Tariquk ila al-Dua al-Mustajab
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- Dar Ibn Khuzaymah
Tariquk ila al-Dua al-Mustajab (Your Path to Answered Supplication) is a devotional treatise by Azhari Ahmad Mahmoud dedicated to the Islamic practice of supplication (du'a), detailing its theological reality, conditions, etiquettes, impediments, auspicious timings, and spiritual prerequisites for divine acceptance .
Concept and Virtues of Supplication
The author defines supplication as beseeching God with requests, yearning for His good, and humbling oneself before Him to attain what is desired and be saved from what is feared, citing Ibn al-Qayyim's definition that it is seeking what benefits the supplicant and requesting the removal or prevention of what harms them . The treatise divides supplication into two interdependent categories: the supplication of worship (du'a 'ibadah), which encompasses all outward and inward acts of devotion, and the supplication of request (du'a mas'alah), which involves asking for benefit and the removal of harm . Citing Abd al-Rahman al-Sa'di, the work highlights that Quranic references to supplication encompass both types together .
The book details numerous virtues of supplication, noting that it rectifies the heart, exemplifies obedience to God's command, constitutes worship itself, and is honored by God . Furthermore, supplication expands the chest, brings guaranteed outcomes—whether granted immediately, stored for the Hereafter, or used to avert an equivalent harm—and repels tribulations both before and after they descend . It also serves as a means of steadfastness against adversaries and a refuge for the oppressed .
Conditions, Etiquettes, and Impediments
The treatise establishes six essential conditions for valid supplication:
- Realizing that God alone possesses the power to answer prayers .
- Singling out God alone in supplication, avoiding any form of association (shirk) .
- Relying exclusively on lawful forms of intercession (tawassul), namely through God's divine names and attributes, righteous deeds, or the supplication of a living righteous individual .
- Maintaining good expectations (husn al-zann) and certainty of God's response .
- Refraining from haste in expecting an immediate result .
- Ensuring that one's sustenance and food are strictly lawful (halal) .
Regarding proper etiquettes (adab), the author outlines opening the supplication with praising God and sending blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ, being in a state of ritual purity (wudu'), facing the direction of prayer (qiblah), raising the hands, preceding the prayer with a good deed, choosing comprehensive and transmitted prophetic wording, lowering the voice, and calling upon God by His established Beautiful Names rather than innovated ones .
As for impediments to divine response, the work stresses that God acts according to His sovereign will without compulsion, and identifies sins and transgressions as the primary barrier blocking supplications from ascending .
Times, Locations, and Inner Disposition
The work identifies favored moments and locations where supplications are especially answered. These include:
- Auspicious times such as the Night of Decree (Laylat al-Qadr), the Day of Arafah, the designated hour on Friday, following obligatory prayers, the depths and final third of the night, during prostration (sujud), after ablution, between the adhan and iqamah, during rainfall, and upon waking at night with the transmitted remembrance .
- The prayers of the fasting person and the traveler .
- Sacred sites in Mecca, including the Kaaba, the Station of Abraham (Maqam Ibrahim), al-Safa and al-Marwah, the Well of Zamzam, the pebble-throwing sites at Mina, and al-Mash'ar al-Haram in Muzdalifah .
The author emphasizes that the inner essence or "soul" of answered supplication is absolute humility, submission, and a deep sense of poverty and destitution (iftiqar) before God, accompanied by the confession of personal shortcoming and sin rather than reliance on one's own righteous deeds .
Practical Steps to Acceptance
In its concluding section, the treatise summarizes the practical path toward securing an answered prayer: praying with firm conviction and good expectations of God; avoiding sinful requests or those aimed at severing kinship ties; consuming strictly lawful food; abandoning haste; increasing supererogatory devotions (nawafil) after fulfilling obligatory deeds; invoking God by His Greatest Name (al-Ism al-A'zam); and frequently supplicating during times of ease and prosperity (al-rakha') .
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