Notre Foi en Dieu

A lot of Muslims do not know the importance and merits of invocation although Allah The Almighty ordered us in the Noble Quran to invoke and pray to Him, Allah says in the Noble Quran(translation of meaning in English):"And your Lord said:" Invoke Me, and ask me for anything, I will respond to your invocation.

Verily! Those who scorn my worship(i.e. do not invoke Me) they will surely enter Hell in humiliation" (Ghafir:60). We notice in this noble verse that Allah The Almighty orders us to invoke Him and that He described invocation as worship to show us the importance of invocation because when we invoke and pray to Allah, we implicitly acknowledge lordship and oneness of Allah The Almighty and that only Allah can help us and relieve our pains and sufferings. Allah The Almighty also warns those who do not invoke Him and scorn His worship that they will enter the hellfire in the hereafter because they forgot Him and did not acknowledge His oneness and monotheism through invocationThe prophet(peace and blessings be upon him) also urged us to invoke and pray to Allah as it is narrated that he(peace and blessings be upon him)said(translation of meaning in English)" invocation is the worship". Someone may ask: if invocation is regarded by Allah The Almighty and the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)as the worship, what about prayers, fasting,

Zakat , pilgrimage and the other good deeds in Islam?

The answer to this question is that invocation is distinguished from all the other good deeds with full submissiveness because we can perform prayers , fasting, pilgrimage and the other good deeds without submissiveness but when we invoke and pray to Allah, we are always in full submissiveness, and this why invocation is regarded as the essence of worship in Islam .

One day, a man came to the prophet(peace and blessings be upon him) and asked:" O Messenger of Allah! Is Allah so far that we should call aloud on Him, or so near that it is enough to whisper to Him? The prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not answer and waited for the answer to be revealed to him by Allah The Almighty, so Allah revealed the following verse(translation of meaning in English):"And when My slaves ask you(O Muhammad)concerning Me, then (answer them), I am indeed near(to them by my knowledge). I respond to the invocations of the supplicant when he/she calls on Me..". (Al –Baqarah:186).

There are some wonderful facts we can find in the interpretation of the above noble verse: the first fact  is that Allah The Almighty is so near to us and hears our supplications whenever and wherever we are. The second fact is that Allah The Almighty says (translation of meaning in English):" I respond to the supplicant when he/she calls on Me", notice that Allah The Almighty said:" when the supplicant calls" and He did not say:" when I (i.e. Allah The Almighty) want", this means that we are just required to invoke Allah and He will respond to our invocation sooner or later. This noble verse also reveals another  important fact that there is no intercessor or mediator between us and Allah as Allah The Almighty says :" I(i.e. Allah) respond when he/she(the supplicant)calls on Me", and he did not say:" when the mediator or intercessor calls on Me"
Therefore, we, as Muslims, are ordered by Allah The Almighty and the prophet(peace and blessings be upon him) to invoke and pray to Allah in both joy and sorrow. We should invoke Allah The Almighty in joy to thank Him for the countless blessings He bestowed us with, and we should invoke Him in sorrow to help us and relieve our pains and sufferings.

A lot of us resort to Allah and invoke Him only when they are in trouble, but they give up invocation when their troubles are over. We also should always remember that invocation is the worship and that those who do not invoke and supplicate, they actually scorn the worship of Allah and they will enter the hellfire in the hereafter
In the next article, God willing, we will hammer out to the etiquettes and optimum times of invocation, so, until that time, I ask Allah The Almighty to bless you all and respond to your good invocation.

Source : Site : www.douralquran.com