory overview, three main parts, a conclusion, and indices:
- Preparatory Overview (Tamhid): Covers the linguistic and legal definitions of supplication, its conditions and etiquettes, the factors contributing to its acceptance, and the specific times, locations, and postures in which supplication is answered.
- Part One: The Reality of Transgression in Supplication (Haqiqat al-I'tida' fi al-Dua): Defines transgression linguistically and terminologically—concluding that it constitutes exceeding the legally prescribed boundary in supplication in meaning, wording, posture, or execution. It classifies these excesses into five categories: transgression in meaning (such as praying for prohibited outcomes or conditioning supplication on God's will), wording (such as affected rhyming or innovating novel phrases), posture and manner of performance, spatial allocation (attaching supplication to specific places without scriptural basis), and temporal allocation (restricting supplications to specific unlegislated times).
- Part Two: Transgression in Supplication During Acts of Worship (al-I'tida' fi al-Dua fi al-Ibadah): Explores illicit innovations in prayer during specific ritual acts, divided into three chapters:
- Salat: Covers mistakes in obligatory prayers (such as omitting tongue movement or altering the phrasing of amin) and voluntary prayers (such as collective formulas between units of Tarawih).
- Hajj: Examines ungrounded practices during ihram, assigning specific supplications to each circuit of tawaf, collective chanting during circumambulation and sa'i, and baseless invocations on the Day of Arafat.
- Fasting: Focuses on innovating non-transmitted formulas for breaking the fast (iftar) or the pre-dawn meal (suhur), as well as neglecting supplication during those times.
- Part Three: Models of Authentic Supplication (Namadhij min al-Dua al-Sahih): Gathers sound, transmitted supplications from the Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah.
Methodology and Legal Framework
The author's methodology relies on an inductive survey (istiqra') of classical and contemporary Islamic literature, identifying documented errors and evaluating them according to primary textual evidence. Al-Aqili emphasizes that transgression in supplication is not uniform in its legal gravity; rather, it varies across different levels, ranging from acts that constitute major polytheism (al-shirk al-akbar), to prohibited transgressions (muharram), to disliked practices (makruh).
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